Festival shines a light on literature and history

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

One of Ireland’s most distinctive poets, Paul Durcan, and two of its top historians, Joe Lee and Diarmuid Ferriter, are among those taking part in the literary programme of this year’s Clifden Arts Festival, which runs from September 12-23.

Dublin born Paul Durcan who received the Whitbread Poetry Award for his 1990 collection Daddy, Daddy, has won fans for his insightful, often caustic observations on Irish history and society.  His “combined characteristics of conscience, humour, iconoclasm and lyricism”, are among the reasons for his popularity at home and abroad, according to Dr Eve Patton, Director of the M Phil in Creative Writing at Trinity College.

Audiences at his reading in the Station House Theatre on September 14 can expect to hear a mix of his self-mocking poems of underachievement and tender verses commemorating the dead.

Professor Joe Lee, retired professor of history at New York University and formerly of UCC, who is an outstanding lecturer, will talk on Ireland in History: Past, Present – and Future in the same venue on September 15.

And Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, will speak following the screening of the documentary, Keepers of the Flame, about those who fought in the revolutionary period from 1916-21. Discussing events from the Easter Rising to the Civil War and the impact these had on the Irish psyche, this film, directed and written by Nuala O’Connor, is based on a concept written by Professor Ferriter. The screening and his talk on the issues raised in the film are on September 22 at the Station House Theatre.

Among the other poets taking part in this year’s Festival are the multi-award-winning John O’Donnell, Belfast poet Fred Johnston and bilingual writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa.

Many of the readings will involve collaborations between some of Ireland’s most respected literary talents and top musicians and singers. For instance, Doireann Ní Ghríofa will be joined by fiddle player and Dubliner John Sheahan for an event in the Station House Theatre on September 22.

Elsewhere, Mayo writer EM Reapy, whose debut novel Red Dirt, won the 2017 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, will team up with Sligo-born poet Michael Gorman and Galway singer Brian O’Rourke, on September 13, also at the Station House Hotel. Rita Ann Higgins and Cork-born songwriter and accordion player Con ‘Fada’ Ó Drisceoil will present an evening of music and song at the Alcock and Brown Hotel on September 15.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.