10 February-Boris Pasternak

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Boris Pasternak was a poet and novelist who was a native of Soviet Russia. He is best known as the author of the novel Doctor Zhivago. The novel was published in 1959. The award winning movie, Doctor Zhivago which was first released in 1965 was based on the novel by Pasternek.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow in 1890. For a time he studied music in Moscow but moved to Germany in 1912 to study philosophy at the University of Marburg. He returned to Moscow and became an author. Boris Pasternak awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958. He died at the age of 70 on May 30^th 1960.

Boris Pasternak was born in the year 1890 On This Day.

Photo by amanderson2

Boris Pasterna Statue Perm Russia

06 September-Brinsley MacNamara (Valley of the Squinting Windows)

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Brinsley MacNamara was the author of ‘The Valley of the Squinting Windows’. He was born John Weldon near Delvin, Co Westmeath, Ireland. Described by some as a seminal novel, The Valley of the Squinting Windows caused outrage in Delvin when it was first published in 1918.

Brinsley MacNamara was one of seven children. His father, James Weldon was principal of Ballinvalley National School about 3km north of Delvin. In 1909 at the age of 19 Brinsley MacNamara moved to Dublin to work the civil service. He joined the Abbey Theatre and appeared on stage for the first time on September 29th 1910. He went on tour with the Abbey to America in 1911. On his return from America in 1913 he moved back to Delvin and began writing. His first play was rejected by the Abbey Theatre but poetry and stories he wrote were published in Dublin newspapers.

In 1918 MacNamara’s first novel, The Valley of the Squinting Windows, was published. News of the publication was at first the cause of great excitement in Delvin. However, following publication, it became obvious that the fictional village of Garradrimna in the novel was in reality the village of Delvin. It was also noted that the characters who were gossips and interested in everyone else’s business, were based on local people.

The people of Delvin were outraged. A public burning of the book was held in the centre of the village and MacNamara’s family was ostracised. Brinsley MacNamara moved to Dublin and it is said never returned to Delvin. He continued to write and was appointed as the registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland. His father’s school was boycotted and children were withdrawn from his school. This led John Weldon to bring a legal action against the parish priest of Delvin and the school parents for damages amounting to £4,000. The Weldon Subscription Fund was established to help support John Weldon’s High Court action. An appeal for funds, which appeared in the Irish Statesman on January 19th 1924 was supported by people like W B Yeats and G B Shaw. However John Weldon was unsuccessful in his court action and was forced to emigrate.

Brinsley MacNamara went on to publish several other novels and plays, including The Clanking of Chains, a novel (1919) and Look at the Heffernans, a play (1926). He died in Dublin at the age of 72 on February 4th 1963.

Brinsley MacNamara, author of ‘The Valley of the Squinting Windows’, was born in Ballinacol, Hiskinstown, Delvin Co Westmeath in the year 1890 On This Day.

Photo by infomatique

DUBLIN WRITERS MUSEUM by infomatique on 2007-09-15 14:01:50

Photo by National Library of Ireland on The Commons

Clonyn Castle, Delvin, Co. Westmeath by National Library of Ireland on The Commons on 2009-02-27 09:56:35

29 August-National Library of Ireland

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The National Library of Ireland is located on Kildare Street, Dublin. The Library is an autonomous cultural institution whose mission is ‘to collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual record of the life of Ireland and to contribute to the provision of access to the larger universe of recorded knowledge’. During its lifetime various government departments have had responsibility for the Library. Today the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has overall responsibility for the Library.

Like many other institutions the National Library of Ireland has its origins in the Royal Dublin Society (RDS). The RDS was founded as the Dublin Society in 1731 by the authors Thomas Prior of Rathdowney and Samuel Madden of Dublin. The Society was founded to ‘promote the development of arts, agriculture, industry and science in Ireland’. Over a hundred years after its foundation the RDS decided to provide better access for the public to its library resources. Negotiations followed between the RDS, the Commissioner of Public Works in Ireland and the Department of Science and Art in London. These negotiations eventually led to the passing of the Dublin Science and Art Museum Act in 1877. The passing of the Act enabled the establishment of the National Library of Ireland.

A public competition to design a building to house the Library was held. Following the competition the contract to design the building was awarded to Cork born architect Thomas Newenham Deane. The foundation stone for the building beside Leinster House was laid by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VI of England, on April 10^th 1885.

The building took five years to complete and was opened at a public ceremony by the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Zetland. During the opening ceremony the architect Thomas Newenham Deane received a knighthood.

The building which houses the National Library of Ireland was officially opened in the year 1890 On This Day.