Tim Robinson, the internationally acclaimed writer, map-maker and thinker, based in Roundstone, will this month launch his new book and be celebrated with a series of events in NUI, Galway.
Today marks the publication by Penguin of Mr Robinsons’ Connemara - A Little Gaelic Kingdom, the conclusion of his Connemara trilogy. The previous books in the series were Listening To The Wind (2006 ) and The Last Pool Of Darkness (2008 ). They trilogy has been described by writer Robert Macfarlane as “one of the most remarkable non-fiction projects undertaken in English”.
Mr Robinson is a native of Yorkshire and has been living in the Connemara region since 1972. He first came to international attention in 1986 with his acclaimed two-volume study Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage and Labyrinth.
In Connemara - A Little Gaelic Kingdom, he writes about the landscape, people, and history of south Connemara, bringing to bear his talents both as a prose writer and an expert cartographer.
As well as the publication of the book, NUI, Galway will host the Connemara Symposium, a series of free events in Galway city and Connemara, to celebrate Mr Robinson and his work on Friday September 9 and Saturday 10.
Events include a screening of Pat Collins’s film Tim Robinson: Connemara in the Roundstone Community Hall on the evening of Friday 9.
There will also be lectures and talks in the Galway City Museum by an international assembly of writers including John Elder, Eamonn Wall, Briona Nic Dhiarmidha, and Kelly Sullivan.
The Druid Theatre will hold readings by Tim Robinson, travel writer Manchán Mangan, poet Moya Cannon, and Andrew McNeillie and Eamon Grennan on the evening of Saturday 10.
“Tim Robinson’s writing about landscape and the human place within it is one of the world’s cultural treasures,” said Nicholas Allen, Moore Institute Professor at NUIG. “We are delighted to bring writers, academics, and artists to celebrate his achievement and to discuss his work.
“Tim’s engagement with the west of Ireland, its people and languages, has added to a rich cultural tradition that extends back over centuries. Our aim is to invite the community to join in the free and public events we have organised in conversation with Tim’s work.”
For more information and details on the events taking place for the Connemara Symposium see www.nuigalway.ie /mooreinstitute/site/view/905/
In 2006, Tim Robinson and his wife Máiréad bequeathed their house, Folding Landscapes, on the sea wall at Roundstone to NUIG. The Robinsons continue to live in the house, which at the same time has become a venue for the university to share the resources and knowledge of the institution’s many visitors, academics, and practitioners. Mr Robinsons received an honorary degree in 1997 from NUIG.
