This year's National Poetry Competition has been launched by Poetry Ireland and Friends Provident Life Assurance Company in association with RTE's Arts Show. The competition is in its fifth year and the winner will receive a prize of £1,000.
The judges for the competition are poets Eavan Boland, Ciaran Carson and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. This year there will be an additional prize of £250 for the best poem submitted by an unpublished poet.