Roll up for Ranelagh For a village arts festival, which is how the Ranelagh Arts Festival in Dublin 6 sees itself, the line-up is a heavyweight one, especially on the literary front.
Opening on Sunday, September 20th and running until the 27th , a highlight this year will be the interview with Neil Jordan by Pat McCabe. Given Jordan's film adaptations of two McCabe novels, The Butcher Boyand Breakfast on Pluto, theirs has been a long interconnected professional relationship, the range of which should unfold at the event in Sandford Park School at 8 pm on 24th Sept. One caveat applies: No stiletto heels allowed. Given the macabre nature of some of the two participants' work, this directive had the mind boggling. It turns out it's just basic housekeeping: the new hall in Sandford can't take those spikes.
Not putting a tooth in it, a debate called simply "What's Going On?" is planned for September 22nd at 8pm in Scoil Bhríde national school on Oakley Road. Damien Kiberd will chair this session on the state of the economy with participants Noel Whelan, Ruairí Quinn and Dan O'Brien. O'Brien, from the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, should be particularly at home having attended Scoil Bhríde until the age of 12. Some of the issues to be debated are the subject of his book Ireland, Europe and the World: Writings on a New Centuryto be published next month.
The festival has a record three book launches this year. RMDS 21: A History of the Schoolcelebrates the 21st birthday this month of the Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School located in the award-winning O'Donnell + Tuomey architect- designed building at the entrance to the village; The Living Streets – An Anthology of the Ranelagh Arts Festival edited by Charles Crockatt, which features writers who have participated over the years, and Ranelagh in Pictures: A Place in Historyby architect Susan Roundtree. Roundtree's book features famous Ranelagh personalities from Patrick Pearse and Maureen O'Hara to Ken Doherty and Garret FitzGerald.
Other events include an interview with writer Anne Enright and a talk by writer Ronan Sheehan on John Bagnell Bury in 1 Dartmouth Place where the classicist, whose history of Greece has been used as a textbook in schools all over the world, once lived. “Dublin and the Celtic Revival” will be the subject of a talk by art historian Nicola Gordon Bowe.
Poets Ross Hattaway, Eamon Lynskey, Noel Ó Briain, Oran Ryan and performance poet Raven will perform during the festival, and there’s the regular Poetry Speakeasy at which all are welcome to come and read their work. The public will have another opportunity to participate at the event “A Patch of Old Snow: an Hour or Two of Frost and Music” when Brendan Ellis invites people to come along and either read a poem by Robert Frost or play a tune you might hear on a winter’s night in Vermont.
Once called the Chelsea of Dublin, Ranelagh has always had an arty feel but now plans are afoot to actually have a dedicated Art Quarter in the heart of the village where it’s hoped a number of spaces for studios will soon become available.
For details of the full festival programme, see ranelagharts.org.
Short story competition
The Francis MacManus short story competition is 25 years old and entries are open for the next one.The closing date is Monday, October 26th. Prizes of €3,000, €2,000 and €1,000 are on offer and the winning and shortlisted stories will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1.
Full details, including rules and an entry form, can be downloaded from rte.ie/radio1/ francismacmanus or by sending a stamped addressed envelope to: RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition, RTÉ Radio Centre,Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
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