The centre of Galway city resembles a bomb-site, writes Fred Johnston.
Some streets have what appear to be defensive trenches dug in them, Eyre Square is a scene from Stalingrad, access to at least one local shop is now impossible, the traffic has ground to a halt, and when wary mothers drive their cars into town to pick up children in an hour or so the city will effectively shut down. Meanwhile one local newspaper gamely headlines a million-euro advertising scheme to attract tourists to the West of Ireland - presumably, this will not include photographs of Galway city centre in its present battlefield condition under a smoky, ominous sky.
Yet there is a beacon of light in all of this - a tower, no less, in which the Muse has taken residence. Two poets are reading their work, perched in a tiny Parnassus above the urban chaos.
Galway's Fishery Tower, dipping her elegant concrete toe in the waters of the river Corrib at Wolfe Tone Bridge, is the only one of its kind in the country - just as the Western Writers' Centre is the only writers' centre west of the Shannon.
Last Wednesday, under a grey and wet Galway sky, the picturesque, slightly Italianate tower and the Western Writers' Centre - otherwise known as Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude, after the fondly-remembered Connemara poet, singer and political activist, the late Caitlín Maude - staged the first of a series of lunchtime poetry and prose readings running every Wednesday in June. The Francis McManus-shortlisted writer Gerardine Burke and Canadian Sandra Bunting read their work to a modest but eager audience, which included Galway Civic Trust's Sheila Phelan, seated around their feet like acolytes at an oracle. Here and there a sacred glass of red wine glowed.
Entitled, with Gothic earnestness, "Voices From The Tower", the events are not intended to conjure up shadowy visions of hapless Victorian poachers, now mere clicking bones, chained to the walls of dank, dripping rooms, nor of innocent young princes done away with by a nasty king with a beady eye on a dynasty. No. Here the spirit, hopefully, will be more Yeatsian - or at least, with any luck, fluidly lyrical.
It's another modest "first" for our writers' centre - among the others are a "Poetry on the Buses" project, in collaboration with Bus Éireann and the placing of a writer-in-residence in Galway's Merlin Park hospital. And all of this in the face of six consecutive refusals of grant-aid from the Arts Council and two rejected appeals. We like to think we've managed gallantly to make up in imagination what we've been denied in funding.
The Fishery Tower is a familiar landmark to Galwegians, and frequently white bunches of swans dance attendance around its damp stone feet. Originally known as Salmon House, and then as the Fishery Watchtower, the yellow-faced, three-storey building was built in the mid-1800s by the then owners of Galway Fishery, the Ashworths. It saw service as a look-out tower to enable a fish-eye to be kept on river stocks and poaching. Two storeys are brick, resting on a stone ground floor, and at one time nets and fishing tackle of all types were stored here. The sloping foundation allowed water to drain away from the nets into the river. Metal rings remain visible on the tower's slipway. I am indebted for such piscatorial arcana to Tom Kenny of Kenny's Bookshop and Art Galleries for his concise "Old Galway" item of August 2002.
In these more law-conscious times the tower, administered with pride by the Galway Civic Trust, has often showcased exhibitions of visual art; in such a location, these are virtually irresistible. The trust were more than helpful and enthusiastic when, as manager of the Writers' Centre, I approached them with the idea of holding lunchtime readings there, and the next step was to invite Galway Writers' Workshop, publishers of that fine literary journal Crannóg to provide the writers. Sandra Bunting worked tirelessly to bring together no fewer than ten writers willing to read. The workshop has a considerable following in the city and beyond and its launchings of Crannóg in Galway's traditional music Mecca, The Crane Bar, are always crowded - in spite of the bar's apparent reluctance to serve non-drinkers like myself tea or coffee. Kettle problems, I understand.
Less happily to relate, the Western Writers' Centre could not muster any support for even minor sponsorship of the events among Galway businesses. So these writers, some of whom have had work broadcast by the BBC and RTÉ, are giving their services without payment, for which we are all very grateful; a sobering reminder that much of Galway's reputation as an artistic city rests on activities created by enthusiastic imaginations which received little financial reward or none at all and whose projects had no financial safety-nets. This is the cultural elephant-in-the-parlour that no one's supposed to talk about.
The readings, which carry a nominal admission fee of €2, continue next Wednesday, June 8th, with Margaret Faherty and Patricia Burke Brogan, whose ground-breaking play Eclipsed led to a stream of books and films about the Magdalen laundries, throughout which her contribution has been disgracefully ignored. June 15th's event features Maureen Gallagher and Jarlath Fahy (an actor with Dublin's Focus Theatre in the 1980s). On June 22nd Mary O'Rourke reads with Ciaran Parkes, holder of an MA in creative writing from the Poets' House in Donegal; and Betsy Carreyette and Derry-born writer and singer John Walsh round off the little season on June 29th.
Further details of the readings may be obtained from The Western Writers' Centre at (091) 533595 or by e-mailing westernwriters@eircom.net.