ArtScape:The failure of negotiations to resolve the delayed publication of Greg Delanty's translations of the poems of Seán Ó Ríordáin suggests that only Ó Ríordáin's executors or his beneficiaries can take any action on this dispute, an affair mystifying to anyone outside the tightly-guarded bastions of Irish-language publishing, writes Mary Leland.
Delanty's solicitor, Colm MacGeehin, says he has seen the assignment of copyright by the poet, who died 30 years ago, to his then publisher, Sáirséal agus Dill. These rights were transferred to Sáirséal Ó Marcaigh when the original company was taken over by Irish-language publisher Caoimhín Ó Marcaigh in 1981. However, MacGeehin has also seen evidence of Delanty's assertion that before publication he had made repeated and unsuccessful efforts to contact and negotiate with Sáirséal Ó Marcaigh over four years, only to assume that the company was defunct and that there was no impediment to publication of the new book. "Our most recent attempts to negotiate a settlement with this publisher have been categorically rejected," says MacGeehin, "and there the matter lies."
While the new books languish unread in the store-rooms of publisher New Island, "languishing" might also apply to the original poems, rarely seen nowadays outside libraries and schools (although An Siopa Leabhar in Dublin has both Eireball Spideoigeand Scáthán Véarsaí). Delanty, the Cork-born poet producing this first collection of the Cork-born Ó Ríordáin's work in English, claims that Ó Ríordáin books in Irish from Ó Marcaigh publishers are not generally available in book shops, "and we have checked all the reputable countrywide mainstays of that trade, including Eason retail and wholesale; this has been the case for quite some time."
Anyone who wonders why such an important Irish writer is being kept such a secret might try to apply to Caoimhín Ó Marcaigh himself for an explanation, but the publisher refused to speak to this journalist.
However, Sean Ó Coileáin, Ó Ríordáin's biographer and, with Seán Ó Mórdha, one of the two literary executors, says that he hasn't seen anything of Ó Ríordáin's in the bookshops since the publication of Scathán Vearsaí, a selection by Cian Ó hEigeartha in 1980. Ó Ríordáin's best-known book, Eirebeall Spideoigewas last published in 1986 by Sáirséal Ó Marcaigh. As described by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Ó Riordáin "was the man on the edge - of language, of life - whose distance gave him the unique, angular (and sometimes wrong-headed) point of view that is like nobody else's". This dispute seems to keep him on the edge of a sad epilogue to an already sad life.
However, it raises questions that are not exclusive to Irish-language publication: for example, should possession of copyright impose an obligation to publish, in translation or otherwise, and failing that, should it revert to the writer's estate?
While MacGeehin believes there is no way in which Delanty can advance the current situation, it is also possible that where a copyright is not being exercised a court could be asked to declare it null and void. But such an action could only be taken by the executors or beneficiaries. The pity of it all is that Ó Ríordáin, who died without having made a will, had friends and advocates supportive of his work and reputation; it seems unfriendly that in such a conflict they have remained silent and inactive.
A tale of two orchestras
The National Youth Orchestra of Ireland is moving forward with confidence from the crisis it went through earlier this year, writes Michael Dervan. That crisis arose when orchestra managers and board members resigned in protest at the board's decision to merge the two major youth orchestras into one. As part of the way forward a strategic review was commissioned from Tony Ó Dálaigh, and the orchestra has decided to make its contents freely available - it can be downloaded from www.nyoi.ie.
The New Year concerts by the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in Limerick (Friday, January 4th) and Dublin (Saturday the 5th) will go ahead as planned, with Richard Strauss's gigantic Alpensinfonie (Alpine Symphony) under Matthias Bamert sharing the programme with Sibelius's Violin Concerto, in which Nicola Benedetti is the soloist.
The recruiting problems that precipitated the crisis have not gone away, and the programme for the younger orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland (the Ó Dálaigh review recommends a change of name to remove confusion between the two orchestras) has had to be curtailed.
The programme at the Helix on New Year's Day by the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland (the younger orchestra) will be restricted to strings-only repertoire, with Gearóid Grant conducting serenades by Elgar and Tchaikovsky. Another of Ó Dálaigh's recommendations probably spells out where the orchestra's most acute problem will lie in 2008. He suggests that the board should "seek a substantial increase in its current grant of €70,000" from the Arts Council.
Given that Minister for Arts Séamus Brennan has failed to allocate the Arts Council itself an increase that even matches the current level of inflation, the youth orchestras' battle for such extra funding could be a difficult one.
Hugh Lane ready to celebrate
Next year Dublin City Gallery - The Hugh Lane, celebrates its centenary with a series of special exhibitions and events, writes Aidan Dunne. The high point of the programme will be the Hugh Lane Centenary Exhibition. Opening on June 26th and running throughout the summer, the show will bring together, for the first time since 1913, all 39 paintings that make up the Hugh Lane Bequest. They include Impressionist masterpieces by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro and Édouard Vuillard.
Following Lane's death on the Lusitania in 1915, all the paintings went to the National Gallery in London. Decades of negotiations ensued when an unwitnessed codicil to his will came to light, leaving the paintings to Dublin. Since 1993, 31 of the 39 reside permanently in Dublin, while the other eight, the cream of the bequest, alternate four at a time between Dublin and London. The Centenary Exhibition will also feature many little-seen works from the City Gallery's original permanent collection. Many will require the attention of conservators before they are unveiled to the public.
Hugh Lane, a nephew of Lady Gregory, was himself a picture restorer and dealer. After a concerted effort on his part, the Dublin City Gallery first opened its doors, as the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, in a temporary premises on Harcourt Street at 4pm on January 20th, 1908. To commemorate the event, an installation of an ambulatory figure on O'Connell Street, by artist Julian Opie, will be launched at 4pm on January 20th. Other featured exhibitions next year include solo shows by Mark Fancis and Fergus Martin; and Unique Act, featuring five abstract painters: Sean Scully, Seán Shanahan, Carmen Gloria Morales, Ruth Root and Frederic Matys Thursz.
Another exhibition, Now Is the Time, will concentrate on artists who have died young, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jason Rhoades, and Eva Hesse. "It's really a tribute to Hugh Lane," gallery director Barbara Dawson said. "He was only 39 when he died, and only 33 when the gallery originally opened. In a relatively brief life he accomplished so much and had such a long-lasting impact on cultural life in Ireland."
Lane, who was knighted in 1909, did not live to see the gallery move to its current home in Charlemont House, Parnell Square in 1933, but given the difficulties he endured in finding a suitable premises he would surely have been delighted.
*Culture Ireland has advertised for a commissioner, to "shape, progress and project-manage" Ireland's representation at the Venice Biennale in 2009. This is the first time a commissioner has been advertised and proposals from an individual, a collective, or an organisation are invited. See www.cultureireland.gov.ie; expressions of interest should be submitted by January 10th.
Páraic Breathnach has been appointed new managing director of Galway Arts Centre, where he'll also be working with Cúirt and Tulca festivals and Galway Youth Theatre. A leading arts figure in Galway, and involved in the establishment of Macnas, the Galway Arts Festival and the Town Hall Theatre, more recently Breathnach has had a national profile, with RTÉ and TG4 programmes such as Soiscéal Pháraic, The Eleventh Hourand Theatre in the Round, and as an actor in film and TV, including on Michael Collinsand Breakfast on Pluto.