THE SECOND annual Oliver St John Gogarty Literary Festival will be held in Renvyle House - the former house of the writer - in Renvyle, Connemara, and will run from Thursday November 6 to Sunday 9.
Oliver St John Gogarty was born in Dublin in August 1878 and was a poet, surgeon, soccer player, and a member of the Senate. He would later become the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Gogarty played football for Bohemians FC, and in 1924 he won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games for his poem Ode to the Tailteann Games. He was a key figure in the Irish literary renaissance and had many famous guests at his home at Renvyle including WB Yeats and Augustus John. His best known work is his 1937 memoir, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street.
The theme for this year’s festival will be Irish Literary Figures Overseas. Guests will include poets Gerald Dawe, John O’Donnell, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Michael O’Loughlin. There will also be a poetry workshop, live entertainment, art exhibitions, and a cycle race.
The festival begins on Thursday November 6 with registration at 6pm and dinner at 7.30pm. On Friday 7 at 11.30am Michael O’Loughlin will read from Gogarty’s poetry and limericks; at 2pm there will be a field trip to Omey Island; and at 5.30pm Gerald Dawe will give a talk entitled A Painful Case: Samuel Beckett and Oliver St John Gogarty and read poetry.
On Saturday at 11am John O’Donnell will give the talk Remembering Noll Gogarty, Barrister and give a poetry workshop at 2.30pm. At the same time journalist Jim Carney will deliver the lecture Louis MacNiece and Omey Island; Gogarty’s House, a production by Tegolin’s Tales at Paddy Coyne’s, Tullycross, takes place at 4pm; Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe will present a lecture and slide show on artist Harry Clarke at 5.30pm.
Saturday will also feature The Gogarty Cycle Race - an 8km bicycle race for all the family around the Renvyle Peninsula.
The festival concludes on Sunday with three events. At 10am there will be a field trip to the Harry Clarke windows at Tullycross Church, with Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe; a poetry reading with Nuala Ní Domhnaill at 11.30am; and at 12 noon, a discussion panel comprising of speakers and chaired by Galway Advertiser chairman Ronnie O’Gorman.
An art exhibition entitled Land and Sea, featuring paintings, textile works, prints, and photography from a variety of artists will open on November 6 and run for two weeks.
For more information go to www.gogartysociety.com
