Bookmarked #8

Welcome back to another week of Cúirt’s weekly entertainment recommendations.

Poetry Day Ireland 2021

Thursday 29 April 2021 has been announced as the date for this year’s celebration of poetry. Poetry Ireland has chosen ‘New Directions: Maps and Journeys’ as the theme for this year. 

If you’re planning an online event on the day, register it with Poetry Ireland by the deadline of 16th April so they can share it on the Poetry Day website. There are also a small number of Bright Ideas bursaries of up to €800 available to help make your event happen. The deadline to apply for the bursary is Monday 15th of March. 

‘What does it mean to go off map? Or to take the road less travelled as Robert Frost once wrote. For Poetry Day Ireland 2021, we’ll explore these themes in poetry, and we invite you to join us on this journey of discovery. Check your coordinates, sketch out your route and get ready for a poetry adventure on 29 April 2021!’

Link to register event: https://www.poetryireland.ie/poetry-day/join-in/registration. 

St. Patrick’s Online Festival

While it is disappointing to be facing another few weeks of restrictions, St. Patrick’s Festival have a wonderful line-up of online events to make our national day of celebration as enjoyable as possible. 

The theme of the festival is ‘Dúisigh Éire’ or ‘Awaken Ireland’. It is a reminder to the world to leave the past behind and look forward to a bright and positive future. While it would be fantastic to be back on the streets, enjoying the spring sunshine and getting involved in the usual parade festivities, isn’t it wonderful that a global audience will be able to experience St. Patrick’s day this year? 

The festival will run from 12th – 17th of March, featuring more than 100 events. These events will be broadcast on St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV), where a global audience can access live events available at https://www.stpatricksfestival.ie/. Audiences will also be able to replay their favourite shows on the website Player.

Included among the events are the RTE Virtual Parade, ‘Irish Legends’ with Eddie Lenihan, comedy with Foil, Arms and Hog, poetry films by Poetry Ireland, Oscar Wilde walking tour, and so much more. 

St. Patrick’s Festival 2021 is made possible with the support of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin City Council and many more. 

Majella Ní Dhomhnaill – Mise de Mhamó 

With Seachtain na Gaeilge nearing its end and St. Patrick’s day coming up on Wednesday, you might be interested in finding new ways to practise your ‘cúpla focal’. 

 Cúirt highly recommends Mise de Mhamó by Majella Ní Dhomhnaill, a novel written in the Irish language. Published at the end of last year, this stunning work of fiction is written in simple, easy to understand Irish. Less familiar words and phrases are printed at the bottom of each page to aid understanding and fluidity of reading. 

The story reveals the comparison between the unrealistic versions of ourselves we put online and the struggles of living in the real world. Ní Dhomhnaill deals with contemporary issues such as alcoholism, social isolation and domestic violence. The tale explores the lives of the three generations of women at the heart of the story. 

If improving your Irish by diving into a contemporary story isn’t enough motivation for you, just look at that gorgeous cover!

You can order a copy of Mise do Mhamó from An Siopa Leabhar: https://www.siopaleabhar.com/en/product/mise-do-mhamo/.

Brian Finnegan – Hunger of the Skin

Released on 12th March, Brian Finnegan’s new album explores the extraordinary string of events that began in Ireland exactly one year prior. Hunger of the Skin was inspired by the experience of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is a musical celebration of the importance of human connection and interaction, the joy of shared experiences, stories and music, and the power of physical connection. 

Brian is a member of bands Flook and Kan. He is a whistle player and past pupil of The Armagh Piper’s Club. His new album features ‘Flow, In The Year of Wu Wei’, which was nominated for the RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards in 2020. 

You can buy the album on Bandcamp through this link:

https://brianfinnegan.bandcamp.com/album/hunger-of-the-skin.

Kerrie Ní Dochartaigh – Thin Places

Published by Canongate in January 2021, Thin Places is an astonishing piece of writing, incorporating memoir with history and the beauty of nature. 

Kerri Ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry at the height of the Troubles. Terror and violence was the norm throughout her childhood, during which there was no such thing as a safe space. Kerri reveals how she took solace in the natural world, relying on it for comfort and stability, and turning to it as a healing authority. 

‘A breathtaking mix of memoir, nature writing and history: this is Kerri Ní Dochartaigh’s story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world’.

Kerri will also be joining Manchán Magan at Cúirt’s preview event at Culture Ireland’s global online festival, SEODA. A year after the arrival of the Coronavirus, Kerri and Manchán will join us to discuss how the land under our feet both keeps us rooted and is itself rooted in our history and language. They are joined in conversation by acclaimed nature writer, Paul Kingsnorth on 21st March at 2 p.m. 

If you would like to be featured as part of Bookmarked, please get in touched through our social media or email info@cuirt.ie. We accept submissions from all areas of the arts.