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The Revived Listowel Writers’ Week and Grave Matters
Regular readers may remember my comments about the 2023 Listowel Writers’ Week which I made before I went to the festival. It turned out that my predictions were accurate. There was friction all around but thank God that had changed for this event which journalist Billy Keane described as “a revived Writers' Week.” And revived it certainly was. There was healing in the air and a return to the standards which had been maintained for more than half a century. No day had less than twelve events and there were twenty on Saturday.
On opening night prize for the Kerry Gold Irish Novel of
the Year went to Daragh Kelly for his novel Remembrance Sunday. Paula
Meehan won the Piggott Poetry Prize for Solace of Arthemis. President
Michael D. Higgins was given the John B.Keane Lifetime Achievement
Award, by John B’s son Coner, and his acceptance speech was really one
for the books. Michael D., who is a president not afraid to put his toe
over the line, spoke of how writers suffer for telling the truth and a
lot of truth was told at this year’s Writers’ Week.
Photo from Irish Indepent.
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There were six two-day workshops given by authors who are the top of their game.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday started off with a different,
excellent, walking tour each morning where experts on the history,
architecture, characters and folklore of Listowel, gave commentaries and
told stories.
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Some brilliant literary works were launched. Tralee poet Noel King launched his fifth collection of poems. ”Suitable Music for a View,”
published by SurVision Books. You could hear a pin drop when the poet
read from his collection in Listowel Library. Poems had a deep and
sometimes subtle meaning. The title poem, Suitable Music for a View, is
one of the shortest in the collection; Crossing the river in ListowelMy
Walkman sweeps Evita’s funeral; Sounds to match a view I don’t tire
of-an odd little house by the river, A Hollywood set in Ireland, A
scratch on the map.
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Ninety-two year old Father Tony Gaughan launched his umpteenth
publication; he published his first book in 1969. This latest is Some
Occasional Writings, a collection of 23 articles and reviews written
from 2003 to 2024.
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In four pages he gives a condensed history of Listowel
Writers’ Week from the first one in 1971 to 2020. Elsewhere we a given
an account of how Madame Gong Pusheng, the Chinese Ambassador, spent a
day at Writers’ Week. She was staying at the Listowel Arms Hotel. Late
in the night a prowler entered her room claiming that he was looking for
a vacant room in which to spend the night. The ambassador was shaken
and upset and departed at first light while the intruder got free
lodgings at the Garda Station in Church Street.
If you to go “On the Road with the Kerry Junior Football Team," to get eye-witness accounts of the Easter Rising ofr learn “How the laity saved the Catholic realign during those long dark centuries . . .” , this is the book for you. You can contact the author at: janthonygaughan1@hotmail.com
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James Anthony Kelly’s Novel This Great City was available along
with several of his poetry collections. Details of all from the
poet/author himself; poetjameskelly@hotmail.com
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There were open mic sessions to beat the band and with MCs like
Sean Lyons and John McGrath we were assured of top class entertainment.
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Saint John’s Theatre, the greatest small theatre in the country, had a fantastic programme for the week.
I’ll mention just a few. Listowel Drama Group got a well-deserved standing ovation for John B. Keane’s masterpiece, Big Maggie.
Stories, Songs and Shenanigans, with Andrias de Staic, was a show to remember.
Katie, A two act play by the Sugan Theatre Company from Newcastle
West was a moving experience. This play was written and directed by
Theresa Prendeville a person who obviously has a lot of insight into
human nature.
The Kings of Kilburn High Road was written more than
twenty years ago, by Irish playwright Jimmy Murphy, but the first time I
saw it was the St. Johns Drama Group’s production and they deserve an
award for the set design alone. It was a top class performance.
Agnes of God, written by John Pielmeier, questions
everything from belief and disbelief to sanctity, guilt, innocence and
everything in between. It is about a Novice Nun accused of murdering
her infant son and is supposed to be based on a true story. Each
character is expertly brought to life by Saint Patrick’s Drama Group,
from Westport.
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“The Healing Session” an annual event, a marathon open mic
session in John B. Keane’s on the Sunday was, as usual, a great
success, with poets, singers, songwriters and story tellers strutting
their stuff for five hours.
A big thank you all concerned who revived Listowel Writers ‘Week for 2024.
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“How poor this world would be without its graves, without the memories of its mighty dead.” (Robert Green Ingersoll.)
“Would you take my grave as quick” Often asked when
the opportunist in me would surface and I’d grab a person’s seat if they
vacated it for even a few seconds. If you are near my age and of rural
Irish background you remember the awkward and not very witty chat-up
line, “Would you like to be buried with my people?”
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Graves are central to Irish culture. The word crops up time and again in the titles of books, songs and poems; From “The Graves at Kilmorna” to “Sharon’s Grave”. It’s there in comedy and tragedy. At the tail-end of Listowel Writers’ Week I learned of a publication titled Reusing Old Graves, an examination of, among other things, the reuse of graves by a different family.
Professor Douglas Davies was commissioned to carry out
research resulting from concerns by managers of municipal cemeteries in
the UK that local authorities were running out of land for burials. Ian
Hussein delivered a paper Graves for the Future, to the Joint Conference
of Burial and Cremation Authorities. As part of Professor Davies’s
research the question, “What period of time should elapse before a grave could be used for new burials by a different family?” was put to 1,603 adults from Glasgow, Sunderland, Nottingham, and the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham.
Three percent were undecided and of the other 97% 35% said
they shouldn’t ever be used. The other 62% gave periods ranging from 1
year to 200 years. The most popular being 100, 50, 20, 30, 75, 150 and
10, in that order.
I feel that the “not evers" would be more than 35% on
this island. Our family burial ground is in Baltyboys. Whenever my
mother or I would suggest any conversions in the home my father, who
wasn’t a fan of change, would usually say, “Do what yez like when yez lave me in Baltyboys.” However, I don’t think his permission would extend to having his remains disturbed by strangers.
See you in August.
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