A FORMER La Salle teacher is to launch his debut poetry collection at this year's Féile An Phobail.
Eamon Cunningham was born in Kilkeel, Co Down and later attended teacher training college in Manchester, Queen's University Belfast and University of Ulster before working at De La Salle College as a teacher.
A member of the writer’s group in the Heaney Centre — once led by the inimitable Andersonstown native Ciaran Carson — Eamon says his anthology celebrates the people and places that shaped his development as a youth "in this unique landscape, between the Mourne mountains and the sea".
"Halfway House restores and remembers those real-life characters who were part of daily encounters," explains Eamon.
"It recalls the tragedy and loss of a childhood friend, sorties in the Pound field, and waypoints now lost to urban development.
"My story charts a journey from the home-place to college in Manchester, to a teaching position in La Salle, set against the backdrop of the protracted conflict."
Halfway House boasts poems dedicated to friends and family as well as little moments in life's journey.
"They reflect iconic incidents of pure learning, housed and cherished in the memory bank of love," adds Eamon.
Eamon will launch 'Halfway House' in St Mary’s University College on Wednesday, August 7 at 12 noon.
Priced at £10, all sales income will be donated to humanitarian relief in Gaza.
