 And you're very welcome back to the show again and we're streaming live on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And as promised in the studio this morning with me, I have got Celine Maglinn who's the chairperson of the Frances Brown Literary Festival Committee. And you are very welcome, Celine. Good morning, Jean. And thank you so much for having me here today. And on behalf of the festival, I'm just absolutely delighted to say a bit about our festival and about our poetry competition. Fantastic. And Frances Brown, she's a lady that lived in the 19th century and the festival is in her honour, so tell us a bit about Frances Brown. Frances Brown is the most prominent writer ever to emerge from the Lifford-Stenoerler municipal district. She was born in Stenoerler in 1816. Her father was the first postmaster in Stenoerler, Samuel Brown, and her mother's name was also Frances. Frances Luke or Lucas. And she was the first member of her family to be born in Stenoerler. Her older brothers and sisters were born in Manor, Cunningham. So wonderful that we have a writer of such stature born in East Donegal. The most significant event of Frances's childhood was that at 18 months she was struck with smallpox and became blind as a result. Being blind, she actually didn't have any formal schooling as such. She may have gone to school on occasion because she records that she heard her brothers speaking at school. So Frances was determined to get an education for herself and she did this by listening to her brothers and sisters while they recited their homework at night around the kitchen table. And in the house it was discovered that Frances could remember and retained everything she had heard her brothers and sisters say and she was able to recite everything maybe quicker than they were. So it was obvious that Frances was extremely intelligent. At seven she rewrote the Lord's Prayer as a poem. She was hugely influenced by a man called Reverend James Steele, the Presbyterian minister and his powers of oratory in the church. So she became fascinated with the power of words and the power of words to take you to a different country. She read voraciously anything books were borrowed at the time and I would say that was part of the course. People loaned everything out and she read very high quality books. Her father was instrumental in Frances's life as well. That he carved birds, animals and flowers into a chair for his little blind daughter that even if she couldn't see these things she could see them with her hands and create her very, very rich inner life. Frances spent basically half her life in Stenorla and when she was 31 she moved to Edinburgh and she spent five years there and that was probably even though her literary career really started in Stenorla she had published work in prestigious journals but she needed an Emanuensis which is a lovely word because she couldn't write herself so her sister came with her Rebecca to Edinburgh and acted as her assistant writing down all her work. She's best remembered as a children's writer and she wrote her best-selling world famous classic Granny's Wonderful Chair which a lot of our festival is based on. She also wrote essays, reviews, short stories, novels, just a huge profit out in spite of being blind, in spite of of geographic isolation, in spite of being a woman she carved out a literary career for herself that is the equal of anything today with and today people have loads of help and workshops and she did this basically on her own. Fantastic it's only fitting then that you have a festival to commemorate her and to have her name out there with a woman. You say she was a woman she was blind and in the 19th century for a woman to achieve that it was something else. It was barely respectful for a woman to write in the 19th century but single-mindedly she went out there and did that and not only did she write pleasant things she was also anti-slavery, anti-war, anti-imperialism. There wasn't a sectarian bone in her body and she came from the Presbyterian tradition so she is a model for, people often say she's a model for women but I think she's a model for women and for men about courage in the face of adversity you know strength and endurance you know under extreme obstacles. So the festival this is the third year for the festival uh am I right in saying this? This is the third year for our festival it's very exciting and we're so excited to to be producing it again for a third year with assistance and huge help from Dunnegal County Council I'd just like to add without without Dunnegal County Council this festival and its present form wouldn't exist so um we have it it's from the the 12th to the 15th of October it opens an ingredient theater in letter Kenny on the Thursday night the 12th we have a our keynote speaker at that is Anne-Marie Necorren the wonderful poet and uh we have a new Pauline Holland's new play Strangers to Our Own about another Finn Valley or not a Finn Valley writer a full writer Sarah Leach so there there's lots of exciting things on we have workshops in Irish, English and Ulster Scots we have an art workshop by the um wonderful Irish artist Anne-Quinn who is based now between Lifford and at Ballie Lennon um it's um with panel discussions we have a mentioned granny's wonderful chair there's a one of our highlights is a performance of the tale of fairy foot from those tales of Francis Brown and that's performed by fidget feet with Tanya Ward and it'll be uh just a uh lovely show based outside in Drumbow woods with the theater dance maybe some aerial work as well from trees it's it's it's spectacular so we're super excited about that um we your your poetry competition now is part of the festival but it's it's been going for 15 years is that right and entries are now open uh entries are now open for the poetry the poetry competition in English, Irish and Ulster Scots is a a key part maybe the heartbeat of the festival in many ways and uh the reason why we have it in the three languages is that in our area of East Donegal um English, Irish and Ulster Scots are spoken on a daily basis on the same street sometimes in the same house so that uh that situation does not exist anywhere else in Ireland that we would have that rich cultural heritage and have three languages um so the idea is to to let those languages and their cultures meld together in this this competition um it's um open to everyone we've had entries from we've had loads of entries from Ireland from Northern Ireland from England Scotland Wales over Europe we've had entries from America Singapore Australia the Philippines so uh it's very exciting for us that Francis Brown's name is known in all these different countries around the world now because Francis was for the most part forgotten the 100th anniversary of her birth was not even remembered in any way and it was only by great good fortune that a plaque was erected in her memory in Sternorla in 1953 so that renewed at least it was a renewal of interest in her and it was the first time I became aware of her because as a student in St Columbus College I saw this plaque uh birth the birthplace of Francis Brown the blind girl of of Donegal they called her there she became known as the the I just can't remember now the Ulster the blind girl of Ulster um but what struck me then was who is this and why is she the only person in these two towns who has this bronze plaque on a house with her name on it so even though maybe I didn't have enough interest in it then at 13 it still stuck me that who is she who is this who is Francis Brown and just lovely that you asked me that very first question who is Francis Brown because I think the more often we ask that question the better yeah so you were you were saying that there's you've got entries from all over the world but there's a there's a local division to it this year and a few new aspects uh the Eilish McBride award as well so tells me a bit about the new things this year um Celine yeah the there there is a local way accepted entries from everybody and there's three English Irish and Ulster Scots but this year people who are either born in the Lyftsden Orler municipal district or work there or live there can also their poem can be entered in a local section so it's three extra prizes and English Irish and Ulster Scots specifically for local people because we wanted to encourage local people to enter the competition and for local people to take the baton from Francis Brown and get their voice out into the world I mean there's too many there's too many poems and stories in the bottom of drawers and it's only when it's only when you actually have the courage to let the piece out there that something happens something magical happens and a magical part of our competition is that uh on the night of the award ceremony which is the Friday night in this case that's the 13th of October and it's in Keyes Hotel um winning prize-winning poets read out their poems and the the three languages are celebrated in the most unique way and it brings people together in a way that is kind of indescribable but it's a feature that I particularly like and because in most poetry competitions you will see the competition you'll hear that so many people entered and you maybe will see their name and the name of the poem that won but I have always wanted to hear the work that's and that's um something we have agreed on as a committee to make sure that the poem is heard and Elisha McBride uh this prize has been donated by her daughter Adele her memory Elish um as people may know I am uh with the Finn Valley Voice newspaper and our paper has an arts page called the arts window and one of the very very first arts windows from 94 Elish McBride submitted a short story for that and um when I like the first poem that was sent to me when I read Elish McBride's short story I thought oh this this is our move but she this beautiful writing about home life family life about life in the Finn Valley um by um by Elish was just amazing and she continued that she was remember she was Elish wrote for years and like Frances Brown had the most amazing memory could remember details from train journeys from when she was a child and uh that ability to uh tell a story in the same way that Frances Brown did I think it's very important so it was decided that we would have this year the Elish McBride award Elish was from convoy her daughter Adele as the very uh extremely well known uh knitter and she instructs people on how to knit as well and uh Elish sponsored that prize so that's that's nice and it's uh that that what prize will go to a local person so that we can uh celebrate the work of local and contemporary writers as well fantastic so for people who are tuned in this morning and they'd like to enter the competition it's live now it opened on the 20th of June and entries close the 20th of august and we're right and say yeah and where can they get information you can get information at uh on our website www.francisbrownlitteryfestival.com and that's brown with an E Frances spelled her name both with b-r-o-w-n and with the E so we've stuck with the with the E so remember it's Frances Brown with an E and all the information is on there you can also um send it by email and uh entries can also be posted to the Finn Valley Voice newspaper by hand and I don't know if we're unique in this we also accept neatly handwritten entries because I don't want anyone to mess out like say someone doesn't have access to a computer if your hand if your entry is legible we will accept it right fantastic so get get righty now everybody out there and lots of prizes there's 1500 euros uh in prize money Celine yeah 1500 euro and prizes in total and uh we have to thank Donegal County Council for the prize money for the poetry competition uh there's an entry fee of five euro which also all of it goes towards the prizes uh people can enter as many poems or as few as they wish and uh they can enter in any language and um I would encourage people to uh maybe try maybe try a different language from the one you're used to as well well continued success with your festival and your poetry competition and many many thanks Celine for taking time out to talk to you this morning thank you team it's been a pleasure thank you join me Marty Freel this and every Friday