STEWART PARKER TRUST AWARDS CEREMONY ABBEY THEATRE, DUBLIN Monday 20th April 2009
STEWART PARKER TRUST AWARDS CEREMONY ABBEY THEATRE, DUBLIN Monday 20th April 2009
Tá áthas an domhain orm bheith anseo i bhur measc inniu. Go raibh míle maith agaibh as ucht bhur gcuireadh agus bhur bhfáilte fíor chaoin.
Good afternoon everyone. I'm delighted to be here today to share with you this your twentieth year of pride and celebration. I had the pleasure of presiding over the tenth anniversary award ceremony of the Stewart Parker Trust and am shocked to find myself here at the twentieth so soon! But I am grateful to my old friend, John Fairleigh for the invitation and for the work he does on so many fronts to promote and develop our Irish writing heritage at home and abroad.
The awards are made in the name of Stewart Parker, who as he put it himself, “was born, raised, educated, married and scarred” in my own home city of Belfast, a city of “Protestants and Catholics” of “them and us”, of seething, unresolved toxic attitudes. Stewart refused to adapt himself comfortably to the tribalism, to choose as Seamus Heaney has put it, “one or other Ulster of the mind.” Instead he chose to introduce us to the deliberate “misremembering of history”, the ransacking of the past for reasons to continue to hate in the present and the wasted opportunities of that bleak landscape. Breaking open the hermetic seal on those jealously guarded histories was a courageous and necessary pathway to the reconciliation and peace that are still being constructed. He died when both still seemed a long way off but we gather in different times, conscious of the fragility of peace but equally conscious of the transformation that has been effected on this island and that would surely have pleased Stewart greatly. I often wonder to what extent his own illness and suffering as an adolescent allowed him to experience life very differently from those around him, widening and sharpening his perspective and making of him “the one who stood his ground” to quote Heaney again, the one who did not follow the crowd, but tried to lead it in a different direction.
These awards help to ensure that the insight of the artist during these times of fundamental culture shift is encouraged, supported and recognised, that there is no let up in the kind of leadership, insight, entertainment and challenge that the well-written word, the laser accurate gesture, the deliberate theatrical silence, alone can deliver.
I congratulate the Trust on two decades of high achievement in fostering and supporting the development of new plays and playwrights and through them enriching not just Irish theatre and Irish life but keeping the name of Ireland globally among the places looked to with respect and admiration for its writing talent and its nurturing of that talent. The bursaries and awards are I know just one part of a much wider programme of support that stretches from Annaghmakerrig to Romania and to the United States.
Ireland’s proud literary heritage is no mausoleum piece. It is a vibrant, dynamic with each generation confidently adding its own chapter as today’s awardees are doing. Sometimes like Stewart they help us intuit the unknowable future by introducing us with fresh eyes to aspects of our past and present that we have overlooked, edited out, suppressed or forgotten. They help us grow new perspectives. Sometimes they just plain help us grow up by helping us to grow curious. They do it with the subtlety of the playwright, entertaining and revealing without hectoring, like Stewart taking us to difficult places but using humour to ease the journey. They do it with a strong belief that the smallest audience is a good start and an important leaven.
Today, we honour a new generation of voices and words and dramatic devices used to great effect on the stage, that place where the artist is utterly vulnerable and stands ready to be judged. There are easier careers but for those whose vocation this is there is no choice. I hope it helps to know they have the enthusiastic encouragement of the Stewart Parker Trust and of a people who have always held the writer in a particular and high regard, knowing they are the keepers of something sacred even if we are not always sure what it is.
I am very grateful to have the opportunity to have been part of the celebration of your twenty year success story. At this special time in the life of the Stewart Parker Trust I extend my warmest congratulations to John Fairleigh and all those in the Trust whose collective vision, energy, commitment and dedication have discovered, nurtured and served such talent. I wish you continued success.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Gura fada buan sibh.