Celebrating Gerard Manley Hopkins
Irish poet Desmond Egan and a team of dedicated professionals are hosting ‘The Gerard Manley Hopkins Festival’ at Newbridge College Theatre Kildare from Friday 19 July – Thursday 25 July 2024. The festival is now in its 36th year.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet and Jesuit priest known for his innovative prosody and vivid use of imagery and nature in his poetry. Some of his best mature poems, many of them literary masterpieces, were written in Clongowes Wood College SJ, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, Dublin and Rahan, Co. Offaly.
The festival celebrates Gerard Manley Hopkins, his links with Ireland and his interests: Poetry; Art; Music, Philosophy and Conservation. Participants are expected from around the world and they include writers, artists, academics, musicians and translators. The event has been described by the Editor of the ‘Oxford Companion to Irish Literature’ as “The best literary festival in Ireland”. Festival events include a literary conferences, creative writing workshops, music workshops, art exhibitions, classical and Irish concerts, International poetry readings and field trips of cultural interest. A Youth Programme runs parallel to the main programme under the direction of Derek Egan.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on 28 July 1844, in Stratford, Essex, to Manley and Catherine Hopkins. He came from a deeply religious High-Church Anglican family with a background in the arts and literature. His father was involved in the marine insurance business and served as the Hawaiian consul-general in London. Hopkins showed early talent in visual arts, which later influenced his poetic work. On 8 June 1889, Hopkins contracted typhoid fever and died in Newman House, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin. He is buried in the Jesuit plot, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. His poetry and writings were unknown until published by Robert Bridges in 1918 when he was finally revealed as one of the most innovative writers in poetic language and rhythm and a powerful and profound poet of religion and nature.
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