FÉILE NA bhFlaitheartach 2016, the annual festival celebrating the work of Galway left-wing writers Liam and Tom O’Flaherty, takes place on Inis Mór, the Aran Islands, on August 27 and 28.
Now in its fourth year, the theme of this year’s féile is Fís 1916/The Vision 1916. The festival will be opened by Fearghas Mac Lochlainn, grandnephew of Pádraig Pearse, and the keynote speech will be given by historian and former Irish Press editor, Tim Pat Coogan. His talk is titled: “All changed, changed utterly".
The festival will focus on the events of 1916 and its aftermath, through the radical lenses of Liam and Tom O’Flaherty, with a dramatic re-telling, as Gaeilge, of Liam’s novel Insurrection, about the Easter Rising, performed by Máirín MhicLochlainn with Aisteoirí Chois Fharraig.
There will also be a public reading in English by Fionnghuala Ní Choncheanainn of Liam’s, The Discarded Soldier, written for the Communist Party of the USA’s daily paper, The Daily Worker, in 1924, and drawing on his experiences as a soldier fighting in WWI. Tom’s short story, 'Na Líonta. Ar Círín na Breachlainne Móire', will be read by Máirín MhicLochlainn.
There will also be performances by the Aran Drama Youth Group, with its award-winning sketch, Comóradh Fir Chróga 1916; while former county councillor Seosamh Ó Cuaig will discuss what Aran was like in 1916 and what Liam and Tom did that year; Aran Island 1916 veterans Seán Ó Briain and Brian Seoige will be remembered.
For more information see the Liam and Tom O’Flaherty Society page on Faceook.
