Ireland

Literary Tourism Performance Model for The Wild Atlantic Way

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In May 2020, the Western Development Commission circulated a tender call for a creative partner to develop a Literary Tourism Performance Model for the Wild Atlantic Way, as part of their wider European ‘Spot-Lit.eu Project’. One of the Spot-Lit programme aims is to test models of place-based opportunities in new, innovative, sustainable and creative ways which look beyond the natural landscape and provide appeal based on cultural and literary assets to broaden interest in the region.

Curator/Producer Dani Gill is developing the model with partner Brendan MacEvilly. Dani Gill is the current Artistic Director of Ennis Bookclub Festival, and is the National Literary Audience Development Officer with Words Ireland. Previously she was Director of Cúirt International Festival of Literature, where she managed and delivered three European Projects. Brendan MacEvilly is the Editor of Holy Show magazine and is an independent Literary Producer, having created and toured Minor Monuments, an ‘audio visual essay’ with prize winning writer Ian Malaney in 2019.

Dani Gill                                                                                                          Brendan McEvilly

Together the pair have designed an ambitious Wild Atlantic Way Literary Performance Model, containing a site-specific experience The Lighthouse Project, and a stage show of recent publication Handiwork, by Cork based writer Sara Baume. The Wild Atlantic Way Literary Performance Model will include an impressive list of partners who have signed up to take part in 2021, featuring The Lighthouse Project and the live stage show, as part of their programmes.

The Lighthouse Project includes partners in Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, and Clare, as well as events on the east coast including Dublin, Meath and Louth. Writers will be commissioned to take part in a collaborative process with sound designers, visual artists and theatre makers, to create a walk in the vicinity of a lighthouse. People will be able to download and listen to a track, specially created for the place, with sound and words by a writer in each county. The project will launch in March 2021, at the Ennis Bookclub Festival, featuring Loop Head Lighthouse.

Loop Head Lighhouse, County Clare, Ireland. Image Courtesy of Irishlights.ie

Each month from March to October, a new lighthouse will be featured and people in the locality will get to experience creative walks, peppered with surprises along the way. Commissioning partners involved with the project include Cairde Arts Festival, (Sligo), Creative Ireland, (Mayo), Cúirt International Festival of Literature (Galway), and Earagail Arts Festival (Donegal).

Sara Baume

Musician Irene Buckley will feature in the live stage show, along with writer Sara Baume, and the piece will contain visuals filmed this year around the west of Ireland by filmmaker Jamie Goldrick. Audiences will have literature presented in a format including curated live performances in tandem with pre-recorded elements.

This model is the Republic of Ireland’s contribution to this element of the Spot-Lit project and will be met by other literary initiatives in Finland, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Find Out More About The Spot-lit Literary Models HERE.

At Home With Irish Arts Center: 12th Annual PoetryFest

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The 12th annual—and first digital—festival, with curator Nick Laird convening five poets from Ireland and North America for a virtual celebration of verse.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
8pm EST / 1am IST
Favorite Irish Poems
Emma Dabiri, Ailbhe Darcy, Kit de Waal, Terrance Hayes, Nick Laird, Ada Limón, Belinda McKeon, Paula Meehan, Graham Norton, Katie Raissian, Leanne Shapton and Zadie Smith, plus Ciaran O’Reilly and Charlotte Moore of the Irish Repertory Theatre, John Waters of Glucksman Ireland House, Brendan Costello of Irish American Writers & Artists, and George Heslin of the New York Irish Center
REGISTER >

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Opening Reading
1pm EST / 6pm IST
Ailbhe Darcy, Ada Limón, and Miriam Gamble
Introduction: Nick Laird
REGISTER >

Desert Island Poems
2pm EST / 7pm IST
Paula Meehan and Terrance Hayes
In conversation with Nick Laird 
REGISTER >

Closing Reading
3:15pm EST / 8:15 IST
Paula Meehan and Terrance Hayes 
Introduction: Nick Laird
REGISTER >

 

Courtesy of IrishArtsCentre

International Literature Festival Dublin goes online for 2020

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International Literature Festival Dublin have unveiled the programme for their 2020 installment which, like many of the recent cultural events affected by the Covid-19 crisis, will take place online.

ILFD 2020, which runs from 22 – 28 October 2020, will offer a combination of livestreams, pre-recorded conversations and podcasts for literary enthusiasts of all ages.

The compelling lineup of participants includes international heavy-hitters Roxane Gay (in conversation with Constellations author Sinead Gleeson), Yanis Varoufakis and artist Ai Weiwei alongside the cream of Irish talent, from Roddy Doyle, Mark O’Connell and Elaine Feeney to Bob Geldof, Anne Enright and Patrick Freyne.

Read Full Story at RTE Culture:

Tickets from International Literature Festival Dublin, which runs from 22 – 28 October 2020, are on sale now – find out more here. 

The Cluster Lit&Tour Questionnaire

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Our colleagues in The University of Lisbon & University of the Algarve are conducting research on the intersection of the scientific areas of Literature and Tourism. Your participation in this survey would be hugely appreciated:  Short Survey. 

The Cluster Lit&Tour was founded in 2012 with the aim of promoting research on the intersection of the scientific areas of Literature and Tourism. An interdisciplinary confluence that has the capability to reframe geography, rebuild places and redefine concepts such as literary place, tourist or traveller.
Today,  Lit&Tour researchers  develop research around three main hubs:
(i) Concepts and methodologies: focused on the definition of concepts and methodologies that would enable the existence and autonomy of Literature and Tourism Studies as a discipline;
(ii) Representations of tourism in literature: focused on textual analysis;
(iii) Literary Tourism: focused on the study of literary tourism practices and products, and on the development of literary products and experiences.

 

Find out more HERE

Creative Economy Survey Galway, Mayo, Roscommon region

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The Western Development Commission (WDC)1, in reference to its on-going support of the Regional Enterprise Plan West2, strategic objective on supporting the Creative economy in the Galway Mayo Roscommon region would kindly request your input to understand the current needs and opportunities of this vital, indigenous sector and how it impacts our wider Western offering .

As such we ask you to support this initiative in two ways :

1.  Please complete this Short Survey

2.  Please forward the link to Creative economy SME’s and Networks in the Galway, Mayo, Roscommon region to enable them to contribute .

For the past 14 years, the Western Development Commission, with regional partners have  sought to support the creative sector in the West of Ireland. Through a number of Key Initiatives we have attempted to better understand the needs and better facilitate the development of what we consider a sector of crucial importance to the region.

With the onset of the global pandemic, the time has come to evaluate the next steps for a sector disproportionately exposed by health restrictions. To this end we encourage you to fill in the following survey. Carried out in conjunction with colleagues at NUI Galway and other supporting agencies we seek to better understand how COVID 19 is affecting you, your work and the potential path towards recovery.

The potential in the Galway, Mayo, Roscommon (GMR), region is evident as according to recent research  commissioned by the WDC the total value of the CE in the GMR region totalled almost half a billion euros  and  employed over 7000 people, a strong and growing indigenous sector which also supports FDI through quality of life enhancement.

literary tourism northern ireland

An Overview of Literary Heritage Tourism in Northern Ireland

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Northern Ireland is home to a rich literary tradition; in this article we take a look at the literary heritage of Northern Ireland and its legacy of writers who have helped place Northern Ireland firmly on the map as a literary tourism destination.*

Northern Ireland’s literary culture and heritage is strong, offering many locations which inspired a multitude of writers. Home to literary giants including; Heaney, Beckett, Lewis and Friel, each of these writers are memorialised through a series of different literary tourism experiences available across the state.

Northern Ireland’s Literary Heritage

literary tourism seamus heaney

The Rostrevor Inn. Image Credit: Tourism Ireland

In the eyes of the world, Northern Ireland’s association with literature would probably focus on the life and work of the Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney.  Heaney was born in the village of Bellaghy in County Derry and his poetry is suffused with place names and landscape of its environs, – Mossbawn, Magherafelt, Castledawson, Broagh, Anahorish, Church Island, Lough Beg.

Heaney’s intimate knowledge of place was profound.  As he wrote, ‘The landscape is image.  It’s almost an element to work with, as much as it is an object of admiration.’  In 2016 a brand-new, purpose-built literature centre, Seamus Heaney Homeplace, the first of its kind in Ireland, was built on the site of the old police-station in Bellaghy, celebrating Heaney’s life and work and attracting visitors from around the world.

But Seamus Heaney is only part of an extraordinary literary cluster of writers and texts within the six counties of Northern Ireland; wherever you travel there are unexpected and rewarding associations.  Take for example Enniskillen in county Fermanagh, Ireland’s only ‘island town.’  Set in the beautiful watery landscape of Lough Erne, Enniskillen is linked to another Nobel Laureate, Samuel Beckett, who was educated at Portora Royal School in the town, excelling at rugby, cricket and boxing.  The school grounds still retain much of the feel of Beckett’s time, the land sloping down towards the lough on which Beckett would often go out rowing.

seamus heaney centre

Seamus Heaney Home Place. Photo Courtesy of Mid-Ulster District Council

Beckett first arrived at Portora in 1920 and fifty years before him Oscar Wilde attended the same school.  Two more different personalities it would be hard to imagine, the intense, introspective, gnomic Beckett, the outrageous, loquacious Wilde.  It was at Portora that Wilde’s great love of Greek and Latin was nurtured over the seven years he studied there and his beloved children’s story, The Happy Prince, emulates the topography of Enniskillen in its descriptions.

The landscape itself can offer surprising juxtapositions.  In County Down, the Mountains of Mourne (known world-wide because of the Percy French song of the same name) allows you the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of  Ireland’s national saint, Patrick, who as a boy worked as a shepherd on the sides of  these mountains.  Whilst St Patrick has become a world-wide brand, very few are aware that he is the author of Ireland’s first written literature, his Confessio.  Move forward fifteen hundred years and The Mournes and the adjacent Carlingford Lough were the inspiration for the mythic world of C S Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.  As Lewis wrote ‘That part of Restrevor which overlooks Carlingford Lough is my idea of Narnia…it made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise its head over the next ridge’.

Next door is the historic city of Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, and the county has close associations with the great satirist, Jonathan Swift.

The Robinson Library in Armagh, built in the 18th century, hosts some wonderful treasures from Swift’s time in the city. These include a very early edition of Gulliver’s Travels, with amendments in Swift’s handwriting in the margins. These were corrections angrily made by the author after his publisher had made changes to avoid legal action.  Swift stayed with friends in the county and begrudgingly acknowledged in letters that he was a rude and difficult guest.  His masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels, was written while residing as a guest at Loughry Manor in Cookstown (Co. Tyrone) in the 1720s.  In Armagh each summer, a high profile summer school is held in the name of another great Northern Irish poet, John Hewitt.

In Strabane, (just north of Cookstown where Swift wrote the majority of Gulliver’s Travels), was born another comic genius, Flann O’Brien, author of masterpieces such as At Swim Two Birds and The Third Policeman.  It’s little known that O’Brien lived for the first twelve years of his life in Strabane; in the family home his father insisted that they speak only Irish. Tyrone also has strong connections with the writers John Montague and Benedict Kiely.

The potential of literary heritage in Northern Ireland and the borders region has over the last ten years been significantly developed by the festival event organization, Arts Over Borders, of which many of Ireland’s great writers and artists associated with the border counties are Patrons, including novelists Eimear McBride and Glenn Patterson, poets Paul Muldoon and Nick Laird, actors Adrian Dunbar, Fiona Shaw and Roma Downey, historian Roy Foster.

Arts Over Borders produces an annual multi-arts festival celebrating the life and work of Samuel Beckett that was instigated in Enniskillen in 2012 (Happy Days: Enniskillen International Beckett Festival) followed in 2015 by A Wilde Weekend, also held in Enniskillen.  Both festivals have focused on curating events that where possible eschew traditional venues and instead utilise new or found spaces (caves, abandoned houses, islands, police stations, churches, etc.), creating events that are truly experiential for audiences.

In 2015 this multi-arts model was taken further by Arts Over Borders with the creation of Ireland’s first cross-border festival in Derry-Londonderry and County Donegal (Lughnasa FrielFest) celebrating the playwright Brian Friel who had strong associations with three border counties, Derry, Donegal and Tyrone.   Since 2012, all three festivals curated by Arts Over Borders have been part of their long term vision to develop a cross border region of literary activity,  the northern literary lands, an inland literary destination equivalent to the Wild Atlantic Way.   Derry-Londonderry has an established venue, the Verbal Arts Centre, dedicated to writing and literacy developmental work in the city.

Most of Northern Ireland’s counties sit on the Irish border, a border that is often seen as divisive, yet is actually a means of connecting eleven counties (five in Northern Ireland and six in the Republic) into a region that boasts a literary heritage unmatched anywhere else in the world.  As well as the counties already mentioned above, the northern literary lands also includes County Louth where Ireland’s great epic poem and Europe’s oldest vernacular text, the Tain Bo Cuailnge, is situated; Monaghan, home of the poet Patrick Kavanagh and where there is a dedicated literary centre celebrating the poet in Inniskeen; Leitrim, where much of John McGahern’s fiction is set; and Cavan, where the writer Dermot Healy grew up.  And of course there’s Sligo, the inspiration behind so much of Nobel laureate W B Yeats’ poetry.

The Irish landscape is composed of places steeped in association with the older Gaelic culture, whether through the world of the ancient epics or through the sacredness of certain sites, and as we travel across the distinctive landscapes of each county our experience and perspective today is heightened and enriched by the new layers of meaning our writers continue to lay down.

Northern Ireland’s Contemporary Literary Landscape

In more modern times the literature of Northern Ireland has taken on a distinct identity related to place and the historical significance of the region being born in 1922 with the partition of Ireland. The tensions surrounding this partition provided a theme for many authors and this theme lives on in current literary development.

There are many modern prolific writers from Northern Ireland. While this article focuses on Northern Ireland’s literary heritage, it is worth noting that there are many modern writers include Man Booker Prize winner Anna Burns and her contemporaries Wendy Erskine, Brian Moore, Robert McLiam Wilson, Frances Molloy and Eoin McNamee, Jan Carson, Wendy Erskine, David Park, Richard O’Rawe, Glenn Patterson and Lucy Caldwell who now represent Northern Ireland on a global literary stage.

This incredibly rich literary heritage and strong contemporary generation of writers make Northern Ireland a must-visit literary tourism destination.

USEFUL LINKS

CREDITS:

  • Article by Liam Browne and Sean Doran, Arts Over Borders
  • Intro paragraph by cultural consultant Karan Thompson
  • Seamus Heaney Photo Credits: Ireland’s Content Pool
NOTES:

*Belfast is not included in this article as it is not included in the NPA region.

 

Spotlight on Literary Tourism Product Innovation Programme in Northern Ireland & Cavan and Monaghan.

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Lead Partner on the Spot-lit Project, ICBAN, has recently selected seven projects to participate in the PIP programme and receive innovation supports in the programme territory of Northern Ireland and counties Cavan and Monaghan.

Iniskeen Enterprise Development Group – Patrick Kavanagh Literature Project

The Patrick Kavanagh Centre is a visitor experience and performance space dedicated to the life and work of poet Patrick Kavanagh.  It is newly refurbished and will open to the public in July 2020.  The visitor experience includes a series of six memory boxes augmented by touch-screen terminals, each dealing with a period or aspect of Kavanagh’s life and work. The centrepiece of the experience is a stunningly evocative 15-minute film featuring readings of Kavanagh’s poetry.

With support from the Spot-lit project, a cluster of authentic experiences will be created, using literature as a theme – for visitors to enjoy over a day/ two days in this rural area. There has been substantial investment in the new Visitor Experience in the Kavanagh Centre recently but the Group’s view is that the key to the success of the Centre will be to link and further integrate it with the Kavanagh Trail and Kavanagh Country more widely, as a pivotal element of a rural tourism cluster, better combined with other priority segments of the market to give wider appeal, including heritage, food and drink, walking and cycling.

It is envisaged that the Kavanagh Centre – which tells the story of the poet himself – his life, work and the influences that shaped his writing – will be the central ‘experience’ in this cluster and that sites/activities/attractions/businesses will be promoted to visitors who will choose which ‘experience’ best suits them, so that it is tailor-made to their own needs.

Patrick Kavanagh Centre

Droimnín Destinations

Droimnín Destinations is a new business established with the intention of providing specialised tourism initiatives working with a range of stakeholders throughout County Cavan – from the Chamber of Commerce, adventure centres, genealogy, museums, heritage, accommodation sector, theatres, and all artists.

The Spot-lit project will assist in developing bespoke literary tours to the domestic, European, and International ‘culturally curious’ tourist. These tours will explore Cavan’s rich literary heritage through a culturally packed experience of art, music, drama, the virtual and the adventurous reality.

The trails will follow writers of the past and their ties to Cavan; Dean Jonathan Swift, Brinsley Sheridan, Charlotte Brook and the more contemporary names of Tom MacIntyre, Dermot Healy and Michael Harding. Events will also offer avant garde exhibitions from young award-winning artists and a chance to take part in workshops on sculpture, ceramics, contemporary crafts as well as participating in literary performances that combine music with the spoken word.  Droimnín Destinations will offer workshops that combine poetry, art and place in unique Irish traditional settings that explore Cavan in its richest literary and artistic sense. Input from the community and local businesses sector will realise a totally distinctive experience for the intelligent traveller.

The Light Theatre Company – Bloomsday Festival

The Light Theatre Company was conceived by Director, Alistair Livingstone and Writer, Csilla Toldy as a vehicle to develop and perform high quality theatre in small alternative venues. To date it has produced Bananas, a one-woman piece based on mental ill health, homelessness and recovery for the East Belfast Festival and subsequently toured it and The Emigrant Woman’s Story, to various venues in the North and South of Ireland.

The Spot-lit project will help the development and delivery of a new Bloomsday Festival in Rostrevor, County Down. It will also help to expand local links associated with CS Lewis, Charles Dickens and Seamus Heaney. The Light Theatre Company view the Spot-lit project as an opportunity to capitalise on the literary and creative heritage and potential of Rostrevor and County Down as a tourism generator.

Todd’s Leap Activity Centre –Farrell’s Lanavoye

Established 30 years ago, Todd’s Leap Activity Centre was the brainchild of Benny O’Hanlon. When Benny acquired the two neighbouring farmlands, beside his family home, his inspiration for Todd’s Leap, came from a verse of a poem that he had been taught in school.  The poem ‘Lanavoye’ by the local writer Patrick Farrell (1856 – 1938) laments of the ‘happy colony’ that once resided on the beautiful glens of Lanavoye but through time had emigrated away. Patrick writes ‘oh would kind fate where brave men lived, let joy once more prevail. With the children’s merry laughter, ringing on the evening gale’. Coincidently, the glens of Lanavoye make up the 100 acres of rugged picturesque countryside, where Todd’s Leap is based.  Patrick’s vision was adopted by Ben as the vision for Todd’s Leap and along with his wife & four children, Ben would set about creating an outdoor attraction, that would welcome people back to ‘Lanavoye’ and joy would once more prevail with merry laughter ringing through the glen.

With the assistance of the Spot-lit project, Todd’s Leap will host a seven-day, free admission poetry festival with guest speakers, readings, activities, old traditions, music, food stalls, story-telling, trails workshops, and poetry competitions. An outdoor literacy schools’ programmes will be developed, which combine creativity and literacy in an instructor-led outdoor environment. The programmes will include outdoor trails, storytelling, poetry reading, reading and writing activities, outdoor adventure activities and drama workshops. A Writers’ retreats will also be developed, hosted by writers Shirley Rocks and Eddie McClenaghan, that will offer sanctuary in peaceful log cabins to allow writers to create their own work and come together with like-minded writers. They will also be given the opportunity to explore the works of Patrick Farrell and other local writers.

Todds Leap

Lurgan & North Armagh George Russell Festival Society (GRFS)

The Society runs an Annual Festival in Lurgan, County Armagh centred around the heritage of George Russell – better known as ‘A.E.’. The Festival includes various talks and a historic walking tour as well as poetry readings and ‘open mic’ nights. As Russell was a fantastic artist as well as poet, author, editor and publisher, the Festival includes exhibitions of his art.

The Spot-lit project will help to build the AE Annual Festival in Lurgan as a successful and sustainable literary tourism offering. The first step is to establish a strong online presence. Spot-lit will also help to create a literary hub based on AE’s myriad literary connections within a 20-30 mile radius of Lurgan, and working with the support of the John Hewitt Society.

Lurgan George Russell Festival Society organisers Cathy McGibbon and Michael McKernan

 

Armagh Rhymers – Digital Guidebook

The Armagh Rhymers are one of the most celebrated traditional music and theatre ensembles on the island of Ireland. Since we were founded in 1970’s, we have delighted audiences in schools, festivals throughout Ireland and around the world. Through music, storytelling and drama, we provide an experience that is both entertaining and educational. Our colourful costumes evoke a sense of tradition and history and encapsulate the spirit of the Wren boys and the ancient house visiting traditions of Ireland, where the kitchen floor became the stage. The Rhyming tradition is a celebration of the ‘theatre of the people’ and has inspired many poets such as Seamus Heaney, Brendan Kennelly, John Montague and John Hewitt. Cualinge is set at Emain Mhacha, just outside the city.

Armagh is the ancient primatial and ecclessiastical capital of Ireland. It’s poem and song traditions are many and linked to the beautiful landscape which helped to inspire artists across centuries. Today Armagh retains these traditions, the music and liteary scene is very vibrant and the Armagh Rhymers uphold ancient traditions springing from the landscape and its people.

Our project is a digital guidebook launching in early 2021, using The Armagh Rhymers stories,  poems, music and art to take people on a virtual journey of our area, to help them learn more and encourage them to visit and experience our rich culture for themselves. Our guidebook wants to highlight the hidden stories and how they interweave from ancient times to modern poets.

Navan Fort: Image Credit Charles Freger

 

Strabane Business Improvement District – Flann O’Brien Literary Programme

Strabane BID Company was set up in 2016 to increase the prosperity of Strabane town by delivering a programme of events and supports to encourage people to live, shop and visit the town. This is delivered via three strands – supporting local businesses, accessing finance and delivering an arts and culture calendar of events for the town. In addition to supporting local musicians and artists through our annual festivals and events, it was recognised that further development was needed on the literary tourism offering. Strabane has a rich culture of poets and literary greats, including the greatly talented and globally celebrated Flann O’Brien and the Strabane BID wanted to celebrate his work and showcase his heritage.

With support from the Spot-lit project, a programme of events will be developed to celebrate Flann O’Brien and his work. This project has the potential to become a very significant cultural tourism product for Strabane as Brian O’Nolan / Flann O’Brien / Myles Na Gcopaleen is a literary figure of international renown and his birth place originates within the Bowling Green Square of Strabane Town.  It is envisaged that the project programme will be launched in October as this is the month of Brian O’Nolans birth and will be hosted in various venues across Strabane Town. These connections will be explored and exploited through music, drama, heritage and discussion.  A programme of literary initiatives will be developed to celebrate the life of Flann O’Brien (Myles Na Gcopaleen) and his world-renowned works. These will build on the grass roots appreciation of the author, as well as developing school and community group workshops, and completing a hiking trail.

In tandem with the SME Product Incubation Programme, a new Literary Tourism Model known as ‘Wilde Things’ will be developed by fellow Northern Ireland Spot-lit partner, Arts over Borders. Wilde Things is based around the schooldays of Oscar Wilde in Enniskillen and is another opportunity for local businesses to develop new literary tourism products and services through the project.

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival: Introducing Cairde Connected

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Our Spot-lit colleagues Cairde Sligo Arts Festival have put together an exciting programme of events which will be shared online from July 8th to July 11th.  Join the conversation:  @cairdefestival  #CairdeConnected

View Full Programme of Events HERE

Cairde’s literary programme has been growing year by year and now, more than ever, it is vital to remain open to divergent voices and viewpoints, and to allow ourselves to be curious, inspired and moved.

 

 

Spotlight on Spot-lit: Five Irish Projects Chosen to Participate in Spot-lit Literary Tourism Product Innovation Programme

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We are moving ahead with the Spot-lit programme, working with partners across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Finland and Iceland. 

Following a call-out for proposals, the Spot-lit teams across the partner regions selected in excess of twenty literary tourism related businesses & organisations to be supported through our Literary Tourism Product Innovation Programme. To read more about this programme, click here. 

This programme will also include a Literary Tourism Business Exchange Programme where participating organisations in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Finland and Scotland will form a literary tourism-related cluster giving businesses the opportunity to network, transfer knowledge and support each other in the development of Literary Tourism and jointly and individually promote literary products through the Digital App being developed by our Finnish project partners.

Today, we are showcasing the five selected Irish organisations. In the West of Ireland, successful projects were selected from across a range of bookshops, festivals, literary organisations and publishing. 

Tertulia Bookshop, Co. Mayo 

The Spot Lit Programme has provided invaluable support and mentoring in developing literary tourism here in Westport, County Mayo.  Group meetings (held online due to Covid restrictions) have provided opportunities for collaboration and further support from our project partners.  Individual mentoring has assisted in clarifying our vision, mission and realistic project goals.  In general we feel supported as a business and excited about the prospects going forward.

Tertulia a bookshop like no other

“Tertulia, a bookshop Like no other” is more than just a bookshop, it is a space for people to engage in and experience literature and philosophy in Co. Mayo. The Spot-Lit supported project is to develop the bookshop in Westport as a hub for literary and philosophy events. 

Tourists and locals are encouraged to visit the actual shop and participate in events being held, they can then continue that connection by becoming members and participating in our on-line membership/community forums.

Through Spot-lit, a new experiential product offering is being developed for visitors to Westport; half and full-day “Literature and Philosophy” events throughout the year. These events will involve speakers, workshops and debates based on the model of a mini Citizen’s Assembly, using experts and informed debates. Right now events are taking place online via the innovative Tertulia TV  YouTube show is being being beamed into book lover’s homes throughout Mayo, the west and beyond, see Tertulia TV for more. We will also leverage our unique position on the ocean and the Wild Atlantic Way for example with Wild Atlantic Writing events.

Mayo Celtic Holidays Ltd./Kiltimagh Tourism Association

We have found the Spot-lit soft supports very beneficial, having participated in six group sessions and three mentoring sessions with our mentor Karan Thompson, we have developed a project vision, action plan and put milestones in place which we have delivered on. With the assistance of the LT-PIP programme we have successfully developed a festival programme which is ready to go in October 2021. The mentoring we received in the area of marketing was very beneficial and assisted us in developing a new website. Contacts have been developed with other project participants who we found have connections with our literary product and we hope to work with them with a view to setting up a literary trial. Unfortunately due to Covid 19 all the events we had planned for 2020 has had to be postponed until 2021.


The voluntary-run Kiltimagh Tourism Association promotes and develops tourism in this rural area in Co. Mayo, as well as organising a number of festivals. The Spot-lit supported project here is focused on “Aintoine Raifteirí”, a wandering musician with a fiddle and like so many vagrant musicians of the time he was taught to play an instrument so that they would be able to earn a living.

The Spot-lit supported programme will highlight several events throughout the year culminating in RAFTERY RETURNS’ in October 2021 and annually after this time. Included in the programme of events are creative writing and performance skills with children in the area, readings and workshops as well a literary tour through Cill Aodain and a programme to reach out to the visually impaired community.

”Spot-lit affords us the opportunity to deliver on our aims, to make Kiltimagh into a ‘Raftery’ town, put Cill Aodain on the literary map, nurture future generations of young writers and establish ourselves both national and internationally”

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival 

An eight-day cultural festival set in Co. Sligo, Cairde has developed a reputation for presenting an exceptional and thought-provoking arts festival programme which sees a great coming together of regional, national and international artists, thinkers, communities and audiences.

With the support from the Spot-Lit project, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival aim to develop two special strands of the arts festival programme. Strand one, Cairde Word a series of high-quality literary performances and a literary trail incorporating poetry, readings and performance art. Strand two will be an annual site-specific spectacle performance linking current Irish literary works with well known scenic sites along the Wild Atlantic Way.

In July 2020 Cairde Sligo are hosting Cairde Word and Vagabond Voices online –  details HERE

Sligo town and county are synonymous with art and literature. Endowed with recognition by the Yeats family and its connections to Sligo, as well as a wealth of distinguished contemporary writers who call (or have called) Sligo their home including Kevin Barry, Sally Rooney, Dermot Healy, Una Mannion and many more.

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival’s aim is to complement the existing and celebrated literary scene and provide a platform for contemporary voices both from the region and beyond set amongst the stunning backdrop of the Wild Atlantic Way.

Yeats Thoor Ballylee Development CLG

The Spot- Lit program has been of great value to The Yeats Thoor Ballylee project in highlighting the many literary locations and businesses in our region. Our initial concept for the project had to be adjusted as a result of Covid 19 issues. We could no longer open our doors and promote the physical space. So with the help of the Spot- Lit partners we were able to re-imagine   the project to fit current and possible future restrictions. Valuable advice has been given regarding the trajectory of our project, as well as targeted mentoring for our various needs.  Spot-Lit has allowed us to connect with the other project partners in Ireland to assist in building a unified approach, and a strong profile for literary tourism. We have been able to meet first hand with the neighbouring group focusing on Raftery in Mayo, and connect with his history in our region thus strengthening the overall project of both groups. Through the assistance of Spot-Lit we hope to tie in the mythology and legends that WB Yeats and Lady Gregory revived, with the work being done in Finland on their own creation myths. The cooperation of Spot-Lit is of such significance to our overall goal showcasing the immense importance of local literature in its many forms.. Spot-Lit is allowing us to bring our work to an international stage along with other partners, placing literary tourism and its development in a deserved place

Since 2015, Thoor Ballylee has been reopened and managed as a tourist attraction, events venue and cultural centre by Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society. This fourteenth-century Hiberno-Norman tower in County Galway, Ireland, was purchased by W.B. Yeats, Irish poet, playwright and Nobel laureate in 1917. He lived and worked here with his wife George and children Anne and Michael until 1929. Thoor Ballylee inspired what are considered his greatest books of poetry: The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair (1933).

We offer visitors the chance to see poetry in the making as they explore the cottage and tower rooms where the poet made his summer home. By walking the river, crossing the bridge, and climbing the winding stair to the battlements, visitors can discover the world Yeats turned into verse. We offer a world-class cultural centre, with audio-visual display and award-winning exhibitions, guided tours, books and souvenirs, and afterwards a welcoming cup of tea. Guests can experience our performance space for music, drama, storytelling and poetry, and enjoy our new studio for arts, crafts, and educational events. Set by a stream in a place of peace and greenery this visitor centre connects to the local community and opens a gateway to the literary heritage of South Galway, which includes Lady Gregory’s former home in Coole Park and the Kiltartan Gregory Museum.

Other information

The mill by the river provides an exceptional venue for weddings and parties.  New cultural events, both real and virtual are happening all the time. Due to COVID-19 restrictions visits to the tower are currently restricted but for more information, how to join us, or donate to our volunteer organization, see our website. https://yeatsthoorballylee.org/

Thoor Ballylee Development CLG

Rooted in the fourteenth-century hiberno tower just outside Gort, Co. Galway, Thoor Ballylee Development CLG is a literary and cultural organisation with a track record of over 25 years delivering educational and artistic infrastructure, attracting visitors seeking literary and cultural tourism experiences in South Galway.

Through Spot-Lit, the group proposes to develop a new network connecting local people and visitors to locations and sites of international literary and artistic importance in our region. 

The project will connect the region by creating a newly branded network in geographical space, in coordinated media profile, and through renewed online presence, integrating activities, places, and online visibility, and enhancing collaboration with major partners, such as Cúirt International Festival of Literature, the Druid Theatre, National University of Ireland Galway, the Abbey Theatre, and especially the Wild Atlantic Way and Fáilte Ireland.

View Thoor Ballylee Video HERE

Artisan House, Connemara, Co. Galway 

In the heart of Connemara, this independent publishing company specialises in beautifully illustrated high-quality books and bespoke publications on a richly diverse range of subjects. Artisan House is currently extending its operation to include a bookshop/cafe on the ground floor of their premises and to become a destination location. 

Connemara has an abundance of literary and artistic associations extending over many decades and even centuries. Through the Spot-lit programme, the publishing company plans to develop a series of literary tourism guided tours in Connemara including package holidays, printed materials and maps. 

An Overview of Literary Tourism along the Wild Atlantic Way

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It has long been recognised across the world as a nation of great writers, poets and playwrights with no fewer than four Nobel Laureates for Literature in George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney and WB Yeats. Its capital city, Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature, home to Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and many more. 

Literary tourism is a core element of Ireland’s tourism brand spanning festivals, immersive experiences, attractions, landmarks, tours, summer schools and workshops. Together, these provide the visitor with a year-round choice of authentic literary experiences.

We invited Susan O’Keeffe, journalist and Director, Yeats Society Sligo, to give an insight into the literary heritage that spans the length of the Wild Atlantic Way, and that continues to inspire contemporary writers and visitors alike. 

The light in the western sky, the roar of the Atlantic waves, the birds soaring and wheeling above the rugged coastline, coupled with its great Celtic myths and legends, have long provided ‘soul food’ for so many of Ireland’s greatest poets and writers.

Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard continues to nourish and challenge the creative spirit of those who make their home here, visitors from across the world seek out this magical coastline, drawn to its inspirational energy and the beauty of its surrounding landscape.

In the West of Ireland in the area which forms part of the NPA region, both Sligo and Galway deliver a significant sense of place associated with the poet WB Yeats. They offer specific literary experiences for the culturally motivated and for visitors interested in ‘all things Irish.’

Yeats Statue Sligo Town

No surprise that Yeats, described Sligo, at the heart of the north-west, as his spiritual home and chose to be brought back to this county to be buried ‘under bare Ben Bulben’s head; its majesty and mystery an enduring draw for Yeats who wrote about his childhood memory of climbing the famous mountain in the summertime to go fishing.

The world’s longest literary school, Yeats International Summer School, celebrated its 60th birthday in 2019. It offers students of all ages a ten-day opportunity to delve more deeply into Yeats’ work while immersing themselves in the mountains, the lakes and the history of Sligo itself.

The School has been instrumental in creating the idea of a visitor experience which is immersive, authentic and rooted in a sense of place – long before these concepts were part of the tourism landscape. It has also enhanced the name of Sligo around the world and ensured Ireland’s national poet and Nobel Prize winner remains as relevant today as when his work was first published in the late 19th century.

Arguably too, Yeats has helped to create a specific subset within the culturally curious market. These are the cultural pilgrims who choose Ireland because of its rich literary heritage and want to visit the spaces and places that writers and poets, familiar to them, have evoked and presented in their works.

They visit Tuamgraney Co Clare, the backdrop to that great 1960s work Country Girls by Edna O’Brien. They find in Leitrim the influences which created in John McGahern one of the great 20th century Irish novelists. Lady Augusta Gregory, a great friend of WB Yeats was a playwright, biographer and poet and her great estate Coole Park in Co Galway, was a melting pot for the Irish Literary Revival, a touchstone for all literary visitors to this country.

Co Cork’s famous sons, Seán O’Faoláin, William Trevor and Frank O’Connor were extraordinary story writers whose works will endure, along with those of Brendan Kennelly and John B Keane in neighbouring Co Kerry. The extraordinary dramatist Brian Friel spent much of his life in Greencastle, Co Donegal. His many plays evoked the changing Ireland of the 20th and he came to be called Ireland’s Chekhov.

Our literary giants have inspired a great new generation of writers born and/or living on or close to the wild western seaboard; poets Elaine Feeney, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Rita Ann Higgins, Martin Dyar, Doireann Ní Ghriofa and writers Kevin Barry, Eoin McNamee, Sally Rooney, Mike McCormack, Alice Lyons, Una Mannion, Louise Kennedy, Frank McGuinness  – to name but a few.

These and many others are creating a new literary Ireland, as is evidenced by the many successful and varied literary festivals that take place annually from Donegal to Dingle.  Together, these festivals and workshops provide rich and varied opportunities for locals and visitors alike to meet with writers, hear them speak about their life and work, attend workshops on drama, poetry, fiction and non-fiction writing and be inspired by their love of place and the writers who inspired them. Together, these form the public face of the very private experience of writing.

Literary Festivals, Schools & Events

Galway International Arts Festival

Here are the key festivals and schools across the Wild Atlantic Way

Literary Destinations

This ocean coastline is rich in authentic stories, rooted in the ancient tales and legends of love and loss, conquest and battle, life and death. The fusion of history, landscape and the wild ocean energy continues to inspire modern writers and poets and it will never fail to inspire visitors from all corners of Ireland – and the globe.

The list below showcases just a number of literary destinations along the Atlantic Seaboard of Ireland’s west coast for visitors to immerse themselves in;

  • Sligo: the Yeats Building in Sligo and the poet’s grave in Drumcliffe;
  • Streedagh beach in North Sligo was the backdrop for one of the scenes in the television series of Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’
  • Mayo: German writer Heinrich Boll’s famous cottage on Achill Island;
  • Kiltimagh, where Antoine Ó Raifteirí the Irish language poet was born and where stands a memorial produced by artist Sally Mc Kenna.
  • Leitrim: Ballinamore, Co Leitrim is home of John McGahern;
  • Galway: the tower – Thoor Ballylee Gort, Co Galway, was occasional home to WB Yeats;  a sculpture of poet Antoine Ó Raifteirí is in the Village Green of Craughwell Co Galway
  • Limerick: the laneways of writer Frank McCourt’s childhood,
  • Galway: the Aran Islands that inspired the mould-breaking playwright JM Synge;
  • Cork city, beloved of Frank O’Connor
  • Kerry: The Blasket Islands of Co Kerry were home to Peig Sayers who wrote, in Irish, her autobiography of life on the Great Blasket.

Susan O’Keeffe is Director, Yeats Society Sligo

 

Useful Links:

https://www.yeatssociety.com/

Thoor Ballylee

Tourism Ireland’s webpage on ‘Normal People’ and Sligo

 

 

Images Courtesy of Ireland’s Content Pool 

Partners:

 

Associate Partners: