Western Ways

On my visit I met up with Leo Hallissey former principal of the local school, now a Director of CEECC. Leo showed me around the village and brought me along the trail. Speaking to him I realised immediately how dedicated he is to improving the village and his great optimism for its future. “We have been constantly engaged over the past 40 years on a voyage of restoration”, he told me. “Its best described as moving from a period of great darkness and cruelty to a place today which has become full of kindness, creativity and a place strangers are welcome”.

Setting up the poetry trail The year was 2014 and the 30th birthday celebrations of CEECC were scheduled to take place in the month of October. As part of these celebrations it was decided to open a Poetry Trail. Nine poets were commissioned to write works celebrating the importance of place. They were given licence to write freely and in the end produced work which as Leo points out may sometimes be tough, but always honest and beautiful. While some poems are general in nature, others are site specific dealing with the troubled history.

The locations for the poems were divided into different areas around the village – three in the heart of the village, three in the Connemara West Centre and the remainder in the Connemara National Park. This gives the option of three starting points. The trail is marked with the letter ‘P’ and an arrow which reminded me of signs along the Camino walking routes. All the poems are on plaques which were designed by Sven Habermann of Conservation Centre Letterfrack which provides restoration of furniture. This highly skilled work including projects for the national museums. Plaques consist of larch wood mounted on original Blue Bangor roof slates from the Industrial school.

Poems by President Higgins President Michael D. Higgins launched the Poetry Trail on the 17th October 2014. The CEECC then invited him to contribute a poem to be placed along the trail A year later he presented ‘The Prophets Are Weeping’, which was his first poem since becoming President four years earlier. The location is a secret so the challenge for those taking the trail is to discover it. In a book describing the poetry trail the President states that he wrote this poem just after he had seen the Yazidis people, a very ancient early set of believers driven from their mountains on to the road in Northern Iraq, hoping they might eventually be relieved by Kurdish forces. The final verse of the poem reads:

The prophets are weeping, For the words that have been stolen, From texts that once offered, To reveal in ancient times, A shared space, Of love and care, Above all for the stranger.

In a recent comment to Senior Times the President said he has fond memories of Letterfrack.

The other nine poems on the trail are Before you leave Letterfrack (Eva Bourke) , Winter View from Binn Bhriocáin (Moya Cannon), Waystation (Theo Dorgan) , Letterfrack (Michael Gorman), Glimpse ( Rita Ann Higgins), Companion Pieces (Paula Meehan), April in Rusheenduff (Joan McBreen), Show Day (Mary O’Malley) and Cloigini/Bells ( Louis De Paor.)

A book and CD is available from publishers Artisan House with all the poems and a summary of the work by each poet. On the accompanying CD the poets read their poems with music composed by Conor Keane featuring 40 young players and their music teachers from around the area. It was launched in June 2017 by Theo Dorgan poet and broadcaster. Letterfrack, a centre for learning Leo Hallissey says the village has become a centre for learning. The former industrial school now houses three local community organisations, Connemara West Plc, Forum Connemara and Connemara Community Radio. There is also Galway - Mayo Institute of Technology which is the national centre for furniture design and technology in partnership with Connemara West. They also run teacher education programmes. The village has indeed become a centre of excellence with some 500 people involved in education. On the edge of the National Park you will find the Visitor Centre with a restaurant and close by the AV theatre used for audio /visual presentations in five Languages. It seats 50 people and is used as well for holding a range of cultural events. Further along is Ellis Wood known locally as the Bluebell Wood complete with rustic path, waterfall etc. New signs have been erected to help with identification of the trees which is a good idea. Sadly the posts the signs are mounted on leave a lot to be desired. Letterfrack gives the first time visitor a feeling of being a vibrant place full of activity, even with Covid-19 still around. Last year a new community bookshop Books at One opened in the original Quaker workshop which later became a forge during the school years. It is the home of publishers Artisan House. Leo Hallissey describes the shop as “another Light in the road from darkness”.

The Galway City trail The city of the Tribes has a trail of 25 different bronze and limestone plaques all dotted around the city and suburbs each with a piece of writing about the location in which it is placed. The trail dates from 2005 and is organised by Kenny’s Bookshop and Galway County Council in conjunction with Cúirt International Festival of Literature. Every year a new plaque is added to the trail.

The most recent addition is named Vortex by Gerard Reidy and was unveiled by award winning novelist and short story writer Mike McCormack last September. In the work Gerard describes his arrival in Galway for the first time as a student in UCG. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony he pointed out that as the poem celebrates water, being placed along the river really is an apt place for his piece. ‘It is a homage to the city, to the energy and the people and vibrancy that’s here’. The plaque is situated close to Jury’s Inn hotel.

Other locations at which poems are placed include Salthill promenade and the Claddagh. Writings featured include Seámus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, Moya Cannon, Walter Macken and Rita Ann Higgins. Three of the texts are written in Irish. Visitors to the city can go on a self - guided walking tour taking with them the excellent brochure of the route which is available at Kennys Bookshop or the tourist office.

Useful websites:

The stunning Connemara landscape surrounding Letterfrack

www.ceecc.org/letterfrack-poetry-trail www.connemaranationalpark.ie www.culturalconamara.com www.kennys.ie/galway-poetry-trail www.galwaytourism.ie