A series of events will take place this weekend in Glenties, Co Donegal, to celebrate one of Ireland's most influential writers, Brian Friel, on the tenth anniversary of his death.
Born on 9 January 1929 in Killyclogher, near Omagh, in Co Tyrone, Mr Friel was the son of a schoolteacher and a postmistress from Glenties in Donegal, a place that was to inspire many of his plays.
Mr Friel wrote more than 30 plays across six decades, including Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964), Faith Healer (1979), Translations (1980) and Dancing at Lughnasa (1990).
The weekend’s events in Glenties will feature performances, readings, conversations, and guided walks honouring Mr Friel’s life, work, and connection to the west Donegal landscape.
A feature of the weekend will see the official opening of The Laurels - Mr Friel’s mother’s home in which he spent much of his childhood.
The late 19th-century building and its landscape was restored following support from the Historic Towns Initiative.
Brian Friel’s wife, Anne Friel, said she found it very moving to see The Laurels "being restored with such care" ten years after Brian’s passing.
"The Laurels held a special place in his heart; it was a source of memory, imagination, and inspiration.
"This is a fantastic tribute to him, and to the world he captured so powerfully in his plays," she said.
Mr Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa is dedicated to his mother Christina McLoone and his aunts who grew up in The Laurels.
County Donegal Heritage Officer Joseph Gallagher said they were immortalised as the Mundy sisters in Dancing at Lughnasa, set in 1930s Ballybeg and his uncle Barney McLoone served as the inspiration for the missionary priest who returned home.
The play won three Tony awards on Broadway in 1992 including Best Play and was made into a film starring Meryl Streep.
Brian Friel, along with actors Meryl Streep and Sophie Thompson, unveiled a plaque on The Laurels in 1998.
Chairperson of the Brian Friel Trust Séamus Neely said the project is about more than the restoration of a building.
"It’s about honouring the cultural legacy of Brian Friel in the place that inspired so much of his work.
"The restoration of The Laurels is a key step in the development of the Brian Friel Centre in Glenties.
"This weekend marks the next phase in establishing it as a national and international cultural hub."
The Brian Friel Trust hopes the centre will become a landmark destination in the north-west as it is intended to celebrate the internationally acclaimed playwright and short-story writer while serving as a resource for artists, students, and audiences.
The weekend’s celebrations in Glenties will begin at 8pm in the Highlands Hotel with Celebrating Brian Friel - An Evening of Readings, directed by Conall Morrison.
The free event features an all-star cast including Sinéad Cusack, Adrian Dunbar, Stephen Rea, Ciarán Hinds, and others.
Tomorrow morning, the grounds of The Laurels will host Brian Friel Remembered - Readings from the Stories and Plays, a free, open-air event requiring no booking.
A performance of Friel’s acclaimed play Faith Healer directed by Geoffrey Gould, and starring Séamus O’Rourke, Orla Fitzgerald, and Michael Patrick, will take place at The Market Hall in Glenties at 7.30pm.
An exhibition, called Mapping the Land: The Literary Landscape of Brian Friel, curated by Sarah Moran with Muireann Lalor will open at the Lúghnasa Creative Arts Centre, Ballybeg House, Glenties.
Brian Friel received numerous awards during his lifetime. He served as a senator and was a Saoi of Aosdána.
When he spoke in public, he was often self-deprecating. In Self Portrait, published in 1972, he said: "I am married, have five children, live in the country, smoke too much, fish a bit, read a lot, worry a lot, get involved in sporadic causes and invariably regret the involvement, and hope that between now and my death I will have acquired a religion, a philosophy, a sense of life that will make the end less frightening than it appears to me at this moment."
