Eileen Casey next to her poem Supermarket Days, Saolta Arts competition winning poem. Photo credit: Andrew Downes
Saolta Arts celebrated the 22nd series of Poems for Patience on Thursday 23 April 2026 as part of Cúirt International Festival of Literature, with this year’s collection marking 45 years of leading Irish poetry publisher Salmon Poetry.
The 2026 series was co-curated by Jessie Lendennie and Dani Gill and featured 21 poems by Salmon poets, including Rita Ann Higgins, Naomi Shihab Nye and John McAuliffe.
Poems for Patience brings poetry into hospital spaces across Galway University Hospitals and hospitals in the west and northwest. The poems are displayed in waiting areas, offering patients, visitors and staff a moment of calm, reflection and connection.
This year’s collection will be on display on the Arts Corridor at University Hospital Galway until 30 June, before being disseminated to waiting rooms in University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park University Hospital and other hospital settings.
On behalf of Salmon Poetry, Jessie Lendennie said: “We are honoured to have this unique opportunity to showcase the work of a selection of the outstanding poets we have published over the decades. May their work inspire hope and joy.”
As part of the project, Saolta Arts also runs an annual Poems for Patience poetry competition. The competition was judged since 2013 by the late Kevin Higgins, writer in residence at Galway University Hospitals from 2006 to 2023. It is now judged by his wife, poet Susan Millar DuMars, in his memory.
In her introduction during the launch, Susan Millar DuMars, said: “This was an extremely difficult choice to make. I was drawn to the poems that depicted small glints of light in the face of unimaginable fear and loss. Finding that balance between pain and hope is such a delicate task, and all five of these poems do so movingly. I won’t forget any of them for a long time.”
This year’s winning poem was Supermarket Days by Eileen Casey. At the launch she said: “I am delighted to be among the Poems for Patience curated collection. I hope my poem Supermarket Days brings inspiration and empathy to others.”
Margaret Flannery, Arts Director at Saolta Arts, said Poems for Patience remains one of the organisation’s most valued projects.
“Poems for Patience is my favourite project of the year. It brings poetry directly to patients, visitors and staff, and gives people a chance to pause, reflect and experience something beautiful in the hospital setting. Salmon’s collection is a diverse and inspiring mix of poems, and I am delighted to see several previous winners from our poetry competition included in this year’s series.”
Patients described the project as a welcome moment of stillness during hospital visits. One said: “It is great to be able to stop for a minute and forget everything and share in a silent way with the world.”
Another described the poems as a “wonderful collection to ease the mind of even the most impatient patient.”
Siobhan Hutson Jeanotte, Salmon Poetry; Paul Maddern, Cúirt International Festival of Literature; Susan Millar DuMars, Poems for Patience Competition Adjudicator; Jessie Lendennie, Salmon Poetry; and Dani Gill, Salmon Poetry. Photo Credit: Andrew Downes