Exciting programme planned for Thomas MacDonagh Hedge School

FOLLOWING the success of the inaugural Thomas MacDonagh Hedge School last year, an initiative of the Thomas MacDonagh Museum, they are delighted that award winning writers and scholars have agreed to read and speak at their Hedge School events this September.

The Thomas MacDonagh Museum honours the life of the poet and patriot MacDonagh, a native of Cloughjordan. It does this by collecting, safeguarding, exhibiting and interpreting material associated with MacDonagh, his family, his activities, his times and his legacy. Within its archive, the museum holds rare copies of The Irish Review, a literary, and latterly also a political journal, to which luminaries including W.B. Yeats, P.H. Pearse, Lord Dunsany, James Connolly, William Orpen and Jack B.Yeats contributed poems, stories and essays.

In 1821 the poet Shelley wrote that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”. The theme for this year’s programme is inspired by MacDonagh’s central role in the arts and politics of his time, evident in his work as contributor and editor of The Irish Review during its brief run (1911 – 1914).

They are thrilled that Daniel Mulhall, a retired Diplomat and a former Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, will give the keynote address to open the Thomas MacDonagh Hedge School, at 11am on Saturday September 21st.

Daniel has also served as Ireland's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Germany and Malaysia. He was a member of the Irish Government’s delegation at the negotiations that produced the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Since his retirement in 2022, Daniel has been: Global Distinguished Professor of Irish Studies at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University; Parnell Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge University; and a Fellow at the Institute of Politics, Harvard University. In 2022, he published Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey (New Island Books) to critical acclaim.

They are honoured that Fergal Keane, author and Special Correspondent for the BBC news, will join them in conversation with Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, novelist and Course Director of the MA in Creative Writing at UL. Fergal will share his personal perspectives on his love of literature, music and poetry. He will discuss how, in his view, the arts contribute to political discourse. This event will take place at 2pm on Saturday September 21st.

Esteemed for his truthful, affecting and conscientious reporting from troubled areas around the globe, Fergal was made an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy on July 18^th, this month. Fergal is the author of a number of bestselling books, most recently The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD (Harper Collins).

At 4pm on Saturday September 21st, Dr Catherine Wilsdon, Communications and Public Engagement Manager at UCD Library, will chair a fascinating panel discussion entitled ‘Arts, Politics and The Irish Review’. Catherine will be joined by Dr Róisín Kennedy, Lecturer in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at UCD and Dr Billy Shortall, Research Fellow in the Irish Art Research Centre at TCD (TRIARC). Together they will explore how the arts have informed their approaches to their work and academic writing and how, in their view, the arts contribute to political debate.

The 2024 Hedge School events begin with a two day Creative Writing Workshop facilitated by David McLoghlin. David is a prize-winning poet, a creative nonfiction writer and a literary translator. The workshops will take place at the Thomas MacDonagh Museum from 11am-1pm on Wednesday and Thursday September 18th-19th. These workshops are for adults, are free of charge and limited to 12 participants. Participants who are requested to attend on both days. No prior writing experience is required.

The Thomas MacDonagh Hedge School will celebrate Culture Night on Friday evening September 20^th with the launch of an art exhibition entitled The Irish Review - Creative Responses. Curated by the North Tipperary Artists’ Collective, twenty professional and amateur artists have been invited to draw inspiration from The Irish Review journals to create a unique collaborative work.

Also on Culture Night participants in the Hedge School’s Creative Writing Workshops will read from work they have created, also in response to The Irish Review material in the Collection.

To close the 2024 Thomas MacDonagh Hedge School, at 2pm on Sunday September 22nd, Dr Róisín Kennedy will give a talk on the exquisite Harry Clarke Window in St Michael & St John’s Church, Cloughjordan. Róisín will consider Harry Clarke - the artist, his life, his work and his style, and share her insights into this significant, local cultural asset.

Una Johnston, a Director at the Thomas MacDonagh Museum says the 2024 Hedge School programme will be of “great interest to anyone interested in both cultural history and contemporary arts. Our speakers and events will reflect on themes of politics and the arts from the troubled years of The Irish Review’s existence to the present day”.

Places for events are limited and so to avoid disappointment, they invite you to book your tickets early from Eventbrite via this link https://ThomasMacDonaghHedgeSchool2024.eventbrite.ie .