Mary Holland tribute at Ranelagh festivalLiterary events feature strongly in this year's Ranelagh Arts Festival in Dublin from September 23rd to 28th, the opening event being a tribute to the late Irish Times/Observerjournalist - and Ranelagh resident - Mary Holland (pictured).
The format will be an informal discussion among five or six people who knew the much loved and widely admired journalist who covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland for more than three decades.
Participants include Evelyn Conlon, Eamonn McCann and Danny Morrisson, with music by Fintan Vallely. It will be chaired by Andy Pollak. With tickets at €10 it will be held in the Ranelagh Multi- denominational School at 8pm on September 23rd.
Another memorable event is sure to be the reading by 54 Ranelagh residents of the Dylan Thomas masterpiece Under Milk Wood,his portrait of a small seaside town in Wales. He died in New York shortly after completing it in 1953, aged 39.
Most welcome at the Poetry Speakeasy event in Starbucks on the Ranelagh Triangle will be people prepared to read or recite their own poems or those of a favourite poet -but aspiring readers should note that although the event is free it must be pre-booked through the festival box office. The hosts are long-time Ranelagh based poets Macdara Woods and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin who will also read from their own work. Other literary events include a performance focusing on stories of the Irish in the first World War. Called It's A Long Way to Tipperary, the performance is by the Ranelagh Players and there's one on every day of the festival.
A bookmaker's might seem an unlikely venue for a literary event until it's revealed that the event in the Ranelagh branch of Boylesports is Writers on Racing, featuring bookmaker and author of History of the Galway RacesFrancis Hyland, as well as Anthony Cronin and Brendan Ellis. Writing and another sport - boxing - are linked in an event featuring David Scott. He's professor of French at Trinity College Dublin and also a middle-weight amateur boxer and boxing coach who has had fights in recent years in Dublin and New York.
The event, a lecture with slides, is based on Scott's recent book The Art and Aesthetics of Boxing, which is about boxing and the visual arts. It focuses on the 20th century when the emergence of boxing in its modern form coincided with a lot of interest in the sport by artists. Details of all events, including all other art forms; garden and culinary events; and children's programme are online at www.ranelagharts.org
A new leaf for Laois
Leaves, a celebration of the literary arts in Laois, is a three-day festival opening at the Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise this Friday and running through next weekend. The inaugural festival kicks off with readings by Portlaoise born poet and broadcaster Pat Boran; comedian, writer and actor Kevin Gildea and short story writer Claire Keegan and the launch of Gold, the fifth Laois Anthology of Literature.
On Saturday, Seamus Cashman, editor of the poetry book Something Beginning with P, gives a workshop for children, while playwright Eugene O'Brien and writer and director Peter Sheridan give a workshop on writing for stage and screen. There'll also be readings by poet and fiction writer Mary O'Donnell, Laois-based writer John Maher and Peter Sheridan. Sunday features a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in association with the Laois branch of Amnesty International, with more readings from O'Donnell, Maher and Boran. Details: Dunamaise Arts Centre box office, tel: 057 866 3355, or www.dunamaise.ie