Category: Northern Ireland

An Overview of Literary Heritage Tourism in Northern Ireland

July 7, 2020/in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Stories /by spot-lit-admin

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

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 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 18^th 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

Seamus Heaney Homeplace: http://www.seamusheaneyhome.com
Happy Days: Enniskillen International Beckett Festival, Lughnasa FrielFest and A Wilde Weekend: www.artsoverborders.com
Robinson Library, Armagh: http://armaghrobinsonlibrary.co.uk/wp/
John Hewitt International Summer School: https://www.johnhewittsociety.org/summer-school
William Carleton Society Summer School: http://www.williamcarletonsociety.org
George Russell Festival: https://www.georgerussellfestival.org
Omagh Literary Festival: Honouring Benedict Kiely: https://kielyweekend.wordpress.com
Verbal Arts Centre, Derry`Londondeerry: https://www.theverbal.co

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.

July 6, 2020/in Ireland, Literary Product Innovation Programme, Northern Ireland, Stories /by spot-lit-admin

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.

Spot-lit Product Incubation Programme to commence in Northern Ireland

June 10, 2020/in Literary Product Innovation Programme, Northern Ireland, Stories /by spot-lit-admin

ICBAN has recently appointed Susan Heffernan and Hugh Trayer to design and deliver the Literary Tourism Product Incubation Programme for regional SMEs and cultural associations, as part of the Spot-lit Project.

The Spot-lit Project aims to grow the literary tourism sector in the Northern Periphery and Arctic of the EU by supporting businesses and cultural organisations in this culturally-rich region to grow, collaborate and better engage audiences together. The Vision of the project is “To grow entrepreneurship and SME reach beyond local markets by developing and marketing literary tourism products”. The project began in October 2018 and will run until September 2021.

Find out more HERE

Spot-Lit Project Update COVID-19

March 20, 2020/in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Stories /by spot-lit-admin

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation developing quickly, we believe it’s important to keep stakeholders informed about how Spot-Lit.eu is responding to the outbreak. Our philosophy is to approach this situation with empathy and safety; Spot-Lit top priority is the health and safety of our team, our stakeholders and project partners.

Like many organisations we have taken precautions and we are now all working from home with all face to face meetings now replaced by electronic meetings.

At Spot-Lit.eu we are fortunate in that we’ve been able to move our team to social distancing/working from home and there should be minimal disruption to workflow. The project partners continue to work to deliver The Spot-Lit programme, meet project deliverables and engage productively with our funders, partners and stakeholders.

If you wish to contact any of the Spot-Lit partners – our contact details can be found at this link.

As one, the partners are also keen to express their belief that the continued support for our remote SMEs, especially those in the hard-hit tourism industry, now has greater importance than ever for our regions’ economies. Projects such as Spot-Lit make a vital contribution in this regard.

Unlock the Potential of the Literary Tourism Sector

December 19, 2019/in Northern Ireland, Stories /by spot-lit-admin

If you are a business or cultural group located in Northern Ireland or counties Cavan and Monaghan and would like to develop a literary tourism product or service, the Spot-Lit programme could be for you. Find out more by attending one of our information workshops in January by registering for your free place now.

Major new three-year literary tourism pilot programme set to launch across four Northern European countries this Autumn.

September 25, 2019/in Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Stories /by spot-lit-admin

Spot-lit is a new three-year project that aims to grow the literary tourism sector in the Northern Periphery and Arctic region by supporting the organisations and businesses in this culturally-rich region to grow collaborate and better engage audiences together. Literary Tourism is an emerging niche sector within the wider cultural tourism sector, where places with literary heritage offer author and fiction-related literary tourism opportunities along with opportunities arising from literary festivals, trails and book shops.Funded by Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme, the regions participating in the Spot-lit programme area are Western Ireland, Northern Ireland, Eastern Finland and South-West Scotland.

All share a number of common features such as low population density, low accessibility, low economic diversity, abundant natural resources, and high impact of climate change.

Collectively, the region is home to world-class literary icons and landscapes, however, research suggests there is potential for this sector to work together and grow significantly. Current low levels of joined-up literary tourism activity in the Northern Periphery and Arctic Region make it a sector that is ripe for development.

Spot-lit addresses the need for shared development and marketing of existing assets and the development of new ones, which respond to emerging literary and cultural consumer needs. This will result in a better cultural tourism offering and deliver greater economic impact than projects developed in national isolation.

The programme will include the development of a cluster network across the regions, a series of support workshops, the development of 20 new literary products or services and shared learning and transnational marketing.