In October 2020, Prof. Lorraine Hanlon approached Prof. Gerardine Meaney of UCD’s School of English, Drama and Film, with the idea to create a poem for EIRSAT-1.

Jennie Ryan at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), Kathleen Moran and Joe Kelly from the JCSP Demonstration Library Project, Assoc. Prof. Paul Perry in the UCD School of English, Drama and Film and Emer O Boyle of UCD Parity Studios came on-board to get the project underway.

During January-February 2021, when Irish schools were closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown, a series of online creative writing workshops was held with 12 school pupils (12-15 years old) from all around the country over a period of 5 weeks. Then, UCD MA Creative Writing students collaborated to create the final piece, based on the writings created during the workshops.

Emer O Boyle and Dr. David Murphy from the EIRSAT-1 team worked with EFJ Engineering in Dublin to laser etch the poem on the outer cover of the Antenna Deployment Module, the part of the satellite responsible for communications to and from home.

Ireland has an exciting space programme that is growing rapidly. Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects are important – but they are not the only way to engage with space. One of the goals of EIRSAT-1 is to inspire curiosity and wonder about space, creating  greater awareness of its importance to our everyday lives.

The space poem project brought writers, students, teachers, librarians, engineers, scientists and artists together in a collaborative, creative way. The co-created poem is called ‘All Ways Home’.  Ireland is associated  with writers and literature. We wanted to carry a piece of that heritage to space as a way for people to feel more connected to the first Irish space mission.