Tom Lyden is a local poet who has had work published in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. He is very influenced by music and nature, and is currently organising The Basket House group, an arts collective which will stage weekly readings and events in Clifden during the summer.

Tom's writing will be featured on the Clifden & Connemara page from now on.

This it now isn't it?
The Basket House Collective's first performance!
Justin King opens with a story written by a friend of his and it goes down very well. Next on is Martin Finke with his very sensitive style. There's so much talent here and I feel that our very existence is being affirmed. There's a hippy band waiting to play but we're keeping them like good wine until the end.

John Dunne is on the stage now in virtually his first public reading apart from being interviewed on community radio. Someone nearly trips down the steps and makes a remark which has the house in uproar. We're feeling comforted by talent by the time Caitriona King appears.For me at least Caitriona is a revelation. First up she sings a Nancy Grifith song and I'm relaxed already into thinking that tonight's already a success.

Mark Hanley, our youngest performer for tonight, reads his own poems.There are images of swings and we know that we re in the presence of something wonderfully inchoate. Brother Oswald steals the show with two poems and a very funny recitation. I laugh like a drain and remember that somewhere back in the distant past he used to teach me.

We had to believe that there would be performers here tonight and also an audience.We knew that the talent was there but we had to tap into it.When tonight is over I won't be lonely because there's more to come this Summer.

Buchaill's Reel are on stage with fiddles, bodhrans,and a didgeridoo.They turn their faces towards one another. They've come to us with their surprises and nuances.They play and play and we are glad. Out of the corner of my eye I see a pensioner dance by a doorway.

Ralph Lavelle our very dapper MC for the night is diligent and witty with just the right amount of order. Everyone agrees that he'll be kept!

It's set up now and has a life of its own. Everyone who steps on this platform will be changed by it. We've pushed and shoved to get this together and we won't stop talking or praising it.It's the start of a wonderful journey, the engine sounds good and we're moving to a need; some rhythm of the people.

It brings us back to meetings in country houses. Basket House is innovative, Basket House is warm and inclusive. Basket House believes in itself but especially in the spirituality of creativity that's out there somewhere.

Tom Lyden