Back in the 1980s, poet and painter Arthur Watson, together with Ruth Marshall set up the original Poetry Collective. Brian Mooney did a reading in Tulla Courthouse in 1990 and connected with the Poetry Collective. Other Clare-based poets connected to form a loose miscellany.
In and around 2002 The Clare Three-Legged Stool Poets was formed. Prime movers were Brian Mooney, Rob Hopkins and Frank Golden, among others.
In 2013, it was decided that a change of name was needed, and so the group has taken on the original name of The Poetry Collective, in this way completing the circle.