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| Brexit looms large in arts festival that straddles Irish border | Brexit looms large in arts festival that straddles Irish border |
| (4 months later) | |
| Visitors to the only arts festival that straddles the Irish border will be invited to take their positions in a circle that is half in Northern Ireland and half in the republic, and wait to see if Godot arrives at a tree planted by the sculptor Antony Gormley on the dividing line between the two. | Visitors to the only arts festival that straddles the Irish border will be invited to take their positions in a circle that is half in Northern Ireland and half in the republic, and wait to see if Godot arrives at a tree planted by the sculptor Antony Gormley on the dividing line between the two. |
| The festival’s director, Sean Doran, fears that if there is a return to a hard border after Brexit it will have as devastating an impact on cultural communications as that feared by farmers and traders, and has devised a series of events in August at some of the hundreds of official and unofficial border crossings. | The festival’s director, Sean Doran, fears that if there is a return to a hard border after Brexit it will have as devastating an impact on cultural communications as that feared by farmers and traders, and has devised a series of events in August at some of the hundreds of official and unofficial border crossings. |
| “We passionately believe in the power of art to transcend boundaries, whether geographical, social or political, especially in these crucial border communities as we move towards Brexit,” he said. | “We passionately believe in the power of art to transcend boundaries, whether geographical, social or political, especially in these crucial border communities as we move towards Brexit,” he said. |
| At another crossing, a chess board with pieces inspired by the work of Samuel Beckett will be placed on the bridge in the village of Pettigo, with players invited to choose a country: a tally will be kept on a blackboard on the bridge. | At another crossing, a chess board with pieces inspired by the work of Samuel Beckett will be placed on the bridge in the village of Pettigo, with players invited to choose a country: a tally will be kept on a blackboard on the bridge. |
| Three (or more) Billboards Outside Enniskillen & Sligo will present motorists travelling into the republic with lines from WB Yeats’s The Tower – “Till the wreck of body, / Slow decay of blood, / Testy delirium / Or dull decrepitude, / Or what worse evil come” – and those heading north with the last words of Samuel Beckett’s neither, “unspeakable home”. | Three (or more) Billboards Outside Enniskillen & Sligo will present motorists travelling into the republic with lines from WB Yeats’s The Tower – “Till the wreck of body, / Slow decay of blood, / Testy delirium / Or dull decrepitude, / Or what worse evil come” – and those heading north with the last words of Samuel Beckett’s neither, “unspeakable home”. |
| Doran is co-founder and joint curator of the festivals Arts Over Borders, part of the Lughnasa FrielFest celebrating the work of Brian Friel, who lived and worked on both sides of the border, and Happy Days, dedicated to Beckett, who was born in Dublin and a schoolboy at Portora Royal in Enniskillen in 1921, the year the border was created. | Doran is co-founder and joint curator of the festivals Arts Over Borders, part of the Lughnasa FrielFest celebrating the work of Brian Friel, who lived and worked on both sides of the border, and Happy Days, dedicated to Beckett, who was born in Dublin and a schoolboy at Portora Royal in Enniskillen in 1921, the year the border was created. |
| Doran said that since Happy Days was founded in 2012 as part of the UK Cultural Olympiad, many people from the republic had ventured north of the border for the first time. “It’s the curiosity of the arts that encourages people to travel to a place they would not otherwise go to,” he said. “Our festivals significantly benefit from cross-border attendance – 40% of the audience to the events in Enniskillen come from the RoI, so a hard Brexit could have a very devastating impact on us. Showing ID and such will likely put people off attending.” | Doran said that since Happy Days was founded in 2012 as part of the UK Cultural Olympiad, many people from the republic had ventured north of the border for the first time. “It’s the curiosity of the arts that encourages people to travel to a place they would not otherwise go to,” he said. “Our festivals significantly benefit from cross-border attendance – 40% of the audience to the events in Enniskillen come from the RoI, so a hard Brexit could have a very devastating impact on us. Showing ID and such will likely put people off attending.” |
| The Walking for Waiting for Godot event will make the most demands on its audience, who will be invited to take a three-mile walk steeply uphill, through a meadow and along a hillside until they come to the crossing-point location of Gormley’s 3.5 metre Tree for Waiting for Godot. They must then wait to see whether Godot, or the actors to perform the play, materialise. | The Walking for Waiting for Godot event will make the most demands on its audience, who will be invited to take a three-mile walk steeply uphill, through a meadow and along a hillside until they come to the crossing-point location of Gormley’s 3.5 metre Tree for Waiting for Godot. They must then wait to see whether Godot, or the actors to perform the play, materialise. |
| The FrielFest includes readings from Homer, a performance of the Odyssey across beaches in Donegal, Derry and Antrim, and the Iliad read from the walls of Derry on one of the most divisive weekends of the year, the Apprentice Boys annual march commemorating the siege of Derry in 1688. | The FrielFest includes readings from Homer, a performance of the Odyssey across beaches in Donegal, Derry and Antrim, and the Iliad read from the walls of Derry on one of the most divisive weekends of the year, the Apprentice Boys annual march commemorating the siege of Derry in 1688. |
| Doran quoted another border artist, the poet Seamus Heaney: “Is it any wonder when I thought / I would have second thoughts?”, and added: “I’m one for second thoughts when it comes to Brexit.” | Doran quoted another border artist, the poet Seamus Heaney: “Is it any wonder when I thought / I would have second thoughts?”, and added: “I’m one for second thoughts when it comes to Brexit.” |
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