Author Archives: devab

The Copyright Review Committee publishes a Consultation Paper on copyright and innovation and calls for further submissions

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The Copyright Review Committee has today published a wide-ranging Consultation Paper (PDF, 1.4MB) which examines the current Copyright legislative framework to identify any areas of the legislation that might be deemed to create barriers to innovation.

The fundamental aim of this Paper is to begin the process of sketching reforms to Irish copyright law to further innovation without denying protection to those who need copyright law to innovate.

The Copyright Review Committee was established on 9th May 2011 by Mr Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation with the following terms of reference:

  1. Examine the present national Copyright legislation and identify any areas that are perceived to create barriers to innovation.
  2. Identify solutions for removing these barriers and make recommendations as to how these solutions might be implemented through changes to national legislation.
  3. Examine the US style ‘fair use’ doctrine to see if it would be appropriate in an Irish/EU context.
  4. If it transpires that national copyright legislation requires to be amended but cannot be amended, (bearing in mind that Irish copyright legislation is bound by the European Communities Directives on Copyright and Related Rights and other international obligations) make recommendations for changes to the EU Directives that will eliminate the barriers to innovation and optimise the balance between protecting creativity and promoting and facilitating innovation.

More information on consultation , fair use and copyright reform submissions are available at, http://www.djei.ie/science/ipr/crc_statement.htm

Gernika at 75 years , a note from Euskal PEN

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Guernica,1937 , by Pablo Picasso, copyright the Picasso Estate

26 April 2012 will be the 75th anniversary of the bombing of the town of Gernika, Spain, by the Nazi Legion-Condor aiding General Franco against the democratic Republic.

Basque PEN Club invites writers all around the world to send us poems to remember Gernika and ‘Other Gernikas’, as the Remembrance Day has been declared. Poems related to Gernika or other Gernikas around the world should be sent before 31 March, in the original language and a translation into Basque, English, German, French or Spanish; a short introduction of the author or the poem is welcomed. Poems will be published and read during the Remembrance Day Events. Send your poems to pen@euskalpen.org or Euskal PEN/Basque PEN

Agoitz Plaza, 1
E48015 Bilbao
Basque Country

 

International PEN , http://www.pen-international.org/02/2012/gernika-remembrance-day-poetry-appeal/ 

Euskal  PEN Clubba , http://www.euskalkultura.com/noticias/la-asociacion-euskal-pen-klub-invita-a-enviar-poemas-sobre-el-75-aniversario-del-bombardeo-de-gernika?language_sync=1

 

Joseph O Connor's speech at the 2012 Irish PEN Award and Dinner.

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Remarks by Joseph O’Connor at presentation of Irish PEN Award, Friday 10th February, Royal St George Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin.

“A Úachtaráin, agus a chairde,

I sincerely thank President Higgins for the warmth and encouragement of his words, and for the honour he does us by his presence here this evening. I know I’m far from alone when I say that in a troubled time for so many of us, for our families and our loved ones, it has been a source of hope that we can elect as President of our republic a fellow citizen who inspires such genuine respect and affection, a voice all his public life to those who were powerless, a President in whom we see the values of imagination and intellect that still make Ireland a special place. We are proud of you, President, proud of your integrity, and deeply proud that you are one of us, an Irish writer.

It’s a wonderful honour to win this award. My eleven-year-old son James told me once, when he won a prize at school, that the nicest thing about getting a prize is remembering it some time afterwards, maybe on a rainy day when you need a bit of cheering up. He sounds like an Irish writer already. But since every writer needs a little cheering up from time to time, let me thank PEN sincerely for their generosity to me this evening. I also thank my heroic parents Sean and Viola, my dear sister Eimear O’Connor, my agent Carole Blake, my publisher Liz Foley, and the love of my life, Anne-Marie Casey, who is, to quote that great poet Austin Clarke, the beautiful Sunday of every week. Another gift every writer needs is the ability to tell if writing is truthful or fake.  My guide in these matters is the late Tommy Cooper, who used to tell a wonderful and wise joke: “I went up to the attic this morning and guess what I found. An old painting and a violin. I took them to the antique dealer and do you know what he said? That’s a genuine Stradivarius and a genuine Picasso! Unfortunately, however, Stradivarius did the painting. And Picasso made the flipping violin.”

To be serious, I am deeply touched and honoured to win any award that was won in its time by some of my boyhood heroes in writing: John McGahern and William Trevor, Edna O’Brien and John B Keane. I owe them so very much, and I thank their great presences. They were writers who understood that all writing is about the reader, and that empathy is at the heart of the story and the word. A writer makes the sheet music, but the reader sings the song. And so to be given this award by Irish PEN, part of a wonderful organisation that campaigns for writers all over the world, is to be reminded of the undying value at the heart of great literature. We read to know we are not alone. To realise that another human being is real. For knowledge, for enlightenment, to escape, to come home, and for that most subversive of all reasons, pleasure. And we read to know we are not doomed to live in the tomb of the self, to the grubbing of individualism, to the lies of materialism, to know that a country’s greatest asset is not the one referred to in the initials of ‘NAMA’ but in the capacity of its people to create and imagine.

We’re gathered tonight in my childhood town of Dun Laoghaire, by the pier where myself and my sisters and brother spent so many summertime hours when I was the age that my son is now. I was a boy in love with reading, full of wild hopes that I might one day write a book of my own. I’d look out at the ships and imagine the people on board. Where were they going? Who did they love?

Every writer knows that trying to write is trying to make a ship sail. You work hard on the planning and the building and the finishing. You freight your story with your hopes. You push it into the water. Some day, maybe, it will reach the harbour of another person. Tonight, thanks to you at Irish PEN, I feel one of my boyhood ships came home.

My favourite Irish writer, the great John Synge, often walked that waterfront outside, his head full of fire and jet-streams of language. As a boy, I felt his ghost around me, among the gulls and the breezes, and the promises of Teddy’s ice-cream. I finish with my deepest gratitude, and with a line written by a man who loved him, William Yeats, which sums up everything I would want to say on the occasion of winning this award. “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends./ And say my glory was I had such friends.”

Go raibh maith agaibh.”

I am linking here President Michael D. Higgin’s speech  for reference ,  https://www.irishpen.com/wordpress/2012/02/14/remarks-by-president-michael-d-higgins-at-the-presentation-of-the-irish-pen-award-for-literature-to-joseph-o%E2%80%99connor/

Pictures : https://www.irishpen.com/wordpress/the-irish-pen-2012-award-and-dinner-a-photo-montage/

 


Clár Imeall anocht, 16/02/2010, Joseph O' Connor

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Clár Imeall has sent this taster for tonight 16/02/2012 interview with Joseph O Connor .

Clár Imeall

“Clúdaítear gach gné de shaol cultúrtha na tíre ar Imeall, ó na mórthaispeántais go healaín phobail, cloisfimid ó ealaíontóirí aitheanta agus uathu siúd atá ag teacht chun cinn.

Clár ealaíon seachtainiúil ina gcaitheann Tristan Rosenstock agus meitheal tuairisceoirí súil ar chúrsaí ealaíon agus cultúrtha.”

This programme will be repeated on Sunday 19/02/2012 at 11.00pm.

http://www.tg4.ie/ie/programmes/imeall.html

Remarks by President Michael D. Higgins at the presentation of the Irish PEN Award for Literature to Joseph O’Connor

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Remarks by President Michael D. Higgins at the presentation of the Irish PEN Award for Literature to Joseph O’Connor

 

Friday, 10th February 2012

 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

 

I am absolutely delighted to be here tonight at the Irish PEN award for literature, and I would like to thank Joe Armstrong, the Chair of Irish PEN, for his kind invitation to join you all here this evening.

 

The work of the writer we honour this evening is replete with themes and issues that go to the heart of personal dignity and human decency. The symbolic empty chair reminds us all that many writers around the world still struggle for the freedom to address those issues and pay a high personal price for their commitment to truth and free speech. As we enjoy our evening, and happily celebrate the achievements of the writer we are honouring, we also remember all our fellow writers for whom PEN continues to hold a torch of concern and solidarity.

 

Cé gur tír bheag í Éire bhíomar ar thús cadhnaíochta sna réimsí ealaíon agus cultúir i gcónaí. Chuireamar go mór le domhan na litríochta ach go háirithe agus bronnadh Duais Nobel na Litríochta ar scríbhneoirí Éireannacha ceithre huaire.

 

Many, many more Irish writers have featured, and continue to feature, on prestigious shortlists for literary awards around the world. Tonight, I am truly delighted to be joining you to honour one of those great Irish diplomats of literature, renowned abroad and loved at home as one of our greatest and most popular contemporary writers.

 

I have always been struck by Joseph O’Connor’s tale of how, in one evening of what he described as ‘dismal hopelessness’, he found himself copying, word for word the text of John McGahern’s short story ‘Sierra Leone’ simply to ease the ache of feeling unable to create a piece of work and put it down on paper. It is a feeling that all born writers will instantly recognise and Joseph O’Connor is truly a born writer.

 

Since those early days of yearning frustration he has, of course, gone from strength to strength, his brilliant novels winning awards, accolades and praise around the world.

He is a brilliant writer and an accessible one. He is an urban realist who also delves beautifully and imaginatively into a past that defines so much of our national character. He is a talented writer, and a truly courageous one, a writer who takes risks, who tries new things, who is determined to constantly stretch and challenge himself, who never ever takes his great and unique gift for granted.

 

With the publication of “Star of the Sea” in 2004 Joe both impressed and amazed the literary world. It is generally regarded as the novel that brought Joe to the admiring attention of a very wide and international readership. Described as ‘a missing link in the Irish literary tradition’ this novel reminds us of the searing reality of our national historical experience as Joseph bravely and imaginatively confronts that bleakest of bleak moments in our past to produce a work of astounding brilliance and originality.

 

Even before that ground breaking piece of work, Joseph had proved himself as a writer who allows us to discover ourselves and, through that discovery, to learn more about ourselves and the situations we must deal with.  This talent was evident from his very earliest novels:  “Cowboys and Indians” where he so brilliantly and poignantly depicted  the final moments of a pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland poised on the brink of change but still trapped in its own past, unaware of the seismic changes to our society and culture that were shortly to come; and “Desperados” where he moved between the decades, and indeed between Ireland and revolutionary Nicaragua, as he explored the necessity to understand our past and to face up to our mistakes in order to deal with current difficulties and sadness. With the apparent ease of the true novelist he forced us into a confrontation with ourselves as he captured the light, the darkness and the shadowed hues of a normal, complex, multi-faceted existence. His involvement with post dictatorshipNicaraguarejected the idealist impulse of his heart.

 

“Star of the Sea” and “RedemptionFalls” represented Joe’s thematic sojourn in theUnited Statesafter which he returned toIrelandfor the focus of his most recent novel. “Ghost Light” not only beautifully tells the story of a doomed love affair between John Millington Synge and Molly Allgood, it also evocatively captures the spirit of a society in crisis in all its political, cultural and social turmoil. In Molly Allgood Joe has surely depicted one of the most compelling female characters in modern literary fiction and her decline and death in the novel is unbearably moving. There is no doubt that Joe O’Connor is one of the brightest stars among a brilliant constellation of contemporary Irish writing.

 

We are, of course, living through very difficult days. At my inauguration, I said that our successes in the eyes of so many in the world have been in the cultural and spiritual areas – in our humanitarian, peace-building and human rights work; in our literature, art, drama and song; and in how that drama, song and literature have helped us cope with adversity, soothed the very pain which they describe so well, and opened the space for new possibilities.

 

When it comes to soothing our collective pain, Joe O’Connor has also done us all great service. Not only is Joe a very distinguished novelist, he is also a wonderful diarist and essayist. In previous years these were catalogued in the published diaries of a hapless young male who was struggling to make sense of life, love and – even more trying – his Irishness. In more recent years, Joe’s reflections on the issues “du jour” have been broadcast to the nation in the form of a radio diary. His preoccupations span the spectrum of life – politics, love, music, family, children, the extraordinarily creative way that Irish people use foul language and the propensity of Irish teenagers to use the word “like” in such a multi-functional manner.

 

Joe’s radio diaries may be satirical but it is a satire that is used for caring and constructive purposes. Underlying all of Joe’s broadcast reflections is a sense of a man who cares deeply about his country, who feels a profound empathy with his fellow citizens who are struggling through tough times, who values and respects the old decencies that were at the heart of community life in Ireland and who is determined to use his unique creative genius to imagine a future society that we can all be proud of and in which all our children can live, grow and prosper.

 

As a people and a country we are closing one sad chapter and opening another that we hope will lead to a new version of our Irishness; one that retains all that was best about our past but is founded on a new wisdom born out of disappointment, hurt and adversity, but also driven by a determination not to be paralysed by a cynical fatalism and by a positive commitment, in a spirit of active citizenship, to play our own individual part in renewing the Republic, strengthening the fabric our society and enhancing the quality of our community.

 

It is a chapter of new possibilities and, as a country, we are fortunate to have contemporary writers of the calibre of Joseph to chart this new chapter; writers who so beautifully and often so poignantly capture those important moments in our national psyche; the parts of our past that are key to our understanding of the society we live in and may wish to change; the complexity and the moral confusion of a rapidly and constantly changing Ireland;  and now the fragility of the aftershock and our great national courage as we gather our strength and move forward to a shared and better future.

 

Ba mhaith liom críoch a chur leis seo agus comhghairdeas a dhéanamh le Seosamh toisc gur roghnaíodh é don dámhachtain cháiliúil seo, ardghradam atá aige anois ar aon dul leis na scríbhneoirí Éireannacha is tábhachtaí agus is cáiliúla dá bhfuil ann. Is gradam é a chuireann Seosamh chun tosaigh mar cheann de na guthanna is tábhachtaí agus is mó tionchair i litríocht chomhaimseartha na hÉireann.

 

I am honoured to be here tonight to present this award to a writer I have long admired and am especially pleased to do so in the presence of Joe’s wife Anne Marie and his parents Seán and Viola. I wish Joseph every success in the future and look forward to reading more of his very brilliant work.

 

Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.

Chair of Irish PEN, Joe Armstrong’s speech, at Irish PEN Award Ceremony, 10 February, 2012

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Chair of Irish PEN, Joe Armstrong’s speech, at Irish PEN Award Ceremony, 10 February, 2012

I welcome President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina, Joseph O’Connor and his wife Anne Marie Casey, and his parents, Sean and Viola O’Connor. I welcome the Director of PEN International, Laura McVeigh and her husband Howard, all our distinguished writers, publishers, members of the media, guests and friends, and each and every one of you. Thank you for being here tonight.

 

PEN promotes literature and defends free speech. The empty chair at tonight’s dinner symbolises the 888 writers who, during 2011, were killed, ‘disappeared’, imprisoned or were harassed solely because of their work.

 

Given our commitment to free speech, PEN campaigns to have blasphemy, which is repugnant to free speech, removed from the Irish Constitution and decriminalized. We welcome the Government’s commitment to review blasphemy in its promised constitutional convention.

 

I thank the Arts Council and Dublin City Arts Office for their ongoing support. I thank writing.ie and Vanessa O’Loughlin for sponsoring the beautiful Irish PEN trophy for tonight’s event. I thank the Royal St George Yacht Club for hosting us at this lovely venue. I thank the Irish PEN Committee for all their hard and voluntary work throughout the year: Carol Robinson Tweed, Christine Murray, Emer Liston, Kay Boland, Máire Moriarty, Ruth Long, Tony Gaughan and Vanessa O’Loughlin. I thank the dinner subcommittee, Kay Boland, Ruth Long and Vanessa O’Loughlin for all their hard and painstaking work in preparing for tonight’s happy celebration.

 

I am delighted that Joseph O’Connor is to be presented with the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature and I heartily congratulate you, Joseph.

 

Finally – President Higgins – as well as being a poet and an author, you have long been a champion of human rights, an inclusive citizenship, a creative society and a real Republic – values central to the mission of PEN.

 

In any voluntary organisation, sometimes record-keeping isn’t the best and so I am delighted to renew the honorary membership of President Higgins and I now invite the President to speak.

 

Irish PEN honours Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature and pays tribute to Imprisoned Writers around the World

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‘When another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.’  Orhan Pamuk

 

PEN aims to promote literature and defend freedom of expression, and the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International works on behalf of persecuted writers worldwide.

In addition to its work on behalf of individual writers, the Committee creates campaigns on issues affecting freedom of expression, such as Religious Defamation which is specifically relevant here in Ireland with the recent introduction of laws to punish blasphemy.

The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International acts to recognise and assist persecuted writers everywhere. The WiPC currently monitors the cases of 700-900 writers across the globe each year, and lobbies governments and offers moral support to imprisoned writers. Over the years, many writers have been released from prison, and many campaigns have realised success, largely due to the international pressure brought about by PEN and other organisations.

WiPC campaign activities include protest letters, lobbying governments and public representatives, and public awareness raising. A very important part of raising awareness is the writer’s Empty Chair.  It has become a custom at PEN events where writers are gathered, to include an Empty Chair to symbolise a writer who could not be present because they were imprisoned, detained, “disappeared”, threatened or killed.

At Irish PEN’s most recent event, this weekend’s Award Dinner to honour the outstanding achievement of Joseph O’Connor, tribute was paid to persecuted writers around the world with an Empty Chair.

Please show your support for Irish PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee, and our campaign to reform Ireland’s blasphemy law, by signalling your support on our website and facebook page.  Please contact our WiPC secretary Emer Liston, at info@irishpen.com, for more information.

For further details on Irish PEN’s statement on blasphemy, click here, or contact PEN International WiPC at wipc@pen-international.org

 

 

Full url:  https://www.irishpen.com/wordpress/2011/03/18/urgent-need-for-irish-constitutional-referendum-on-blasphemy/

2012 Cardiff International Poetry Competition

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2012 Cardiff International Poetry Competition

Is your poetry worth £5,000?


Closing Date: Friday 2 March 2012


The closing date for the 2012 Cardiff International Poetry Competition is now only weeks away. The competition, administrated by Literature Wales, is accessible to all; it doesn’t matter if you are an established poet or just dabble with verse now and then. All entries to the competition will be judged anonymously, so this is a great opportunity to have your poetry judged on its own merits. The first prize-winner will walk way with a cheque for £5,000 for just one poem. Further prizes available are £500 for second place, £250 for third plus five runners-up will receive £50 each.


The hard tasking of judging the 2012 competition will be down to esteemed poets Sinéad Morrissey, Patrick McGuinness and filter judge Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. For more information on the judges visit: www.literaturewales.org/cipc/

If you think you have what it takes to delight the judges and get your hands on the top prize of £5,000, then send us your poems now. Just make sure your poem is no longer than 50 lines long, is unpublished, in English and is not a translation of another author’s work. Send it, along with your entry form and payment, to Literature Wales.

The closing date is Friday 2 March 2012.

To download an entry form, visit: www.literaturewales.org/cipc/

To receive an entry form through the post, send a stamped, self addressed envelope to: Literature Wales, CIPC12 Entry Form, Mount Stuart House, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 5FQ

The Cardiff International Poetry Competition is supported by Cardiff Council.

For further details contact Literature Wales on: 029 2047 2266 / post@literaturewales.org

 

[ENDS]


For more information contact:

Literature Wales,

Chief Executive: Lleucu Siencyn,

Mount Stuart House, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff, CF10 5FQ

029 2047 2266 / post@literaturewales.org

www.literaturewales.org

 

Notes to Editors:

  • Literature Wales was formed in April 2011. The Chief Executive of Literature Wales is Lleucu Siencyn.  Yr Academi Gymreig / The Welsh Academy, the Society for Writers of Wales, and Tŷ Newydd Writers’ Centre are part of Literature Wales. Its many projects and activities include Wales Book of the Year, the National Poet of Wales, Writers on Tour funding scheme, writing courses at Tŷ Newydd, Translators’ House Wales, funding and advice for writers, the BayLit and Tŷ Newydd festivals, Young People’s Writing Squads, fieldworkers in the south Wales valleys and north Wales.
  • Literature Wales is one of six national arts companies in Wales, each representing different artform genres. Literature Wales is the Arts Council’s agent to develop and implement literature activity.
  • Literature Wales works with the support of the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government.
  • Yr Academi Gymreig was established in 1959, following discussions between poets Bobi Jones and Waldo Williams. The English-language branch, The Welsh Academy, was formed ten years later.
  • Tŷ Newydd Writers’ Centre was founded in 1990. National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke is the President of Tŷ Newydd.
  • Literature Wales is one of the resident organisations of the Wales Millennium Centre, where it runs the Glyn Jones Centre.

 


A Call-Out to PEN Members , Celebrating Women's Literature for International Women's Day 2012

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“In celebration of International Women’s Day (8th March) and PEN’s 90th anniversary, PEN International asks PEN members to nominate one piece of writing by a woman that has moved them, made a deep impression, or that they greatly admire. Nominations will be featured on our site as a tapestry of recommendations in recognition of literary achievements by women. Nominations may include women’s writing of any form, including poetry, essays, novels, short stories and speeches. Please email nominations to communications@pen-international.org stating your name, your PEN Centre, the writer and title of the text you are nominating, and a brief sentence explaining why you have chosen this piece of writing. Deadline for nominations 29th February.”


 

And on International Women’s Day 8th March follow #womenwriters when @pen_int will be featuring quotes and news on women writers.

Looking at Arts Practice and SOPA in Ireland

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There has been much reportage over the last few days about government plans to introduce isp blocks through Ministerial order,or statutory instrument. Members and associates may be interested in current thinking on the issue. To that end there are some available links and discussions in articles and they will be collated here.

The following is a link to McGarr Solictors’ article which brings into the discussion aspects of  the issue which may interest and inform members.

” You may also have noticed the sudden flurry of media appearances and debates on radio around the issue of Minister of State Seán Sherlock’s plan to introduce a law to allow the music labels (and other copyright holders) to seek injunctions forcing Irish ISPs to block access to sites they don’t like.

“I will introduce this imminently, by the end of January.”
– Minister Sherlock, Sunday Business Post, 22nd Jan 2012

This SOPA Ireland law, as it is is called, is similar to the proposals defeated in the US only a week ago after a mass uprising of grassroots protest- first from Reddit, and then joined by the biggest names on the net- Google, Wikipedia and so on.

However, unlike that US law, people here can’t even expect to have this blocking law debated in their legislature. The Minister has said that he intends to deal with the matter by way of a Ministerial Order. Nor has he published the text of the law. The first we, the people of Ireland, will know about the text of this law will be when it is signed and brought into force. ”

http://www.mcgarrsolicitors.ie/2012/01/25/stop-sopa-ireland-we-must-have-openness-not-murky-backroom-deal/

 

Members and associates of Irish PEN may wish to use the comment form to add in further reports and garnered information on the issue of debate in this sensitive area of legislation. Many of us now are using blogs, websites,and varieties of social-media to communicate with our affiliates on a daily and weekly basis. The issue of Arts Practice and  the use of social-media tools has not been fully exploited in Ireland, but we have seen it’s potential at a cross-committee basis.

‘Move on copyright not needed – and unwise’ , an Irish Times Article of  23/02/2012.

” According to the European Digital Rights organisation, “for the second time in just a few months . . . actions taken by Sabam have led the [European Court of Justice] to underline the importance of an open and free internet and the respect for fundamental freedoms”. So services that host content “cannot be obliged to monitor, filter and block alleged infringing content”.

That does not mean services and ISPs are not liable for illegal content, they note. They can still be prosecuted “if they had actual knowledge of the presence of such content hosted on their services and do not act expeditiously to remove it”. Which is exactly the situation that holds in Ireland, without the statutory instrument.

All of which would indicate that the rush to bring in this copyright statutory instrument is not just imprudent – it’s also unnecessary.”

 by Karlin Lillington , (Irish Times)  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0223/1224312240877.html

ISPAI reactions to the proposed legislation : http://www.ispai.ie/

 Irish Times article here  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0127/1224310799439.html