For thousands of years the coastal communities of north Mayo have been "reading the sky". They've had to: it was a matter of survival. Nowadays, weather forecasters track the deepening depressions and brewing storms that sweep in from the Atlantic. Scientific advances ensure that they're usually right; well, that is, except for an unusual phenomenon that's been occurring in Belmullet for the last decade.
It was through the creative energies of writer Dermot Healy that the first Force 10 literary weekend in Belmullet was organised in 1991. Then writer-in-residence with Mayo County Council, Healy was already involved in editing an annual literary journal of the same name. The pervading distinctiveness of both the journal and the weekend has been their openness to providing an equal forum for both established and unknown writers.
When Healy retired at last year's Force 10, which was billed as "the last fling", Mayo County Council's arts officer, Ann McCarthy, was inundated with protests. After an extensive evaluation, the council's arts service decided it had no choice but to continue the event. Armed with increased wind-power, this year Force 10 became Force 11 Writers' Weekend and was skippered during a more tightly formated weekend in early June by writer and broadcaster Frank Galligan.
"Whilst it was the 11th year of the festival," McCarthy says, "the name represents a shift in sensibility and hints at progression."
This year, a writer-in-residence programme was introduced to the Erris area for the two weeks before the festival. By all accounts, author Re O Leighlis, who was also a guest reader, conducted an extremely successful series of workshops and impromptu readings.
The seaside town of Belmullet is an exotic outpost. The gateway to the Mullet peninsula, this busy little town exudes an air of generous informality. Over 50 participants, representing writers' groups from Derry to Waterford, read and worked in the company of Leland Bardwell, Brian Leyden, Rita Ann Higgins and mother-daughter poetic duo, Joan and Kate Newmann. Mayo poet Ger Reidy, pokerfaced irony his hallmark, entertained with a selection of poems from his next collection.
Mayo County Council's ability to host a weekend literary festival that is informative, creative and with lots of craic has been commended by writers and artists from every genre. Frank Galligan's opening of artist Deirdre Walsh's exhibition confirmed the connectedness of Mayo's large artistic community.
The launch of the programme for the Iorras 2001 International Folk and Arts Festival on the same evening is a testament to the harnessing power of Force 11.
Iorras 2001 International Folk and Arts Festival will be held from July 25th-29th. Web Site: www.feileiorras.org