Olivia O'Leary to give lecture at Monasterevan Hopkins Society’s Festival

The Monasterevan Hopkins Society’s Festival this year runs from Friday, July 26 to Saturday, July 27 and will feature a diverse cultural approach with an art exhibition, concert and lectures.

The proceedings will commence with an art exhibition entitled “Artists for Peace” in the Monasterevin Community Centre which will feature hundreds of entries. It has attracted exhibitors from all over the country over the past two years. It is curated by Sr. Ann Scully.

Also featuring will be an exhibitions of The Art of Gerard Manley Hopkins, which will probably be the first occasion these works have been shown in public in Ireland. The art exhibitions will be open to the public from 10am to 6pm on Friday.

Then on Friday afternoon the chairperson of the Monasterevin Hopkins Society, Irene Kyffin will perform the official opening. This will be followed by Irene’s lecture “ The Harlem Renaissance”.

Ms Kyffin is of Irish Jewish descent and holds a degree in teaching drama and a Masters in Anthropology. Interested in the poetry of Gerard Hopkins she created a programme of jazz/poetry fusion with the jazz pianist Stan Tracey. She has performed in Ireland, UK, USA, Nepal and she writes her own poetry.

Then at 8pm the same evening the Annual Hopkins Concert will take place in St. Pauls Secondary School, Moore Abbey Demesne, Athy Road when the guest artist will be tenor Patrick Hyland. He is an award winning tenor who studied at the Royal Irish Academy under the late Dr. Veronica Dunne and was a finalist in the prestigious International Singing Competition in 2016 founded by Dr Dunne. Patrick has performed internationally at such venues as Glyndebourne Opera House, New York, Singapore, Pittsburgh, Wexford Opera Festival, Aras an Uachtarain just to mention a few venues. He was a semi finalist in the Angelo Loforse Competition in Milan in 2017.

Then on Saturday Morning, commencing at 10am, the “Artists for Peace” exhibition continues in the Community Centre.

Olivia O’Leary, journalist and broadcaster who has presented current affairs programmes for RTE, BBC and ITV, will deliver her lecture “How Poets Contribute to Society”. In recent years Olivia has presented RTE Radio One’s “The Poetry Programme”. The O’Brien Press has published two collections of her radio columns for RTE’s Drivetime-“Politicians and Other Animals” and “Party Animals”. She has won three Jacob’s Awards for her work with RTE and a Sony award for the BBC Radio 4 series “Between Ourselves”.

Then at 11.30am the lead travel commentator in Ireland, Journalist, Author and Broadcaster, Eoghan Corry will deliver his lecture “Emily Lawless, Kildare Poet and Author-1845-1913”. This should be a fascinating lecture as Emily Lawless was one of the most interesting personalities of her time being a novelist, historian, poet, entomologist and gardener and her writings greatly reflected the period and conditions in Ireland during her life time.

Following the lunch break at 1pm activities will resume at 3.00pm for the “Poetry Reading “ session in Monasterevan House where Hopkins came to stay as a guest of the Cassidy family. The reader will be Rita Kelly who is a poet and writer in both Irish and English. Her works have been translated into French, German, Spanish Italian, Dutch and Galatian. Her work has featured on many different educational courses, most notably, the post-graduate course at Yale University. Currently living in Birr, Co. Offaly, she holds and MA and was awarded a PhD by UCC.

Then at 3.30pm there will be the Open Call, “ My Favourite Hopkins Poem”, which is an opportunity for members of the audience to recite their favourite Hopkins poem.

Concert tickets are available in Earley’s Fashion shop, the Parish Office and payable at the door for lectures and exhibitions. The fee for attendance to all events on both days is €40; attendance at all events on Saturday is €30; individual event entry-concert €20/lectures €10 each.