When the town of Banagher in County Offaly decided it wanted its story told, instead of turning to a historian or academic they commissioned poet Jessica Traynor to write a poetic history.

In A Place of Pointed Stones, she explores the history and folklore of Banagher, meets some of the locals, and we hear new poems and a new song inspired by her research.

Local historian James Scully takes her around, showing her the bridge over the Shannon, the local Martello tower, hidden graveyard, and locations associated with the town’s literary connections with Anthony Trollope and Charlotte Bronte. He also presents her with two possible versions of the origin of the saying ‘That beats Banagher and Banagher beats the devil’.

David Boylan takes in the atmosphere of the annual horse fair, and we hear how composer Elaine Agnew, despite being unable to travel from Belfast during Covid, worked with pupils at St Rynagh’s National School to set one of Jessica’s poems to music. Teacher Lisa Gardiner describes the grand finale, when Geraldine Relph conducted the pupils as they recorded a performance of the song for video.