School may be out, but for some school has only just started - yes, the summer school silly season is upon us. Even if you haven't signed up to study Yeats in Sligo or Parnell in Wicklow, there's a chance to jump on the summer school bandwagon this week when the UCD International Summer School opens its doors to the public on Thursday for an event with a difference.
Called "Northern Lights: Northern Notes", the evening will give fans of Reading in the Dark a preview of Seamus Deane's next novel, a work in progress called The Wizard, which will be accompanied by Derek Bell of The Chieftains on the Irish harp. This will all start in St Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle at 7.30 p.m.
The reason for this particular celebration is that the summer school, which was originally known as the Irish Summer School, first took place in 1949, making this year its 50th anniversary and, according to the director of the school, Dr Fran O'Rourke, making the school the oldest in the country. Speakers at this year's school include writers Richard Kearney, Declan Kiberd, Frank McGuinness, the UCD writer-in-residence; historian Ronan Fanning, and artist and daughter of W.B. Yeats, Anne Yeats.
While books get turned into films with great regularity, occasions when bookshops star on celluloid are slightly more rare. However, when the Galway Film Fleadh kicks off next week, Kenny's book shop in Galway may well become the biggest bookstore movie star since 84 Charing Cross Road. Books in the Blood is a documentary about the family bookshop, made by director Donal R. Haughey who previously scooped the best Irish documentary award at the festival with his programme about the Claddagh Palace cinema.
Books in the Blood features interviews with Maureen and Des Kenny Junior, writers, academics and customers, and traces the history of the shop since its foundation in the 1940s and the genesis of Des's hugely successful book club on the Internet.
Haughey was amazed at the extent to which people throughout the world knew of Kenny's and held it in high regard - in New York he was delighted to learn that he had been given permission to film in Fred Bass's, the second largest second-hand bookstore in the city, and even more delighted to learn that director Woody Allen had been refused access shortly before. Fred, it seems, was a great pal of the late Des Kenny Senior, and the film makers were treated like royalty.
Thames & Hudson is one of the few publishing houses left in Britain that has not been gobbled up by a large consortium. This year marks its 50th anniversary and they made the trip across the pond to celebrate with a massive birthday party, Irish-style in the Trinity College Dining Hall on Wednesday. Specialising in art and illustrated book publishing, Thames & Hudson has published Irish writers and historians including Micheal MacLiammoir, Desmond Guinness, Conor Cruise O'Brien and Brian de Breffni. It was also behind the compact editions of The Book of Kells that sold tens of thousands.
Next up on the T & H schedule is Peter Harbison's The Golden Age of Irish Art: The Medieval Achievement 600-1200, which will be published this summer and which it reckons, is the first serious assessment of the subject since 1945. Next spring will see the publication of Christopher Simon-Sykes's The Most Beautiful Villages in Ireland.
Yet another 50th anniversary and another independent publisher: John Calder founded Calder Publications a half century ago. He has chosen to celebrate in a slightly more unusual way and has scripted a play based on those 50 years in the business.
Damned Publishing will only get seven performances at the Riverside Studios in London's Hammersmith from July 20th.
Known in Ireland as the publisher who championed Samuel Beckett, Calder has published the work of over 20 Nobel prize-winners. Then there were the times when the publisher challenged government policy, was prosecuted and sued - all proving that the business of books is more cut-throat than might be imagined.
Sadbh has long been aware that the urge to write short stories is a disease one suffers rather than a pastime one indulges. One indicator of this is the news from the organisers of the annual Francis MacManus Short Story Competition that they have received over 12,000 stories in the 14 years they have been running the competition.
They are now accepting entries for this year's competition, so if you want to join the league of past winners which includes Katy Hayes, Ivy Bannister and Pat Boran, send a stamped addressed envelope to the Francis MacManus Awards, RTE Radio 1, Dublin 4. The closing date is October 1st and the prize money has been increased to £4,000 in total.
Sadbh