Loose Leaves: The awarding of the €35,000 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award to Haruki Murakami was one of the highlights of the festival in Cork last weekend honouring O'Connor on his native patch - but it wasn't the only gong being given out.
That other great Cork author, Sean O'Faolain, also has a prize named after him for original, unpublished short stories in English of 3,000 words or less, sponsored by the Munster Literature Centre. This year's winner of the €1,500 Sean O'Faolain Short Story Award was Joyce Russell of Bantry, Co Cork, whose story All Fall Down will be published in the biannual literary journal Southword, as will some of the other stories that were shortlisted. Alan McMonagle of Clybaun, Galway, came second with a story called The Wake.
The judge this year was writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, who said: "All Fall Down impressed me with its lyrical style, its sensitive exploitation of imagery, and its interesting patterning devices. The voice in the story, of a young girl, is engaging and convincing. It seemed to me to be a story of artistic integrity, in which form and material are equally important. Language, rhythm, voice, plot, all cohere. It is a complete thing, a thing of beauty."
In these days when festivals and prizes named after writers are ubiquitous, one sometimes wonders if said writers would turn in their graves at the kind of hoopla that goes on in their names. But there's a strong sense that O'Connor would approve of his name being invoked in the specific way the festival celebrates and fosters this great Irish art form. When VS Pritchett listed the nations that were masters of the genre, the Irish were up there in the higher echelons. It's most imaginative of Cork City Council to have grasped the importance of this event, born as part of Cork City of Culture 2005, and to have put its weight behind it continuing annually.
Having a Böll in Achill
The second annual Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend takes place in Achill from October 13th to 15th in honour of the Nobel laureate who lived on the island and whose home there is now a residence for writers and artists.
This year's programme examines the work and connection to Achill of two prominent writers, Peadar O'Donnell and Ernie O'Malley, who both fought in the War of Independence and took the republican side in the Civil War. As well as fighting together in the Four Courts, they later worked together on The Bell magazine. Both visited Achill regularly.
Sheila McHugh, a native of Achill, will talk about O'Donnell, his relationship with Achill and his role in organising migratory farm labourers in Scotland. Cormac KH O'Malley, son of Ernie, will give an illustrated lecture, Ernie O'Malley's County Mayo: Perceptions, Reflections and Friendships, which will focus on O'Malley's collection of art, referring to Achill, Mayo and the west of Ireland. O'Malley was an enthusiastic art collector and critic - and a close friend of Jack B Yeats.
Other events over the weekend include the presentation of the first Heinrich Böll Memorial Essay prize for second-level students, an exhibition of photographs and documents relating to the period of the Böll family's stay in Achill, and guided walks in the footsteps of Böll, exploring the Achill landscape associated with his work.
Fee for the full weekend, including lunch Saturday and Sunday, is € 45. See www.achilltourism.com for details.
Studying neo-nationalism
Stress and mobility have changed our sense of identity and as we become more like anywhere else we may need some form of neo-nationalism. So says Fr Fergus O'Donoghue SJ, kicking off the autumn issue of the quarterly Studies, devoted to Irish identity and Irish literature.
"We can eat exotic foods, drink too much, buy illegal drugs and have messy personal lives, just like any other nation," he says, adding that such a scenario leaves us facing some paradoxes. Though there is now less cynicism about our past, he says, it's the present that's bewildering. "Very urbanised, we are unsure about the values required for successful urban living and are creating a society where money has the loudest voice." To compound things, he feels that modern Irish society as a whole lacks a convincing contemporary literary portrayal. Contributors to the issue, full of food for necessary debate, include UCD's Tom Garvin and Tina MacVeigh, also of UCD, who looks at Ireland's ranking as one of the most unequal countries in the developed world.
Studies, autumn 2006, Vol 95, No 379, €10