A 'Surreal, spectacular and superb' Jane Austen theme night
The event celebrated Donegal's real-life historical ties to the author: three of Jane Austen’s nieces - Cassandra, Louisa, and Marianne Knight - lived in the Letterkenny and Ramelton areas, with Cassandra buried alongside her husband Lord George Hill at local Conwal Parish Church
At the end of every Literary Festival, I always write up a report on how the proceedings unfolded.
I normally tell our followers of the joy, love, and happiness that I feel being involved in the festival. Hand on heart, I know 100% that those who participated in our inaugural Jane Austen theme night in Castle Grove Country House Hotel on the Saturday night felt the same way.
After the poetry/image/music event, there was a rush to get out to Castlegrove House, and as I walked into the period house alongside my colleague Jim Glackin, I was absolutely blown away by everything that I saw.
It seemed like a dream that we are on a film adaptation of one of Jane Austen's novels.
There were slight glitches in getting started but that did not take away from what was one of the social occasions of the year.
The three-course menu inspired by Jane Austen was wonderful and it was long before the lady herself - Jane Austen (Maura Logue) made an appearance. Her assistant kept us all in order.
There were readings from Rose Servitova, Martina O'Connor and Marianne Boal. A big thanks to Celine McGlynn from Finn Valley Voice for covering the event and someone mentioned that a dashing Mr Darcy took photographs.
After the dining room was cleared and the guests retreated to the drawing room for chatter. Music from Johnny, Kerry and Martin summoned the crowd to return, where they were treated to the spelling binding songs from the Himalayan House Band. The leading lady, Phil Dalton, marshalled her eight modest dancers into action, doing three separate dances. As the music filled the hall, the dance pupils became assistants, guiding the crowd with maximum participation, finishing off with the Duke of York waltz. Though the night had finished, magical memories had just been born.
Over the years I have discussed with Karoline Sweeney the possibility of a Jane Austen theme night but we were never quite sure how it could be done. Earlier this year, we took Rebekah Ray, Regional Co-ordinator of the Jane Austen Society of North America - Greater Philadelphia Region on a tour of all the Hill/Austen-Knight sites in Donegal but our last port of call was Castlegrove, where Rebekah persuaded us that we have the perfect location for such an occasion.
How Right, she has! And in the words of Jane Austen scholar Rose Servitova from Limerick: "Wonderful! Beautiful Home, food and company".
Premises
With our flagship event – The Literary Festival now finished, we are very much on the wind-down for the rest of the year. We do have to draw down whatever funding we received, the administrative side that nobody sees. There is one more event – the Christmas Carol Trail, which we organise alongside the Chamber of Commerce, Letterkenny CDP and the respective churches. We will be putting some Christmas decorations which are currently being prepared by the students of Errigal College and they will be put out onto Church Lane at the start of December.
Then we will be very much focused on 2027 and we will start preparing for all our events taking place in the New Year. But one big thing which is holding our organisation back is that we do not have a headquarters or a base. Currently, it is a spare room in my house at No. 3 Church Lane, but this is far from ideal.