The 11th Benedict Kiely Literary Weekend

Drink to the Bird

Benedict Kiely, one of the most distinguished figures in twentieth centuryIrish literature, was born near Dromore, Co Tyrone in January 1919 and spent his formative years in Omagh, the county capital. He moved to Dublin in the late 1930s to study at the National University and while still an undergraduate was engaged as a journalist on The Standard, a now defunct Dublin newspaper. He was later to join the staff of the Irish Independent and later still to write for the Irish Press.

His first novel Land Without Stars (1946) was the first of ten novels. He was also a prolific writer of short stories, several of which first appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker. The Collected Short Stories, 49 in all, appeared in 2001. His works of criticism have included The Poor Scholar, his study of fellow Tyrone writer, William Carleton, Modern Irish Fiction, a review of the novel in mid 20th century Ireland and Raids into Dark Corners. Travel books include Ireland from the Air and All the Way to Bantry Bay.

Benedict Kiely was familiar as a broadcaster, largely through RTE’s Sunday Miscellany radio feature, on which he was a stalwart for a quarter of a century from the 1970s to the 1990s. He made his home in Dublin from1940 on but he frequently came back to his native Omagh and immortalized it in his fiction. The author died in Dublin in February 2007 and is buried in Omagh’s Dublin Road cemetery not far from the centre of town.

Stephen McKennaOfficial website : www.benedictkiely.info

Art Exhibition: Memory, Imagination, Myth

“The Bird is on the Wing, Drink to the Bird,” is the quotation from a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) which is set out in the introduction to Benedict Kiely’s first volume of memoir. The quotation, its origins and use in the memoir has prompted Terry Sweeney, curator of the Art exhibition for the 11th annual Benedict Kiely Literary Weekend, to bring together images connected to the interwoven themes of Memory, Imagination and Myth. The selected paintings and sculptures range from JB Yeats and AE Russell to artists living and working in Ireland today, each piece reflecting a unique approach to the themes. The exhibition brings together artwork in which artists have challenged the themes with great depth of thought and high levels of technical skill. Some will have drawn on personal and/or collective history, others have explored personal emotions in relation to time, place and objects and all have made highly individual creative leaps of imagination.

The exhibition will run from 7th September - 27th October 2012

Saturday 8th September

3.30 pm Anita RobinsonWriting The Inside Story Memoir Writing

Workshop Age: 16+Anita Robinson – teacher, writer and broadcaster on Radio Foyle and Radio Ulster, facilitates creative writing workshops for children and adults for the Pushkin Trust and other arts and community organisations. Her memoir Twice Round on the Hobby Horse (Brehon Press) was published in 2007.Limited places are available, please ensure to book early.A booking fee of £8.00 will be required if not a weekend delegate.

Information

The VenueThe main venue is Strule Arts Centre, Omagh. Access is via Bridge Street or High Street. The closest car park (sterling coins only, pay and display up to 6.30pm) is at the Bus Station (Drumragh Avenue)

Accommodation Special rates are available for a limited number of rooms in the Silverbirch Hotel and can be booked through their booking line 028 8224 2520 (R of I 048 8224 2520) The hotel is situated just outside the Town Centre on the Gortin Road and has ample car parking.The Tourist Information Centre can arrange accommodation in other venues in the area if required. Details of all accommodation in the district are listed on the website www.omagh.gov.uk. The telephone number for the Tourist Information Centre is 028 8224 7831 or 048 8224 7831 from the Republic of Ireland.

Cost The fee for the event is £85 (or the euro equivalent) NB. no euro cheques accepted. Euro cash (paper only) will be accepted at the current day’s rate.This includes: • attendance at all sessions• light refreshments throughout• buffet supper on Friday• lunch and buffet supper on Saturday • a choice of the bus tour or the writing workshop. It does not include the cost of accommodation. Rates are available for individual sessions. To book, contact Strule Arts Centre Box Office on 028 8224 7831 or 048 8224 7831 from the Republic of Ireland or e-mail : info@struleartscentre.co.uk

This event is organised by Omagh District Council and Omagh Arts Committee

7th -9th September 2012Strule Arts Centre, Omagh

Friday 7th September

5.00 pm Registration6.30 pm Welcome by the Chairman of

Omagh District Council Formal Opening and Launch of Art

Exhibition: Memory, Imagination, Myth

8.30 pm ‘Memory is the treasury and guardian of all’ (Catullus)

Panel discussion with Glenn Patterson, Evelyn Conlon and Sinead Gleeson, chaired by Dr.

Derek HandDr. Hand teaches in the English Department in St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. He has published articles on W.B. Yeats, Elizabeth Bowen, Colum McCann, Molly Keane and on contemporary Irish fiction. He has lectured on Irish writing in the USA, Europe and Singapore. He was awarded an IRCHSS Government of Ireland Research Fellowship for 2008-2009.

Evelyn Conlon was born in Monaghan. Since 1987 she has published her three short story collections and three novels. She has compiled and edited three other books, is a regular contributor to RTE’s Sunday Miscellany and a member of Aosdana.

Glenn Patterson was born and lives in Belfast. He is the author of eight novels, most recently The Mill for Grinding Old People Young. His non-fiction works are Lapsed Protestant (2006), and Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times (2008). His first film, Good Vibrations (co-written with Colin Carberry) will be released in autumn 2012.

Sinéad Gleeson is an arts journalist with the Irish Times and a critic for RTE Radio 1’s Arena and reporter for The Works on RTE One Television. She is also the editor of a forthcoming anthology of Irish short stories.

10.30am Dr. Leon Litvack ‘No words can express the secret agony of my

soul’: Childhood, Memory and MemoirThis lecture will provide a comparison between Kiely and Dickens, in terms of their recollections of boyhood.This lecture will provide a comparison between Kiely and Dickens, in terms of their recollections of boyhood.Dr Leon Litvack is Reader in Victorian Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast. He is a renowned Dickens scholar, a Trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum, also Director of the Dickens 2012 NI, a year-long festival celebrating the bicentenary of the great author’s birth. He is a well known broadcaster, and can often be heard speaking on arts, culture, religion and ethics, on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio 4.

11.30am Tea/Coffee

12.00pm Gibbons Ruark Inscribing the Margins: Poems and Stories

Gibbons Ruark lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He taught English at the University of Delaware. He has published his poems widely for over forty years, including eight collections. His many awards, include three Poetry Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, a Pushcart Prize and the 1984 Saxifrage Prize for Keeping Company.

1.00pm LUNCH Strule Cafe

2.00pm Martina Devlin Short Story as a Vehicle for Memoir

Omagh-born Martina Devlin is an author and journalist. Her books include the number one best-seller Banksters, a co-authored account of the Irish banking collapse. Other work includes Ship of Dreams, a novel about the Titanic – inspired by a family connection with the disaster – and a memoir, The Hollow Heart. She has been shortlisted twice for the Irish Book of the Year awards.

3.30pm Bus Tour A light hearted look at significant sites and sights around Kiely Country.

The 11th Benedict Kiely Literary WeekendBOOKING FORM

Saturday 8th September

Sunday 9th September

8.00 pm Drinks Reception in Strule Arts Centre

Hosted by Chairman of Omagh District Council

8.30pm Buffet Supper in Strule Cafe

11.00am Malachi O Doherty Why My Life? Who wants to know about me?

Should writers presume that readers will be interested in their lives, and can they be trusted to tell the truth anyway? Malachi O’Doherty defends the writing of memoir.Malachi O’Doherty is currently Writer in Residence at Queens University Belfast. He is the author of six published works of non fiction, most memoir. His latest book, On My Own Two Wheels, recounts his return to cycling at the age of sixty to recover his health and fitness after a diagnosis of type two diabetes. He has worked as a freelance journalist and broadcaster in Belfast for many years and has been a frequent voice on the BBC. He writes regularly on social and political issues for The Belfast Telegraph.

11.45 am Tea/Coffee

12.15pm Bryan Gallagher Barefoot in Mullyneaney

Bryan Gallagher is a retired headmaster living in Co. Fermanagh. His first book There’ll Not Be A Crowd Til The Crowd Gathers was a memoir of the Starlight Dance Band of which he was a member. Bryan has been a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany on RTE, Thought For The Day and Your Place Or Mine on Radio Ulster, Pause for Thought on Radio2 and was a columnist on Home Truths on BBC Radio 4.His first collection of stories Barefoot in Mullyneaney has recently been published by Harper Collins and has received outstanding reviews.

1.00 pm Farewell

To book a place on the 11th Benedict Kiely Literary Weekend please complete the form below and return it to Strule Arts Centre, Townhall Square, Omagh, Co.Tyrone, BT78 1BL along with Booking Fee. If paying by cheque, please make payable to Omagh District Council. No Euro ChEquEs ACCEptEd.

To buy tickets online: www.struleartscentre.co.ukBox Office: 028 8224 7831Email: info@struleartscentre.co.uk

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