A good literary mystery is always news to Sadbh's ears and today sees the final resolution of one that has lasted for a century and a half. Poet John Keegan, author of some 20 stories and 50 poems, including Caoch The Piper which was on the school syllabus for many years, died 150 years ago this year. Yet until last August nobody knew where he was buried.
Tony Delaney, who edited the Galmoy Press edition of his selected works in 1997, contended that Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin was the spot, but the folks at Glasnevin initially didn't agree. However, a closer examination of the burial records revealed that Keegan was indeed buried there - but in an unmarked, cholera plot. Keegan died of cholera in the South Dublin Poor Law Union on June 30th, 1849, at the age of 33, far from his homeland of Shanahoe in Co Laois. Today at 2 p.m., there will be a commemoration ceremony at the plot in Glasnevin and author and Keegan authority Benedict Kiely will unveil a newly-carved celtic cross there.
The celebrations will continue at the Dublin Writers' Museum where a new exhibition illuminating Keegan's life and works will be opened with a recitation by actor Jonathan White. Quite apart from Keegan's poetic achievements there's a couple of lexicological ones - the OED credits him with introducing the term "shoneen" (best translated as a wannabe gentleman who assumes superior airs) into modern vocabulary and his poem Devil May Care may have coined the political expression "sinn fein" when the line "Sinn fein is our watchword" appeared in The Nation in 1843.
ONE of the first recipients of the Ireland Fund's Literary Award, Seamus Heaney, was on hand on Tuesday night to pass on the honours to fellow poet, Brendan Kennelly. In UCD's O'Reilly Hall, Heaney spoke of Kennelly's "humanity and humour" which could be seen in his poetry and his dimples, while Kennelly in turn paid tribute to the profile of Irish literature abroad and to the illustrious company he would now be keeping as a recipient of the award (worth £20,000). Previous recipients include Austin Clarke, John Banville, John McGahern and Sebastian Barry in the past.
While it now seems inevitable that the papers of many living writers are sold outside the country, it is good to hear that a major collection of papers and other materials relating to Bram Stoker, the author of Dublin's most famous ghost story, Dracula, have come to rest both in Ireland and in his Alma Mater, Trinity College Dublin. On Thursday in the Henry Jones room of the Old Library, Dr Bernard Meehan, the keeper of manuscripts unveiled details of the papers, which were recently acquired from Stoker's great-grandson, Noel Dobbs. Most of the new papers relate to Bram's extended family - the legal and personal papers of his brothers who included the prominent surgeon, Sir Thornley Stoker; family photographs and material on Bram's wife, Florence Balcombe, who he married in 1878. Biographers of Stoker will obviously be the main vultures to descend on this new information and there are plans to put it on exhibition although exact dates are not yet available.
On Thursday, the second floor of Oscar Wilde House at 1 Merrion Square in Dublin was revealed in its renovated glory and christened The Clementina and William E. Flaherty Cultural Centre. Through their Ireland Fund connections, the Flahertys became aware that there was a shortage of funds to restore the house where Wilde grew up , and subsequently donated funds. The centre will be used as a gallery space and for talks. Indeed the centre was given its very first outing on Thursday, when Tina Flaherty used the occasion to launch her own book, Talk Your Way To The Top - ironically, a tome that Wilde would have had absolutely no need of whatsoever.
A new writer in residence post, to be funded jointly by the Irish Writers' Centre, Dublin Corporation and the Arts Council is soon to be advertised in the national press. The post, which will start in October, is primarily to enable a writer to spend time developing his or her work, but will also include some public events such as workshops and readings.
Dublin Corporation has not appointed a new writer in residence since the very successful stint by poet Pat Boran, as both Jack Gilligan, the Corpo's literary officer, and Peter Sirr, director of the Writers' Centre, felt that a joint initiative would be a better package than either could offer individually. Both were anxious to make the residency a year-long one, because as Sirr points out "with a six or nine-month residency, the writer spends most of their time working out what the hell they're going to do next".
The residency will be an annual one and there are plans to rotate the kind of writer to whom it is given - poetry one year, novels the next and so on. Interested scribes should address their inquiries to the Irish Writers' Centre at tel: 01 8721302 or e-mail iwc@iol.ie.
Sadbh