sadbh@irish-times.ie
Ate might sound like something you've just done to your breakfast, but it's an acronym for the Association of Teachers of English. Their summer school sessions start on Tuesday at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, and continue until Friday. Their ATE's big coup was getting Britain's Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, to attend. Motion will be reading from his work and discussing it at the opening event on Monday evening. On Tuesday, he gives poetry workshops on John Keats and Philip Larkin. Both these poets are on the new Leaving Cert syllabus, and since Motion has written biographies on them both, the workshops are bound to be of huge interest to teachers. Other folk giving workshops and papers include Judith Mossman of TCD; Mary Breen of UCC; Carmel O'Sullivan of TCD; and Catherine Smyth of the Cistercian College, Roscrea. More information from Kate Bateman at 014531780.
Good news for Belfast-born academic and writer Marianne Elliott this week, when it was announced that she is to be awarded an OBE for her contributions to Irish Studies, and to the Northern Ireland peace process. She is Professor of Modern History and director of the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool. "I'm really pleased," she told Sadbh. "Sometimes over the years, it has been very hard work promoting Irish Studies in Britain, and although my books have got attention in the past, this honour is for something different - for contributions made to the peace process and Irish studies."
So how had the Elliott household been celebrating? "My husband put a bottle of champagne in the fridge - and it's still there. By the time I was ready to drink it, he had gone off to watch the soccer. . ." Her family will go with her to Buckingham Palace when the award is conferred. Her new book, The Catholics of Ulster, A History, will be published by Penguin in October.
Now in its fifth year, is a summer school with a difference. The Irish Writers in London Summer School runs two nights a week between June 28th and August 9th, and events include lectures, seminars, workshops and readings. Among those who will be tutoring are short-story writer Bridget O'Connor, poet Maura Dooley, and memoirwriter, Polly Devlin. Based in the University of North London, the fee is £75 sterling. More information from Tony Murray at 0044-2077535018 or isc@unl.ac.uk
Garter Lane Arts Centre is looking for submissions for a poetry broadsheet, to be published in September. Contributors must be Waterford-born, or resident there now. You can submit up to three poems, with your name and address on a separate piece of paper. Send them before 30th June to Broadsheet, Garter Lane Arts Centre, 22A O'Connell Street, Waterford.