Celebrating 25 years in existence this month is Books Ireland, which comes out every month except in summer. The March cover shows a map of Ireland composed of the 67 Irish publishers' logos which have been the magazine's raison d'etre since its inception. "Our small size as a firm and our remarkable penetration of the market give us the privilege of a central position in a buzzing and exciting industry. Books, as mankind's seedbed and memory, the repository of his wisdom and dreaming, are his most valuable products", writes publisher Jeremy Addis stirringly in the silver-anniversary editorial. Books Ireland, which is supported by Arts Councils, both North and South, is available by mail subscription and through major bookshops. Sadbh always enjoys reading the "First Flush" section, which summarises all the latest Irish-interest titles, and which Addis writes in his distinctive wry, amusing, and sometimes slightly eccentric style. The short summaries are pretty much always dead on. The majority of the other pieces are by regular contributors who are given plenty of space, but could benefit from tighter editing: readers want to know about the new books coming out, not the lives of those reviewing them. Twenty-five years of anything these days is a big achievement, and Sadbh wishes Books Ireland all the best for the future.
Among the tributes in the British press to Alan Ross, who presided over the London Magazine for 40 years until his recent death, Sadbh was touched by the affectionate farewell poet Hugo Williams penned in this week's TLS. When Ross took over the magazine from John Lehmann in 1961, he gave Williams his first job, the duties of which were manifold. One was organising a poetry anthology. "Somehow," writes Williams, "I managed to leave off the second verse (of two) of Kingsley Amis's poem, `Oligodor'. When I apologised to Amis, he said it wasn't the missing verse he minded so much as Alan assuring him that it was better that way."
Ross went to the office as usual the day before he died. The next day - February 14th - he didn't feel well, his last words to his wife, Jane, being succinct, and correct; "I think this could be it."
SADBH is interested to hear that novelist and short-story writer Desmond Hogan, who has been keeping a low profile for many years, is participating in the Eigse na gCuige 2001 festival, which starts in Cork on Tuesday. This is a rare opportunity to hear the Ballinasloe-born author of The Ikon Maker and The Leaves on Grey read from his work. He's appearing, with poet Pearse Hutchinson, at 8 p.m. in the Cork Arts Theatre on Wednesday.
Olaf Tyarransen, J.P. Donleavy, Mary Morrissy, Paula Meehan, Trevor Joyce, Conor O'Callaghan and William Wall, whose new novel is reviewed elsewhere on this page, are just some of the writers taking part. Details from: 021-4508398, and munsterlit@eircom.net
A conference - "Re-Presenting the Shoah for the 21st Century"- organised by the Department of Sociology at Trinity College, Dublin, in association with the Herzog Centre for Jewish and Near Eastern Religion and Culture, also at TCD, takes place at the university on 13th-14th of this month. The proceedings will examine the parameters of how people engage in discourse about such an emotive subject as the Shoah, or Holocaust. Elie Wiesel, for instance, has insisted that only survivors are entitled to speak about the Shoah. Can one put a moral ring-fence around any subject? The conference will also look at what has become known as the "Holocaust Industry", and how the horrific events of the 1940s have been interpreted since, through theatre, film, television, music, and education. The keynote speakers will be Prof Zygmunt Bauman, of the University of Leeds and Warsaw, and Jerusalem-based Aharon Appelfeld, writer and Shoah survivor. Irish journalist and historian Katrina Goldstone will talk about perceptions of the Holocaust in Ireland. More information from 01-6082766 or rlentin@tcd.ie
Maurice Harmon is the new editor of Poetry Ireland Review, taking over from Biddy Jenkinson. Professor Emeritis of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD, Harmon's poetry collection, The Last Regatta, was published recently by Salmon.
Sadbh