Arts

The Literary Capital of the S

L-R: Laura Valeri, Eoin Colfer and Andreae Callanan.

The Wexford Literary Festival, founded in 2013 as the Focal Festival, is very proud to have recently held its 8th annual Festival.

Embracing Covid 19 and all its debilitating restrictions, the enterprising Committee, under Chairman Richie Cotter, went digital this year and last to keep the Festival alive and to support literature, writers, playwrights and poets through the dark days of pandemic.

And to say it was successful would be an understatement.

Welcoming the opportunities presented to us through social media, we established literary links with our very close cousins in St. John’s, Newfoundland; Savannah, Georgia; St. Louis, Missouri and St. David’s, Wales.

In our Premiere Poetry – Hyacinths & Biscuits – we were thrilled to welcome Andreae Callanan, celebrated author and poet from St. John’s, Newfoundland, who spoke of the indigenous peoples of Newfoundland and the very strong Irish-Wexford connection, before reading from her own work.

Our own Eamonn Wall came to us from his American home in St. Louis, an avid supporter of the Festival since its inception, Eamonn delighted us as usual with his beautiful words.

In our Premiere Authors, we were treated to readings from Felicity Hayes McCoy coming to us from her London home and reading from her latest book The Year of Lost & Found, and author Laura Valeri established our great Wex-Sav link reading her work from Savannah, Georgia, very much in keeping with our mission to deliver an International Literary Festival with emphasis on promoting and awarding new and existing writing across many genres. Speaking of which, we are pleased to have received submissions for all our Awards –The Colm Toibín Short Story Award, The Anthony Cronin Poetry Award and The Billy Roche Short Play Award from right across the globe, from all parts of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, New York, California, Florida, Philadelphia, Denmark, Germany, France, and Canada, establishing the Wexford Festival as a global event on the world’s literary calendar.

And this year we went a step further adding yet another award and another genre to our amazing list of competitions, with famous Wexford Children’s author Eoin Colfer agreeing to his name on an award for our new category – Children’s Short Story Award. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Eoin and tell him that we were delighted with both the response and the standard of the submissions.

The Festival continues to grow and prosper with each passing year, and we are extremely proud to say that we have taken on the Covid challenge and, by going digital, managed not only to attract a greater global audience but produced the only festival in this county during the pandemic.

The Festival Committee is dedicated to the promotion of reading and writing through our extensive programmes with special emphasis on social inclusion, and contribute to cultural

outh East

Felicity Hayes McCoy and Eamonn Wall. tourism in Enniscorthy and Wexford through our promotion of Wexford as the Literary Capital of South East Ireland, and this year some of our Wexford authors recorded themselves reading from their work in the Wexford locations that inspired their novels so not alone could people listen to their beautiful words but they were treated to some scenery from our beautiful county as well.

This year’s Festival Programme, because of the very difficult time had, particularly by those in the literary arts world, endeavoured also to focus on all the wonderful literary talent in our midst right here in Wexford and included authors, poets, playwrights and spoken word artists – Carmel Harrington, Sheila Forsey, Hannah McNiven, Caroline Busher, Peter Murphy, Derek Meyler, Anne McLoughlin, Eamonn Wall, Joe Neal, Maybelle Wallis, Felicity Hayes McCoy, Jack Byrne, Maria Nolan, Madeline Breen, Paul Gaul, Billy Roche, A.M. Cousins, Margaret Galvin, Mary O’Brien, Grace O’Reilly, Caroline Stevens-Taylor, Ellen Lordan-Lohier, Sinead O’Reilly, Allannah Hammel, Zeff Ryder, Dean Ray Bolger, Daithi Kavanagh, Mattie White, Aoife Rose O’Brien, Chris Black, Richard Williams, Elizabeth McGeown, Imelda Carroll, Shane Gibbons, and local vocalist Aislinn Williams who gave us the most exquisite rendition of Moore’s The Last Rose of Summer. pal District Council, Town Manager Ger Mackey, Wexford County Council, Tourism Officer Billy Byrne, Wexford Libraries, Imelda Carroll and Jarlath Glynn, and local media –People Newspapers, Slaney News and of course South East Radio, and to all the amazing literary artists who participated in our Festival 2021 line-up.

The Wexford Literary Festival 2021 truly had something for everyone, so if you missed it or just want to enjoy it again, go to our Facebook page, website and YouTube channel to view the amazing literary talent presented over the weekend.

Since the Festival, the Committee of the St. Davids Festival of Ideas in Wales have been in contact with us inviting Wexford authors and poets to participate in their annual festival scheduled for March 2022, and our Festival Committee are currently working with both Savannah and Newfoundland to expand and develop our newly established literary connection, which we envisage will be of major benefit to, and extend the scope of, authors, poets and playwrights in Wexford, Savannah, Wales and Newfoundland, and aspire to being the beginning of niche Literary Tourism for Enniscorthy and County Wexford – and it begins here, with the Wexford Literary Festival 2021.

– Maria Nolan, Wexford Literary Festival Secretary.

Congrats to Michael

Congratulations to Wexford’s Michael Benson who recently received the award for Best Cinematography from the Sweden Film Awards for his documentary Pat Walsh – The Life and Legacy of an Irish Revolutionary. n

Michael Benson

Wexford Festival Opera

The 2021 WFO 13-day programme, celebrating Wexford’s 70th anniversary, looks forward to welcoming live audiences back into the National Opera House, to experience in person the magic that is Wexford Festival Opera. All events will be delivered safely, within government guidelines. Live audience numbers for festival performances will be at a reduced capacity, but this is not expected to dampen the excitement of this 70th Anniversary festival programme. There will be three evening operas in the O’Reilly Theatre to a limited audience – a fully-staged production of Edmea (Alfredo Catalani), a semi-staged production of Le Songe d’une nuit d’été (Ambroise Thomas), and a concert performance of Ein Wintermärchen (Karl Goldmark). n

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTS CENTRES Wexford Arts Centre: 053-9123764. The Presentation Centre, Enniscorthy: 053-9233000.

Enniscorthy’s marvellous murals

Wexford Co. Council, the Enniscorthy Walls Project, The Presentation Centre, Wexford Local Development's LEADER Fund, Wexford Arts Centre and Enniscorthy Municipal District are to be congratulated on their involvement in the amazing new wall murals in Enniscorthy. The first one was completed by the artist ‘Ominous Omin’ in early July on the gable wall of accountancy firm Doyle Fielding & Co, Abbey Square. It celebrates the life and times of Enniscorthy’s internationally renowned architect and designer, Eileen Gray. The project team thanks Eugene Doyle and PJ Fielding for the use of their wall for the first mural as part of the Enniscorthy Walls Project. At the end of July the next two murals appeared – at the old bridge at Templeshannon Quay (by AWD Artist) which puts a vibrant and unique twist on the town coat of arms, and also a little nod to Evil Knievel – signifying the brave and bold spirit of Enniscorthy and our fearless nature! And one on the gable wall of the Hope Centre, Upper Wafer Street (by Solus Art). See https://www.facebook.com/EnniscorthyWallsProject/ for more information and photos. New Ross also has a number of impressive new murals adorning its walls and laneways and bringing the history of the town to life. See: https://www.facebook.com/VisitNewRoss/ videos/1220711048402616

The mural on the gable end of Doyle Fielding, Chartered Accountants, Abbey Square. L-R: Eugene Doyle, Cathaoirleach of Enniscorthy Municipal District Cathal Byrne, Dundalk artist ‘Ominous Omin’ and PJ Fielding.

Wexford Arts Centre exhibition

The Age of Reason/ Unreason (Part 3)

A group exhibition by Na Cailleacha 16 August – 6 October 2021 Wexford Arts Centre, Cornmarket, Wexford, Y35 X5HF Monday-Friday from 10am-5pm and Saturday from 10am-4pm

Tel: +353 (0)53 912 3674. Email: info@wexfordartscentre.ie Web: www.wexfordartscentre.ie

Wexford Arts Centre is pleased to present The Age of Reason/Unreason (Part 3), a group show with artists Helen Comerford, Barbara Freeman, Patricia Hurl, Maria Levinge, Therry Rudin, and Gerda Teljeur, art historian/curator Catherine Marshall, and composer Carole Nelson. Through painting, drawing, film and performance, the group collectively known as Na Cailleacha – the Irish word for witches – will explore the nuanced process of growing older. The exhibition will run in the lower and upper galleries from Monday 16 August to Wednesday 6 October 2021.

This exhibition is the third public iteration of Na Cailleacha’s first year in collective practice. The group of eight older women, six visual artists, one musician and one curator, all, bar one, over 70 years of age, came together to explore issues around creativity, visibility, isolation, health and collective practice from an older feminist perspective. Na Cailleacha are committed to raising awareness and promoting public discussion about these issues, in keeping with Gloria Steinem’s assertion that ‘Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age’. The title of the exhibition alludes to the play of rational and irrational instincts in the creative process, especially challenging in relation to ageing and loss of capacity. Among the work created during their first year together, the exhibition will include Therry Rudin’s documentary film, ‘Dawn to Dusk’, a group print portfolio, individual paintings and drawings by Helen Comerford, Patricia Hurl, Gerda Teljeur, Maria Levinge and a film by Barbara Freeman in association with Carole Nelson. In addition, the exhibition will present Na Cailleacha’s version of the Guerilla Girls famous poster on the ‘Advantages of being a Woman Artist’ (made with their co-operation), alongside new work from their second residency at the Ballinglen Art Foundation in July of this year. New work will include a performance video, Waiting Room by Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin, 8 drawings, multi-layered on acetate, by the group, led by Gerda Teljeur and with a new composition by Carole Nelson, and an installation of life-sized rag dolls representing different aspects of the group as a whole.

The exhibition will be curated by Na Cailleacha’s curator, Catherine Marshall. Locally-based artists Aileen Lambert and Caoimhe Dunne will respond to the folk and doll-making traditions which feature in the exhibition.

The Age of Reason/Unreason (Part 3) is supported by Artlinks.

Wexford Arts Centre is supported by the Arts Council and Wexford County Council. n

ENNISCORTHY LIBRARY

Lymington Road - Phone: 053 9236055 enniscorthylib@wexfordcoco.ie https://www.wexfordcoco.ie/libraries https://www.facebook.com/enniscorthylibrary

Remembering Ireland’s famine

Paula Stokes at Johnstown Castle.

FAMINE MEMORIAL OPENS AT JOHNSTOWN CASTLE

U.S. based artist Paula Stokes has returned to her paternal family’s home place of Wexford from Seattle to unveil her internationally renowned 1845: Memento Mori installation which officially opened to the public on July 17th 2021 and closes on 21st August. This site-specific exhibition is a Famine Memorial dedicated to the Irish Potato Famine. The title of the project references the year that the potato blight came to Ireland, marking the beginning of a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration. Over 1.5 million people died, and a further 1 million emigrated to Australia, Canada, and America.

Each glass potato is hand blown and then sandblasted, creating a white ghostly appearance to the potatoes. The large mound of glass potatoes and the fragility of the glass are very representative both of the vulnerability and of the resilience of those who died and those who survived the famine.

Paula Stokes graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, with a Bachelor’s Degree (with honours) in Glass Design. She also has a Certificate in Glassmaking and Technology from the Dudley College of Technology, UK. Stokes received the Milnora Roberts Scholarship for Academic Excellence in Printmaking from the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. In 1996, together with Róisín de Buitléar, she established a visiting artist programme at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), where professional artists from Seattle worked with the students. She has exhibited her own work extensively both in Ireland and abroad. Her work is included in many collections including the National Museum of Ireland and the Irish Embassies in Brussels and Beijing. She has been awarded artist’s residencies at the Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Ballinskelligs, Ireland, and at the Jefferson County Museum of Art and History, Port Townsend, Washington. In 2019, she presented her installation 1845: Memento Mori, a memorial to the Irish Potato Famine, at the Jefferson County Museum of Art and History, and at METHOD Gallery, Seattle. Visitors to Johnstown Castle, will be able to view the exhibition as it sits within one of the fishing towers within the gardens, enabling visitors to view it while being outdoors. Paula says that the form of the installation often differs in response to specific locations, changing shape and volume depending on light, accessibility, and exposure of each site that it is showcased. For further details see: www.johnstowncastle.ie and www.1845mementomori.com/