Connacht Tribune
Literary festival blends international authors with best of local talent
“Cúirt is a city and county festival. Nobody owns it. We are the temporary custodians to ensure it’s healthy and thrives before the next people take over,” said programme director Maeve Mulrennan at the launch of the programme for the 32nd annual Cúirt festival of literature which will run from April 23-30 in venues across Galway.
Cúirt 2017, which was launched at the City’s House Hotel on Tuesday night, will feature readings in poetry and fiction, book launches, concerts, workshops for adults and young people, and exhibitions with a literary theme.
Highlights include readings from English poet and novelist Simon Armitage who will team up with American poet Terrance Hayes on April 29 in the City’s Town Hall Theatre. Novelists Eimear McBride, John Boyne, Sara Baume, Kit de Waal, Damon Galgut and A.L. Kennedy will also be taking part in the Festival.
So, too, are crime novelists Sophie Hannah and Denise Mina. Hannah’s psychological thrillers have been published in 32 languages across 52 territories, but Agatha Christie fans might know her best for The Monogram Murder and Closed Casket. These new Hercule Poirot novels, published with the blessing of the Agatha Christie estate, have won Hannah new readers worldwide.
Literature with a scientific and environmental angle will be in the spotlight in An Taibhdhearc on April 29, when Loughrea resident Paul Kingsnorth – whose debut novel, The Wake, was long-listed for the 2014 Booker Prize and won that year’s Gordon Burn Prize – will read. Paul, who is also a poet and non-fiction writer is the co-founder of The Dark Mountain Project, “a global network of writers, artists and thinkers in search of stories for a world on the brink”.
There’s a strong focus on local writers throughout, with readings from Elaine Feeney, whose new poetry collection, Rise, will be launched during Cúirt. The Sacrificial Wind, a spoken-word poetry event directed by Max Hafler and featuring Michael Irwin, Catherine Denning and Orla Tubridy, will be performed at the Town Hall Studio from April 25-28.
Fermata, published by Connemara company Artisan House, a celebration of writings inspired by music, is edited by Galway based poet Eva Bourke and Leitrim poet and broadcaster Vincent Woods. They will host an event, on April 30, with featured poets, including Moya Cannon, Louis de Paor and Matthew Sweeny.
Local novelists Claire-Louise Bennett and Alan McMonagle and poets Mary O’Malley and Kevin Higgins are all taking part this year.
Meanwhile, the late Dermot Healy, a Cúirt stalwart, will be remembered with an event featuring contributors to last year’s anthology, Dermot Healy: Writing the Sky.
When it comes to the Cúirt Labs, Maeve Mulrennan had no doubts. This series of workshops, talks and performances for children and teenagers involves primary and secondary schools throughout Galway. Participants will work with writers and theatre companies including Branar and Fibín.
“I’m biased and I think they are the best thing ever,” Maeve Mulrennan said of the Labs, “bringing in young people and letting them hang out with writers and not just young people’s writers.”
This year, for the first time there will be Labs as Gaeilge. Cúirt is also working closely with the City and County libraries as well as with the libraries at NUIG and GMIT.
The Kitchen Reading series, in which writers give reading in people’s homes, returns, while the annual Anne Kennedy Memorial Lecture has been changed to the Ann Kennedy Writers’ Salon and Residency, an afternoon of poetry readings and audience participation. Poems for Patience will be launched at UHG on April 28, while a plaque of Paul Durcan’s poem, The One-Armed Crucifixion, illustrated by John Behan, will be unveiled on the corner of Grattan Road and the New Prom on April 26.
Singers taking part include Seán Tyrrell, Lasairfhíona Ní Chonoala, Sive and My Fellow Sponges, while a celebration of Irish-language writer Caitlín Maude will take place in Ionad Culthúrtha an Phiarsaigh, Rosmuc, on April 27.
More information at cuirt.ie.
Connacht Tribune
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Connacht Tribune
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Connacht Tribune
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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