Poetry and Irish Music at The Floyd Country Store
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on August 28, 2025.
Katherine Chantal’s solo sojourn on the West Coast of Ireland produced an 87-page travel memoir of poetry, some of which she recently shared with an audience for an Irish Night of poetry and music at the Floyd Country Store.
Chantal’s readings followed three local poets who opened the evening’s program, Colleen Redman, Sarah Hastings and Jack Callan. Her poems were complimented with music by Katherine Wiley on fiddle, David Scheim on harp and piano and Julian Pecoraro (Wiley’s son) on cello.
Chantal’s book, Irish Pilgrimage: Third Time is a Charm, chronicles her monthlong April writer’s retreat, living in a cottage on a sheep farm, where “each day unfolded anew with no plans.” “From peat fires to warm me, driving on “the wrong side of the road” and walking by inner guidance, feeling my body on holy land…” she writes in the book’s introduction.
It was a writer’s retreat with solitude and excitement. Chantal weathered an orange level storm, discovered stone circles, met poets and musicians in pubs, reflected on Ireland’s painful history while driving on “Famine Road” and hiked Croagh Patrick, a holy mountain she compared to Floyd’s Buffalo Mountain in a poem titled “From Buffalo Mountain to Croagh Patrick.”
The music, which was curated by Wiley, a classically trained violinist, gave expressive voice to and set the mood for Chantal’s storytelling and poetic enchantments. The audience was attentive and enthusiastic as she read. They mingled during an intermission, cheered at the evenings conclusion and gathered at a table of books for a signing by Chantal.
Note: Irish Pilgrimage and Chantal’s other books are available for sale at The Floyd Country Store and online at Amazon.com.
-More on Irish Night at the Floyd Country Store HERE.