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PRESS RELEASE
The 26th Kate O'Brien Weekend
Limerick, Feb 26th - 28th, 2010
Theme : Outsiders
This annual literary weekend in Limerick is organised
by readers for readers to celebrate the memory of Kate O'Brien.
The weekend is intimate in scale and convivial in nature where
speakers and audiences get to talk freely about literary and other
topics of interest to us all.
Each year the theme for the Kate O'Brien Weekend
reflects the subject matters close to Kate O'Brien personally
and in her writings. The themes constant in O'Brien's work are
namely the struggle (particularly the struggle of Irish women)
for individual freedom and love against the constricting demands
of family, bourgeois society and Catholic religion. In an interview
in later life she was quoted as saying "I've always been alone".
With this in mind the theme for this year's Kate O'Brien Weekend,
Outsiders. Kate O'Brien herself was born into a prosperous
Limerick family in 1897. After having settled in Galway in 1950,
she was forced by bankruptcy to move to England in 1960. She died
in Kent, England, in 1974.
The weekend will open with a performance by the
Soprano Gabriela Istoc, who
is currently a member of the Opera Theatre Company Young Associate
program. She will be accompanied by Colette
Davis who is increasingly in demand both as accompanist
and repetiteur and has performed with many of the country's leading
singers on stage, radio and television. This opening event will
take place at Istabraq Hall in Limerick City Council.
Speakers this year include; Honor
O Brolchain, whose recent book All in the Blood chronicles
her grand-mother Geraldine Plunkett's papers. John
Boland is Dublin-born and has worked in journalism
all my adult life. He was theatre and film critic with the Irish
Press, literary columnist for the Irish Times and is currently
television critic and books critic for the Irish Independent.
Richard Tillinghast is author
8 books of poetry and three books of non-fiction; Andrew
Miller's, novelist, whose first book Ingenious Pain
won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, is the same prize that
O'Brien's Without My Cloak won in 1931. William
Wall novelist, will talk about writing and politics
and ask can we make something happen? Geraldine
Sheridan from the University of Limerick will chair
a seminar of all the speakers after a day of discussion.
On Sunday, the morning will begin with John
Logan talk will discuss the involvement by Kate O'Brien
in the adoption of her nephew Peter by her sister Nancy. This
will be followed by a lively discussion about one of O'Brien's
books,The Flower Of May between Hugh
Maguire, newly appointed Director of The Hunt Museum
and Grace Wells, children's
novelist and poet.
The lovely Music Miscellany that is now an integral
part of the Kate O'Brien weekend will introduce audiences to the
music that was contemporary during O'Brien's life. This counterpoint
to the discussions will be presented and illustrated by John
Horgan.
The Kate O'Brien lecture will be given by Ruth
Padel, whose great-great-grandfather was Charles Darwin.
She is author of Darwin - A Life in Poems and Tigers in Red Weather.
She is currently writing a book of poems and prose on animal and
human migration. She will explore the relationship between feelings
of marginality or estrangement and the creative process of imagining
and representing nature in art and words. She will illustrate
her talk with poems, passages from her tiger conservation book,
and her just-published debut novel,Where the Serpent Lives.
This year the venue for the Weekend is the City
Courthouse on Merchant's Quay in Limerick. Situated adjacent City
Hall in the centre of Limerick city, with ample car parking available.
For further information contact; The Arts Office,
Limerick City Council, email :artsoffice@limerickcity.ie
or visit our website www.kateobrienweekend.com
The Kate O'Brien Weekend is funded by The Arts
Council, Limerick City Council and media partner RTE Lyric FM
Other sponsorship include; O'Mahony's Bookshop,
Lawless Flowers, Leahy & Partners Solicitors, Kleiser Pianos,
Pat Punch, Ann O'Malley, Shannon Development and O'Donnell Fashions
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