There aren't many summer schools where you actually get to meet the subject being honoured - but then, poet Brendan Kennelly wouldn't want to miss out on the action by languishing in the hereafter. Running from August 9th to 12th in Ballylongford, Co Kerry, the festival not merely features Kennelly reciting his poetry, but he'll be around all weekend to celebrate the place where he was born. Workshops in art and poetry, exhibitions, a walk among the local ghosts and a ferry outing, are all on offer and guests will include Desmond Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin, Theo Dorgan, Miriam Purtill, and John McDonagh. For further information, e-mail: kennellysummerfest@ireland.com
Dublin-born poet Caitriona O'Reilly has made it on to one of the shortlists for the prestigious Forward Prizes 2001, to be announced in October. These are the most valuable poetry prizes in the UK, with a prize fund totalling £16,000 sterling. They were founded by publisher William Sieghart to raise the profile of contemporary poetry.
O'Reilly is on the shortlist of the Waterstone Prize for Best First Collection, and stands to win £5,000 if she comes out on top. Now living in Wicklow, she is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, and is completing a doctoral thesis on American literature. Over 100 collections and 100 single poems were entered for the various categories and The Forward Book of Poetry 2002 will be published to include a selection of all the entries.
It's one thing for today's pen-pushing historians to write about people and places in pre-Famine Ireland, but quite another to read it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Lewis' Dublin, has been produced by Christopher Ryan, and published by The Collins Press. Samuel Lewis made quite an impact with his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, first published in 1837. It contained statistics from the first complete census of Ireland, which had been conducted in 1831, and included a description of over 3,000 places, including towns, villages and parish divisions.
Over 120 places were mentioned in respect of Dublin, ranging from Artane on the northside to Williamside on the southside. (Where? All right, that's Booterstown or thereabouts). It's a comprehensive description of pre-Famine Ireland with the Big Houses in Stillorgan described as "handsome seats and pleasing villas". But how many in the area know that adjoining the grounds of Waltersland, for instance, was a field called Silver Park, where 100 graves were discovered, together with numerous spearheads and other warlike instruments, confirming a tradition that a battle had taken place there. You won't find information like this in any modern estate agent's brochures.
Further information from www.collinspress.com
Check your watch and get going. Eoin Colfer, author of the international bestselling, Artemis Fowl, will be reading from his book in Easons, in Dublin's O'Connell Street, this afternoon at 1 p.m. Wexford-born Colfer not only made number one in the bestsellers' list here, but came in among the top five in both the UK and in the New York Times list with his tale of a bright but bad lad edging towards his teens, while combining magic and reality to create a world where leprechauns are the stuff of high-tech action. Go find the pot of gold . . .
Red faces from AA Publishing. Some of the AA's flagship maps lost their way so much so that some places fell off the grid altogether, including the French towns of Montpellier and Rheims, while Nantes was buried beneath an index. The AA Publishing's sales and marketing director, Stephen Mesquita, has told The Bookseller that "remedial action" has been taken and new batches have been sent out to bookshops. But the initial run has been a sell-out with the maps, costing £3.99 in the UK, meant to rival Michelin.
Attorney General Michael McDowell did the honours for the launch of Murdoch's Irish Legal Companion, by Henry Murdoch. Published by Lendac Data Systems, it is available on CD-Rom and by subscription on the Internet and is aimed not merely at the professional and student, but also at the lay person, keen to know all there is to know about Irish legal statutes since the foundation of the State. Over 650,000 hypertext cross-references (including websites) are included, as well as information on a range of topics from e-commerce to the The Belfast Agreement. Amazingly, one CD, "effectively replaces a large library of reference materials," according to Liam Chambers, of Lendac Data Systems. Prices start at £100. Info: 01 677 6133.
BBC Radio Four's The Archers is 50 years old this year - as if you didn't know. And to mark the occasion between hard covers, BBC Publishing will be producing two Archers' books to coincide with a big party in the UK's National Indoor Arena in September.
Who's Who in The Archers (assuming you still want to know despite the recent arrival of Ginger-the-hen) by Keri Davies will be followed by The Archers Encyclopaedia.
Colour, spice and character are all part of the emphasis in the Israeli exhibition Bread and wine in the Land of the Bible which continues in Cavan County Museum until next Monday. The exhibition, which is on a world tour, deals with the development of wine and bread in Israel from ancient times to the present day.
Vines, wheat and barley are not merely regarded as fundamental to the nourishment of body and soul, but constitute an essential part of everyday life and significant elements of religious and social rituals.