President Higgins, you do us a great honour in visiting us here at home during our 25th anniversary year. What a wonderful way to start this special year – it bodes well for the future.
We are also extremely fortunate that six of Ireland’s most eminent writers have agreed act as ambassadors for the Irish Writers Centre – they are Anne Enright (who, as you know, is the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate); John Banville; Roy Foster; Marian Keyes; and we are lucky to have our remaining two ambassadors here today, Éilís Ni Dhuibhne and Joseph O’Connor. The absence of four out of six of our ambassadors is evidence of their commitment to the cause as they are, at this moment, flying the flag for Irish writing in the US, Australia, Spain and the UK.
President Higgins has had a distinguished career not only as a parliamentarian and academic but also as a human rights advocate, and a passionate voice for the Irish language. As a former minister of the Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, amongst his many achievements, he set up Telefis na Gaeltachta (now TG4) and also the Irish Film Board, whose success has taken Irish film all the way to the BAFTAs, Golden Globes and the Oscars. As a former columnist for Hot Press magazine, President Higgins also has impeccably cool credentials. (Which other country can boast that?)
But it’s his career as a writer that makes President Higgins a most fitting Patron of the Irish Writers Centre. He’s the author of two collections of essays and four collections of poetry, and therefore understands only too well what it is to be a writer. It’s a wonderful thing for us here at the Writers Centre to have as our patron a man who is not only our President but also one of our own.
Jack [Harte’s] vision for a national writing centre was no small thing. And while he was founder, there were many people who upheld and developed his vision, not least Peter Sirr, who was the centre’s director for over a decade and past board members including those present today: Catherine Phil McCarthy, Lia Mills, Catherine Dunne, Mia Gallagher, Éilís Ni Dhuibhne, Celia De Freine, Frank Buckley and a special mention goes to Jack Gilligan, former chairperson for his sterling work, and for persuading his fellow members to hire a new director!
I’d also like to thank and acknowledge our current board members: Martina Devlin, Hilary Fennell, Kevin Barry, Anne Larchet, Rossa O Snodaigh, Paul Moore, Laurence O’Byan, Mary O’Donnell, Christopher Pressler, Declan Hughes and our excellent chairperson Liz McManus.
The importance of having a national centre for writers is a fairly unusual and prized resource for any country to have. In our tour of Italy last year, I opened the varying events by giving a short introduction about the IWC and the reaction was one of awe and amazement that such a thing existed and that a country would cherish its writers in such a positive way.
And yes, our progress, particularly in the last two years, has been one that we can be proud of: the centre is open for business an average of 68 hours per week, and sees in the region of 14,000 users per annum. Our events have been transformed by linking with a range of new partners from the arts, embassies, community groups, libraries and universities, both here and abroad – and it is lovely to see many of you here today, helping us to celebrate this important date in our calendar. We have a commitment to the Irish language and a policy to try, wherever possible, to roll out our programme of activities in both English and Irish. We have connected writers and delivered programmes in a national and international context and continue to expand our work in this area.
Being relevant to writers is of huge importance to us and the fact that 515 members have signed up – this is a 158 per cent increase since 2013 – is a wonderful endorsement that we are on the right track. And 110 of those are our new professional members who are benefiting from our range of professional development initiatives, including information, training and support days, we employ them on panels, they are acting as mentors on our mentoring scheme, and availing of our nine Writer in Residencies, which we hope to increase to 13 this year. And this is from having none in 2013. Most importantly, the feedback is that mid-career and established writers now feel that our supports are increasingly relevant to them and that they feel they have a home.
And, of course, we have a new patron in President Higgins, and our six brilliant ambassadors. The imprimatur of the President and the ambassadors lends an endorsement not only of the quality of work done by the Irish Writers Centre, but sends a strong signal that we are here, strong and healthy, and well on the way to becoming the international flagship organisation for Irish literature that we dream of being.
And now it is 2016, 25 years since the doors of this Centre opened and we have some great projects in train to celebrate our anniversary, including A Poet’s Rising, which coincides with our national commemorations featuring six of our leading poets; a non-fiction anthology of essays from 25 fiction writers reflecting on the changes in Irish life and literature since 1991; and a North-South project featuring pairs of writers, from both jurisdictions who are co-writing and reading new pieces, both here and in Belfast.
We are very thankful for the funding we receive from various quarters – and now is a good opportunity to acknowledge our main funders the Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin City Council and Foras na Gaeilge for their financial support. Also, to acknowledge Failte Ireland as our long-time partner-landlord.
However, this is not to say that everything is rosy in the garden. Funding remains a huge problem and for a national organisation with an all-island brief we are very under-funded. We have a wonderful team here who it is my good fortune to work with but we spend too much of our energy raising funds and not enough time on connecting with writers and their audiences.
It is worth recalling that the supports that the IWC provides to writers bolster an industry that includes Irish publishers, agents, printers, distributors, bookshops, literary magazines, the TV and film industry, libraries, local communities and, very importantly, readers. We want to champion the works of our Irish writers and develop the talents of emerging writers.
In my short time here, I’ve seen a change in the level of support and collegialitythat exists between writers and which now feels vibrant and warm. I am awed at the gift that writers have to express their thoughts into words, for saying what others are feeling, and articulating injustices with gusto, humour and heart. Anyone who was here last Wednesday for our Nollaig na mBan event knows what I’m talking about.
All artists, but writers in particular, have things to say, and they often have a different take, an alternative angle, because they are thinkers. In an age where groupthink is the norm and people respond to social media with symbols, where governments are slashing history and philosopy departments in universities, where we see a rash of anti-intellectualism taking root in the US general elections – I hope it’s not contagious in respect of our own upcoming election – and where fundamentalism is gaining ground, it is more important now than ever for writers’ voices to be heard.
Writers, I would like to invite you to voice your thoughts here, at the Irish Writers Centre – make it your own. We are here to listen and to ensure that your words are heard.
