Weekend 2009

Boll Weekend 2009:

Heinrich         Böll          Memorial         Weekend.

May   1st  –   May    3rd     2009 .            Cyril   Gray   Memorial   Hall   Dugort.

The Achill Heinrich Böll Association are organising the 5th annual Heinrich Böll  memorial weekend from May 1st – May 3rd 2009 on Achill Island.  The weekend event will be officially opened by Mr Eamon Ryan.T.D.  Minister for Communications, Energy and  Natural  Resources, at 7.30pm on the evening of  Friday May 1st at the Cyril Gray Memorial Hall in Dugort  Village.

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                   Eamon Ryan.T.D.  Minister for Communications, Energy and  Natural  Resources.

Minister Ryan will also announce and present   prize for the winning  Heinrich Böll Memorial Essay  for  second level students. This is now an annual event with participants from Scoil Damhnaith and McCale College.

 

This will be followed by an illustrated lecture The Life and Writings of Brother Paul Carney (1844-1928),  Travelling Quester  and Chronicler of the Life of James Lynchehaun.  Patricia Byrne, a distant relation of Br. Paul Carney, is a native of County Mayo and currently lives in Limerick where she teaches Life Writing. Much of her career has been spent in regional economic development work until she took up writing several years ago. She graduated from the NUI Galway MA Writing programme in 2008. During this programme she researched the unpublished writings of Brother Paul Carney, the Franciscan monk who was based in Achill from 1869 until 1895 and left behind two manuscripts: an account of the life of James Lynchehaun and a chronicle of Brother Paul’s fund-raising trips to the USA in the first decade of the twentieth century. Patricia’s fiction, poetry and nonfiction have been widely published in journals and anthologies. Her review of Irish Theatre 2007, Playboys, Demons and the Last Kick of the Tiger, was published in the autumn 2008 edition of New Hibernia Review.

 

The final event Friday evening is a reading by poet  John F. Deane, which will focus  on the Franciscan Monastery in Bunnacury.  John F Deane was born  on Achill Island. He founded Poetry Ireland – the National Poetry Society  and The Poetry Ireland Review, 1979; Published several collections of poetry and some fiction; Won the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry, the Marten            Toonder Award for Literature and poetry prizes from Italy and Romania.  of the European Academy of Poetry.  Shortlisted for both the T.S.Eliot prize and The Irish Times Poetry Now Award, won residencies in Bavaria, Monaco and Paris. Latest poetry collection “The Instruments of Art”, Carcanet 2005; “In Dogged Loyalty”, essays on religious poetry, Columba 2006; latest fiction “The Heather Fields and Other Stories,” Blackstaff Press 2007. Poetry collection, “A Little Book of Hours”, Carcanet 2008. He is a member of Aosdána. In 2007 the French Government honoured him by making him “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres”.    In 2008, was visiting scholar in the Burns Library of Boston College.

 

On Saturday May 2nd there will be a guided walk of the Deserted village led by Theresa McDonald, from the Achill Archaeological Field School. This will focus on recently excavated sites to the west and north of the village.

 

From 2.30 – 3.30pm, there will be an illustrated Lecture by René BöllBöll family in travelling in Ireland and other European countries;  at the Cyril Gray Memorial Hall Dugort.

This will focus  on  the writing of Heinrich Böll,  beginning with the early 1930’s with the first poems written as a pupil, the letters written in the war time, the beginning in the post war Cologne in the late 40’s and up until the 1980’s. Alos focusing  on the  experiences of the Böllfamily in travelling to Ireland, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia (August 1968), Yugoslavia, and Rome,  and including experiences being under observation by the political police in the east and the west.

 

René Böll, was born and lives  in Cologne. Since 1963 self-study drawing and painting. He studied painting and prints (especially: lithograph) in Cologne and Vienna. 1972 First working with Chinese and Japanese ink.  From 1975 to 1988 co-founder and publishing director of the Lamuv publisher. 1978 publishers and translators (from Spanish) activity as a photographer. Sechsbändigen editor of the 1985 edition: All Letters of Vincent van Gogh. Since 1988 freelance painter. From 1993 re working with Chinese ink and  etchings. Works in China, Ecuador, Ireland, Kenya and Russia.

 

This will be followed by a screening of the film Das Leben der Anderen / TheLives of Others,  at 3.45 pm An important  film set against the background of the reunification of Germany.. Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. This is an important political thriller and human drama, “The Lives of Others” begins in East Berlin in 1984,five years before Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall and ultimately takes us to 1991, in what is now the united Germany. Successful GDRdramatist Georg Dreyman and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland, apopular actress, are intellectual stars in the socialist state,although they secretly don’t always think loyal to the party line. One day, theMinister of Culture becomes interested in Christa,so the secret service agent Wiesler is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more.

 

 

From 3.45pm – 4.45 pm, there will be a creative writing workshop  with John F. Deane at   Áras Forbairt Acla –  Crumpaun School in Keel. This is an opportunity for all those interested to develop an interest in creative writing.

 

Saturday’s evening programme commences at 7.30 pm at the Cyril Gray Hall with readings and a round table discussion on  German Identity 20 Years after theFall of the Berlin Wall. This event is organised  in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Irland.   Introduced and chaired by Prof. Dr. Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa. Head of the Department of German, National University of Ireland, Galway.

There will be a reading  by Ulrich Peltzer .  Ulrich Peltzer studied philosophy and social psychology in Berlin since 1975. He graduated as psychologist in 1982. Since then he has been working as a free author. He wrote five novels, four of them deal with his experiences in Berlin, one takes place in New York (Bryant Park).  Ulrich Peltzer lives in Berlin. He has received several awards:1992 Bertelsmann-award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in Klagenfurt1996 Berliner Literaturpreis of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung 1997 Anna-Seghers-Preis2000 Preis der SWR-Bestenliste 2001 Niederrheinischer Literaturpreis of the city of Krefeld  2003 Bremer Literaturpreis 2008 Berliner Literaturpreis for lifetime achievement.

This will be followed by a reading by  Jan Böttcher.

Jan Böttcher was born in 1973 in Lüneburg and studied German and Scandinavian literature in Stockholm and Berlin. He has lived in Berlin since 1993 as a musician and author. He was the front man of the band “Herr Nilsson” and released his first solo CD in 2008. In 2003 Jan Böttcher published his warmly received debut “Lina or The Frigid Moor”. After two more novels he published his novel “Nachglühen” (Afterglow) in 2008. It is moving between pre- and post-unification periods and was on the longlist of the German Book Prize 2008. At the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in 2007 he won the Ernst Willner Prize for the short story on which this novel is based.

 

 Final reader for the evening  is Hugo Hamilton at 8.55. pm from his recent novel Disguise (2008),  A compelling drama tracing Berlin’s central   historical importance throughout the twentieth  century.

Hugo Hamilton was born in Dublin of Irish-German parentage. He has brought elements of his dual identity to his novels including in his published a memoir The Speckled People (London, Fourth Estate, 2003); and its sequel, The Sailor in the Wardrobe (Fourth Estate, 2006).  For The Speckled People Hugo Hamilton received the Prix Femina etranger in France, as well as the Berto Prize in Italy, and appeared on the New York Times notable books list.

 

At 9.30pm. There will be an open discussion  moderated by;- Prof. Dr. Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa., on German Identity 20 Years after theFall of the Berlin Wall.

 

On Sunday May 3rd there will  be a guided day long visit to Clare Island led by  archaeologist Eoin Halpin, and local guides. Meet at Cloch Mór pier 10.00am sharp for  transfer by ferry. Visit to  Clare Island Abbey, and other sites of archaeological, cultural  and historical interest. Lunch at Bay View Hotel, – return to Achill at 4.00pm.

                     
                                               

Booking and registration for all events recommended details available  at ;      www.achilltourism.com . 

Full weekend  Full Weekend Activities   €90.  ( Concessions Rate €75).

 

Further  enquiries;   Mary Lavelly Burke;   087 772 0192. or  John Mc Hugh   086 232 5516.    email; hbollachill@anu.ie

 

 

This event is organised in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Irland, and receives funding from The Arts Council of Ireland, Mayo  County Council, and donations from private sources.
          

                                                                                                                                           

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