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Irish Writers Remembered .jpg) John
McGahern
John McGahern, who once said that writing fiction is “linked to
the realization that we’re not going to live forever and the way
of saying and the language become more important than the story,”
was remembered at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House in New York on March
29.
Literary luminaries and fans of McGahern, who passed away in January 2006,
gathered to celebrate his life and work. The commemoration included a
panel discussion with Pete Hamill, Joe Kennedy and Belinda McKeon.
The author of six novels, five collections of short stories as well
as four plays written for television, radio and theater, McGahern was
one of Ireland’s most prolific contemporary novelists. As a child
John resided in Leitrim and Roscommon but left Ireland after the controversy
surrounding his second novel, The Dark, which dealt with clerical child
abuse and was banned for obscenity. Amongst Women, his 1990 novel, won
the GPA Book Award and The Irish Times Award as well as being short-listed
for the Booker Prize.
The tribute concluded on March 30 with a screening of the documentary
film John McGahern: A Private World at NYU’s Cantor Film Center.
Introduced by author and journalist Pete Hamill, the hour-long documentary
was directed by Pat Collins and used McGahern’s autobiography as
a foundation. Featuring a series of intimate interviews, the documentary
offered a unique glimpse into the mind of one of Ireland’s best
contemporary writers.
Benedict Kiely
When Irish writer Benedict Kiely passed away on February 9, 2007 fellow
novelist Colum McCann noted in the Irish Times, “There will be stories
told this week: in pubs, on stone bridges, in train stations…Stories
of how he told stories. Stories of how his stories became songs. Song,
indeed, of his stories. No better music.”
On March 21 the stories were told at the Housing Works Used Book Café
in New York City. There was no better music than the words of Kiely’s
friends gathered there to pay tribute. Among them were Colum McCann, Christy
Barrett Kelly, Frank McCourt and Chris Cahill of Pace University and the
American-Irish Historical Society.
Born near Dromore, Co. Tyrone, Benedict Kiely was one of Ireland’s
best, if lesser known, contemporary writers. The author of 10 novels and
four volumes of stories as well as travel books and anthologies, Kiely’s
work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Kenyon Review, AIHS’ Journal,
The Recorder and other American magazines. Despite his notable achievements,
Kiely has been largely forgotten by present-day readers, publishers and
critics.
In New York the night of reminiscing began with a soulful reading of Seamus
Heaney’s eulogy for Ben by poet Christy Barrett Kelly. Colum McCann
read
from Kiely’s novel Nothing Happens in Carmincross. The other readings
were from The Collected Stories of Benedict Kiely published by David R.
Godine Publisher in 2003. Author and memoirist Frank McCourt related a
hilarious
anecdote about how he would have a Ph.D. from Trinity College were it
not that every morning on his way to the library he encountered Kiely
who led him into a pub instead.
Listening to the tales told throughout the night, a clear portrait of
Kiely emerged, even for those unfamiliar with the man or his writing.
Benedict Kiely was a man who knew something of life, and of the people
he encountered on his rambles through Ireland’s pubs and countryside.
McCann expressed a wish that everyone in the audience could have a glass
of whiskey or brandy in hand to lift in Kiely’s memory, and indeed
it seemed a gesture most fitting. Kiely may have passed on but his stories
endure. It can only be hoped that those who have not yet read Kiely will,
and that his stories may continue to haunt those who have.
– Bridget English |
