This year’s Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival is set to honour the centenary of the birth of Brendan Behan and his connections with Letterkenny.
Behan is a giant in the pantheon of great Irish writers. Despite his early passing at the age of 41 in 1964, he left behind works of enduring fame including The Quare Fellow, The Hostage, Borstal Boy.
And in addition to that massive literary talent he had a huge personality, something that the people of Letterkenny were to experience full-on more than sixty years ago.
In 1961 Behan visited the Rainbow Bar on the town’s Main Street whilst holidaying in Donegal. According to a report in the ‘Derry People and Donegal News’ he entertained patrons ‘lucky enough to be there’ with ‘typically outspoken comments on affairs of the moment.”
The author, short story writer and playwright had also, according to the same report, visited the town the year previously whilst holidaying in the Glenties area. He must have liked something as he came back again!
So, to honour this connection with the great man the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter committee has decided to make Behan and his works the central theme of the 2023 Literary Festival.
The event takes place in October. Before that, the committee has announced the details of its inaugural Poetry Competition along with the launch of a dedicated website for the Festival.
The new website https://lkcqlitfest.weebly.com/ contains a provisional programme of events for this year’s Festival, details of the Poetry Competition, as well as a look back at Festivals from previous years.
Considering Behan’s literary success despite adversity, the theme for the poetry competition is Against the Odds. Poets, interpret as you wish!
Five shortlisted entrants will be invited to read their entry at the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival and the winners will be announced at the event. The competition will be judged by Mary Turley-McGrath. Mary is a poet and writer who has published four collections of poetry.
Bookmark Letterkenny is sponsoring our main prize of €150, while Donegal ETB is sponsoring the runner–up prize of €100. Three highly commended entries will receive vouchers. The closing date for entries is Friday 15th September 2023.
For submission guidelines, see our website https://lkcqlitfest.weebly.com/. The submission guidelines are also to be found on the Poetry Ireland website, The Irish Writers’ Centre website and a number of other online platforms.
“We would like to thank all our sponsors of the Poetry Competition for their generous support,” a spokesperson said.
