At last, there's to be a fitting tribute in his native Cork to Frank O'Connor, master of the short story.
It has been a long time coming - not that devotees of O'Connor haven't tried over the years to establish a permanent form of tribute, but the Munster Literature Centre (MLC) has finally brought it all together and on September 19th the first International Frank O'Connor Festival of the Short Story will open in Cork.
The inspiration and graft has come from the loyal personnel who have given so much to overcome difficulties and keep the centre going over the years - and help has come from both the national and Cork millennium committees, as well as Cork Corporation and the Arts Council.
The festival programme will open with an address by Prof James Alexander of Wisconsin University on "Frank O'Connor's New Yorker Stories" as well as a performance of the author's acclaimed First Confession and MayNight at the Cork Arts Theatre.
Bringing this event to fruition is quite a coup for the MLC. Perhaps the message will get through: the centre needs all the facilities and committed longterm support it can get. Worries about its future should play no part in its agenda.
There will be readings, reminiscences and discussions at venues including the Cork Arts Theatre and UCC's Granary Theatre, Mayfield Library and the Cork City Library. Short story writers Bernard Mac Laverty, Ita Daly, Mary Leland and John Morrow, as well as David Marcus and others, will be taking part. Dr Ruth Sherry of the University of Science and Technology, Norway, will deliver a lecture on "O'Connor - Tradition and the Gaelic Heritage".
It was intended that Frank O'Connor's wife, Harriet O'Donovan Sheehy, would be present on the closing day of the festival - September 24th - but she is unable to attend.
The six-day programme is packed and varied and will do justice to the aspiration of establishing a permanent O'Connor festival in Cork. The MLC's email address is: munsterlit@eircom.net