Ten days ahead of the enlargement of the EU on May 1st, Galway embraced a new "Europe without borders" last night when it marked the opening of the Cúirt International Literary Festival.
Over 60 authors from over 15 countries, mainly central and eastern European, are due to participate in the week-long event at various venues in Galway city. However, two key contributors - film-maker and writer Neil Jordan, and former Estonian president Mr Lennart Merti - have had to pull out due to other commitments.
Mr Jordan was to have given his first public reading of his own literary work in almost a decade on Saturday, with Julian Barnes.
Mr Jordan was also to have participated in a session on writing for film on Sunday with Hugh O'Donnell and Mark O'Rowe.
He will be replaced on Saturday by Irish Times columnist John Waters, who will read from his latest work, The Politburo Says You are Unwell ; and on Sunday by film-maker, Peter Sheridan. Cúirt has been unable to find a replacement for the former Estonian president.
Among participating writers and journalists on today's Cúirt programme are writer Trezza Azzopardi and Gerard Donovan this afternoon in the Town Hall Theatre, and Rageh Omaar, the only western television reporter with the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan when it fell, shares a session with RTÉ's Mark Little this evening.
The historian and Yeats scholar, Prof Roy Foster, is due to deliver the Anne Kennedy Memorial Lecture tonight.
The festival runs until Sunday and includes its annual "Cúirt by the sea" trip to the Aran Islands, where there will be a gala reading and music in Inis Thiar's arts centre, Áras Éanna, on Saturday afternoon.
Further information from Cúirt at the Galway Arts Centre, Dominick Street, phone (091)569777. The website is galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt