Arts Committee members John Cussen, Rachel Lenihan, Anne Lenihan Keane, Vicki Nash and Norma Prendiville. Missing from photo Vincent Hanley. — Launch of Eigse Michael Hartnett in Newcastle West at the Red Door Gallery by Donal Ryan award winning novelist and short story writer — George Daly
Internationally acclaimed and award winning author Colum McCann will join Donal Ryan, Rita Ann Higgins and Mike Mac Domhnaill and a host of other established Irish writers, musicians and artists at Éigse Michael Hartnett 2016 taking place in Newcastle West, County Limerick, from Thursday April 14th to Saturday April 16th.
Hundreds of literary enthusiasts from all over Ireland will descend on the town to attend the three-day event in the very streets which shaped Hartnett’s poetry.
This year’s festival, which is an initiative of Limerick Arts Office and supported by The Arts Council, once again offers a mix of poetry and music, literature and drama, visual arts and dance.
Speaking at the launch of Éigse 2016 at a ceremony in Newcastle West last Monday evening 4th April, author Donal Ryan said he is “honoured” to be part of an event that celebrates the life and work of “Munster’s poet laureate”.
“Newcastle West is my second home and for me it is a place where poetry forms part of every exchange. Nowhere in the world is language used quite the way it is in West Limerick,” said Mr. Ryan.
He added, “Remembering and celebrating, and, for some, discovering, Michael Hartnett, this writer who lived in language, who whispered and spoke and shouted and sang with two tongues and one beautiful heart, is something everyone should share in. Michael Hartnett’s poetry springs from the soil and stone and soul of West Limerick, it’s Camas and Templeglantine and Maiden Street. His legacy is giant, but casts no shadow; our world is a brighter and better place for his having been in it.”
“This year’s festival will be an exciting and eclectic mix of voices and music, and the members of the organising committee have, as always, put their hearts and souls into it. I hope that everyone who can turns out to share in this celebration of the life and work of Munster’s poet laureate,” said Mr. Ryan.
“Éigse is special because it is a very intimate and warm festival where you can meet people who knew Hartnett and his colourful and complex nature and for whom his poems, and his doings, are part of their lives,” commented Sheila Deegan, Limerick Arts Officer and Arts and Culture Officer, Limerick 2020.
“It is not every day you get to see verses of poetry in shop windows, which is part of the pleasure of walking around Newcastle West during Eigse. Paul Durcan once made the point that few towns erect a statue to a poet. Newcastle West has done that and that says a lot about the esteem in which Michael Hartnett is held in his native West Limerick, she added.”
Éigse Michael Hartnett will be officially opened on Thursday 14th April at 8pm by the Mayor of Limerick City and County Council, Cllr Liam Galvin, and will feature a keynote address by Rita Ann Higgins on “Wasp in a Mug, or why is it some poems unsettle us.”
The free event also will feature the presentation of the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2016, which is this year being shared by John McAuliffe from Listowel for his collection ‘The Way In’ and to Doireann Ní Ghríofa from Kilnamona, for her collection ‘Clasp’.
The big headline act of Éigse Michael Hartnett 2016 is the reading by internationally acclaimed and award winning author Colum McCann on Saturday night. He will be joined on stage by singer/musician Colm MacCon Iomaire. Throughout the weekend meanwhile, an exhibition of photographs inspired by Hartnett’s Inchicore Haikus will take place in Newcastle West Library.
Visit www.eigsemichael hartnett.ie for more details.