LOOSE LEAVES:This paper has correspondents in far-flung places such as Washington, Brussels and Paris, but did you know it once had an unofficial Long Kesh correspondent?
In August 1971 the sociology lecturer Des O’Hagan was a member of the executive of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and an activist in the Republican Clubs in Belfast, writes Deaglán de Bréadún. When internment was introduced that month he was “lifted” and held without trial for a year and a day. Between January and July 1972 The Irish Times carried more than 20 letters by O’Hagan on the grim daily reality of life inside the camp.
The letters, smuggled out by his late wife, Marie, during her weekly visits, have now been collected in book form as Letters from Long Kesh, published by Citizen Press at €10. O’Hagan dedicates the collection to Marie and to the then editor of The Irish Times, Douglas Gageby, “who generously allowed me retain copyright of the letters”.
To order a copy of the book, telephone the Workers’ Party in Dublin (01-8733915) or Belfast (028-90328663).
October the month for keeping writers guessing
This week the Nobel, next week the Booker: this is a month when literary prizes make the news pages and writers brave the cameras. The Nobel result we now know; the noisy Booker build-up, though, is still reaching a crescendo, and the Light House cinema in Dublin’s Smithfield will be joining in, with a big-screen event on the eve of this week’s presentation of the £50,000 prize. The screening, on Monday at 7.30pm, features the six shortlisted writers reading from their work and discussing it with the BBC Radio 4 presenter James Naughtie. The Light House audience will be able to take part via Twitter.
The shortlist is made up of Tan Twan Eng, Deborah Levy, Hilary Mantel, Alison Moore, Will Self and Jeet Thayil.
To book tickets for the screening, call 01-8728006 or see lighthousecinema.ie.
Elsewhere in prizeland, the Orange Prize, having lost its 17-year sponsorship deal with the telecoms company, is to be renamed the Women’s Prize for Fiction and, for next year at least, funded by private donors, including Cherie Blair (below), the writer Joanna Trollope and the bookseller Christopher Foyle. There had been speculation that Apple would take over the prize, prompting the observation that oranges are not the only fruit, but it seems that sponsorship budgets for next year have already been decided. The award, worth £30,000, was won this year by Madeline Miller for her book The Song of Achilles.
This week also saw the presentation of the Pen/Pinter awards, which are unique in that the British winner, selected by a panel of judges, then chooses an “international writer of courage” to share the prize with.
This year the judges chose the British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who nominated the Syrian writer Samar Yazbek for her account of the Syrian revolution, A Woman in the Crossfire. Fearing for her life and that of her daughter, Yazbek ultimately fled Syria and now lives in exile.
Debate on the function of the father
The writer Carlo Gébler will be the guest speaker at All Our Fathers: Literature and Psychoanalysis in Dialogue, a seminar at Dublin Writers' Museum next Saturday morning. An exploration of the function of the father from the perspective of psychoanalysts and writers, the event is open to the public, but booking is essential, by Wednesday, October 17th. Email info@iclo-nls-org or see iclo-nls.org; tickets cost €25, or €15 for students and the unwaged.
