Sean Byrne has been coming to Putney Library since he was five years old. That was the 1950s. He is still coming.
He grew up on the Roehampton estate, one of nine children in a large Irish family. His parents brought him here first. Then he kept coming back. A teaching career took him across three continents (East Africa, Venezuela, Eastern Europe), but Putney Library stayed his local, and when he returned to settle, it was still there. He attends language classes and cultural events. He reads at the open mic nights.
One of those nights is Poets in Putney, which runs on the last Thursday of each month in this same building. Sean is a regular. His poem “Plastic Paddy Power” draws on his parents’ generation’s experience of Irish migration to Britain: the navvies who built roads and railways, the Saturday dances, the pubs, the signs that read “No dogs, blacks or Irish.” The tone is vivid and sardonic. The images are precise.
The canals and the bridges, the embankment and cuts
They blasted and dug with their sweat and their guts
Sing Kevin Barry and the Irish rover
To keep you sane as you build the flyover
A pint in the bookies and then a few beers
Then back on the road with McAlpine’s fusiliers
Buy a bri-nylon shirt on a Friday night
But you’ll have to bin it if you get in a fight
Get all spruced up for the Saturday dance
Shake a good leg and you may have a chance
Women on one side, men in the other
Who’s gonna be the first to break cover?
Some strike lucky, others get arseholed
From Kilburn and Cricklewood to the Dublin Castle
Get carried away when you’ve had a good session?
You can wipe the slate clean when you go to confession
Lay your head down in what digs you can find
No dogs, blacks or Irish at the back of your mind
At Balham Tropicana you can throw a few shimmies
Or a dive by the Bedford called Dublin Jimmy’s
They’d sing rebel songs as they pass round the hat
Who’s the money for? I wouldn’t ask that
Sean is the first poet featured in Monthly Muse, a new format launching today. Once or twice a month, mid-month, Putney.news will profile one of the readers from Poets in Putney ahead of the month-end open mic. The aim is simple: put a face and a poem to the night, and give new readers a reason to come.
The next event is 30 April at 6:30pm in The Hall, Putney Public Library (from £3.96). In May, Poets in Putney partners with Thames21 and London Rivers Week for a free Rivers Edition on 28 May. On 25 June, the night marks its one-year anniversary. Tickets and details are at poetsinputney-tickets.
Poets in Putney has been running since June 2025, when organiser Becx launched it at the library. By December, it had grown into a fixture on the local cultural calendar.
