Eavesdrop

Eavesdrop is a collaboration between poet Nell Regan and musician-composer Mary Barnecutt, supported by the Arts Council.

Mary Barnecutt and Nell Regan moved Eavesdrop online after successful live performances in 2019. Their first set of poem-films with original score was launched at a live facebook gig on Poetry Day, April 2020. They were shortlisted for the Ó’Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition and awarded an Arts Council Covid 19 Award to work on the second set (below).

Mary and Nell are looking forward to further live performances in 2021.

For bookings and other enquiries click here.

Eavesdrop Films

The Sea in Quarantine

A meditation on the sea in a time of confinement based on the poem ‘The Sea In Quarantine’, written and read by Nell Regan combined with original score and visuals by Mary Barnecutt. Performed by the artists it was supported by an Arts Council Covid 19 Award.

The Birdwatcher in Lockdown

This film by Mary Barnecutt is based on the poem ‘The Birdwatcher in Lockdown’ by Nell Regan, written during the first phase of the pandemic as part of an Arts Council Covid 19 Award . The original score is composed and performed by Mary Barnecutt, commissioned under the same Award.

The Geologist in Lockdown

A film narrated in the voice of the imagined character in the poem ‘The Geologist in Lockdown’ by Nell Regan. Written within her 2km it is one of a sequence resulting from an Arts Council Covid 19 Award. The original score is composed and performed by Mary Barnecutt (commissioned under the same Award) who also created the film.

Lieder

A love poem in the voice of pianist and composer Clara Schumann, written and read by Nell Regan is the basis for this film made by Mary Barnecutt who also performs her own original score.

Lieder was shortlisted for the Ó’Bheal International Poetry-Film Competition 2020

You Are to Me

A love poem by Nell Regan with original score composed and performed by Mary Barnecutt, who also created the film.

Whale Song

This film made by Mary Barnecutt, performing her original score, is based on one of Nell Regan’s poems from Bound for Home, a Cork County Council Camden Commission.

Live Online Gig Poetry Day April 2020 - Part 1

To launch Eavesdrop (then ‘Resonate’, a YouTube channel) Nell Regan and Mary Barnecutt introduce their first three films with conversation, readings and live music. The event and films received over 300 views and the pair were even dubbed ‘Lockdown Goddesses’.

Very special thanks to sound engineer Sandra O’Mahony.

Live Online Gig Poetry Day April 2020 - Part 2

Very special thanks to sound engineer Sandra O’Mahony.

Award

Eavesdrop Special Offer

A signed CD (Into Air) and poetry book (One Still Thing), gift wrapped and posted to the poetry and music lover in your life. Only €20 anywhere in Ireland (€25 international).

One Still Thing

Into Air

Kindly funded by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland.

Biographies

Nell Regan

Nell Regan is a poet and non-fiction writer based in Dublin. Her debut collection Preparing for Spring (Arlen House, 2007) was short listed for several awards including the Glen Dimplex New Writing while Bound for Home, (Arlen House, 2011) was a Cork County Council Commission. That same year she was a Fellow at the International Writing Programme, University of Iowa, and Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley. After the publication of her third collection, One Still Thing (Enitharmon Press), she was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship. Other awards include an Arts Council Literature Bursary while her biography Helena Molony: A Radical Life (Arlen House, 2017) was an Irish Independent Book of the Year. She works freelance as an educator and curator and is a previous Artistic Director of West Cork Literary Festival and Way With Words, Wicklow. A new book, A Route Through Clouds, 100 Poems by 100 Poets, co translated from the Japanese with James Hadley, will be published by Dedalus Press in Feb 2021

Photo Credit: Darragh Kane

Photo Credit: Olga Kuzmenko

Mary Barnecutt

Mary Barnecutt is a Dublin-based musician and composer who works with a variety of artists, bands, orchestras and educational projects. She has written music for short films, theatre, dance productions, and has worked with artists such as, Julie Feeney, Vyvienne Long, Nell Regan, Adrian Crowley, Seti the 1^st, Ray Harman and Ruth O’Mahony Brady. From 2017 -2020 she was cellist and vocalist with Teać Damsa.

She manages two string projects in Dublin primary schools and in 2019 created the improvised music show, Stringplay with her sister Kathrine for the Ark in association with IMC.

She is concert programmer of the weekly Sundays@Noon Concert Series in the Hugh Lane Gallery and with Lioba Petrie co-director of Spike, Dublin’s annual alternative cello festival.

She also produces and records her own music under the name Mary & the Pigeons.

Reviews

Images echo, taking on a force that imprints Regan’s poetic landscape … [in this] beautifully distilled collection

Poetry Ireland Review

on Nell Regan's One Still Thing

Haunting and thrilling in equal measure - the confluence of Nell Regan's words and the lyricism of Mary Barnecutt's playing make this voice and cello combination something unique and entirely original. A must listen!

Eithne Hand

Poet and Producer of Lyric FM's Poetry File

...a lush collection that sounds organic and occasionally magical

Lauren Murphy, Irish Times

on Mary Barnecutt’s Into Air