When Fred Johnston was appointed as literary officer in the embryonic Galway Arts Centre, he was asked, on his first day, if he had any plans. He told the then director Dick Donoghue of a dream he had ever since reading Daniel Corkery’s book Hidden Ireland in which the author discussed how ‘courts of poetry’ which had been set up after the Flight of the Earls where poets would gather and recite their works. Fred’s idea was to establish such a court that would introduce international, national and local poets to a Galway audience, a sacred place for the celebration of poetry where it might sing again to big audiences. He did not want poetry to constitute a cultural hidden Ireland.
And so the idea of Cúirt was born. A small group set about organising the first festival, looking for sponsors, generating publicity, putting up posters. Initially, the reaction was fairly negative – ‘No one would last the pace of an entire festival devoted to poetry’, “A poetry festival? Sure that would never take off”, But take off it did, and how!
Sponsors were found, letters written a poster (illustrated ) was designed by Tom Taheny and appeared all over town, a reception was held in the Kenny Gallery to announce details of the first festival which, as you can see from our photograph was attended by James Harrold, Michael Mullen, Conor Bowman, Gerald Dawe, Jessie Lendennie, Mike Allen, Eoin Bourke, Fred Johnston and Raghnall Ó Riordan. Seated are Eva Bourke and June Grey Smith.
They had an impressive line-up for that first festival. Ian Crichton Smith and Douglas Dunn read in the Warwick Hotel, Nuala NÍ Dhomhnaill and Sorley McLean read upstairs in the Imperial, Eavan Boland and Gerald Dawe read in the Arts Centre, Thomas McCarthy and Kathleen O’Driscoll read on board THE GALWAY BAY and the programme also included Patrick Deeley, Rita Anne Higgins, John Hogan, Pat Ingoldsby and Fred Johnston. Attendances were enthusiastic and fulsome.
The headline act and final reading was in the Great Southern and featured the English punk poet John Cooper Clark and Paul Durcan. Some 500 people attended, probably the largest audience for a poetry event in Ireland that year. Paul went on first and had the audience entranced, Then, Cooper Clark approached up the aisle trailing a long white bridal train behind him. The place erupted. He had music behind him. No one had heard anything like this before. The two poets had thrown poetry wide open into the audience. Poetry had a modern living audience. It had found its ‘Cúirt’ again and furthermore, the festival made £30 profit.
It had proved itself. Dick Donoghue was able to pay Paul Durcan £75 instead of the agreed £50 fee. The benchmark was set very high and every year since the standards have been maintained as Cúirt continued to grow and is now regarded as one of the most important literary festivals in Europe. An important element in its success has been the accessibility of the writers to the audience, also allowing a budding writer a platform by sharing the stage with a well-established author. The list of former participants is such that every aspiring or established writer wants to be on it.
After a few years, the Arts Council threatened to withdraw their grant to Cúirt unless they included other literary forms such as fiction, drama and children’s writing in their programme. The organisers were not happy but they needed the money and so the festival began to grow not just in terms of content but also geographically.
It has continued to expand but it has ever strayed from its original aim to feature Irish and international writers on an equal footing. Gone are the days when an author might not be invited because’ not enough people in Galway would understand his/her language. They come from all corners of the world. The list of past participants is such that every aspiring writer wants to get on it.
This year’s festival, the 40th, gets off to a brilliant start with Paul Muldoon and Sally Rooney, maintains the very high standards we have become used to. It runs from the 8th of April to the 13th and shines a special light on literature in translation. There is a feast of highlights in the programme so the advice is ENJOY!
