Several Irish poets (and musicians and artists) have been guests of a very special poetry festival in Umbria, in central Italy, which grew out of the work of an Irish writer, Paul Cahill, organising readings and conferences in the medieval city of Perugia. After Paul’s sudden death in 2005, his partner Fernando Trilli took up his work and founded Riflessi DiVersi, which moves between Perugia and an ancient tower in the countryside looking down on Lake Trasimeno.  Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Ciaran O’Driscoll and Macdara Woods were involved from the beginning. This year sees the beginning of a collaboration between Riflessi DiVersi and the Strokestown International Poetry Festival.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Ciaran O’Driscoll talked about their memories of the festival in Umbria, Italy and read poems about Italy and poems translated from Italian.   They showed a brief Italian film featuring the voice of Macdara Woods reading one of his poems.