'04 Weekend Report

Introduction

All workshops proved very successful. The Weekend Programme was well publicised and proved attractive to people. The organisers where also thrilled with the night-time turn-out, with over 70 people present for the launch by Rosaleen Molloy (Arts Officer with Wexford County Council), in the Farm Centre, Enniscorthy, and over 50 present for the Saturday night event. For details on the individual workshops that took place on Saturday, please follow the links:

	Childrens with John Murphy ... check out the children's poems ... fabulous
	Song writing with Mike Hanrahan ... "We all wanted to come back tomorrow, for more."
	Fiction with Philip Casey ... "Informative and entertaining."
	Poetry with Eamonn Wall ... "A truly enjoyable experience."

Friday Night

On Friday night the scene was set with an intimate atmosphere of incense and candle light. MC Eddie Crean was great at moving the night along seamlessly, calling first on Andy Doyle to welcome the house crowd on behalf of the organisers. Eddie then called on Rosaleen to officially open the Weekend and Tom Moorehouse, representing Enniscorthy Town Council, to say a few warm words also. Then on to the entertainment. This included:

	Mogue Doyle reading from his second novel, A Moth at the Glass
	Peter Murphy reading from a novel he is writing, about childhood mishaps and misgivings
	Gerard Whelan reading from a wonderful story of the fictional Guthrie family
	Eugene Waters performing his own songs
	Mick Egan and Anne Meyler, performing some of Mick's songs
	Pat McGill and Martin Codd recounting Wexford hurling in the '50s
	Enniscorthy Theatre Group (Norma Flood-Doyle, Kiera O'Sullivan, Carman Yeats-O'Gara, Michael Dunbar) reading from Andy Doyle's play, Something About Roses
	Betty Thompson reading her awarding winning poetry
	Sean Clerkin reading his awarding winning poetry
	Shane Ryan performing his own songs
	John Murphy closing with one of his wonderful performance poems

Saturday Morning

On Saturday then, the workshops commenced at 10am in St Aidan's Primary School, and all were finely attended. For details on each workshop follow the link:

	Childrens with John Murphy ... check out the children's poems ... fabulous
	Song writing with Mike Hanrahan ... "We all wanted to come back tomorrow, for more."
	Fiction with Philip Casey ... "Informative and entertaining."
	Poetry with Eamonn Wall ... "A truly enjoyable experience."

Saturday Night

Finally then, on Saturday night, in another intimate atmosphere of incense and candle light, MC John Murphy, in between his own unique style of poetry, called on a host of performers from the workshops to perform their work. These included:

	Philip Casey with a beautiful reading from The Water Star
	Mike Hanrahan bringing the house down with his music
	Eamonn Wall was warmly received in his home town to recite his poetry
	Ken McGannon from the fiction workshop
	Mark Kelly from the fiction workshop
	Andy Doyle from the fiction workshop
	Paul O'Reilly from the song writing workshop
	Ian Barry from the song writing workshop
	Anthony Doyle from the poetry workshop
	Maria Clifford from the poetry workshop
	Helen Kavanagh from the poetry workshop
	William Norris from the poetry workshop
	16 year old David Kehoe from the poetry workshop
	Pat O'Toole, representing the children's workshop, read the childrens' group poem
	Niall Wall with the closing address and a rendition of his own composition "The Baldwinstown Clothes"

Summary

The Weekend will go down as a great success, as everything we wanted to achieve we did. Before the Weekend was over, people were already talking about next year, about how we could expand, and about what we have learned from this year's maiden event, and that in itself is motivation to work towards planning next year's event. Given the funding, and further expansion and commitment on the ground, an annual "South East Literary Festival", has enormous potential. With that in mind, Launch Pad would like to invite people interested in organising such events, to make contact with any of Launch Pad's committee members.

Many Thanks

The organisers of the Weekend would like to extend their warm thanks to the following people: Rosaleen Molloy and Wexford County Council without whom this would not have been possible, Jim Byrne from Byrne's Bookshops, Bank of Ireland, the people who made donations to Launch Pad over the weekend, Michael and Margaret Brady from The Farm Centre, Tom, Sean, Bernadette and John from the Echo, David and Paddy from the Guardian, Alan McGuire from South East Radio, Mary and Tobin Printers, Mary Redmond on lighting, Eddie Crean on sound, Mike, Philip, Eamonn, Andrea and John for four wonderful workshops (and evening performances), Mogue, Peter, and Gerard, our guest performers, Darren and Ian from Wexford Song Club, Leslie Dowdall for her knowledge, Peter and all at St Aidan's for a wonderful venue, Creane and Creane Ltd, the coffee makers, pen pushers, and wine pourers on the ground, and of course our performers, listeners and writers who make it all worth the while.

Looking forward to the future,

Paul O'Reilly

29/07/04