Considering the rich literary tradition of which we are so wont to boast, it's a wonder the universities have no tradition of offering the courses in creative writing so prevalent in the US. Making a stab at rectifying this is Trinity College's English Department, with its new M Phil in Creative Writing.
The course is being housed at the college's new Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at 21 Westland Row, the house where Wilde was born in 1854. On Tuesday evening, a distinguished collection of writers, academics and other notables joined the first batch of students for an informal bash to mark the opening of the centre.
The course has, in fact, been running since last autumn but, as Brendan Kennelly explained, the house "looked like the victim of an Oscar Wilde party" back then. Brendan is running the course along with fellow poet and English lecturer Gerald Dawe, who now refers to himself as the fittest man in the English Department, as he dashes back and forward between classes in the department and the new centre.
The setting for the party was the room in which Oscar's mother held her famous literary salon before the family moved around the corner to Merrion Square, and among those cherishing the literary symbolism of it all were sculptor John Coen, poets Derek Mahon and Thomas Kilroy and the centre's first writer fellow in residence, Anne Enright.
One of the inaugural students, Chris Binchy, said the course was a great sounding board, and enthusiastically revealed plans to publish a joint collection of the students' work.
Among the guests were more authors of books on Oscar Wilde than one could care to recall, but this group included Richard Pine and Prof Davis Coakley. And a reminder of the English aspect of Oscar's heritage was the presence of Harold Fish, Director of the British Council.