Get to know the Irish cultural heritage with Cathal Póirtéir

The Embassy of Ireland in Ljubljana has worked together with Društvo za sodobno umetnost X-OP to bring you two captivating cultural events with Cathal Póirtéir, on Tuesday 15 November in Trubarjeva Hiša Literature.

We will start at 15:30 with the “Introduction to Irish Folklore”, a lecture during which Cathal Póirtéir will share with his audience his rich knowledge of Irish customs and traditions, including folk beliefs, calendar customs, traditional songs, legends, folktales and oral literature, a big part of which is the traditional Irish narrator (seanchaí) and their narratives. The lecture will be in English.

We will continue at 18:00 with a "Poetry Evening" featuring Cathal Póirtéir and Tina Mahkota. With live readings and a lively discussion on the Irish poetry and literature, the two enthusiasts are sure to make the evening interesting and enjoyable.

Cathal Póirtéir is an established Irish writer, editor, poet, broadcaster and researcher who has been broadcasting on the Irish national RTÉ Radio1 for thirty years and is the producer in charge of Irish language programmes, with many of them rebroadcast by RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. Cathal Póirtéir graduated in modern Irish language and folklore from University College Dublin and has a master’s degree in the latter. In his thirty-year career as a radio producer at RTE Radio, he has written on many subjects in the field of folklore and placed them in RTE’s radio broadcasts. His programmes on folklore cover many customs and traditions that have been actively studied in Ireland, including folk beliefs, calendar customs, traditional songs, historical traditions and legends, and folktales and oral literature. His most important printed publications include a book on the traditional narrator (seanchaí) and his tales. Cathal Póirtéir has also researched and published two books (in Irish and in English) on individual folk memories of the potato famine in Ireland in the mid-19th century. Cathal has lectured in Ireland, North America and Europe on the topic of 'great Irish famine' as well as on the work carried out by the institution of the Irish Folklore Commission.

Tina Mahkota is a translator from English and German, a lecturer at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television Ljubljana and a publicist. Her translation work includes over forty translations of prose works and sixty dramas by mostly Irish, Scottish and English authors. Tina is a recipient of numerous awards, including Dominik Smole Award in 2010 and the Sovre Award in 2013 for the translation of The Dubliners by James Joyce. In 2016, the International Board on Books for Young People included her on its Honour List for her outstanding translation of the novel, "Bog Child", by the Irish author Siobhan Dowd.

The two events are part of the “Other Words” European project, a partnership programme between cultural organisations in Europe, which aims to establish a network of creative placements for European writers in small and minority languages and is promoted through literary residencies.