MADE OF THE WRITE STUFF!
THE HUNDREDS gathered in the Listowel Arms were anticipating matters with relish as Listowel Writers’ Week opened on Wednesday night.
Poet Paul Durcan was the big literary figure on hand to launch the literary festival with a supporting cast that included some of the country’s finest writers and a small army of their avid readers, local and visiting.
Some could count themselves as both - local and visiting - like sisters Maria Brogan and Fiona Keane-Stack. Back in their home town on another annual pilgrimage they were soaking in the festival atmosphere. All that was missing was their sister, Gráinne, and she was en route to join them for the five days.
Maria, of course, can count the rise of Dublin football among her achievements as the mother of Alan, Bernard and Paul Brogan. Such was the camaraderie on Wednesday that no one was holding that against her.
“Like the races, Writers’ Week brings back the diaspora, like myself, but it’s a different type of event and you meet a different group of people here each year,” Maria said. Fiona makes the annual pilgrimage from Boston where she currently resides. Both were agreed that, in a sense, the literary side of Listowel forms part of their identity.
“It is a big side of our identity, Listowel is so famous for its writers. My gifts to my American family each year will include a DVD of The Field, The Committments and a book by Bryan MacMahon, for instance, and they really respond to it. They’ve all been to John B’s over the years too - the pub in which I met my husband!”
Fiona was particularly looking forward to the arrival of bestseller Douglas Kennedy; a writer she has loved reading over the years and one who shares a holiday-home location with her in Popham Beach, Maine.
Ohio native Felicia McCarthy was down for her first-ever Writers’ Week, to her Castleisland-native son-in-law Mícheál Reidy’s home county. Felicia now lives in Galway, where talk among the literati of Listowel is brisk each May.
“It’s famous everywhere and my writer friends in Galway will be coming down shortly for it all. I can’t wait to experience it and I’m really looking forward to Paul Durcan tonight as well as the tribute to John Moriarty tomorrow (Thursday). He seems to have been a fascinating character and his writing got my daughter so fired up she went off and became a storyteller!”
Dromclough National School Principal Mary Majella O’Connor was present to cheer on one of her young charges, fifth-class pupil Emma Faley, who won the Writers’ Week Limerick contest on Wednesday.
“We have had success in the Dan Keane Poetry Competition over the years, but this is the first time that a Dromclough pupil has won one of the big prizes of the entire festival. We are delighted for Emma and Writers’ Week is a great source of encouragement for young writers in this way, and a major boost for their confidence.”
Along with their many colleagues on the Writers’ Week Festival Committee, Gerry McDaniels and Noel Keenan were performing out of their skins in welcoming and directing the throng. “It’s a lot of work every year, but I really enjoy it and it will get a bit easier after tonight’s big opening. “While I’m working, I’m also looking forward to many of the events myself and particularly Saturday’s War Stories with Fergal Keane, Tom Clonan and Andy Kershaw,” Gerry said.
One thing Noel was not looking forward to was Monday and the big-goodbye to all the visitors. “When it finishes it is an awful anti-climax, but we’ve the final play on Sunday to ease the blow and Billy Keane has the cure the following day. Only in Kerry could a week be condensed into five days like this and the programme this year is wonderful.”
English teacher Noel is known across the region for his theatrical expertise so it was no surprise to learn he felt the literary pull strongest from the dramatic side of Writers’ Week.
“We’ve a lovely production of The Shaughraun in St John’s that is directed by Listowel man Maurice O’Sullivan, and I’m really looking forward to that.”
Ann McCarthy and Aine Guerin, from Listowel, were seated awaiting the show in the happy glow of the Arms Ballroom. “It’s just a fantastic social occasion as well as a literary festival and it is great for the town. It’s very important and, like tonight, we’re always very lucky with the weather for it,” Anne said.
“It’s great to get so many people together in weather like this after the long winter!” Aine added.
Listowel poet Matt Mooney could not speak more highly of the event. “It’s the cutting-edge of Listowel and is synonymous with the town now, recognised nationally and internationally.”
Listowel’s Junior Griffin agreed whole-heartedly. “In fact, it just seems to be getting better and better all the time, particularly over the last ten years. Writers’ Week has come on in leaps and bounds since then!”