Glenn Patterson
OFFICIAL OPENING OF BALLYSCULLION PARK BOOK FESTIVAL
Glenn Patterson will be officially opening the inaugural Ballyscullion Park Book Festival at 10am on Saturday 11th May in the marquee. Glenn will introduce the speakers, some of whom will read their favourite Seamus Heaney poems. Celtic Grace will provide musical accompaniment.
Glenn is the author of eleven novels, two novellas, and five works of non-fiction. He co-wrote the screenplay for Good Vibrations (BBC Films) and the subsequent stage adaptation. He is Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, which will soon be opening at an exciting new site.
Celtic Grace
CELTIC KINDNESS SHOW
Step into our original, magical, musical, interactive experience. Based on historically accurate events, this unique show focuses the incredible true-life story of the iconic, blind harper, Turlough O’Carolan, a genius composer who developed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
A single act of kindness transformed his life and changed Irish history forever…
Let your feet tap, your heart smile, your spirit soar, maybe even dance! as the ancient Celtic music, original story and poetry captivate and infuse your soul. Performed in sumptuous, bespoke, locally-made costumes, this original and unmatchable performance will excite your eyes, delight your ears, expand your heart and enrich your mind.
Carlo Gébler
A COLD EYE, Notes from a shared island 1989 – 2024 (memoir, publication autumn 2024)
I’ve always kept a diary. I do it for two reasons; to make a record I can refer to, and because writing the diary limbers me up and gets me into the writing zone. Publication was never intended until I thought: Why couldn’t I take one day from each year of my diaries, starting in 1989, the year I’d arrived in Northern Ireland, and run them together? That way I would make a book which would tell story of the place where I’d found myself accidentally living as it morphed from the Troubles to the Good Friday Agreement to Brexit three decades later. Out of these slivers, a picture of Northern Ireland over those twenty-eight years would arise.
I, ANTIGONE (novel, 2021)
I, Antigone borrows the story of Oedipus from Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy and imagines how Antigone, Oedipus’s daughter, might have narrated her father’s life story. Antigone’s take is that while on the one hand her father acted of his own free will, on the other he was caught by something greater than himself, something that is sometimes called destiny or fate or even bad luck, which meant he acted against his own best interests because it was impossible he could do otherwise. In the early twenty-first century, when opinions are so polarised, I wonder whether Antigone’s understanding of volition as both chosen and inescapable, if it were more widely accepted, mightn’t make our conversations with each other kinder and quieter, and our politics gentler? This is what the talk will explore.
Eliza Pakenham
TOURISM, TENANTS AND TAXES
Tullynally Castle has been the family seat of the Earls of Longford for over 370 years.
Nowadays, much of Eliza’s time is taken up with the colossal task of keeping this neo Gothic
castle afloat, complete with its 120 rooms, 26 acres of garden and 7 Estate cottages. The
trials and delights of this vocation and how it feeds into her writing will be the subject of her
talk. Whether it’s rescuing stray bats, fending off recalcitrant visitors or pursuing escaped
llamas, there’s never a dull day. In 1813 her 8 x great grandfather kept a notebook titled
“Fun, Folly and Frolic”. In 2023 Eliza’s own notebook is sensibly titled “Tourism, Tenants and
Taxes.” However its quite possible she may soon turn into the Mad Woman in the Attic so do
come to her talk before that happens.
Anthony Malcolmson
EDIFYING BISHOPS
Exploring the neglected role of the Church of Ireland bishops of the 18th and early 19th centuries in building Big Houses – whether see houses or palaces for themselves and their episcopal successors, or private residences for the families they intended to found. Their importance in both respects derived, very practically, from the huge revenues they enjoyed in right of their sees, which placed them in the top rank of the landed class in Ireland.
ARCHIVES AND ANNALS – RESEARCHING BIG HOUSE HISTORIES
In conversation with Andrew Hughes.
Andrew Gailey
IN THE BLOOD
‘The Sheridans are much admired but are strange girls,’ remarked Lady Cowper; ‘swear and say all sorts of things to make men laugh. I am surprised so sensible a woman as Mrs Sheridan should let them go on so. I suppose she can’t stop the old blood coming out.’
The old blood was that of Richard Brinsley Sheridan: the leading playwright and public orator of his day, a society rake and seducer, a celebrity in an age of scandal, and bankrupt. For all the glamour, his was a life that would end with the bailiffs knocking down the door. Yet it would exercise a powerful influence on his descendants for over 100 years as they sought to restore, reinvent, or reject this inheritance. This would prove a tale of duels, elopements, divorce, and court cases; of affairs with prime ministers and leaking of Cabinet secrets. Of how children can suffer with celebrity parents; of the pursuit of respectability and a rewriting the record. And at the last a surprising revival as ‘the blood will out’.
Sebastian Graham
MANOR MILLS IN THE MID ULSTER AREA – THEIR OWNERS, HISTORY AND FATE
The development of settlements and society in the 17th and 18th Centuries in Ulster led to the rise in small but significant mills. The London Livery companies during the Plantation of Ulster were quick to build mills on their lands to make them self-sufficient and profitable. Other independent estates and landlords were also keen to build and develop mills on their land to generate trade and taxes. Such sites would have been the most advanced engineering feats of their day, mesmerising locals and finding their way into folklore and literature. Tenants signed leases which bound them to certain “manor mills” ensuring that they could not bring their grain to other mills on pain of paying a crippling fine. Tenants occasionally also had to give due days to help repair the mill and their sometimes leaky mill races. They were an important feature in many estates, but many fell out of use by the late 1800s and many were left to go to ruin. This talk will look at some of these manor mills across Mid-Ulster, their history and fate.
Bruce Clark
BYRON IN ATHENS
In his talk, in conversation with Ioannes Chountis, Bruce will reflect on the fateful visit to Athens paid by Lord Byron between Christmas 1809 and spring 1811 which gave the young poet an abiding love of Greece and prompted him to fight for Greek independence. Byron and his friend Hobhouse loved the small, gossipy, cosmopolitan town of Athens and entered with gusto into its colourful social life. In the midst of all this partying and tomfoolery, Byron was finding his poetic voice and on the way to becoming one of Europe’s best-known figures. This talk also looks at the aesthetic influence of Greek art and architecture in Ireland and elsewhere.
Sophia Hillan
JANE AUSTEN’S NIECES IN IRELAND
A conversation between Sophia Hillan and Cassandra Wedd, descendant of Jane Austen’s niece, Cassandra Knight. In her 2011 biography, May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen’s Nieces in Ireland, Dr Hillan tells the previously unexplored story of Jane Austen’s Irish family, from which Richard Mulholland is descended.
LOOK! IT’S A WOMAN WRITER – experiences of writing fiction
Retired academic and prize-winning author Sophia Hillan has published two novels and a volume of short stories, some of which were first broadcast by BBC R4 and featured in Faber’s Best New Irish Short Stories series. After her inclusion in Look! It’s a Woman Writer: Irish Feminisms 1970-2020, she was one of four writers invited by the Irish Embassy to speak about their work in New York. A new essay, Marianne Dancing, on Jane Austen’s niece, Marianne Knight, is soon to appear in a forthcoming anthology, Well, You Don’t Look It, edited by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne.
Finola O’Kane
LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND REVOLUTION IN IRELAND AND THE UNITED STATES – 1688-1815
The designed landscapes of England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688, the American Revolution of 1776 and the Irish rebellion of 1798, with some detours into revolutionary France, this talk traces a comparative history of property structures and landscape design across the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.
WALLED GARDENS – GROWING FOOD AND HOW WE FED OURSELVES IN THE 18TH CENTURY
In conversation with Vibse Dunleath, a fascinating practical insight into how our ancestors lived and put food on the table 365 days of the year without a supermarket, a fridge or a freezer. It is a subject which is touched by the weather, politics, war and science.
Andrew Hughes
FROM HISTORY TO FICTION
How the stories unearthed while researching house histories inspired his career as a novelist. His latest novel, Emma, Disappeared, a crime novel set in Dublin, was released on 4th April 2024 to great acclaim.
‘Compelling, unsettling and very creepy’ Catherine Kirwan
‘Atmospheric and filled with twists and turns … a fantastic read’ Patricia Gibney
RESEARCHING BIG HOUSE HISTORIES In conversation with Anthony Malcolmson.
Killua Castle in Co. Westmeath was castellated in the early 19th Century. It was home to the Baronets Chapman. Lawrence of Arabia was the illegitimate son of the seventh and final Baronet Chapman.
Vibse Dunleath
WALLED GARDENS – GROWING FOOD AND HOW WE FED OURSELVES IN THE 18TH CENTURY
In conversation with Dr Finola O’Kane, a fascinating practical insight into how our ancestors lived and put food on the table 365 days of the year without a supermarket, a fridge or a freezer, especially during the May hunger gap. It is a subject which is touched by the weather, politics, war and science.
MONICA DE WICHFELD, FROM FERMANAGH TO THE DANISH RESISTANCE
Monica Massey-Beresford was born in 17 Eaton Square, London, The home of her grandfather John
Mulholland, 1st Lord Dunleath in 1894. Her parents were of Anglo-Irish descent and she was brought up at St. Hubert’s, Co. Fermanagh. Monica married a Danish diplomat Jørgen de Wichfeld in 1916. Her glamourous life ended when war broke out. As the Nazi occupation of Denmark grew more oppressive, Monica became increasingly involved with Resistance work. Alone, she rowed explosives across the lake at Engestofte, the family home in Denmark. She hid RAF paratroopers and other refugees in the large house. This without ever involving her husband. She was betrayed and taken by the Gestapo. She was tried and sentenced to death. Her sentence commuted to life imprisonment. She died in February 1945, and her name lives on in Denmark as well as in Ireland.
Emma Heatherington
Robert O’Byrne
THE IRISH COUNTRY HOUSE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
After a turbulent period 100 years ago when many important properties were lost, Ireland’s country houses have enjoyed mixed fortunes. While some have thrived, others have sadly failed to survive, their contents dispersed, their buildings left to fall into decay. Even in the 21st century, few of them can be assured of a stable future. This talk will look at the challenges owners now face and offer examples of houses which are reinventing themselves for the present age.
Stephen Price
THE EARL BISHOP
Frederick Hervey, The Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. The man and his mansions – Downhill and Ballyscullion.
Terence Reeves-Smyth
BIG HOUSE PASTIMES: THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF SPORT IN GARDENS AND DEMESNES
This will be an illustrated overview of how the occupants of Irish country houses had an irresistible propensity for the chase and placed high value on game, especially deer, and from the later 18th-century, foxes, and hares. Horse racing and cock fights also featured in many demesnes, while in the 19th century parkland plantations were frequently altered to accommodate the widespread fashion for driven shooting. Closer to the house, bowling greens were a common feature in the 17th and early 18th-century, while archery, croquet, cricket, tennis and even golf, all featured as popular sports in Victorian and Edwardian country house gardens and parks.
YEATS AND THE NOBEL PRIZE
Martin Enright and Joyce Raftery-Enright will give a presentation
and recite a selection of Yeats’ poems commemorating the poet’s Nobel Prize of 1923, with music by Celtic Grace.
YEATS AND THE SLIGO LANDSCAPE
Additionally, they will present ‘Yeats and the Sligo landscape’, an illustrated talk which traces the influence of mythology, archaeology and history of Yeats’ family links to the Sligo hinterland. The poems of W.B. Yeats are integral to this presentation.
Paddy Creedon
POETRY TREASURE HUNTING
In 2023, Paddy Creedon led his unique and participative ‘Poetry Treasure Hunt’ in a number of different locations from West Belfast to Oxford, from Rowallane Garden in Co. Down to Newtownmountkennedy in Co. Wicklow. For all those attending the Ballyscullion Park Book Festival in May 2024, come and participate in a very different poetic experience.
“My absolute favourite experience at that Oxford conference in 2023 was to be a part of a creative and moving poetic journey that would ultimately arrive at a full length poem, penned by Paddy. Listening to his poem was like listening to your heart beating in symphony with everyone around you. Paddy led this highly professional, creative ‘Poetry Treasure Hunt’ with the utmost care, grace and ease.” Mattie Shisko
Rowan Somerville
A POUND OF FLESH: ISRAEL, PALESTINE AND THE QUALITY OF MERCY
Rowan’s third book Beat was a non-fiction investigation into a suicide bomb in
Tel Aviv, Israel, followed by a heart transplant between an Israeli Jew, and a Palestinian Muslim. 23 young people were killed in the attack and hundreds were injured. Many people see this particular suicide bomb as the ticket that brought Netanyahu to Power, the moment when the Israeli liberal voice became impotent and the catalyst for where we are today.
Suzie Scott
THE ART OF FLOWERS IN THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
This illustrated talk will look at the art of flower arranging, predominantly during the Georgian era (1714 – 1830), and how the use of flowers, which hitherto had mostly been used for medicinal and culinary purposes, came to be enjoyed for pure pleasure and decorative beauty alone. The discovery of new and exciting plants from across the world which flooded into Europe in the
16th and 17th, encounters with the art of China and the Far East, the spread of botanical illustration (combined with advances in engraving on metal) and developments in garden style and new methods of horticulture, all contributed to an exciting and ever expanding choice of
flowers to grow & arrange. This in turn led to a proliferation of ever more artful & ingenious methods of arranging them & vessels to display them in.
Ian McKinley
SECOND SIGHT: RUGBY AND REDEMPTION
“Rugby’s long history is full of tales of inspirational courage. Yet there has never been a rugby player quite as remarkable, quite as jaw-droppingly brave as Ian McKinley.” Ian’s talk about his career-ending injury and subsequent return to professional rugby is a true story of perseverance and the desire to never give up.
Neil Porteous
Becky Cole
ART EXHIBITION
Becky Cole is a contemporary artist based in Northern Ireland. She was trained at the renowned National College of Art and Design in Dublin and also completed a diploma at Trinity College Dublin in European Painting. Her work is a reaction to the land that surrounds her, where she mainly works plein air or from her studio located on her farm.
Ioannes Chountis
BYRON IN ATHENS
This talk, in conversation with Bruce Clark, will reflect on the fateful visit to Athens paid by Lord Byron between Christmas 1809 and spring 1811 which gave the young poet an abiding love of Greece and prompted him to fight for Greek independence. Byron and his friend Hobhouse loved the small, gossipy, cosmopolitan town of Athens and entered with gusto into its colourful social life. In the midst of all this partying and tomfoolery, Byron was finding his poetic voice and on the way to becoming one of Europe’s best-known figures. This talk also looks at the aesthetic influence of Greek art and architecture in Ireland and elsewhere.