The annual Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend 2011 will take place on Achill Island this coming weekend, starting today, Friday April 29 to Sunday May 1. The event opens at 7pm on Friday at the Cyral Gray Memorial Hall Dugort. The official opening will be by Angela Spizig, vice mayor of Cologne, and the welcome address will be made by Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Michael Burke.
This year’s programme will focus on the 60th anniversary of the publication of The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, a book associated with Graham Greene’s time in Achill. In 1947 Graham Greene embarked on a tumultuous love affair with a beautiful American heiress Catherine Walston, although both parties at the time of the affair were married. Greene’s love affair with Catherine also dated to the beginnings of his love affair with Ireland. Catherine owned a cottage in Dooagh on the Achill Island where they spent many summers together until the early 1950s and where Greene wrote several of his books. Catherine was married to the English Labour MP, Harry Walston. Graham was married to Vivien, whom he never divorced. In 1951 Graham dedicated his novel, The End of the Affair, to ‘C,’ and in the American publication ‘To Catherine’. Catherine was described at the time as a vivacious society beauty and the love affair in this novel was to echo the real lives of Graham, Catherine, and Harry Walston, which was made into a film by Neil Jordan in 1999. On Friday evening English author and publisher William Cash will give a lecture on Graham Greene in Achill and the publication of The End of the Affair.
On Saturday there is a seminar on creative writing by Jack Harte, director of the Irish Writers Centre. Then the launch of new edition of Heinrich Böll’s Irish Journal – with new introduction by Hugo Hamilton. There will be a lecture by Rene Böll on the work of his parents, Heinrich and Annamarie Böll. Dr Lara Feigel will give a talk on writing in the years after the war followed by the screening of the Neil Jordan 1999 film The End of the Affair.
The event also includes guided walks in Achill and on Inishskea South led by archaeologist Eoin Halpin. This event is organised by the Achill Heinrich Böll Association with funding and support from Mayo County Council, the Arts Council of Ireland and in association with the Goethe Institute, Dublin. Places are limited for each event, and booking is essential. Registration is €90 and can be done at www.heinrichboellcottage.com, for further details call either, 086 232 5516 or 087 772 0192.
