Rachael Hegarty
Rachael Hegarty is a prize winning poet, educator and broadcaster. She was educated by the Holy Faithers in Finglas, the U. Mass Bostonians, the Trinity M. Phillers in Dublin and the Ph.D. Magicians at Queens University, Belfast. Rachael is the presenter for Poetry People RTÉ Radio 1.
Rachael’s debut collection, Flight Paths Over Finglas (Salmon 2017), won the Shine Strong Award. A child survivor of the Talbot Street bomb, her collection May Day 1974 (Salmon, 2019) has received critical acclaim for the 33 docu-sonnets and 33 ballads for the people who died on the single worst day the Troubles. Rachael has also edited a book of poems by community groups from her hometown in Making Sense of Finglas (DCC 2020). Her third collection, Dancing with Memory (Salmon, 2022), is a dance hall of memory for her mother who lived with dementia. Her fourth collection, Wild Flowers on the Darndale Roundabout (Salmon 2024), was inspired by her kids and other Fridays for Future activists. www.salmonpoetry.com
Rachael teaches at the Trinity Access Promgramme and the CDETB because she wants more working-class and marginalized students to get as much learning as they want. Rachael’s kids say she uses the 3 F-words too much: Finglas, feminism and feckin’ poetry.
