US COMMENTATOR Samantha Power, former adviser to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad are among participants at this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which opened in Galway last night.
Arriving in the west on the eve of a crucial Democratic result in the Pennsylvania primary, Ms Power spoke briefly last night of her regret at the circumstances surrounding her resignation.
"One slip of the tongue" had cost her a "front row place in history", she said, and she had become "villain number one on planet Earth", which she "would not recommend".
Ms Power stepped down from her post as foreign policy adviser in Mr Obama's campaign in early March, after she was reported in the Scotsman as describing his rival Hillary Clinton as a "monster". The remark had been made off-the-record, but Ms Power issued a public apology.
Ms Power is due to speak on US foreign policy issues at Cúirt today, and on her recent political biography of Sergio Vieira de Mello, former United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Special Representative in Iraq. Mr de Mello was killed in the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, along with members of his staff, on August 19th, 2003.
While demand for festival tickets this year has been "brisk", according to organisers, the first surprise sell-out was for Sunday's Roisin Dubh event with cult blogger Dave Gorman.
Synonymous with "googlewhacking", which is described as both a "verb and a mathematical system", Mr Gorman will read from America Unchained, an account of driving coast to coast without any money.
Participants were welcomed at last night's opening in the Galway City Museum by US poet Brian Turner, who is this year's writer-in-residence at the festival, and by Galway Arts Centre managing director Páraic Breathnach. Turner has won nine major awards for his first work of poetry, Here, Bullet, which he wrote while stationed with the US military in Iraq from 2004-5.
Ireland's "unacknowledged poet laureate", Máirtin Ó Direán is to be honoured this morning when a bronze casting of one of his works, Fear Lasta Lampa, is unveiled on the Salthill promenade. The plaque is one of a series of literary tributes erected by Galway City Council and the Cúirt festival in partnership with the Kenny Gallery and Galway Chamber of Commerce.
It is intended to point west towards O Direáin's native Aran Islands, and an address will be delivered by An tOllamh Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh of NUI, Galway.
Irish writers Jennifer Johnston and Sebastian Barry delivered the first readings of the festival to a packed audience last night, while Galway Youth Theatre presented its interpretation of Max Hafler's play This Means War.
"Eyewitnesses to history" is the theme this year, and Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad, author of The Bookseller of Kabul, will participate in a public interview tomorrow. She will be interviewed on her new book on Chechnya by former Irish Times Moscow correspondent Séamus Martin.
One of the best-known campaigners against apartheid in South Africa, Breyten Breytenbach, will read his poetry and writings, while the role of Galway in the first World War will be addressed on Sunday by historian and author William Henry The programme also includes readings for young people by Ré Ó Laighléis, Anna Heussaff and Annie West, with a Slam poetry final for school students on Friday co-ordinated by Stephen Murray and Mags Treanor.
There will be a bardic brunch, the annual Cúirt debate, and a new literary tour of Galway, produced by Earwig Arts Company.
Tickets are available from the Town Hall Theatre, Galway at 091-569777 and on website www.galwayartscentre.ie/cuirt