I do a lot of readings.

Of course, you can't legislate for how people are going to read.

Your average pop song or film is a very sophisticated item, with very sophisticated ways of listening and viewing that we have not really consciously developed over the years - because we were having such a good time

On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that there are so many good writers in the place.

I do a lot of readings.

Obviously one of the things that poets from Northern Ireland and beyond - had to try to make sense of was what was happening on a day-to-day political level.

For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry