On The Town:The singer Liam Clancy, quoting a poem by Tennyson, called on older people to be "strong in will/ to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". "That's what we are about in this organisation for the next month," he said, rallying all who had gathered in the Abbey Theatre for his launch of the Bealtaine Festival, which celebrates creativity in older age.
With a flourish, Clancy recited the lines which celebrate the great hero Ulysses, who resolves in old age to go on one final voyage: "And tho' we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are," he declared passionately. "My purpose holds/ to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths/ of all the western stars, until I die."
All, including Monica Murphy, chair of the Rathmines Active Retirement Association and one of its committee members Mary Clear, were up for the event. (The association will display artwork on Tuesday, May 15th, at the Rathmines Community Centre.) The festival "is like a new beginning for people every year", said Mamo McDonald, honorary president of Age and Opportunity, which co-ordinates the festival's programme.
This year's festival ambassadors, including singer Veronica Dunne, ballet dancer Joanna Banks, actors Mick Lally and Eamon Morrissey, writers Jennifer Johnston and Eugene McCabe, artist Robert Ballagh and former artistic director Tomás Mac Anna, were all at the launch.
Dominic Campbell, the festival's artistic director, said more than 300 organisations "like spring flowers are bursting out all over", planning activities and exhibitions for an expected audience of up to 40,000. The festival, which embraces all art forms including theatre, literature, dance, film, storytelling, music, painting, sculpture and photography, is now in its 12th year and it is unique to Ireland, he said.
Other at the launch included Kathleen Atkinson and Marie Parkes, of Cabra West Arts Group, Sylvia Meehan, the new president of the Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament, and Gwen O'Byrne of Coolock Library Art Group and her husband, Pat.
Bealtaine events will be taking place at venues across Ireland from Tue, May 1 to Thur, May 31
Memories of a giant among journalists
Memories of the late Dick Walsh, political writer with this newspaper for more than 30 years, flooded back when a bronze statue commemorating him was unveiled to a packed room of political correspondents, politicians and writers in Dublin this week. "Dick was rigorous, cantankerous, opinionated, determined, creative, acerbic and his analysis, for those on the left of the spectrum, was seminal," said Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte.
"He was my best friend for 30 years. I miss him terribly," said Michael Mills, former ombudsman and political correspondent with the Irish Press for 20 years. In recent times, he recalled, they used to phone each other almost every day. "We indulged ourselves in tearing politicians apart," he said. "Dick hated cant and hypocrisy and he had a towering sense of justice. He had a Swiftian indignation against people who exhibited sins that involved the poor."
"He was critic, mentor, challenger, friend, idol . . . and hero," said Fergus Finlay, chief executive of Barnardos and former adviser to former Labour Party leader Dick Spring. "He was one of the finest men and one of the gutsiest men I ever knew," he said. Walsh, along with Mills, Chris Glennon, former political correspondent with the Irish Independent, and Sean Duignan "were the four political gurus of their day", recalled Conor O'Clery, an Irish Timesjournalist for 33 years (who has just completed a biography of philanthropist Chuck Feeney, called The Billionaire Who Wasn't).
Journalists and political commentators who came to salute their friend and colleague included Liam O'Neill, Wesley Boyd, Joe Fahy, Joe O'Malley, John Foley and John Horgan. Also present were the new chairman of the Irish Times Ltd, David Went, and managing director Maeve Donovan.
Walsh was appointed political editor of this newspaper in 1985. He retired in 2002, and died suddenly in 2003. He was the driving force behind the creation of the paper's National Union of Journalists editorial committee, which is concerned with standards and ethics within the paper. Deaglán de Bréadún, father of the paper's NUJ chapel, spoke of Walsh's "great commitment to the public service ethos of The Irish Times" and to trade unionism.
Michael Finlan, who was western correspondent with The Irish Timesfor 25 years, recalled how Walsh "had a great influence on the political life of this country and he was feared by the politicians". Former Irish Timescolleagues Maeve Binchy, Mary Maher and Paddy Downey were there, as was Una Claffey, adviser to the Taoiseach and formerly of RTÉ.
The bronze bust, by sculptor John Coll, was unveiled by Irish Timeseditor Geraldine Kennedy, at the new Irish TimesBuilding on Dublin's Tara Street.
Illuminated by precision poetry
A posse of poets, a politician, a publisher and a radio producer were among those who came to celebrate the launch of two poetry books in Dublin this week.
There was standing room only in Damer Hall on St Stephen's Green when Green Party TD, John Gormley rose to speak about his uncle, the Donegal-based poet Francis Harvey and his new book, Collected Poems.
Then Fiach Mac Conghail, director of the Abbey, introduced The Mirror Tent by Gerard Smyth.
The poets also read from their work, as the night was a chance "to hear the poems rise off the page", said their publisher Pat Boran, of Dedalus Press.
Smyth, a managing editor at this newspaper, "has a beautiful gift for brevity. They are extraordinarily compact poems", said fellow poet Micheal O'Siadhail, adding that "it is absolutely timely and ripe that Francis Harvey should be collected and celebrated. It's all too easy to forget those lives devoted to the craft. There's a lovely peace and tranquillity to [ the poems]," he said.
Both Smyth and Harvey write poems that are "true", said poet Macdara Woods. Harvey "strips everything right down to the absolute rock . . . Gerry in the same way is bringing things down all the time. I've been reading them [ both] for many a long year".
It is "the precision of it" that poet Padraig J Daly admires in Smyth's poetry, and "the way he can pick the ordinary and illuminate it - there's always something deeper running underneath".
"The cover brilliantly encapsulates some of its qualities, it shows the city and a celestial comet," said poet Dennis O'Driscoll of Smyth's work. "I think he's a poet of the mundane and the mysterious, a poet of the everyday and also of the eternal."
Harvey's work is "incredibly lyrical. He is a man who is really in touch with his landscape", said poet Nessa O'Mahony, adding that "it's really important that landscape like this is preserved".
Others who attended the readings included writer and poet Theo Dorgan, RTÉ radio producer Clíodhna Ní Anluain, novelist Claire Kilroy, writer Philip Casey, Mary Cloake, director of the Arts Council, and poets Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Enda Wyley.
Collected Poems, by Francis Harvey, and The Mirror Tent, by Gerard Smyth, are both published by Dedalus Press
Emerging artists find cocoon
Five painters were happy to discuss their work with guests at the opening of Spring Exhibition at Filmbase in Dublin's Temple Bar this week. The exhibition was organised by St-art, an online gallery whose primary aim is to represent Ireland-based emerging artists nationally and internationally.
Cate Murphy, from Nelson in New Zealand, said her work is concerned with "a spiritual subject". "For me it's about transformation, symbolised by the butterfly and leaves. It's about a spiritual journey."
Another artist, Elena Duff, explained that her paintings "are supposed to be reminiscent of cells in the body or maybe views from an aeroplane of the earth". Fellow artist Aisling Litster said: "what I feel is that landscape and figurative work is kind of the same thing, that a body can look like a landscape and vice versa".
"There is a need for new ventures in art in Dublin," said Stuart Cole, director of James Adam & Sons auctioneers, who opened the group show. "We are turning out a lot of artists, and there is support in college. Yet there's a real lack of support when they come out."
The exhibition of artists' work, which is already online, "is a good way to whet people's appetite," he said. "It's worth doing it because it gets people to come in and they can meet the artist. Sometimes you can get a completely different perspective on a painting," he said.
"I think there's a need for more galleries for up-and-coming artists," said music manager Frank Murray. "There's a shortage of spaces, particularly in the city centre." This way "we have some kind of control over our own work", said artist Brian Halligan, who set up the online gallery with his girlfriend, Maria Colgan, last year.
Work by Argentinian artist Patricio Cassinoni also featured in the show, which ran for three days until last Wednesday.
For more information on emerging artists visit the online gallery at www.st-art.ie