Readings by five Irish writers on the theme of the home place: Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Jack Harte, Brian Leyden, Noel Monahan and Mary O'Donnell
GABRIEL FITZMAURICE was born, in 1952, in Moyvane, Co. Kerry where he still lives. He teaches in the local Primary School. A former Chair and Literary Advisor of Writers' Week, the Writers' Conference in Listowel, Co. Kerry, he is author of more than twenty books, including poetry in English and Irish, children's verse in English and Irish, translations from the Irish, essays, and collections of songs and ballads. An award winner at the Gerard Manley Hopkins Centenary Poetry Competition, he has twice represented Ireland at the European Festival of Poetry in Louvain, Belgium. A musician and singer, he has played and sung on a number of albums of Irish traditional music. He frequently broadcasts on Irish radio and television and local radio stations on education and the arts.
JACK HARTE Jack Harte was born in Sligo in 1944. He has published two collections of short stories, Murphy in the Underworld (1986) and Birds and Other Tails (1996). He
has also published one novella, Homage (1992). Last year saw the publication of From under Gogol’s Nose, his new and selected stories, and a CD of his Sligo-based stories, Lament for the Birds. In 2001 Orpheus (Sofia) published a collection of his stories in Bulgarian translation and one of these has now been made into a film in that country. He is currently working on a novel commissioned by Sligo Co Council under the Per Cent for Art Scheme. Harte’s "magical stories should be treasured” - Emmanuel Kehoe, Sunday Business Post. www.jackharte.com
BRIAN LEYDEN was born in Roscommon in 1960 and is the author of the best selling memoir, The Home Place (2002). Previous publications include the short story collection Departures (1992) and the novel, Death & Plenty (1996). He devised and performed a one-man stage show on W.B. Yeats called Experiments in Magic. His work for radio includes the documentaries
No Meadows in Manhattan, which won a Jacobs Award, Even the Walls were Sweatin'‚ a return to the era of the dancehalls, and, more recently, The Closing of the Gaiety Cinema in Carrick-on-Shannon. Brian Leyden has edited issues seven and eight of the acclaimed Irish literary journal Force 10 which combines and juxtaposes fiction, poetry, folklore and sociology in a unique and fascinating way. He lives in County Leitrim.
NOEL MONAHAN has won several awards for his work. In 2001 he won the prestigious SeaCat National Poetry Award, organised by Poetry Ireland. Also in 2001 he won the RTÉ P.J. O'Connor Award for his play, Broken Cups. In 2002 he won the ASTI Achievements Award for his contribution to literature at home and abroad. Other awards include The Allingham Poetry Award and The Kilkenny Prize for Poetry. The Funeral Game is Noel Monahan's fourth collection of poetry and was preceded by Opposite Walls (1991), Snowfire (1995), and Curse of The Birds (2001), all from Salmon Publishing.
MARY O'DONNELL was born in Co Monaghan and now lives in Straffan, Co. Kildare. She holds a BA in German and Philosophy has studied German to MA level and received a first class honours Higher Diploma in Education at Maynooth (1983). Her poetry collections are Reading the Sunflowers in September (1991), Spiderwoman's Third Avenue Rhapsody (1993), Unlegendary Heroes (1998), and September Elegies (2003). She is the author of a collection of short stories, Strong Pagans (1991), and three novels, the best-selling The Light-Makers (1992), which was named Sunday Tribune Best New Novel of 1992, Virgin and the Boy (1996), and The Elysium Testament (1999). Her awards include the William Aillingham Award, the Listowel Writers' Week Award and a Hennessy Award, and she was twice nominated for an Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literary Award for poetry. Mary O'Donnell is a member of Aosdána, and lives in Co Kildare.