Ireland Literature Guide

Stuart Rosenberg - student of Irish Literature

2007-03-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

The well known film director Stuart Rosenberg who passed away recently was a student of Irish Literature at New York University, did this influence the literary quality of his work, the majority of which present heros rather that anti-heros much like the great works of Irish literature.

Pat McCabe wins Irish Novel of the Year for Winterwood

2007-03-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

Last night at Trinity College Dublin, the Irish author Patrick McCabe was named as the winner of the Irish Novel of the Year award for his book Winterwood. Other winners on the night include: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas _ John Boyne - The Tubridy Show's listeners' choice award, Back From the Brink _ Paul McGrath _ Best Sports Book, Connemara _ Tim Robinson _ Best Non-Fiction.
A Lifetime Achievement award was given posthumously to John McGahern for his outstanding body of work

Britons unable to finish Ulysses - James Joyce Unread

2007-03-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

The Teletext Reading Report reported on 4,000 British people on what they are reading and what their reading habits are. Among the results of their findings were the top ten works of fiction and non-fiction that readres have left unfinished, and at number three came James Joyce's Ulysses. I would have suspected Finnegans Wake would have been more unfinished, not by Joyce mind, by readers but perhaps too few begun the book in the first place.

Wexford Book Festival – 21st-25th March 2007

2007-03-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

The speakers for the Wexford Book festival have been announced:
UK Poet - Roger McGough, Impac Award Winner Colm Toibin (The Master), Poet, Author and Playwright Billy Roche (Tumbling Down), Scottish Author - Vivian French, Mega popular UK author - Linda Chapman (My Secret Unicorn), Emerging Irish Author – Siobhan Parkinson, Irish Author – Louis de Paor, Irish Author – Gabriel Rosenstock

modern irish literature is chick lit

2007-03-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

The majority of Irish book sales are now devoted to Chick lit, a term used to denote books written by and for women based in and around the model of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.

Many Voices Literature Festival

2007-03-06T04:54:00.000-08:00

If you didn't make it to the University of Ulster Many Voices Festival, this is what you missed:

ues 20 Feb 8.00pm A Reading by Robert Welch L ink Lounge, University of Ulster,
Coleraine campus (UUC)
Wed 21 Feb 8.00pm R eadings by Cathal O’Searcaigh and Frank Sewell A ntrim Arms,
Castle Street, Ballycastle
T hurs 22 Feb 1.15pm Reporting on Politics and Conflict
with Conor O’Clery, Malachi O’Doherty and Chris Ryder.
Chaired by Greg McLaughlin L ink Lounge, UUC
T hurs 22 Feb 8.00pm R eadings by Conor O’Clery, Malachi O’Doherty Flowerfield Arts Centre,
and Chris Ryder Portstewart
Fri 23 Feb 8.00pm R eadings by Colin Bateman and John Connolly Ballymoney Town Hall
S at 24 Feb 10.00am Filling The White Page
A creative writing workshop with Kate Newmann R oom L116, UUC
S at 24 Feb 1.30pm A Lunchtime Reading with Kate Newmann R oom H215, UUC
Musical accompaniment by Bill Campbell
S at 24 Feb 2.00pm A Creative Workshop for Children Flowerfield Arts Centre,
with illustrator Paul Howard Portstewart
S at 24 Feb 8.00pm A Reading by Bernard MacLaverty R oom H215, UUC

rare book find - copies of O'Neills of Ulster books saved from a skip

2007-03-06T04:42:00.000-08:00

Last night a rare cloth-bound version of the valuable book The O'Neills of Ulster, their History and Genealogy by Thomas Mathews, originally published in Dublin Ireland at the start of the 20th centuary has been found in a skip in Vienna, Virginia, in the USA. It is believed the work were dumped along with a vintage copy of James Joyce's Ulysses and some rare poetry books by William Butler Yeats. I have checked on ebay and there is no sign of them appearing yet.

Long List for 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

2007-03-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

The long list of all of the book titles and who the judges will be for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award were announced from Dublin City Hall. Last years winner was Colm Tóibín for his book "The Master", and was given the world's largest literary prize, 100,000 euros. Previous winners include:
2005 The Known World by Edward P Jones.
2004 This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun
2003 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
2002 Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
2001 No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
2000 Wide Open by Nicola Barker
1999 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
1998 The Land Of Green Plums by Herta Muller
1997 A Heart So White by Javier Marias
1996 Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Ennis Book Club Festival - List of Events

2007-03-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

Festival Registration
15.00 Onwards
Clare Museum
FRIDAY 2ND MARCH
Chocolate tasting at “Chocolat”
18.30
Barrack Street
FREE EVENT
Wine Reception
20.00
Temple Gate Hotel
FREE EVENT
Festival Launch by Niall Williams, Cantare Choir and Ennis Players
20.30
Temple Gate Hotel
FREE EVENT
Readings by Niall Williams and Evelyn Conlon
20.40
Temple Gate Hotel
FREE EVENT
Book Club Table Quiz
22.00
Temple Gate Hotel
FREE EVENT
Late Film – The Butcher Boy
22.30
Empire Movieplex
€7
SATURDAY 3RD MARCH
‘How to Read a Novel’ by Kate Bateman
09.30 – 11.30
Old Ground Hotel
€8/€5
‘How to Read Poetry’ by Mary O’Malley
10.00 – 11.30
Clare Museum
€8/€5
Chocolate tasting at “Chocolat”
10.30
Barrack Street
FREE EVENT
Poetry reading with Mary O’Donnell and Thomas McCarthy
11.30 – 12.30
Clare Museum
€6
Ré Ó Laighléis – a bilingual reading
11.45 – 12.45
DeValera Library
FREE EVENT
Eddie Stack – a reading
11.45 – 12.45
The Ennis Bookshop
FREE EVENT
Anne Enright – a reading
12.30 – 13.30
Clare Museum
€12
Walking tour of Ennis with Seán Spellissy
12.30 – 13.30
DeValera Library
€8
A “how to” session on book clubs by Austin Vaughan
13.00 – 13.30
Old Ground Hotel
FREE EVENT
Cookery demo with Denis Cotter of Café Paradiso, Cork
14.30 – 16.00
Holy Family School
€10/5
Patrick McCabe – a reading
14.30 – 15.30
Old Ground Hotel
€12
Rita Ann Higgins – poetry reading
16.00 – 17.00
Old Ground Hotel
€10/8
Poetry reading with Mary O’Malley and Michael Coady
16.00 – 17.00
Clare Museum
€6
Chocolate tasting at “Chocolat”
17.00
Barrack Street
FREE EVENT
“John McGahern Papers” with Archivist Fergus Fahy
17.15 – 17.45
Clare Museum
€5
Edna O’Brien, reading and interview – chaired by Noel Crowley
20.00 – 21.30
Glór
€15/12
Festival Club with Ennis Singers Club
22.00 ‘til late
Old Ground Hotel
FREE EVENT
Late Film – Breakfast on Pluto
22.30
Empire Movieplex
€7
SUNDAY 4TH MARCH
Sunday Symposium:
Charlie Bird, Rosita Boland, P.J. Curtis, Carlo Gébler: “Selling your Book – the Thrill and the Terror” chaired by Caimin Jones
10.00 – 12.00
Old Ground Hotel
€12
“Kate O’Brien Papers” with Archivist Róisin Berry
12.15 – 12.45
DeValera Library
FREE EVENT
“Edward MacLysaght” léacht as Gaeilge ó Seán Ó Ceallaigh
12.45 – 13.15
Scéal Eile Bookshop
FREE EVENT
Dermot Healy – reading and lunchtime chat (Lunch €10 Extra)
13.30 – 15.00
Glór
€10

Durcan downunder - Irish poet Paul Durcan has won the Queensland’s 2007 Poet-in-Residence

2007-02-27T05:15:00.000-08:00

The Dublin poet Paul Durcan has just been announced as the Queensland’s 2007 Poet-in-Residence as guest of the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts’ Poet-in-Residence. He is famous for his live performances of his work including his most recent work The Art of Life (2004). Among his previous works are, Greetings of Our Friends from Brazil (1999), A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems (1995), Daddy, Daddy (1990), which won the Whitbread Poetry Prize, The Berlin Wall Cafe (1985), which was selected the Poetry Book Society Choice, The Selected Paul Durcan (1982), and Endsville (1967). He is a member of Aosdána and lives in Dublin

how to read Joyce - Writing and Reading Finnegans Wake

2007-02-26T04:22:00.000-08:00

I have been asked several times in the past by people who started out with Dubliners and by the time they got to Finnegans Wake had given up on Joyce completely. There is an art to reading Joyce and am glad to see that there is a lecture tonight in Dublin about just that:

The James Joyce Centre is very pleased to welcome
Mr Vincent Deane to speak on
"Writing and Reading Finnegans Wake"

Monday, 26 February 2007 at 6.30pm
35 North Great George's Street

Mr Deane is an independent researcher and Dublin Joycean. He was editor of the 'Finnegans Wake' Circular and is co-editor of The 'Finnegans Wake' Notebooks at Buffalo. For the National Library of Ireland's 2004 Joyce exhibition, Mr Deane contributed the "Sirens" installation, an interactive study of music in Ulysses, now on display at the Joyce Centre. Mr Deane is a world renowned expert on the variety of printed sources from which Joyce drew creative inspiration.

The David Cohen Prize for Literature 2007

2007-02-23T04:52:00.000-08:00

Set up by David and Veronica Cohen in 1980 to support music and the arts, the David Cohen Prize for Literature, is worth 40,000 pounds for the winner. It is run every two years and was won previously by the Irish writer William Trevor in 1999. The biographer Michael Holroyd won the David Cohen Prize for Literature 2005. The idea behind the prize is to recognise the lifetime achievement of english-speaking writers.

The Limerick poet Seán Lysaght has won the O'Shaughnessy Award 2007

2007-02-20T04:41:00.000-08:00

The Limerick poet Seán Lysaght has won the O'Shaughnessy Award 2007 from the University of St. Thomas Center for Irish Studies. he previous winners of the O'Shaughnessy Award are Eavan Boland, John F Deane, Peter Sirr, Louis de Paor, Moya Cannon, Frank Orsmby, Thomas McCarthy, Michael Coady, Kerry Hardie and Dennis O’Driscoll.
"a deserted stretch of beach
with its marram hair-piece, a slatey sky
and a sharp bouquet of sea-holly." Scarecrow (Gallery Press, 1998)

Irish Book Awards 2007

2007-02-19T05:24:00.000-08:00

Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Tenderwire by Claire Kilroy
Winterwood by Patrick McCabe

Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Northabout by Jarlath Cunnane
In search of Iraq by Richard Downes
The Stolen Village by Des Ekin
Connemara: Listening to the Wind by Tim Robinson

Galaxy Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year
A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes
From Here to Maternity by Sinead Moriarty
Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly

Club Energise Sport Irish Sports Book of the Year
Forza Italia by Paddy Agnew
Every Single Ball by Brian Corcoran
Dublin V Kerry by Tom Humphries
Back from the Brink by Paul McGrath

Irish Newcomer of the Year Award
Forget by Ruth Gilligan
Pack Up the Moon by Anna McPartlin
Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse by Philip O'Ceallaigh
The Goddess Guide by Gisele Scanlon

Eason Irish Published Book of the Year
Vanishing Ireland by Turtle Bunbury and James Fennell
Irish Times - Book of the 1916 Rising by Shane Hegarty & Fintan O'Toole
Tom Crean: An Illustrated Life by Michael Smith
Lifelines by Niall MacMonagle

RTE Radio 1's - The Tubridy Show Listeners' Choice Awards
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Winterwood by Patrick McCabe
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
Q and A by Vikas Swarup
Terrorist by John Updike

The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year - Junior
Silly Mummy Silly Daddy by Marie Louise Fitzpatrick
The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers
Irish Tales of Mystery and Magic by Eddie Lenihan
I'm a happy hugglewug by Niamh Sharkey

The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year - Senior
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
Something Invisible by Siobhan Parkinson
Demon Thief by Darren Shan

Cecelia Ahern - Nomination by Irish Book Awards

2007-02-19T05:04:00.000-08:00

The celebrity author, Cecelia Ahern, daughter of the current Irish Tasiseach Bertie Ahern has been niminated for Best Popular Fiction in this year’s Irish Book Awards for her current novel, A Place Called Here. The results will be revealed at Trinity College on March 15. She will have to combat some heavy competition from the likes of already long established Irish heavyweights as Maeve Binchy and Marian Keyes who are also in the category for Galaxy Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year.

Ennis Book Club Festival

2007-02-14T04:19:00.000-08:00

Another Irish literature festival to make an impact on the literary scene is the Ennis Book Club Festival on the 2-4 March 2007. The festival describes itself as " This is the Festival that Book Clubs and Book Lovers everywhere have been waiting for –You will enjoy poetry in the cosy cafes, readings in the many restaurants and shops, and drama on street corners as you wander through the narrow streets and lanes of Ennis."
Among the Irish writers attending the event are: Patrick McCabe, Edna O’Brien, Fergal Keane, Charlie Bird, Denis Cotter, Ré O Laighlís, Carlo Gébler, Michael Coady, Rita Ann Higgins, PJ Curtis, Dermot Healy, Mary O’Donnell, Mary O'Malley, Rosita Boland; Niall Williams, Evelyn Conlon, and Anne Enright.

The Irish writer Benedict Kiely has died

2007-02-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

The Irish writer, Benedict Kiely, from Omagh, county Tyrone, has died. A well known novelist and broadcaster who was named Saoi of Aosdana in 1996 for his contribution to Irish literature. He died at the age of 87 at his home in Dublin on Feburary 9th. Among his more well knowen works were: Benedict Kiely, A Raid into Dark Corners and Other Essays (1999), Nothing Happens in Carmincross (1985), All the Way to Bantry Bay and Other Irish Journeys, Proxopera: A Tale of Modern Ireland (1977), Dogs Enjoy the Morning (1968), The Captain with the Whiskers (1960), There Was an Ancient House (1955), Land Without Stars (1946), and Countries of Contention (1945).

Irish Literature Festival - University of Ulster's Many Voices Festival of Literature

2007-02-09T04:57:00.000-08:00

The University of Ulster will hold it's literature festival, 'Many Voices Festival of Literature', on Tuesday 20 and it will run until Saturday 24 February. It will attempt to merge various strains of Irish literature from journalism to illustration in order to represent the broad spectrum of the art. Among those who will speak are: Colin Bateman, John Connolly, Cathal O’Searcaigh, Bernard MacLaverty, Kate Newmann, Paul Howard, Conor O’Clery, Malachi O’Doherty, Robert Welch and Chris Ryder.

2007-02-08T05:39:00.000-08:00

Technorati Profile

James Joyce and David Lynch - Art as abstraction

2007-02-08T05:25:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview the famous film director David Lynch made a parallel between his work and that of James Joyce: "Yes, with James Joyce, word combinations conjure things. He uses them as an art form and a language for abstractions. Cinema is its own language. As the sound and picture get going and things begin to happen, it can get pretty abstract, but it's a language that says something that can't be said in words -- or maybe could, by a poet." Here we see a very good example of Joyce's ability to render off the page the image he wants to express sometimes using the gap in the text to bridge to, and often create, the reader

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author, irish literature

Irish Literature from the North - The Rediscover Northern Ireland programme

2007-02-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

American interest in the works of Northern Irish Literature should increase around St Patrick's day this year with the launch of The Rediscover Northern Ireland programme in Washington. The are hoping that over one million visitors will come see the event and increase interest in the poetry, prose and theatre of such Northern Irish writers as: Seamus Deane, Anne Devlin, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Louis MacNeice, Derek Mahon, Medbh McGuckian, and Paul Muldoon.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author, irish literature

Irish Book Awards - Literary award nominations have been announced

2007-02-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

With brand new categories this year selection of books for the Irish Book Awards are better than ever, including such categories as: Irish Novel of the Year, Irish Published Book of the Year, Irish Sports Book of the Year, Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year, Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year, Irish Newcomer of the Year Award, Irish Children's Book of the Year.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author, irish literature

James Joyce in Buffalo

2007-01-26T05:37:00.000-08:00

The University of Buffalo, Humanities Institute, are going to hold a James Joyce evening, entitled "Joyce with Gusto". If you are surprised to see Joyce being connected to Buffalo then you should remember the large Irish community in Buffalo and more to the point the large number of Joyce scholars and Joyce manuscripts there are in Buffalo. To read more about the event you can go here: http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol38/vol38n20/articles/JoyceGusto.html

Medbh McGuckian to give talk at University of Ulster

2007-01-22T06:19:00.000-08:00

The well know Irish poet, Medbh McGuckian, will give a lecture at University of Ulster's Magee campus on the Saturday 27 January. To reserve a place please contact the Cultural Development Office at the Magee campus on (028) 7137 5658.

Seamus Heaney wins T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize

2007-01-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

Irish noble prize winning poet, Seamus Heaney, has just won the T.S. Eliot prize for his collection of poetry, District and Circle:
Again the growl
Of shutting doors, the jolt and one-off treble
Of iron on iron, then a long centrifugal
Haulage of speed through every dragging socket.

Michael Yeats, son of WB Yeats, has died.

2007-01-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

The son of William Butler Yeats, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, and grandson of John Butler Yeats, has died. A qualified barrister who exhibited his father's work, a Senator and Cathaoirleach of the Seanad and a member of the European Parliament. The Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said "He gave dedicated and patriotic service to Fianna Fail, to Ireland and to Europe. His long career as a public representative brought true distinction to both his party and an illustrious family"

Lucia Joyce - James Joyce's dark shadow

2006-11-16T05:42:00.000-08:00

Rejected lover of Samuel Beckett, dragged across Europe by her father James, potential artist or simply the reverse genius of her father's creative spark. Lucia Joyce has been sidelined in a lot of literary journals and books but should you choose to discover James Joyce's dark shadow then read about it in Carol Loeb Shloss book 'Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake'. It is a very well researched of the life and times of perhaps a gifted artist in her own right.

The Cambridge History of Irish Literature

2006-11-10T05:04:00.000-08:00

Launched in March of this year the Cambridge History of Irish Literature is both worth the 250 euros it is being sold for but perhaps more. It spans fifteen centuries of Irish literary achievement and should be on the shelf of any scholar, it should be noted here that the excellent Dr Margaret Kelleher, NUI Maynooth, was the editor.

The contents of the book is as following:
Volume I: Chronology; Introduction; 1. The literature of medieval Ireland to c. 800: St Patrick to the Vikings Tomás Ó Cathasaigh; 2. The literature of medieval Ireland, 800-1200: from the Vikings to the Normans Máire Ní Mhaonaigh; 3. The literature of later medieval Ireland, 1200-1600: from the Normans to the Tudors A: Poetry Marc Caball; B: Prose literature Kaarina Hollo; 4. Literature in English, 1550-1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne Anne Fogarty; 5. Literature in Irish, c.1550-1690: from the Elizabethan settlement to the Battle of the Boyne Mícheál Mac Craith; 6. Prose in English, 1690-1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union Ian Campbell Ross; 7. Poetry in English, 1690-1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union Andrew Carpenter; 8. Literature in Irish, 1690-1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union Neil Buttimer; 9. Theatre in Ireland, 1690-1800: from the Williamite wars to the Act of Union Christopher Morash; 10. Irish Romanticism: 1800-1830 Claire Connolly; 11. Prose writing and drama in English, 1830-1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell Margaret Kelleher; 12. Poetry in English, 1830-1890: from Catholic emancipation to the fall of Parnell Matthew Campbell; 13. Literature in Irish, 1800-1890: from the Act of Union to the Gaelic League Gearóid Denvir; 14. Historical writings, 1690-1890 Clare O'Halloran; 15. Literature and the oral tradition Donna Wong. Volume II: Introduction Margaret Kelleher and Philip O'Leary; 1. Literature and politics Declan Kiberd; 2. The Irish Renaissance, 1890-1940: poetry in English Patrick Crotty; 3. The Irish Renaissance, 1890-1940: prose in English John Wilson Foster; 4. The Irish Renaissance, 1890-1940: drama in English Adrian Frazier; 5. The Irish Renaissance, 1890-1940: literature in Irish Philip O'Leary; 6. Contemporary prose and drama in Irish: 1940 to 2000 Máirín Nic Eoin; 7. Contemporary poetry in Irish: 1940-2000 Louis de Paor; 8. Contemporary poetry in English: 1940-2000 Dillon Johnston and Guinn Batten; 9. Contemporary prose in English: 1940-2000 George O'Brien; 10. Contemporary drama in English: 1940-2000 Anthony Roche; 11. Cinema and Irish literature Kevin Rockett; 12. Literary historiography, 1890-2000 Colin Graham; 13. Afterwords: A: Irish-language literature in the new millennium Bríona Nic Dhiarmada; B: Irish literature in English in the new millennium Fintan O'Toole.

Darren Shan in Hollywood - Limerick's Edgar Allen Poe to appear on silver screen

2006-10-30T05:15:00.000-08:00

The vampire trilogy of Darren O’Shaughnessy is to be made into a hollywood blockbuster. Using the pen-name Darren Shan the Limerick man has produced an impressive list of children's horror novels and has now sold film rights to his first three books to Universal Studios, The Saga of Darren Shan, which will be produced as a single film in a screenplay written by Brian Helgeland, who did LA Confidential.

Irish Poet Seamus Heaney has suffered a stroke

2006-10-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

" The body gaped at the stroke dealt to it after death:" Beowulf
The well loved Irish poet, and Nobel prize winner, Seamus Heaney has suffered a stroke, but fortunately is in recovery. This was recently confirmed by his inability to travel to South Africa for a ceremony to confer Amnesty International's highest award on Nobel peace prize winner Nelson Mandela. We do of course wish him a speedy recovery.

The Literary Film Award for Singers - Oscar Wilde: Honouring Irish Writing In Film

2006-09-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

The original Oscar Wilde award was handed out for poetry or even a play; now it is being awarded for film but this year it is been given to a singer, Van Morrison. So if we run through that again, the award associated with the playwright Oscar Wilde is been given to a singer for his contribution to film. What!! Is this a reflection on the merits of Irish Literature when its status is being sold to add weight to film or music?

Exit stage right - Irish theater manuscripts in America

2006-09-11T04:26:00.000-07:00

The newly acquired Leonard L. Milberg Collection of Irish Theater will open to the public in the fall of 2006. Currently, the collection includes the work of 82 Irish playwrights and 10 Irish theater companies and numbers well over 1,000 items. Several major twentieth-century Irish playwrights were not included in this collection, such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and W. B. Yeats, because the Princeton Library already has extensive holdings. Here, again, is a perfect example of American intent and Irish willing to expect America to produce the stage for Irish theatre as it sees fit. What is important here is to note that the collection will grow, if and when Ireland produces any theatre of worth, and American academics will continue to present the Irish stage as they see fit.

Ireland never was Ireland to me - Naguib Mahfouz is dead

2006-09-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

Naguib Mahfouz died on Wednesday, 30th of August, and I just found out about it this morning; is this a reflection of the esteem that arabic culture is held in in Ireland? Was there more coverage given to Günter Grass about his war time experience that the actual death of the author of the Cairo Triology because of attitudes in our country?

Ready money is Aladdin's lamp - The John Murray Archive

2006-08-31T02:07:00.000-07:00

The National Library of Scotland is currently attempting to purchase and present one of the world's most significant literary and cultural archives from the past 250 years, the John Murray Archive. It contains over 150,000 items, including letters, manuscripts and journals from some of the greatest writers from 1768 to 1920. The image on the left is an original annotated proof of Don Juan by Lord Byron. In order to complete the purchase they need a final 6.5 million. Please give a donation

Stately, plump Paul O’Hanrahan will come from the stairhead...

2006-08-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
There is going to be a reading by Paul O’Hanrahan of the first chapters of James Joyce’s Ulysses, known as the telemachus from the Homer source, at the spot where it is set in the now Joyce Tower, the mortello tower at Sandycove, which he rented with Gogerty. It is Thursday, August 31, 2006 and I think you have to book, so ring here: Tel: +353 1 280 9265 Fax: +353 1 280 9265.

You can't fool the children of the revulsion

2006-08-29T01:52:00.000-07:00

It is with great interest I note that The Pope's Children by David McWilliams has become the Publishers' Book of the Year, for the reason that:
"The Pope's Children has simply been a publishing phenomenon. We can't recall the last time we had to reprint a book so frequently and so frantically. "
Does this not tell us more about the state of the nation than the contents of the book itself?

I don't think I am any good. If I thought I was any good, I wouldn't be.

2006-08-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight in town there is a reading of John Betjeman poetry in that creepy old church at the top of stephen's green, which doesn't seem that fitting for the celebration of the work of a jolly little man, please note i left out the F*T word there. I am heading along myself just to heckle Mahon, and his awful 'voice' and to clap with great appreciation the words of Cronin.

Poetry Ireland presents a reading of the poetry of John Betjeman.
With Anthony Cronin, Derek Mahon and guests.
Unitarian Church, 112 St. Stephen¹s Green West, Dublin 2
August 28th, 7pm, Admission Free
Tel . 01 478 9974, email poetry@iol.ie

U2 by U2 - A biographical greatest hits - A cover review

2006-08-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

A biography written by U2 themselves, U2 by U2, will be released on September 26, 2006. Talk about everything you can't leave behind. However, I am glad to see that Bono on the cover is sporting a mullet and looking very like Sonia O'Sullivan in the early days. I always imagined her running across the line singing Gloria. Anyway the world does not need this.

Although all the money will go to Drop the Amnesty for International Greenpeace I doubt very much that it will merit every bookstore window in Dublin being packed with this eyesore. By now you will realise I have not read the book but am remarking on the cover only.

However, this cover does say to me 'do you remember when we were broke', which I think is exactly what Ireland needs to hear right now.

No more false presentations of Ireland in Print Please - Maureen Lipman's awful article in the Guardian

2006-08-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

Do we really need another English attempt to redefine our landscape or culture along English middle-class ideals?

I was sitting in a stained pub on Sunday morning in the home town and the barman was making the pub smell of cheap dinners when I found an article on a visit to Cork by Maureen Lipman. At least she said it was Cork but really I think it was some middle-class daydream of mixing Celtic Mystic Ireland and the cosmopolitan cappachuino Ireland, its all the views (both scenery and viewpoint) perfectly suited to visiting but impossible for living.

After reading this article a few miles from Cork I felt nothing but rejection, how can this Virgil Pastoral exist so near and not exist at all for me. We, the uncovered (not covered at all) Ireland, the majority, lie between the cracks of media perception already, and we certainly don't need an age old attempt at Empire. see Edward Said for details.

Japanese students do a haiku version of Seamus Heaney's Life

2006-08-23T03:36:00.000-07:00

It seems that five Japanese students went to Magherafelt to be incubated in the Heaney nest. They went around to any area that was mentioned in a poem or by reference from the poet himself in order to fully understand and appreciate the work of the great man. Mr Kielt told the Belfast Telegraph: "I am not trying to interpret Heaney, but to put the poems in context and to explain the history of the area. To let them experience the real Ireland, to get right into the heart of the country."

So I suppose they finished the tour by moving to Dublin and getting huge tax breaks.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author, poetry

Apparently it is happening in the UK too - Heaney in the Forward Poetry Prize

2006-08-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I mentioned the mounting number of 'cash for couplets' type prize funds that are currently appearing in Ireland. Then I came across this prize giving 'best in show' competition, when I was researching the poetry of Seamus Heaney, as old famous seamus is nominated for the best collection section:

Forward Prize for Best Collection (worth £10,000)
Kate Bingham - Quicksand beach
Paul Farley - Tramp in Flames
Vicki Feaver - The Book of Blood
Seamus Heaney - District and Circle
Robin Robertson - Swithering
Penelope Shuttle - Redgrove's Wife

That is 10,000 pound sterling!!
I am in fact only mentioning this as I will never even get listed.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author, poetry

You can't buy culture, you can only sell it - Another massive amount for a writers Award

2006-08-18T03:33:00.000-07:00

Where is all this money coming from? There is now a sudden boom of money being poured into the lack-lustre causing many to become aware of the fact that as the money in Ireland grew the ability to produce art of any value diminshed. Please be aware of the fact you can't buy culture you can only sell it.

With a total prize fund of €45,000, the annual Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards will offer unprecedented support and exposure for emerging writers in a range of genres. Awards will be made to the best first book published by an author within each of the following four categories: Fiction, Poetry, Children’s literature and Biography/Non-fiction. A fifth special category will be The Irish Writers’ Centre Award for the best first book published in any genre in the Irish language. The Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year 2006 will be chosen from the five category winners. Each category winner will receive a prize of €5,000. There will also be an overall award for the Glen Dimplex New Writer of the Year with a prize of €20,000. The Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards are organised in association with the Irish Writers’ Centre and will be judged by a fifteen-strong judging panel which will include Colm Tóibín.

The winners of the inaugural Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards will be announced at a presentation ceremony on 2 November 2006 at The Four Seasons Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. It promises to be a fantastic evening and we would greatly appreciate your attendance and support for the event.

The ceremony will be attended by all leading literary figures in the publishing industry. Myles Dungan of RTE will be the Master of Ceremonies and John O’Donoghue, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, is our guest of honour.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

A bunch of Beckett - BeckettFest - 19 Beckett Plays by the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre

2006-08-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

The Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre are about to put on 19 of Samuel Beckett's plays. This is a terribel idea and one which no doubt the great 'Shem' himself would be against. Running so many of his plays together will cause an Andy Warhol type repetitive print for consumer access to often very disturbing and very moving plays. I am all for popular access but for plays that were so extreme in the dictates of their presentation, to present them in this manner seems to run contrary to the wishes and perhaps the goal of their creator.

If you feel the same about mass productions of Beckett plays please leave a comment

One to watch - Improbable Frequency at Traverse, Edinburgh

2006-08-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

Improbable Frequency, by Arthur Riordan and Bell Helicopter

This play is enough Flann O'Brein pun and Oscar Wilde lyric to be read never mind watched. If anyone is thinking of going over to the Fringe Theatre Festival in Edinburgh then I would certainly nominate this, not only for the content but the chance to support your own.

Cast:: Peter Hanly, Darragh Kelly, Lisa Lambe, Louis Lovett, Cathy White
Director:: Lynne Parker
Design:: Alan Farquharson
Sound:: Bell Helicopter
Lighting:: Sinead McKenna
Costumes:: Kathy Strachan
Musical direction:: Cathal Synnott
Run time:: 2hr15mins

Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 Longlist announced

2006-08-15T02:09:00.000-07:00

Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 longlist:
Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Edric, Robert Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
Grenville, Kate The Secret River (Canongate)
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
Lasdun, James Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men (Viking)
Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch (Virago)

Sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar - Freud

2006-08-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

Allegiance to new Irish Nationalism?
Behind the search for deeper meaning there is very often little more than the meaning of the search itself.

Regardless of Mel Smith's drumming up of media interest for the play Allegiance,( running at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh), by breaking the smoking ban with a cigar, the 'stir' that should have been created by the subject matter has yet to manifest itself. Do the followers of 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' know that Michael Collins got on quite well with Winston Churchill, not on stage unfortunately, but in history. Is the recent search for a new Irish nationalism, forged very much by British imperialism, slightly abashed by this friendship. Or is it just that sometimes the fruits of the search will not bare enough coverage as the covering the search itself.

Will the on-air Francis MacManus Short Story Competition change stories into radio-plays?

2006-08-11T04:14:00.000-07:00

The Francis MacManus Short Story competition is quite a well known and well contested prize of thousands of euro for on-air short stories. The interesting thing about this competition is that the results will be read out on air which mught change the format of the story. It could be that these stories may end up more like radio-plays due to the fact that they will be presented on and maybe for Radio. I bet that the winning story, not mine, will have plenty of dialogue. Details below:

The annual competition for original short stories for radio is this year celebrating twenty one years on air. The competition commemorates the life and work of Francis Mac Manus, (1909 - 1965), Writer and Head of Talks and Features in Radio Eireann, who was a major figure in encouraging Irish writers and developing radio as a medium for the expression of ideas and the promotion of new writing. Over the past twenty one years The Francis Mac Manus Awards have resulted in the broadcast of over 500 original stories from new and emerging writers and encouraged many now celebrated Irish writers who went on to win success and acclaim in Ireland and abroad.

The 2006 competition offers prizes of €3,000 and a commemorative trophy for the overall winner with €2,000 and €1,000 for the second and third prize-winning stories. The three prize-winners plus a selection from the shortlisted stories will be broadcast on RTE Radio 1 in 2007.

The closing date for entries is Monday, 30th October 2006. A copy of the rules and regulations and an entry form can be obtained by sending a stamped addressed envelope to :

RTE RADIO 1 Short Story Competition, RTE Radio Centre, Dublin4.

Meet and Greet for Nobel winners in Edinburgh

2006-08-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

Your chance of asking a question to Irish poet Seamus Heaney or British playwright Harold Pinter is getting less and less. Tickets for the readings by both Nobel Prize winners at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival are getting scarce. However, it might not be a huge miss if Heaney insists on banging on about the Scotch-Irish and how there is a line drawn between Ireland and Britain and all those above it are us and everybody below is them. Pinter on the other hand could go into stories about touring plays in Ireland with McMasters all those years ago.

Either way I would like to go so if anyone has an idea on how to get a ticket please leave a comment.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

The Gates of Gold reopen at Trafalgar

2006-08-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

Irish playwright Frank McGuinness’ Gates Of Gold, exploring the relationship between Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir, the founders of Dublin’s Gate theatre, runs from 21 November to 16 December 2006 at the Trafalgar. It is a play that illustrates how the Wildean lifestyle of the two theatre lights made it possible for a generation of Irish to old their head up in Europe. The humour of the play is always black and bitter but very funny none the less. This is a good play to illustrate McGuiness' view of women in the role of Kassie which is outstanding in its mother Russian nurse maid conventions.

Beckett was not Political - Eagleton at it again

2006-08-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

In an artice for New Left Review, the literary critic Terry Eagleton tries to frame an argument for the writings of Samuel Beckett being political out of the fact that Beckett faught with 'Gloria' in the French Resistence. Terry, this is rubbish.

For your jaundiced view of Irish writing being the cultural support for 'free the people' nationalism please stick to O'Casey and leave Beckett's name off the work-sheet at your marxist mill.

As a brief aside, I have only been introduced to Terry once, and the 'person' in front of me abused him from a height, which left me grasping the hand of a bemused, befuddled and slightly stammering old dolt.

In the words of Beckett, 'CRITIC!!!'

Roger Casement shared a tent with Joseph Conrad

2006-08-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

Roger Casement shared a tent with Joseph Conrad in the Congo and became the
inspiration behind his most famous novel, Heart of Darkness.

On the 90th anniversary of Roger Casement’s execution for treason in 1916,
is it not time for Ireland to recognise the humanitarian achievements of
the man both Africa and South America

Sinn Fein councillor Cara McShane told the BBC that Sir Roger Casement's
story was remarkable.

"Some may call him a traitor, but at the end of the day he was very
passionate about Irish republicanism, about Irish people, their national
identity, their culture and their language," she said.

Yeats at the National Library

2006-08-03T02:51:00.000-07:00

"But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!"
- Politics William Butler Yeats

I went to see the massive Yeats collection at the National Library on Kildare Street in Dublin. It is well worth a look even if it is just to get an idea of just how odd a man he was. Still, I doubt if Ireland would be Ireland today if it was not for him.

Opening Hours:
Monday - Wednesday: 10am - 7.45pm
Thursday - Saturday: 10am - 4.45pm
Closed Sundays & Bank Holidays

Exhibition contact details:
Telephone: +353 1 6030 277
Email: yeats@nli.ie

Guided Tours:

* Free public tours are provided at 11am and 3pm every day.
* Group tours are provided by appointment and are also free of charge.

A Bank Book

2006-08-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

I have a book that I read only in bank queues. I take it with me whenever I have to go to Bank of Ireland and did at one stage get through an entire chapter while in the queue. At the moment it is Liam O'Flaherty's 'The Informer', no irony intended.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

Derek Mahon is very relevant Today

2006-08-02T02:21:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first Irish poems I read and I think at this time in world history it may be time to read it again. It reminds us that there are those who are right now cowering before the standard issue and will afterwards seem to us as different and as distant as the forgotten everyday.

A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford
by Derek Mahon

Let them not forget us, the weak souls among
the asphodels –
Seferis, Mythistorema

For J.G. Farrell

Even now there are places where a thought might grow –
Peruvian mines, worked out and abandoned
To a slow clock of condensation,
An echo trapped forever, and a flutter
Of wildflowers in the lift-shaft,
Indian compounds where the wind dances
And a door bangs with diminished confidence,
Lime crevices behind rippling rainbarrels,
Dog corners for bone burials;
And a disused shed in Co. Wexford,

Deep in the grounds of a burnt-out hotel,
Among the bathtubs and the washbasins
A thousand mushrooms crowd to a keyhole.
This is the one star in their firmament
Or frames a star within a star.
What should they do there but desire?
So many days beyond the rhododendrons
With the world waltzing in its bowl of cloud,
They have learnt patience and silence
Listening to the rooks querulous in the high wood.

They have been waiting for us in a foetor
Of vegetable sweat since civil war days,
Since the gravel-crunching, interminable departure
of the expropriated mycologist.
He never came back, and light since then
Is a keyhole rusting gently after rain.
Spiders have spun, flies dusted to mildew
And once a day, perhaps, they have heard something –
A trickle of masonry, a shout from the blue
Or a lorry changing gear at the end of the lane.

There have been deaths, the pale flesh flaking
Into the earth that nourished it;
And nightmares, born of these and the grim
Dominion of stale air and rank moisture.
Those nearest the door growing strong –
‘Elbow room! Elbow room!’
The rest, dim in a twilight of crumbling
Utensils and broken flower-pots, groaning
For their deliverance, have been so long
Expectant that there is left only the posture.

A half century, without visitors, in the dark –
Poor preparation for the cracking lock
And creak of hinges. Magi, moonmen,
Powdery prisoners of the old regime,
Web-throated, stalked like triffids, racked by drought
And insomnia, only the ghost of a scream
At the flashbulb firing squad we wake them with
Shows there is life yet in their feverish forms.
Grown beyond nature now, soft food for worms,
They lift frail heads in gravity and good faith.

They are begging us, you see, in their wordless way,
To do something, to speak on their behalf
Or at least not to close the door again.
Lost people of Treblinka and Pompeii!
‘Save us, save us,’ they seem to say,
‘Let the god not abandon us
Who have come so far in darkness and in pain.
We too had our lives to live.
You with your light meter and relaxed itinerary,
Let not our naïve labours have been in vain!.

Neil O'Shea Presents An Evening With Great Irish Writers

2006-08-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

He performs a one-man show out of extracts from Irish writers: Swift, Wilde, Shaw, Yeats, O’Casey and Synge, that highlights the serious and sometimes humorous aspects of their work.

An Evening With Great Irish Writers
From Mon 31st July until Sat 12th August
Ticket Prices all seats €16 concessions €14
Irish Actors Theatre Company
Studio Performance at 8.15pm.

Box Office Information:

Opening Hours: 10.30am -19.00pm

Telephone Ireland: (01) 679 5720
Telephone International: +353 1 679 5720

Email: boxoffice@andrewslane.com

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

Frank McCourt's phone message for Mayor Dannel Malloy

2006-07-31T01:46:00.000-07:00

"I have a soft spot in my heart for underdogs who beat the odds," McCourt says. "He's overcome obstacles every step of the way. He's a different kind of leader, the kind we need fighting for us in Connecticut."

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

Ancient Irish Book found in Bog in Ireland supposed to warn of Israel Wipeout Threat

2006-07-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

"’This is really a miracle find." - Pat Wallace, Director, National Museum of Ireland, informed AP that the "miracle" took place in Ireland. Archeologists on Tuesday, July 25, 2006, informed media that that discovery of God’s Word is most unusual.

"The discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog" has stirred the knowledgeable world.

Twenty pages. That’s how large the book is. It dates to AD 800-1000, according to Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan. "It was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries."

The book was opened to Psalm 83, the latter concerning the enemies of Israel out to annihilate the nation. How significant is it that this find occurs in the midst of this present Middle East conflict?

On Wednesday, under the title An Amazingly Timely Discovery, a writer with one Israeli news magazine devoted an entire column to the find, which he regarded as "nothing short of a phenomenon".

"I don't want to take it any further than I should, but time may show that the discovery of the Irish psalm book was a warning," he wrote.

However yesterday, before it all got out of hand, the director of the National Museum, Dr Patrick Wallace, issued a statement saying the text visible on the manuscript found in the bog does not refer to the wiping out of Israel but to the "vale of tears".

"This is part of Verse 7 of Psalm 83 in the old Latin translation of the Bible [the Vulgate] which....would have been the version used in the medieval period.

"In the much later King James version the number of the psalms is different, based on the Hebrew text and the 'vale of tears' occurs in Psalm 84.

"The text about wiping out Israel occurs in the Vulgate as Psalm 82" which equals Psalm 83 (King James version), he said.

"It is hoped that this clarification will serve comfort to anyone worried by earlier reports of the content of the text," Dr Wallace added.

Click here to read about ancient irish texts

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

James Joyce's Exiles at London National Theatre

2006-07-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

For the first time in more than 30 years, James Joyce's only play, Exiles, is being held in London.

James Joyce's only play is a portrait of a very modern marriage between an apparently unfeeling husband, obsessed only with his writing, and an openly unfaithful wife, hoping to disturb his dispassionate calm.

Name: Exiles
Address: National Theatre, Cottesloe
South Bank Centre
Dates: Running from Wed 26th Jul 2006 until Sat 12th Aug 2006
Info: Showing for 16 more days!
Times: 19:30 | matinees 14:30
Pricing: £10 - £28
Phone: 020 7452 3000
Travel:
Temple Underground [MAP] 6 minute walk to the North
Euro star [MAP] 7 minute walk to the South
Waterloo Underground [MAP] 7 minute walk to the South
Waterloo Railway Station [MAP] 7 minute walk to the South
Waterloo East Railway Station [MAP] 7 minute walk to the South
Parking:
Coin Street NCP [MAP] 3 minute walk to the East
Q-Park Waterloo A [MAP] 7 minute walk to the South
St Martins Lane Hotel NCP [MAP] 14 minute walk to the North West
Library Street NCP [MAP] 15 minute walk to the South East
Hillgate House NCP [MAP] 15 minute walk to the North East

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

Ancient Irish book found in Bog

2006-07-26T03:28:00.000-07:00

Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.

"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration and facing years of painstaking analysis before being put on public display.

He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland‘s midlands when, "just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something." Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.

Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."

The discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.

The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.

Ireland already has several other holy books from the early medieval period, including the ornately illustrated Book of Kells, which has been on display at Trinity College in Dublin since the 19th century.

Click here to read about ancient irish texts

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

Frank O'Connor International Short Story competition

2006-07-21T01:35:00.000-07:00

Nepali-born writer Samrat Upadhyay has been named a finalist in the Frank O'Connor International Short Story competition.

When I met Upadhyay in the Hotel Ambassador in Lajimpat on July 14 he had recently learned the news. "When I saw the list of finalists, I was surprised," he said.

Come September, this 43-year-old writer of a recently published and much acclaimed short story collection, The Royal Ghosts, will attend the award ceremony in Ireland. Who knows, he could be the winner! Upadhyay has his fingers crossed for good luck.

The prize, which is awarded to a complete collection of previously unpublished stories in a book collection, stands at &euros;35,000, making it the world's richest short story prize. Administered from the Munster Literature Centre in Cork, the prize was established in 2005 during the city's tenure as European capital of culture, in honour of the author Frank O'Connor, Cork's most famous literary son.

Technorati Tags: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

Literature at Kilkenny Arts Festival

2006-07-20T01:57:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Kilkenny Arts Festival 'promises to ignite the Marble City with an explosion of art, drama, music, literature, dance, comedy and colour between the 11th and 20th of August,' according to a statement from the Arts Festival office this week.

It's expected that this years festival will showcase the very best of the arts from both home and abroad and some highlights include a sensational festival parade, performances by the world renowned Argento Chamber Ensemble, an Asian flavoured evening entitled Masala!, stunning visual arts exhibitions inspired by the theme of ‘Failure’, plus readings by best selling authors Darren Shan and Alex Barclay for the literary enthusiasts. Other musical gems include dance floor jazz from the Five Corner’s Quintet; the return of the breathtaking Ex Cathedra in St Canice’s Cathedral; authentic trad music from Téada & Beoga, as well as funky afrobeat sounds from Nigerian Femi Kuti. Add to that more top acts including the hilarious comedians The Ornate Johnsons; theatre from the acclaimed French group Fiat Lux; hip hop for the kids with the Mayhem Poets plus much much more and it becomes clear that the Kilkenny Arts Festival has a treat in store for everyone.

The writers for this year’s festival, programmed by Eoin McNamee, have been chosen to reflect a whole spectrum of work within the crime/thriller genre. David Peace and Gordon Burn represent the leading edge of crime writing. Alex Barclay and Adrian McKinty are two of the most exciting talents in a new generation of Irish crime and thriller writers; Tobias Hill’s phantom fictions stretch the boundaries of crime fiction; and Eoin McNamee is back with a genre-defying exposition of the strange death of Diana Spencer in Paris in August 1997, entitled “12:23”, to be published in spring 2007, completing a literary line up to entertain and thrill!

To book tickets or for more information on the festival check out www.kilkennyarts.ie or call 00 353 (0) 56 775 2175. Booking opens Wednesday July 5.

Technorati: Literature, Ireland, irish, writer, author

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

2006-07-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

"Well, I have to stay sober all day because there's a dinner this evening... so I'll start drinking about 11 o'clock tonight and I don't know when I'll stop." - Colm Toibin

Colm Tóibín is the first Irish writer to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In this the 11th year of the Award, the Lord Mayor, Councillor Catherine Byrne announced that Tóibin’s novel The Master has won the €100,000 prize – the world’s richest literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English. The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries and sponsored by IMPAC (Improved Management Productivity and Control) an international company with its headquarters based in Florida, USA.

The Master was chosen by an international panel of judges, having been nominated by 17 libraries worldwide.

The Master, Colm Toibin (Picador imprint)“It’s an honour to present such a fine writer as Colm Tóibín, with the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award - the largest and most international prize of its kind”, says Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Catherine Byrne. “Libraries from all corners of the globe nominate entries and the Award is open to books written in any language. The Award is a Dublin City Council initiative and a partnership between Dublin City Council and IMPAC, a productivity improvement company operating in over 50 countries. The Award is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries”.

The 10 shortlisted titles included three Irish authors and were selected from a 132 novels, nominated by 180 libraries from 43 countries and from 124 cities; 32 titles were in translation, covering 15 non-English languages.

The shortlisted titles were:
Graceland by Chris Abani
Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
Havoc, In Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett (Irish author)
The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe
An Altered Light by Jens Christian Grøndahl - translated from the Danish by Anne Born
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra - translated from the French by John Cullen
Breaking the Tongue by Vyvyane Loh
Don’t Move by Margaret Mazzantini - translated from the Italian by John Cullen (Mazzantini was born in Dublin)
The Master by Colm Tóibín
The Logogryph by Thomas Wharton

The Master, Colm Toibin (Scribner imprint)Judges’ comment: “In The Master, Colm Tóibín captures the exquisite anguish of a man who circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly alive and vibrant in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried to love. It is a powerful account of the hazards of putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.
“This probing portrayal of Henry James is not merely an outstanding narrative. In crisp, modulated writing, it subtly balances a range of devices that leave the reader in no doubt about the accomplishment of this work. For its deftly excavated psychology of the Jamesian childhood and youth, for its quiet revelations of the artist's journey and the emotional and material necessities accompanying this, for the melancholic undertone which surfaces through the probing landscape of this writer's life, 'The Master' is, and will continue to be a work of novelistic art: its preoccupations are truth and the elusiveness of intimacy, and from such preoccupations emerge this patient, beautiful, exposure of loss, and the price of the pursuit of perfection.”

The judges this year were:
? Jane Koustas, currently serving as the Craig Dobbin Professor of Canadian Studies at UCD.
? Mary O’Donnell, poet, novelist, translator and critic.
? Andrew O’Hagan, whose first novel, Our Fathers was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, among other awards and was winner of the Holtby Prize for Fiction.
? Paulo Ruffilli, poet and novelist, is general editor of the Edizioni del Leone in Venice.
? Eugene R.Sullivan, non voting chair is a former Chief Judge of a US Court of Appeals.

Colm Tóibín is the author of four novels, The South, The Heather Blazing, The Story of the Night and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize and the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His non-fiction includes Bad Blood, Homage to Barcelona, The Sign of the Cross and Love in a Dark Time. Colm Tóibín is now a Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University, USA.

The Master was nominated by 17 Libraries; State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek, Leuven, Belgium, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Colombia, Cork City Libraries, Ireland, Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland, Limerick City Library, Ireland, Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand, Edinburgh City Libraries & Information Services, Scotland, Cape Town Central Library, South Africa, Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton Country, Cincinnati, USA, Hartford Public Library, USA, Kansas City Public Library, USA, Minneapolis Public Library, USA, Free Library of Philadelphia, USA, San José Public Library, USA, Lincoln Library, Springfield, USA

Previous winners of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award are
2005 The Known World by Edward P Jones.
2004 This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun
2003 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
2002 Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
2001 No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
2000 Wide Open by Nicola Barker
1999 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
1998 The Land Of Green Plums by Herta Muller
1997 A Heart So White by Javier Marias
1996 Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Read more about Colm Tóibín

Dublin celebration of George Bernard Shaw's 150th Anniversary

2006-07-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time". - George Bernard Shaw

Ireland will celebrate the life and works of George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and Nobel laureate, in Dublin from 22 July to 28 July, 2006.

Born in Dublin in 1856 Shaw was an Irish dramatist, literary critic, a socialist spokesman, and a leading figure in 20th century theatre. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The week-long celebrations are to be held at Shaw’s birthplace, 33 Synge Street, Dublin 8, a ten minute walk from bustling Grafton St. Recently restored, the house has been furnished in Victorian style to re-create the atmosphere of Shaw's early days. This charming residence also gives a wonderful insight into everyday life of Victorian Dublin.

Planned festivities will include readings from some of his most noteworthy plays; themed talks such as ‘Shaw & War’ and ‘Shaw as an Irish man’; guided tours of the house; and a performance by actress Eileen O’Sullivan twice daily, comprising Shaw’s life, his witticisms and dramatic excerpts from his work.

Readings

Monday 24 July, 1pm, reading of Shaw’s play ‘The Man of Destiny’ by Angela Grayson

Tuesday 25 July, 1pm, talk with Mary Lou Norton ‘The First Twenty Years’

Wednesday 26 July, 1pm, talk with Angela Grayson ‘’Shaw as an Irish man’

Thursday 27 July, 1pm, talk with Angela Grayson ‘Shaw & War’

Guided Tours

Saturday 22 July & Sunday 23 July, 2.30pm guided tour

Monday 24 July to Friday 28 July inclusive, 3pm guided tour

Performance

Performance by Eileen O’Sullivan, the show will comprise of Shaw’s life, his witticisms and dramatic excerpts from his work and will last approximately 30 minutes.

Saturday 22 July & Sunday 23 July
Performance at 3.30pm

Monday 24 July to Friday 28 July inclusive
Performance at 12 noon & 2pm

Normal admission charges apply and include all of the above events

For more information: George Bernard Shaw

Beckett and Painting - Sunday Times

2006-07-17T03:58:00.000-07:00

The entire article by Michael Ross can be found here

Visitors to Samuel Beckett’s flat in Montparnasse, Paris, remarked on three images prominently displayed there. In the hallway was a poster of a shock-haired Albert Einstein, his tongue stuck out. On the mantelpiece stood photographs of two Irishmen, the writer Francis Stuart and the former Irish rugby international Ollie Campbell.

Beckett had known Stuart in Dublin and Paris before the second world war, but the two took opposite sides: Beckett working with the resistance, Stuart writing scripts for Lord Haw-Haw. They did not meet again until 1987 and it was, by Stuart’s account, an initially chilly encounter.

Campbell was someone Beckett described to acquaintances as “a genius”.

Conspicuous by their absence in Beckett’s flat were the two images perhaps closest to his heart: A Morning and Regatta Evening, two small oils by Jack B Yeats he bought from the painter. The first he prized so highly that he took it with him when on the run in Roussillon during the war, but subsequently gave away to Jack McGowran after the actor expressed a liking for it; the second painting he gave to his nephew Edward.

As his biographer James Knowlson has pointed out, Beckett did not need to hold on to paintings to retain an appreciation of them. With his intense scrutiny and his prodigious memory, Beckett was able to recall in vivid detail paintings he had seen perhaps decades earlier. His own collection was remarkably small and mostly bought from artist friends such as Yeats, Henri Hayden, Avigdor Arikha and the brothers Geer and Bram van Velde.

The two Yeats oils, on public display with the rest of Beckett’s collection for the first time, are the most exciting pieces in the National Gallery’s small but fascinating exhibition Samuel Beckett: A Passion for Paintings. Along with 10 works owned by him, it includes two dozen pieces that were significant in his appreciation of art.

These range from works he came across in the gallery as a young man, such as Perugino’s The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, to others that he encountered elsewhere, such as Munch’s Two Women on the Beach.

The most interesting such work, Two Men Contemplating the Moon, by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, is not yet in the exhibition, but is due from the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden in the middle of August. In 1975, rehearsing Waiting for Godot in Berlin, Beckett told the scholar Ruby Cohn that the play’s imagery had been inspired by Friedrich’s Man and Woman Observing the Moon, but subsequently, speaking to Knowlson on two occasions, he cited Two Men Contemplating the Moon as the source.

The exhibition points to themes that emerged in Beckett’s writing, but sensibly stops short of suggesting a causal relationship between visual art and Beckett’s writing. It also gives a sense of how his interest in visual art developed to fever pitch as a young man — he even applied to work in the National Gallery in London, citing Yeats as a referee.

It also illuminates how in Yeats and in German expressionism Beckett found, as Knowlson put it, what he wanted to find there.

In visual art as in literature, Beckett was obsessed by an aesthetic double bind, what he characterised in a dialogue with his friend George Duthuit as “the expression that there is nothing to express . . . together with the obligation to express”.

Beckett responded to painting and writing in peculiarly philosophical terms, seeing them in terms of the relationship between being and expression characterised for him by impossibility, necessity and inevitable failure. As he conceded in a letter to Duthuit in the 1950s, when he wrote about art he was writing about his obsessions. He expressed these in a most concentrated form in Beckett’s review, published in 1945, of an essay on Yeats by their friend, Thomas McGreevy, who introduced them.

“He is with the great of our time,” wrote Beckett about Yeats, “Kandinsky and Klee, Ballmer and Bram van Velde, Rouault and Braque, because he brings light, as only the great dare to bring light, to the issueless predicament of existence, reduces the dark where there might have been, mathematically at least, a door.”

The essay was a key statement by Beckett about the resistance of artists to influence, rejecting McGreevy’s argument that Yeats was the first great Irish painter. “The artist who stakes his being comes from nowhere,” as Beckett put it, somewhat melodramatically.

As it happened, Beckett came from a specific place. Born into a prosperous Protestant family in Foxrock in 1906, the son of a quantity surveyor, he moved in privileged bohemian circles. Slotted into a temporary lecturing job in 1928 in the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris by his mentor, Professor Thomas Rudmose-Brown, in preparation for a career at Trinity, Beckett met McGreevy and struck up a friendship. When they returned to Dublin, McGreevy introduced Beckett to Yeats.

James Joyce's Ulysses first edition sells for 30,000 at Sotheby's

2006-07-14T03:42:00.000-07:00

A first edition of James Joyce's masterpiece 'Ulysses' sold at auction at Sotheby's for £30,000, far below the guide price of between £36,000 and £50,000.

James Joyce's Ulysses first edition under the hammer

2006-07-13T01:36:00.000-07:00

A first edition of James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses is reportedly expected to sell for tens of thousands of euro when it goes under the hammer in London today.

Reports this morning say the book has a guide price of up to €50,000, but is expected to fetch significantly more than this figure.

Interest in James Joyce artefacts has soared in recent years leading to a rise in prices being paid as collectors across the world seek out rare items.
Ulysses is seen as James Joyce’s most important work. It was released in 1922 but banned in many English-speaking countries until it was finally published in Britain in 1936. Only 750 first-edition copies of Ulysses were printed.

Ulysses deals with the opulence of personal thought and while we are ushered into its characters private worlds with ease, we know little about their exteriors. The narrative parallels Homer’s Odyssey, but an in-depth knowledge of The Odyssey is not necessary for enjoyment of Ulysses.

The main character in the book is Leopold Bloom, a non-practising Jew. Throughout the novel, the reader is permitted to become wholly familiar with the inner workings of Leopold’s mind, but not given enough information about his physical appearance to form a clear mental picture of him. We are told he is quiet and decent, a man of inflexible honour to his fingertips. He has a pale intellectual face in which are set two dark large lidded, superbly expressive eyes.

The story of a haunting sorrow is written on his face and his friends say that there’s a touch of the artist about old Bloom. A safe moustached man who has his good points and slips off when the fun gets too hot.

Another significant figure winding his way through the streets of Dublin in Ulysses is Stephen Dedalus, whom we first meet in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen is an arrogant young intellectual whom Bloom takes under his wing. He acts as a father figure to the young Stephen who fulfils the role to some extent of son for Bloom whose own son died in infancy.

Molly Bloom in Ulysses is equated with Penelope in The Odyssey and the last chapter of the book is dedicated solely to her meanderings and musings. It is one of the most renowned pieces of writing in Ulysses and is famous for its celebration of this voluptuous, sensuous, opulent, abundant, independent, lush, and blooming woman.

Declan Kiberd Appointed to Abbey Theatre Board

2006-07-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

Declan Kiberd has been appointed to the new board of the overhauled Abbey Theatre.

Professor Kiberd has published widely on Irish drama and is internationally recognised as a leading expert on the work of Abbey playwright John Millington Synge. He is the author of the ground-breaking study Synge and the Irish Language and has written extensively on Irish theatre in his books Inventing Ireland and Irish Classics. His most recent book, The Irish Writer and the World was published in the last few months by Cambridge University Press.

The Abbey Theatre is currently undergoing a process of radical redevelopment which will involve relocating to a new building in Dublin’s Docklands in 2009.

Syd Barrett in Ireland

2006-07-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

On September 17, 1967 Syd Barrett and The Pink Floyd (Nick Mason, Roger Waters, Rick Wright) played the Arcadia Ballroom, Cork, Ireland.

Famous Seamus sells out in Edinburgh

2006-07-11T03:46:00.000-07:00

Irish author Seamus Heaney is among several authors whose appearances at the Edinburgh Book Festival, http://www.edbookfest.co.uk, have led to a record demand for tickets.

Two events with the Nobel Prize-winning author have sold out and 25% of all tickets have been sold in three days.

Seamus Heaney
MEET THE AUTHOR
Venue:RBS MAIN THEATRE Date: Thu 24/8/2006 Time: 8:00 PM To Fri 25/08/2006
Appearing: Seamus Heaney

We are overjoyed to welcome the great Nobel Prize-winning poet, one of the most distinguished and important writers alive today, back to the Book Festival. In this special talk, entitled Brede and Braird, he explores some Scottish connections, reflects on language and its furtherings, and reads some poems. Supported by the Hawthornden Literary Retreat

Mounting forces agains the James Joyce Estate

2006-07-10T02:14:00.000-07:00

Now Michael Groden, a University of Western Ontario professor has taken up sword and sheild against the unfair and often brutish dealings of Stephen Joyce, grandson of the writer James Joyce.
Stephen Joyce has guarded his grandfather's legacy by blocking public readings; threatening legal action over the publication of biographies; announcing that he'd destroyed family letters (including correspondence from Samuel Beckett); and waging war on all perceived affronts to the Joyce family's dignity.
You can read more about Groden here

Stephen Joyce lives in the French town of La Flotte, on the Île de Ré, off the Atlantic Coast. He loves the island, which is the Martha’s Vineyard of France, but he has sometimes been willing to leave it when academics have invited him to attend Joyce commemorations and symposia. The scholars’ courtesy is, in part, tactical: Stephen is Joyce’s only living descendant, and since the mid-nineteen-eighties he has effectively controlled the Joyce estate. Scholars must ask his permission to quote sizable passages or to reproduce manuscript pages from those works of Joyce’s that remain under copyright—including “Ulysses” and “Finnegans Wake”—as well as from more than three thousand letters and several dozen unpublished manuscript fragments.
You can read more about Stephen Joyce here

Colm Toibin's book The Master wins more than one prize

2006-07-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

Colm Toibin's The Master has won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger for the best foreign novel published in 2005 in France.

Irish author Colm Toibin won the world's richest literary prize for a single work of fiction in English on Tuesday for "The Master," his portrayal of 19th century novelist and critic Henry James.

Toibin, whose previous novels include "The South" and "The Blackwater Lightship," collected 100,000 euros ($125,800) as part of the annual International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, fending off competition from nine other shortlisted writers.

You can read about the Irish author at his website here:

DruidSynge - Lincoln Center Festival

2006-07-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

Step into the haunting, gritty world of John Millington Synge, one of the most influential figures in the Irish literary renaissance. Only thirty-eight when he died, Synge left behind six plays which have had a profound impact on Irish theater. His most famous play, The Playboy of the Western World, caused a riot on opening night at the Abbey Theatre as an unwelcome and perhaps too frank mirror of Irish rural life, a reaction that was often repeated when the play was performed elsewhere.

Garry Hynes, the Artistic Director of Druid Theatre Company, and the first woman to win a Tony Award for best director (for The Beauty Queen of Leenane), brings her extraordinary vision to DruidSynge, a day-long cycle of all six plays. From the first play, The Shadow of the Glen, to the last, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Synge celebrates the costly victory of the Irish spirit over the ineluctable realities of life.

Combining six dramatic works, DruidSynge is a fully integrated production, one that is vibrant and earthy. Magnificent ensemble acting keeps a taut rein on these harsh, funny and moving pieces, as Garry Hynes captures the bluntness of Synge’s world.

Read more about DruidSynge here: http://www.syngecycle.com

James Joyce in court again

2006-07-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University filed a legal suit against James Joyce's estate in a US district court, accusing the administrator of the writer's estate of 'copyright misuse'. In the case agains Stephen Joyce will be up against the formidable resources of Stanford Law School and hopefully it will break the strangle hold that has caused controversy around the work of Joyce for years. You can read about Professor Lessing or contact him here: http://www.lessig.org

Bisto Book of the Year

2006-07-04T03:39:00.000-07:00

Kate Thompson, the daughter of Marxist historian EP Thompson, has won the 16th Bisto Book of the Year award for her book 'The New Policeman'. Born in Yorkshire, Kate now lives in Ireland, and in The New Policeman, Thompson subjects the small Irish town where she lives, Kinvara.

36th Listowel Writer's Week

2006-07-03T03:36:00.000-07:00

Last month was the 36th Listowel writer's week, where Sebastian Barry won the 'k e r r y g r o u p i r i s h f i c t i o n a w a r d' worth 10,000 euro. for more information you can go to the official wensite here: www.writersweek.ie

Since it’s inception in 1970 Listowel Writers’ Week has been recognised as the primary event in Ireland’s literary calendar. North Kerry is the birthplace of many of Ireland’s most prominent writers past and present including Dr. John B Keane, Dr Bryan Mac Mahon, Professor Brendan Kennelly, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, George Fitzmaurice, Maurice Walsh and Robert Leslie Boland. Writers’ Week festival was established in 1970 to celebrate those writers and to provide an opportunity for Irish Writers in general to develop their talents and meet new audiences.

The concept of the Literary Workshop was first introduced at Writers’ Week in 1971 by Bryan MacMahon. Since then our Literary Workshops continue to be the most popular in the country. Prominent Irish writers have shared their skills in poetry, fiction, theatre, screen, writing for radio and children’s literature.

Competitions were introduced, together with a series of literary awards, which have given valuable recognition to new writers over the last number of years. In that time many eminent Irish and international literary figures have gathered in Listowel at the annual Maytime event to celebrate the work of new and established writers. Participants have included Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, Laurence Block, Blake Morrison, Chris Whyte, award winning playwrights Tom Murphy, Brian Friel, Roddy Doyle, Frank McGuinness and Hugh Leonard, celebrated poets Michael Hartnett, Richard Murphy, John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Kate Cruise O’ Brien, Aidan Matthews, Rita Ann Higgins and acclaimed novelists Colm Tóibín, Jennifer Johnston, John McGahern, Joseph O’ Connor, Hugo Hamilton, William Trevor, Colum McCann and Edna O’ Brien.

Under the leadership of its president David Marcus, together with literary advisors Professor Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Hosey, Colm Tóibín, Lawrence Block and Michael Collins, Writers’ Week provides a wide ranging programme of literary and assorted cultural events including lectures, readings, workshops, book launchings, seminars, theatre, literary and historical tours, art exhibitions, music and dance.

Bloomsday Activities Cancelled

2006-06-30T02:53:00.001-07:00

As mark of respect to the former Taoiseach, the late Mr Charles Haughey, whose state funeral was on Friday 16th June, Bloomsday activities were effected. All Bloomsday events at the James Joyce Centre, 35 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1, were cancelled.
For more information on bloomsday, please look here: http://www.jamesjoyce.ie