THE HUMOURS
OF ÉIGSE MICHAEL HARTNETT
by Maighread Medbh
It is a rare thing to feel a sense of cohesive community these days.
I suppose it is something that most employers would like to create among
their employees, and the search for community is a driving force on
the Internet, but a sheer local joy, involving all age groups and many
diverse interests, is not easily achieved. It is such a joy, such a
community celebration, that we experienced in Newcastle West on the
second-last weekend in September, the weekend too of the all Ireland
football final. Newcastle West is the largest town in County Limerick,
a lilting town of narrow streets, a market square and a Desmond Castle,
with the Arra river, a tributary of the Deel, adding nature’s own underscore
to a highly picturesque scene. I grew up there, and that, as the poet
said, has made all the difference.
The interest in poetry and music in the region
is enormous, but is not often expressed in the way facilitated by the
inaugural session of the new literary festival that is Éigse Michael
Hartnett. That having been said, it has been my experience that you
will get more people to a poetry reading in Newcastle West than you
will in Dublin any day. People will travel for such things, from nearby
North Kerry and from Limerick city. Michael Hartnett was born in Newcastle
West, in Maiden Street, a street to which he dedicated many of his poems.
He also wrote a long ballad, called ‘Maiden Street Ballad’, which celebrates
his origins and the life of the town. He is widely recognised as being
one of the most important poets of his generation, a poet of spiritual
and observational depth, and an expert of form. Apart from his substantial
oeuvre in the English language, he has also written extensively in Irish
and has translated from Spanish, Greek and the Irish language. He died
in October 1999.
The weekend, which owes its origins to the Limerick County Council Arts
Office and in particular to Joan McKernan, the current Arts Officer,
started off with an opening by Brendan Kennelly, followed by a reading
by the same man and recital by the singer Nóirín Ní Riain. Brendan Kennelly
recited ‘Anois Teacht an Earraigh’ and two of his own poems from memory,
underlining the endurance of the oral tradition in this part of the
country, himself a native of Ballylongford, North Kerry.
Moving as that was, nothing could have prepared me for the extraordinary
experience that was the literary pub crawl on Saturday afternoon. Local
people led in a trail mapped by Michael’s own ‘Maiden Street Ballad’,
stopping in three local pubs and at some locations along the way, such
as the river bank and the iron bridge at North Quay. It was remarked
that whoever had ascribed names to Newcastle’s various inhabited quarters
had a rather strange sense of locational significance. The North and
South Quays, for example, had never seen a docking boat, let alone a
drop of saltwater. As for Church Street, Bishop Street and Maiden Street,
local wry folklore remarks that none of these have lived up to the implications
of their epithets. Culminating in the Silver Dollar in Maiden Street,
this local literary odyssey managed to celebrate a warm and gifted community,
simply bursting with song, poetry, history and literary awareness, a
community spontaneously willing to express itself through love of all
these things.
The Éigse managed to present a very fine contextual
programme. Desmond Egan approached the poet’s work in a detailed and
controversial lecture on Saturday morning, assessing Michael Hartnett’s
importance both as poet and translator. The Máire Mhac an tSaoi lecture
on Sunday in Broadford, discussing the influence of Dáibhí Ó Bruadair
on Hartnett, was a scholarly and poetic delight, adding further perspective
to the readings of the night before, and setting general argument in
motion with her considerable distance from the views expressed in Des
Egan’s talk. Gabriel Fitzmaurice launched his new book, ‘A Necklace
of Wrens’ on the Saturday night, followed by a poetry reading presenting
Moya Cannon, Rita Ann Higgins and myself. A verbal and dramatic feast,
for which the audience seemed to have plenty of appetite. As Declan
Kiberd remarks in his introduction to Gabriel Fitzmaurice’s book, Gabriel
is a poet of community, determinedly so despite any of the proddings
of fashion, and a good poet too, who applies his own individual standards
to work that can still reach out to his audience.
It was only fitting that Gabriel should be MC
to several events over the weekend. Michael Hartnett was embedded in
the traditions of his locality, as is Gabriel, but in personality they
are as opposite as could be. Gabriel is the raconteur, the wit, the
singer and the declaimer who is comfortable with the microphone and
the captive listenership. Michael had wit to offer, but in a quiet voice,
and a voice that went deeper still, into the dark regions of experience,
into the gaps and chaos of the psyche. If Gabriel is the one with the
trumpet, Michael Hartnett might have been the maker of the trumpet,
the avid craftsman who will not be deflected from the assiduous pursuit
of perfection. Michael Hartnett wrote the musical score. It is for all
of his students and fans to sing it. And that is precisely what happened
at the Éigse.
Michael Hartnett was born in Newcastle West in 1941. He was educated in University College Dublin and during the1960's he lived both in London and Madrid. Eventually he returned to Dublin where he worked for many years with Dublin Telephone Company. During his life he contributed to various journals and newspapers as well as radio in both Ireland and Britain. In1975 he received two awards, The Arts Council of Ireland award and the Irish-American cultural Institute's award for Irish writing.
Michael Hartnett is generally regarded as one of Ireland's finest poets writing in both Irish and English. Between 1975-1985 he wrote only in Irish. His poetry earned him great respect internationally and has been translated into various European languages. On returning to Limerick he taught creative writing classes and was a guest on lecture/reading tours in Europe and the USA. Michael Hartnett was a gifted translator and dedicated a lot of time to translating works such as "Daibhi Brudair", "Padraigin Haicead", and even the ancient Chinese classic "Tao". He died in Dublin in October 1999.A complete collection of Michael Hartnett's work is available in the public library in Newcastle West. Eigse Michael Hartnett takes place every September in Newcastle West to "celebrate and commemorate the life and work of a true Gaelic poet"
(Patrick Crotty, An Anthology, Modern Irish Poetry)
[Arts & Culture] [Foilsiú Theatre Group] [Poem By Gary McMahon]
Researched and Developed for As Dúchas Dóchas© Copyright 2002