Son of Michael Hartnett to be Keynote Speaker at this year’s Éigse

  • Éigse Michael Hartnett

Rich and varied programme to explore Hartnett’s fascinating links with food, cooking and the kitchens of West Limerick.

Éigse Michael Hartnett 2018 will offer a rich and varied programme during the annual three-day literary and arts festival which runs in Newcastle West from 12 - 14 April 2018.

Established to honour the work and literary legacy of one of the Co. Limerick’s most famous sons, the poet Michael Hartnett who died in 1999, Éigse Michael Hartnett has developed into a warm, friendly, intimate and stimulating festival which often surprises. And this year’s offering is no different, with a number of new additions to the programme.

Among those taking part this year will be novelists John Boyne and Mike McCormack, author and academic Declan Kiberd, poets Robyn Rowland, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Edward O’Dwyer and Patrick Moran with musical contributions from singer songwriter Emma Langford, the Capricio String Quartet and Limerick’s Yukeladies.

This year is also special because we will be joined in our celebrations by Michael’s family and his son Niall will deliver the key opening address.

Éigse 2018 seeks to explore and celebrate the link between Michael Hartnett, food, cooking and the kitchens he survived in Lower Maiden Street, Camas and further afield. We will celebrate Hartnett and his love of food or at least of cooking.

His good friend and fellow poet Tony Curtis once noted about Hartnett: “While I couldn’t say he loved eating, he did love cooking”. And as the late poet and essayist, Denis O’Driscoll noted of Michael: “His tastes in poetry, as in food, could range far beyond Munster.”

A special event entitled Pulled Pork and Poetry will feature a cookery demonstration by award-winning chef, Tom Flavin, Executive Chef at the Limerick Strand Hotel, with appropriate readings from Michael Hartnett’s poetry by Edward O’Dwyer.

A poetry workshop with Robyn Rowland, aimed at adults, is another new feature on this year’s programme. Robyn will also work with students in the town’s two second-level schools.

And in an interesting collaboration with the Newcastle West Film Society, there will be a screening of the film, Song of Granite, featuring the legendary singer Joe Heaney.

Éigse 2018 is also collaborating this year with the HearSay Creative Audio Festival in Kilfinane to bring Cluas Eile, a surprising journey into the power and magic of the spoken work, which can be taken via a four-door installation in the Square.

A key feature of any Éigse however is the awarding of the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award on opening night. Two previous winners of the award, Jo Slade and James Harpur, are this year’s judges, and there has been a huge submission. The award carries a purse of €4,000.

Éigse Michael Hartnett will be officially launched by Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Stephen Keary on Thursday 12 April at a public event in Newcastle West Library.

The winner of this year’s Michael Hartnett Poetry Award will receive the award that evening also and Michael’s son Niall Hartnett will deliver the opening address.

Established in 2000 by Limerick County Council and funded jointly by Limerick City and County Council and the Arts Council, the award marks Michael Hartnett’s contribution to literature in English and Irish.

The Michael Hartnett Poetry Award is awarded in alternate years to books of poetry in the Irish and English language.

Friday 13 April

Friday morning’s coffee drinkers will have the opportunity to hear the winning poet, along with Tipperary poet Patrick Moran, and later in the day, Gabriel Fitzmaurice will launch his book of translations of the poems of Seán Ó Ríordáin, Milking the Sun, Ag Crú na Gréine at the Red Door Gallery. Artist Brenda Fitzmaurice’s paintings, based on the poems, will be on display.

On Friday night, Mike McCormack, author of award-winning novel Solar Bones will read with poet Robyn Rowland at the Red Gallery where the Capriccio String Quartet will also play.

Saturday 14 April

On Saturday morning, one of Ireland’s foremost literary historians and thinkers, Declan Kiberd, Professor of Irish Studies at Notre Dame, will deliver the Michael Hartnett Memorial Lecture.

His title is intriguingly called: Honey, I shrunk the kids: is there a children’s literature? and will cover issues such as the fate of childhood in recent times as well as commenting on Wonderland, Narnia and Harry Potter. Declan is the author of several books, among them, Inventing Ireland, and most recently, After Ireland: Writing the Nation from Beckett to the Present.

Pulled Pork and Poetry with Tom Flavin and Edward O’Dwyer offers a lunchtime bonanza of cooking creativity, good food and some good lines. Booking for this event which includes lunch is required.

Saturday afternoon offers a wealth of fun, with a literary tour of Hartnett’s Newcastle West, the poetry slam and a chance to hear the Yukeladies. The poetry slam carries a purse of €300 for Best Original Poem and €100 for Best Read Hartnett Poem.

The festival concludes on Saturday night with a reading by author John Boyne who has written ten novels including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was made into and an award winning film, and The Heart’s Invisible Furies. He has also written five novels for young people.

John will be joined on stage by exceptional singer songwriter Emma Langford and poet Edward O’Dwyer from Limerick.

Throughout the festival, the Cluas Eile installation will be accessible and a Festival Club will run each night.

Formally launching Éigse Michael Hartnett 2018, Cllr Michael Collins, Cathaoirleach of the Newcastle West Municipal District said: “As chairperson of the municipal district of Newcastle West, I’m delighted to see Éigse go from strength to strength. Now in its 18th year, Éigse has become the flagship cultural event of the county, I applaud and congratulate the Éigse committee and welcome the ongoing support of the festival from Limerick City and County Council".

Sheila Deegan, Culture and Arts Officer with Limerick City and County Council said: “In Hartnett's poem for Thomas Kinsella 'The Poet as Mastercraftsman' the opening line says: ‘Eras do not end when great poets die’. The Éigse Michael Hartnett Literary and Arts Festival, now in its 18th year, honours this idea by celebrating the writing and memory of the Newcastle West native.”

For more details, please visit www.eigsemichaelhartnett.ie

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