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Edna O'Brien
Josephine Edna O'Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024) was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. O'Brien's works often revolve around the inner feelings of women and their problems relating to men and society as a whole. Her first novel, '' The Country Girls'' (1960), has been credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland after the Second World War. The book was banned and denounced from the pulpit. Many of her novels were translated into French. Her memoir, '' Country Girl'', was published in 2012, and her last novel, '' Girl'', was published in 2019. Many of her novels were based in Ireland, especially in County Clare, but ''Girl'' was a fictional account of a victim of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping in Nigeria. In 2015, she was elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists and honoured with the title Saoi. She was the recipient of many other awards and honours, winning the Irish PEN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hay Festival
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival (), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". Tony Benn said: "In my mind it's replaced Christmas". It has become a prominent festival in British culture, and sessions at the festival have been recorded for television and radio programmes such as ''The Readers' and Writers' Roadshow'' and '' The One Show''. All the BBC's national radio channels apart from BBC Radio 1 have been involved in broadcasting from the festival, and Sky Arts showed highlights of the festival from 2010 until 2013, handing over the main coverage to the BBC for the 2014 event. History The festival was founded in 1988 by Peter Florence and his parents Rhoda and Norman. Hay-on-Wye was already well known for its many bookshops before the festival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Girl (O'Brien Novel)
''Girl'' is a 2019 novel by Irish author Edna O'Brien. The book's plot is inspired by the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria, and is narrated by a fictional victim, Maryam. Background O'Brien first conceived of the novel after reading about a girl kidnapped by Boko Haram in a magazine at a doctor's office. and the plot is inspired by the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria. She travelled to Nigeria twice to do research, which included interviewing "escaped girls, their mothers and sisters, to trauma specialists, doctors and Unicef". She later said that she had tried to create a "kind of mythic story from all this pain and horror". O'Brien regarded ''Girl'' as a continuation of the focus of her career, "to chart and get inside the mind, soul, heart and emotion of girls in some form of restriction, some form of life that isn't easy, but who find a way to literally plough their way through and come out as winners of sort – maybe not getting prizes – but come through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aosdána
Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the Taoiseach. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200. Its steering body is a committee of 10, called the Toscaireacht. Formation Aosdána was originally set up by the Arts Council, on the suggestion of writer Anthony Cronin, with support from the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, well known for his support for the Arts, although Fintan O'Toole has argued that this also served to deflect criticism of Haughey's political actions. The first 89 members were chosen by the Arts Council. Membership The process of induction relies entirely on members proposing new members, with a system of selective voting used to filter app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chibok Kidnapping
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christianity, Christian female students and also Muslim students aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Prior to the raid, the school had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions, but the girls were in attendance to take final exams in physics. After the incident, 57 schoolgirls immediately escaped by jumping from the trucks on which they were being transported, and others have been rescued by the Nigerian Armed Forces on various occasions. Amina Ali, one of the missing girls, was found in May 2016. She claimed that the remaining girls were still there, but that six had died. On 14 April 2021, seven years after the initial kidnapping, over 100 of the girls remained missing. As of 14 April 2024, ten years after the kidnapping, 82 of the girls were still missing, assumed to be in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulpit
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accessed by steps, with sides coming to about waist height. From the late Middle Ages, late medieval period onwards, pulpits have often had a canopy known as the sounding board, ''tester'' or ''abat-voix'' above and sometimes also behind the speaker, normally in wood. Though sometimes highly decorated, this is not purely decorative, but can have a useful acoustic effect in projecting the preacher's voice to the Church (congregation), congregation below, especially prior to the invention of modern audio equipment. Most pulpits have one or more book-stands for the preacher to rest his bible, notes or texts upon. The pulpit is generally reserved for clergy. This is mandated in the regulations of the Catholic Church, and several others (though not a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Emergency (Ireland)
The Emergency () was a state of emergency in the independent state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland in the Second World War, throughout which Irish neutrality during World War II, the state remained neutral. It was proclaimed by Dáil Éireann on 2 September 1939, allowing the passage of the Emergency Powers Act 1939 by the Oireachtas the following day. This gave sweeping powers to the government, including internment, censorship of the press and correspondence, and control of the economy. The Emergency Powers Act lapsed on 2 September 1946, although the Emergency was not formally ended until 1976. Background of the Emergency On 6 December 1922, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War, War of Independence, the island of Ireland became an autonomous dominion, known as the Irish Free State. On 7 December 1922, the parliament of the six north-eastern counties, already known as Northern Ireland, voted to opt out of the Irish Free State and remain in the United K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Gébler
Carlo Gébler (born 21 August 1954) is an Irish writer, television director, and teacher. His publications include novels, short stories, plays, historical works and memoirs. He is a member of Aosdána. Early life Gébler was born in Dublin, the elder son of the Irish writers Ernest Gébler and Edna O'Brien, and was named Karl after Karl Marx. He moved with his parents to London in 1958. His parents separated in 1962. After the separation Carlo and his younger brother at first stayed with their father but later went to live with their mother. Carlo had a difficult relationship with his father, from whom he was later estranged for many years. Education Gébler attended Bedales School. As a child, he had a "fraught relationship" with his father, who placed "repeated emphasis on the boy's stupidity". He graduated from the University of York, where he studied English. He later graduated from the National Film and Television School. In 2009 he was awarded a PhD by Queen's Universi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Gébler
Ernest Gébler (31 December 1914Gebler 2013 p.21 – 26 January 1998), sometimes credited as Ernie Gebler, was an Irish writer of Czech origin. He was a member of Aosdána. Early life Gébler was born in Dublin, one of the five children of Adolf (or Adolphe) Gébler, a shopkeeper and musician of Czech Jewish origin who had married a Dublin theatre usherette. The family moved to Wolverhampton in 1925. In 1930 Adolf got a job with a Dublin light opera company and Ernest followed the rest of the family there in 1931. Ernest worked backstage in the Gate Theatre in the 1930s. Later career After his writing career took off with his first novel in 1946, Gébler enjoyed greater success with his novel ''The Plymouth Adventure'' (1950), which was made into a Hollywood film. He was first married to Leatrice Gilbert (1924–2015), daughter of the actors John Gilbert and Leatrice Joy, whom he met in Hollywood. The couple moved to Ireland, got married and were divorced in 1951 and she retu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres
The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields. Its origin is attributed to the Order of Saint Michael (established 1 August 1469), as acknowledged by French government sources. Background To be considered for the award, French government guidelines stipulate that citizens of France must be at least thirty years old, respect French civil law, and must have "significantly contributed to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance". Membership is not, however, limited to French nationals; recipients include numerous foreign luminaries. Foreign recipients are admitted into the Order "without condition of age". The Order has three grades: * (Commander) — medallion worn on a necklet; up to 20 recipients ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commander (order)
Commander (; ; ; ; ), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval military order (society), military orders, such as the Knights Hospitaller, for a member senior to a Knight. Variations include Knight Commander, notably in English, sometimes used to denote an even higher rank than Commander. In some orders of chivalry, Commander ranks above (i.e. Officer (armed forces), Officer), but below one or more ranks with a prefix meaning 'Great', e.g. in French, in German, (using an equivalent suffix) in Spanish, in Italian, and in Dutch (, 'Grand Commander'), Grand Cross. France History The rank of in the French orders comes from the Middle Ages military order (monastic society), military orders, in which low-level administrative houses were called and were governed by . In the Modern Age, the French Kings created chivalric orders which mimicked the military order's ranks. * The Order ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Cohen Prize
The David Cohen Prize for Literature (est. 1993) is a British literary award given to a writer, novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist or dramatist in recognition of an entire body of work, written in the English language. The prize is funded by the John S. Cohen Foundation and administered by Arts Council England. The writer must be a British or Irish citizen. The winner is chosen by nomination and entries are not required. The prize is valued at £40,000. In 2005, the David Cohen Prize incorporated the Clarissa Luard Award. The winner of the David Cohen Prize chooses the recipient of the Clarissa Luard Award, valued at £12,500 (funded by the Arts Council of England), and given to a writer under the age of 35 or an organisation that supports young writers. In 2017, Arts Council England launched the Clarissa Luard Award for Independent Publishing, managed by New Writing North, to recognise and celebrate the "adventurousness, innovative spirit and creativity" of independent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saoi Of Aosdána
Saoi (, plural ''Saoithe''; literally "wise one"; historically the title of the head of a bardic school) is the highest honour bestowed by Aosdána, a state-supported association of Irish creative artists. The title is awarded, for life, to an existing Aosdána member. There are at most seven living Saoithe at any time; a limit increased from five in 2007–08. At the conferring ceremony, a torc (a twist/spiral of gold, worn around the neck) is presented to the Saoi, typically by the President of Ireland. Nominating process A committee of ten members of Aosdána referred to as the ''Toscaireacht'' monitor and manage the nominating process to confirm adherence to the established rules. Fifteen members of the Aosdána must nominate a candidate of merit and distinction. An election by secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
