RE-ISSUE Deputy Mayor of Cologne, Angela Spizig, presented reissues of some of Heinrich Boll’s work to Sheila McHugh, Chairperson of the Achill Heinrich Boll Committee. Heinrich’s son Rene is also in the picture.?Pic Conor McKeown
Cathaoirleach says Council will continue to support the Arts
Anton McNulty
The Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council has given his backing for the continued support for the Arts in the county and said they will continue to back it in whatever way they can.
Cllr Michael Burke was speaking on the opening of the Heinrich Boll Memorial Weekend in Achill which was official opened by Angela Spizig, Deputy Mayor of Cologne, at the Cyril Gray Memorial Hall, Dugort.
The weekend is in its seventh year and honours the memory of the former German Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Heinirch Böll who spent time on Achill and owned a cottage there.
The weekend is supported by Mayo County Council and Cllr Burke said he was privileged to attend the opening of the event. He said Achill was the perfect breeding ground for cultural inspiration and the Council were proud to support the local community.
“The Arts has always helped Ireland come through its problems in the past and I have no doubt that it will continue to do so in the future. It is wonderful to see this wonderful location help bring so many people from different parts of the world together. I want to compliment everyone involved in the Heinrich Boll Weekend here in Achill and it is great something like this happens here. Mayo County Council are delighted to be here to help and I know in difficult times it is not easy but we are here to help and know a small investment always gets a great response,” he said.
Heinrich Boll was a native of Cologne and his writings on Ireland and Achill in the 1950s inspired thousands of Germans to travel to Ireland over the last half century. Angela Spizig said Cologne was proud of Boll’s work and she was honoured to travel to Achill which she described as a ‘mythical place’.She said that during the student revolutions and protests in the late sixties and early seventies in Germany, Boll was an inspiration figure who was often criticised by the right-wing press. She said in the current economic difficulties more people were starting to read Boll’s work again and learning from it.
“One of the most renowned German literary critics recently gave a wonderful speech about Boll and his roll of an author today. He said these days when the carpet seems to be pulled from under our feet, not just in Ireland, and we don’t know who is responsible and to blame. We have to rethink our values. Boll was always the author who had a big heart for people in difficulty. We have to rediscover the values of empathy and he said that is a reason for reading Boll again,” she said.
The opening night of the weekend also included a fascinating talk by journalist William Cash on the author Graham Greene and how his visits to Achill where he was having an affair with married American Catherine Walston inspired his classic novel, ‘The End of the Affair’. The novel was later made into a Hollywood movie starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Neil Jordan.
