FÉILE NA bhFlaitheartach, the annual celebration of the Aran Island writers Liam and Tom O'Flaherty, takes place on Inis Mór on Saturday August 29 and Sunday 30, with discussions on history, politics, and literature.
The festival, now in its third year, is a bi-lingual event and is organised by the Liam and Tom O’Flaherty Society. The keynote address, entitled Liam O’Flaherty, the Man and the Writer, will be given by Seamus Cashman of Wolfhound Press, publisher of most of O’Flaherty’s works. The talk will open the festival on the Saturday and will be followed by lunch and a reading, by Fionnghuala Ní Choncheanainn, of Tom O’Flaherty’s short story Coming Home, at the O’Flaherty homestead in Gort na gCapall.
Also on the Saturday, Aisteoirí Chois Fharraige will present a dramatisation of Liam O’Flaherty's short story, Oifig an Phoist, followed by a trad music concert by children from Inis Mór. The day concludes with sean-nós dancing and singing in Tí Joe Mac’s.
Sunday will feature a discussion on how much documentary truth is contained in Liam O’Flaherty’s novel Skerrett. Former county councillor Seosamh Ó Cuaig will look at the people who inspired the characters of the school teacher and the priest in the novel - Dáithí Ó Ceallacháin, and Fr Murty Farragher. Poet Dave Lordan will ask how much liberty can be taken in literature with historical facts, perhaps in pursuit of a greater truth.
For more information see the Liam and Tom O’Flaherty Society on Facebook.
