The Poetry Room, Helen’s Tower, Clandeboye Estate, Co. Down.

7th November 2017.

It occurred to me as I walked up the stairs, with my bare feet on the cold hard carved rock of this fortress, that the people who built it and shaped those stairs had little to nothing.

The tower was built as a relief project from the horrors of the poverty and famine sweeping over Ireland in 1847 (Black ’47) – the most devastating year for the country. The people who were dying of starvation were ‘relieved’ to have a job building luxurious follies for the richer inhabitants.