Raftery Festival Friday – Sunday, Nov. 21st – 23rd
This is our third year and we are delighted to be working with our recently appointed Arts Officer, Ciarán Friel. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.
We have decided on November this year because June is always packed to capacity with every kind if festival imaginable. Even if it is wet, cold and miserable, we can retire to one of the many cosy establishments and listen to a poem, a song or a tune – we can spoil ourselves and live with the memory.
Some time ago, Killeeneen National School invited me to meet a number of classes in Killeeneen Churchyard, at the tombstone of the great bard of Cill Aodáin and County Galway. We were rained off and headed back to school to complete our stories and poems – I enjoyed myself very much, especially as we were celebrating the spirit of Raftery, who was born in Cill Aodáin, in 1778 (disputed) and who died on Christmas Eve in County Galway in 1835. Cill Aodáin is my birthplace as well.
I was, naturally, thrilled to carry that long thread from his birthplace to his tombstone, but what excited me most was the esteem in which his life and work was held by these young people and their teachers. The old, blind bard never returned to Cill Aodáin but, thankfully, we can cover the sixty miles in about an hour, today.
Clarinbridge, County Galway, has built Raftery into their festival in October, and we will celebrate In sight of Raftery in Kiltimagh – the parish of Cill Aodáin, in November.
Our programme is not yet complete but Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, joined by piper, Diarmaid Moynihan, will launch the festival on Friday the 21st. Ollie Burke and Mary McNicholas will sing Cill Aodáin; Poet, Matthew Sweeney will be writer in residence for a week; Andrew Forster is coming from The Lake District; poet and singer/songwriter Ger and Tony Reidy will join us from Wesport. There will be lots of opportunity for aspiring and seasoned writers: a Poetry Slam competition on Friday night, readings and music in pubs and open mic on Sunday. Matthew, Andrew and I will offer creative writing workshops on Saturday and there will be much, much more. Come along and join in the fun.
As soon as we have completed the final version of the programme it will be published on this page.
We look forward to seeing you,
Terry McDonagh.