4 BRIGS Literary Group
presents
The Sarah Leech Summer School
Friday, 21st June – Sunday, 22 June 2013
Inishowen Gateway Hotel, Buncrana, Co Donegal
Sarah Leech (1809 – c. 1830)
The daughter of a linen weaver, Sarah was born near Raphoe, County Donegal, and is one of the few published women writers in the Ulster-Scots tradition of that era. Beyond the biographical account contained in her only published collection, Poems on Various Subjects (1828), very little more is known about her. Her staunch unionism and Protestantism are evidenced by poems such as ‘The Brunswick Clubs’ and ‘Progress of the Reformation’. ‘On the Killing of a Mouse in Harvest’ compares very favourably with Burns’ ‘To a Mouse’. Sarah’s ‘weaver poetry’ is genuinely impressive and unfortunately undervalued.
Further reading: Celine McGlynn & Pauline Holland, Sarah Leech: The Ulster-Scots Poetess of Raphoe, Co. Donegal.
Sarah Leech Summer School, Co Donegal
The inaugural Sarah Leech Summer School takes place on the coming Summer Solstice weekend: Fri 21 June – Sun 23 June, 2013.
Full programme of events below;
The Sarah Leech Summer School: Friday, 21 June – Sunday, 23 June 2013.
The Sarah Leech summer school is about more that Literature. It is about a place in Ireland that has functioned as a pluralist society for the past four centuries, a place which offers a role model in cultural pluralism that can serve as a touchstone for the future. This summer school presents these unique elements through poetry, prose, drama, and song, of the Donegal area and the hinterland of Northern Ireland. The heart and soul of a people are in the voice of their Literature, and through this we can build lasting bridges between Ireland’s post-plantation communities and cultures.
Based in the Laggan Valley, with its accompaniment of cultural kinship connections stretching for miles along the shores of the Foyle, Swilly and the Finn, this area has created a melting-pot of English, Irish and Ulster Scots, where these three language groups are still regularly heard in the same streets and the same houses. Ulster Scots is generally associated with the Presbyterian churches, Irish with the Roman Catholic Church, and English with the Church of Ireland.
Many of our planned summer schools, and printed or reprinted publications, conform to that pattern, but not all. All these communities now speak English, which is the language of the Irish Diaspora of all creeds – much of predominantly catholic west Donegal. People learned Ulster Scots, rather than English, while working in the fields of East Donegal’s Laggan. The ever shifting borders between language areas, the restlessness and the transmutations, have generated some of Ireland’s finest Literature in all three languages.
Event will begin: Friday, 21st June, 7.30pm-9:00pm:
Opening Ceremony:
Welcome to Donegal by Dinny McGinley, TD, Minister of State for the Gaeltacht
Welcome to Summer School by Jim Millar, Representative from the Ulster Scots Agency.
Introduction to the School and Summer and programme of events by Mr Jim Devenney, Chairman of the 4 BRIGS Literary Group.
Guest speaker Dr Ian Adamson OBE, President of the Ullans Academy.
Entertainment from Letterkenny Caledonian Pipe Band.
Close of evening at 9:00pm.
Saturday, 22 June at 10am
Opening Ceremony: guest speaker Dr Ian Adamson OBE, President of the Ullans Academy.
Avisual presentation of Sarah Leech, her poetical works by Dr Pauline Holland.
Guest Panel: Liam Logan with key note speakers discussing: “The impact of the Scottish Plantation”.
An open discussion on: “Conversion of Cultures.”
Exhibits running all day long for visitors not taking part in workshops:
Exhibition of paintings from “The Treasure Each Voice book”- 400 years of Anglo-Irish, Irish and Ulster Scots Literature from Stranorlar.
Exhibition and Sale of Rare and Antiquarian Books.
Exhibition and Sale of “Coats of Arms”.
Exhibitit of Genealogy.
Exhibition on Ulster Scots writings and Sale of books.
Report by Celine McGlynn…. The First Sarah Leech Summer School organised by the 4 Brigs Literary Group at the Inishowen Gateway Hotel, Buncrana, was history in the making. “Itʼs groundbreaking and itʼs pushing the boundaries. “Sarah Leech, was the only female weaver poet of the early 17th Century. We are extremely fortunate that the weaver poets recorded their life events in their native tongue,” said Jim Devenney, Chairman, 4 Brigs Literary Group.
Jim Millar, Ulster Scots Agency, who helped fund the summer school made the opening speech. “The agency was delighted to be able to make a contribution to what I think will be the start of something very significant and hopefully onglasting. This isnʼt just about poetry. Itʼs about a lot of other things. I look forward to hearing much more about Sarah Leech and indeed about the 4 Brigs Literary Group.”
Dr Ian Adamson, OBE, who is fluent in fourteen languages was the keynote speaker at the Summer School. In a wide-ranging talk on Ulster Scots culture and heritage, he spoke of the influence of his grandmothers, Irish folklore, history and culture. “What is culture? Culture is the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions which is transmitted and reinforced by members of that group. That is our culture.
“Donegal is a special place. It does have this interlinkage between the Ulster Scots language, the English language and Ulster Gaelic. We never had any feelings of animosity that you often find within the context of Northern Ireland. We never ever had that, ever in our lives,” he said.
Dinny McGinley, TD, welcomed the initiative: ”We have an opportunity of celebrating the contribution of Ulster Scots to Ireland, to Ulster, to Donegal and to the world,” he said.
The Letterkenny Caledonian Pipe Band entertained the audience on the opening night.
On Saturday, Short Story, Poetry and Songwriting Workshops were facilitated by Kathryn Daily, Liam Campbell and Patricia Morris respectively.
A visual presentation of Sarah Leech and her poetical works by Dr Pauline Holland explained the poet’s thought processes, her dissatisfaction with her public image and examined a number of her poems.
Dr John Mouldon, Liam Logan, BBC, Dr Ian Adamson and Jim Devenney, contributed to the Guest Panel discussion ʻThe Impact of the Scottish Plantation and Subsequent Conversion of Culturesʼ on Saturday.
Sundayʼs bus tour took in early historical sites and settlements in the Laggan and told the story of the flax industry. Also included was a visit to the Stewartsʼ homesteads and a viaduct they constructed across the Swilly.
“It sits there now in its sombre silence where the tide ebbs and flows,” said Jim Devenney.
The tour finished with a trip to Glenveagh featuring the Sollas Dancers from Bready.
House of Books, Ballybofey, had an extensive collection of rare and antiquarian books on display for the duration of the Summer School.
Also on display was the Treasure Each Voice Exhibition by the Fiach Art Circle.