An ABC to Friel:When pondering the hard question of how to honour Brian Friel, the subject of proceedings at the Magill Summer School in Glenties in Co Donegal last summer, Seamus Heaney came up with a whole new literary genre: a befrielery.
The idea involved focussing on the letters of the playwright's name as a way of celebrating his 80th birthday, which took place last month. His tribute "abecedary" is now out in a slim, volume called Spelling It Out(price €15) and published by the Gallery Press, with a drawing of Friel by Basil Blackshaw inside.
Inevitably it opens with a B, for Ballybeg "the invented domain where so many of Brian's plays are set, the hub of his imagined world.'' But not content with one entry, Heaney often squeezes in another one or two for each letter and B also features Broadway, where with the success of Philadelphia, Here I Come!,Friel entered the Broadway of legend and became a famous name.
Inishowen, where Friel lives, is under I and the Abbey Theatre under A – but there are less obvious entries too: like No under the letter N. “N is also for no, Brian’s admirable resistance to all forms of self-promotion, to the machinery and vulgarity of celebrity, to the lure of compromise, to the temptations of false sentiment.”
A’s first entry is for Friel’s wife Anne; “Brian’s first base, his second sight, the back of the mirror he holds up to nature, the one with whom he has travelled ‘Together oar to oar and wing to wing’ – in life and in love, in family and in fame.”
The very last letter of Friel's name leads Heaney to L for letter, the first one Friel wrote to him after Heaney's Death of a Naturalistwas published in 1966: "a gesture that was generous, typical and of immense significance for me. It was an admission to the guild of makers, permission to draw up a stool to the edge of the magic circle, and as such an honour to be cherished and a standard to be lived up to ever since."
A return to Finnegans
Feel this could be the right moment to leap into Finnegans Wake? The first Finnegans Wake-End at University College Dublin takes place today from 11am to 5pm in room J208 in the Newman Building in Belfield. The section of Joyce's less-read opus being examined is the opening section of Book III, chapter 1. Anne Fogarty and Luca Crispi of UCD and Sam Slote of Trinity College Dublin will be joined by guest moderators Finn Fordham from Royal Holloway University and Wim Van Mierlo from the University of London – with Paul O'Hanrahan of the Balloonatics Theatre Company also taking part. The €20 registration fee (€10 for students) covers lunch and coffee.
RIA unveils treasures
An exhibition designed to coincide with the publication of Treasures of the Royal Irish Academy Library, edited by Bernadette Cunningham, Siobhán Fitzpatrick and Petra Schnabel (see W10) is currently running at the RIA's Dawson Street home in Dublin.
It’s open Monday to Friday, and runs until May 15th and then again from June 2nd to 19th.
Upcoming lectures in the RIA's free lecture series include John Scattergood on A French Book of Hoursfor an English patron on Wednesday, March 4th, at 1pm and Bernadette Cunningham on Riaghail S Clara (The rule of St Clare) and the Irish Poor Clareson Wednesday March 11th at the same time. Tel: 01-676 2570.
Celebrating life
A series of creative writing courses is up and running in Áras an Chontae in Portlaoise and will continue until May. Jean O’Brien is currently conducting workshops on the theme of a celebration of life’s events, happy ones and even death – considered in the sense of a life well lived.
John Maher’s forthcoming workshops will focus on the short story and on novel extracts, while Ann Egan will be exploring the place of the seasons of the year as they mirror the seasons of people’s lives, through the mediums of prose and poetry. Details at laois.ie