When Brian O’Nolan (Myles na gCopaleen, Flann O’ Brien) finished his degree exams in University College Dublin it wasn’t to Maguluf he headed with his with his friends but to Gortahork.
There was a good reason that he chose Gortahork and this year, for the first time, we are celebrating the connection that the small Gaeltacht town has with one of the most celebrated writers of the last century. This is the man who wrote An Béal Bocht, The Third Policeman and The Dalkey Archive.
It would be hard to quantify the extent of the influence of Gortahork and its inhabitants on the imagination, language and comic understanding of the writer.
It was in Gortahork that Micheál, his father, learnt his Irish, it was to Gortahork that they came on their family holidays and it was from Gortahork their parents employed the help needed to raise the large family and to maintain Irish as the spoken language of the household regardless of where they happened to live.
On Saturday the 28th & Sunday the 29th of June 2014 the last surviving member of Brian’s family, his brother Micheál, the celebrated artist, will be present to kickstart the events.
There will be a cycling trip following the route of the original cycling tour that Myles/Brian/Flann took, where stopping for ‘a pint of plain’ will be compulsory. Dr Nollaig Mac Congáil, an authority on the work of Myles na gCopaleen will be among the speakers and local performers will read from the authors work.
Former RTÉ and Ros na Rún actor Diarmuid de Faoite will read from An Béal Bocht. There will be, without doubt, a Feis Ghaelach where Belfast reggae group, Bréag, will headline proceedings.
Join us for this historical weekend – there will never be its like again. Further infomation from Deirdre Learmont ag 087 6222204.
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