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The Irish Pages Press
@irishpages.bsky.social
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Biannual journal, edited in Belfast, publishing writing from Ireland and overseas. Publisher of The Irish Pages Press. Edited by Chris Agee and Kathleen Jamie.
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asls.org.uk
Kathleen Jamie’s poem “The Republic of Fife” (published in The Queen of Sheba, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 1994) mentions

The very woods where my friend Isabel
once saw a fairy, blue as a gas flame
dancing on trees…
The Republic of Fife by Kathleen Jamie Higher than the craw-stepped gables of our institutes – chess-clubs, fanciers, reels & Strathspeys – the old kingdom of lum, with crowns agley. All birds will be citizens: banners of starlings; Jacobin crows – also: Sonny Jim Aitken, Special P.C. whose red face closed in polis cars utters terrible, ridiculous at his brother and sister citizens but we’re no feart, not of anyone with a tartan nameplate screwed to his door. Citizen also: the tall fellow I watched lash his yurt to the leafy earth, who lifted his chin to my greeting, roared AYE! as in YES! FOREVER! MYSELF! The very woods where my friend Isabel once saw a fairy, blue as a gas flame dancing on trees. All this close to the motorway where a citizen has dangled, maybe with a friend clutching his/her ankles to spray PAY NO POLL TAX on a flyover near to Abernethy, in whose tea rooms old Scots kings and bishops in mitres supped wi a lang spoon. Citizens: our spires and doocoots institutes and tinkies’ benders, old Scots kings and dancing fairies give strength to my house on whose roof we can balance, carefully stand and see clear to the far off mountains, cities, rigs and gardens, Europe, Africa, the Forth and Tay bridges, even dare let go, lift our hands and wave to the waving citizens of all those other countries.
November 15, 2025 at 3:22 PM
irishpages.bsky.social
Very sorry to hear that: condolences to you and your family.
November 10, 2025 at 7:35 PM