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Hello, For a number of years, a group of writers have met at regular intervals in Listowel. The genesis of the group was a workshop, facilitated by Paddy Bushe. and the highlight of the weekend turned out to be a poem called 'The First Cut' by Hilary Murrane from Sandycove in Dublin.

This was the first workshop for most of those present and, despite Paddy's easy-going manner, the weekend had proved somewhat stressful, especially for the less experienced among us. At the end of Hilary's poem, we looked at Paddy Bushe, Paddy looked back at us and Hilary looked , well, ... pensive. Eventually someone giggled and, suddenly, all that pent-up tension dissipated itself through the room in gales of laughter. For the first time, many of us realised that not only could poetry be utterly incomprehensible, it could also be very funny. There was no going back, we were hooked.

The workshop ended and the visiting participants scattered. We have not had any contact with Hilary Murrane since then, but, still wandering around Sandycove, I hope, is a real lady who is probably completely unaware of the ongoing hours of pleasure she bequeathed to a gaggle of poets in Listowel. And, if by any chance, you become aware of this, Hilary, please get in touch. We would love to publish 'The First Cut' , with your permission. In any case, it will live on in the title of this magazine.

That was 2003. Since then, we have grown together as writers. A few of us have been published, others have been nominated for national awards, but, most important of all, is the sense of comradeship our common love of writing has fostered. Our strength has been a collective tolerance of the individual foibles that occur in any group and a mutual desire to support each other with criticism that is genuinely constructive.

It is expected that most of our contributors will be local writers; however, as an e-zine, the world is, literally, our oyster. With that in mind, please write; we give you our welcome, we welcome your genius.

And, Hilary Murrane, Please write! .