"No bombed city, no artillery-raked village ever looked like this, for bombs and shells are nothing but extended tomahawks, battleaxes, maces, with which to smash, to hack to pieces, but here there is no trace of violence; in limitless patience, time and the elements have eaten away everything not made of stone."
These are the words in the mid-1950s of the German writer and Nobel prize-winner, Heinrich Boll, describing the deserted village at Slievemore on Achill Island, Co Mayo.
The author of Irish Journal spent much time on the island until 1983, two years before his death; and his cottage at Dugort has been used as an artists' retreat for the past five years with support from Mayo County Council.
Now the Heinrich Boll Committee Achill has initiated a Heinrich Boll Academy, in co-operation with a newly-founded German society, Netzwerk Irland eV. The German society has also become a partner in the cottage initiative.
This past weekend the two groups held a Boll weekend, which was opened in Westport on Friday night with readings by Hugo Hamilton and Thomas Plaul. It continued on the island with a very ambitious debate chaired by the former Gaeltacht minister Denis Gallagher on, wait for it, the state of the west.
The academy has drawn up a list of German-Irish projects for the next two years, with the aim of promoting inter-cultural and inter-disciplinary exchange.
Initially, the academy will use the Heinrich Boll cottage as its postal address, and further information can be obtained from John McHugh of the Achill committee at (098) 47306 (phone and fax), or Dagmar Kolata at (094) 81697 or fax (094) 81074.