For the second consecutive year, Ireland, Latin America and Spain are coming together for three days of round-table discussions, lectures and other events related to literature. The second year of the Isla Festival, a cultural initiative organised by the Instituto Cervantes, wouldn’t be possible without the collaboration of the Argentinian, Chilean, Cuban and Mexican embassies, as well as our own Embassy of Spain in Ireland, of which the Cervantes Institute is a part. We also owe a great deal to the support of institutions such as Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, Ireland Literature Exchange, Poetry Ireland, the Etxepare Basque Institute, Foras na Gaeilge and the invaluable contribution by Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth and University College Cork, in order to make today a happy reality.
Over the course of three days, sixteen authors from Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Ireland, Mexico and Spain will offer their poetry, imaginations and musings on writing and its milieu. They are the protagonists of the diverse programme we’re presenting today, under the title “The Power of Words”, with the help of the esteemed Irish writer John Banville, who has kindly accepted our invitation to open the festival.
In the words of President Michael D. Higgins, during his opening speech at the first Isla Festival, we will continue to deepen “the engagement with Irish culture and writing that exists”, we promise to keep “strengthening and renewing the literary engagement and connection between our cultures”.
On the same day, President Higgins also quoted our beloved Seamus Heaney. We wish more than anything that he could be with us today, but sadly that’s not possible. He left us towards the end of August and that’s how we’d like to remember him – in late August, blackberry-picking after heavy rain. Blackberries that are as hard as a knot, like the one we feel wedged in our throat, when we think of his absence.
Wherever you are, Seamus, this festival is for you, and for all of you too. Welcome.
