Launch at City Museum in December of Three Poets in Irish Project

national | arts and media | news report Wednesday November 04, 2009 16:30 by Fred Johnston - The Western Writers' Centre, Galway - Ionad Scríbhneoiri Chaitlin Maude westernwriters at eircom dot net Canavan House, Nuns Island, Galway 0872178138

Bus Éireann and Foras na Gaeilge Awards for Western Writers' Centre

A new Irish-language project award gave birth to a book of three personal and poetic Galway histories -

Illustration by Sabine Springer: canal lock-gates

Saturday, December 5th, at 3pm, Galway City Museum is the set date and venue for the launch of a commemorative and celebratory book of three Irish-language poets' personal and poetical impressions of the city of Galway, sponsored by Bus Éireann and Foras na Gaeilge last year as the Western Writers' Centre award project. All are welcome.

The three poets are Seosaimh O Guairim, Colette Nic Aodha and Ailbhe Ni Ghearbhuigh. The book was designed by Sabine Springer.

"It was a wonderful opportunity to have three Irish-language poets and an artist mull over their personal impressions of Galway," says the Centre's Director, Fred Johnston. "Our commitment to writing in the Irish language is consistent and - so the Arts Council have told us - is greater than that of any non-specifically Irish-language festival or group in the country." He adds that the Arts Council withdrew the Centre's Programming Grant as soon as the Centre received the Irish-language project award! "We were intensely grateful to Bus Éireann and Foras na Gaeilge for their support and interest. And I would like to express out thanks to Galway City Museum's Breandán O hEaghra, who was immediately open to our launching the book there."

Meanwhile the Centre has received a bequest of 400 books by European authors and is looking for a home for them in the face of opposition to the development of the Centre from Galway City Arts Office. This year, the Centre refused even to apply for City Council grant aid because of it. In spite of this, the eight-year-old Centre continues to plan and organise projects on an ongoing basis and has recently inaugurated a script-reading programme.