The multi-dimensional Clifden Arts Week, dubbed by Booker-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro as "Ireland's best-kept secret", is one of Ireland's oldest arts festivals, celebrating its 19th birthday this year. It will be opened officially by the American ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy-Smith, on Monday night but events are already underway: for early risers this morning, Michael Gibbons leads a walking tour from Island House at 9.30 a.m. This evening, in the Church of Ireland, there will be a performance of Famine Echoes with memories, words and music from writer Cathal Porteir, singer Mairead Ni Dhomhnaill and accordion player, Eamon Brophy. Tomorrow night, novelist Pat McCabe gives a reading at Foyle's Hotel. The brainchild of Brendan Flynn, vice-principal of Clifden Community School, the Arts Week began as a school event: "I felt it was very important to incorporate the arts into the school curriculum," he explains. "We have to be careful not to find ourselves going down the same technological cul de sac they've had in England."
Since 1989, the Arts Week has expanded into a community event and now involves many different venues as well as concerts and archaeological tours of the area.
This year's Clifden bash, which continues until September 28th, features novelists Dermot Bolger and James Ryan; Irish Times columnist Nuala O'Faolain; poets Moya Cannon, Mary O'Malley, Mary O'Donnell, Pat O'Brien, Louis de Paor, Gabriel Rosenstock, and many more. Poet Michael Coady will give workshops to students at all levels, as will sculptor John Behan. There will be music from the RTE Concert Orchestra, guitarist John Feeley, Frank Patterson, Dordan, the Sands family and Cafe Orchestra. There will be comedy with the Nualas and Ridiculismus Theatre Company, and workshops and lectures galore, on topics as diverse as setting up your own business and documentary film-making. Theo Dorgan, poet and director of Poetry Ireland, pays tribute to Brendan Flynn's gift as host and organiser: "He has in full measure the Zen art of celebrating artists." Theo is also approving of the community appeal of the festival: "It is massively attended and firmly loved by the local people, which is a great quality to have in a festival that already has national and international appeal."
Brendan himself is more modest: "We keep it low-key and enjoyable. It has its own special spirit." He recalls a reading John McGahern gave at the school in 1982: "A lot of people still remember that reading. It was a story, Faith, Hope And Charity, and he read it so well. People are always asking when he's coming back and some of them have joined local writers' groups and are doing their own writing now. That's when you realise that the Arts Week has a great ripple effect." For more information, telephone 095-21644.