Date/Time
Date(s) - 16/02/2026 - 20/02/2027
9:00 am
Categories
“This is such a lovely surprise” (UHW patient)
Lifting people’s spirits every year, this Well Festival initiative has been curated this year by Waterford poet Joanne McCarthy. A new poem will be shared each day with the University Hospital Waterford (UHW) community via patient meal trays and staff emails, and the wider Well Festival audience through Waterford Libraries and online.
Poet Joanne McCarthy writes in English and Irish, and is co-founder and co-editor of The Waxed Lemon. Her recent poetry chapbook All Your Shiny Braces was Highly Commended for the 2025 Patrick Kavanagh Award, and she was shortlisted for Poem of the Year at the An Post Book Awards 2025. Joanne’s poem Idir Dhá Theanga won the Four Faced Liar Poetry Competition 2025, while To Map a Leaf was Highly Commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition 2025. Joanne’s work is published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Southward, Aneas and Comhar. Bhuaigh sí comórtas An Fhéich Dhuibh, 2023. Bhronn An Chomhairle Ealaíon dhá sparánachtaí uirthi. Joanne holds an MA in Poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast.
Fancy a Lift? is available daily, Mon 16 – Fri 20 Feb, from 9am at:
• University Hospital Waterford
• All libraries in Waterford City and County
and Well Festival social media
Day 1
Monday’s poem is Bog Butter by David Nash
Graphic design by Karen Nolan Design
Video edit by @DGMPhotographic
Tuesday’s poem is Windblown by Nessa O’Mahony
Wednesday’s poem is Long Distance by John Fitzgerald
Thursday’s poem is Nightbaby by Victoria Kennefick
Today’s poem is Medicine by Edward Denniston