A Midnight Court: Brendan Kennelly @ Carrigafoyle 30|09|25

Jimmy Deenihan and Joe Murphy created the Rivers of Words documentary series on North Kerry writers in 1992 and RTÉ screened it in 1994. Deenihan collected all the original recordings and  donated them to Kerry Writers’ Museum in May 2025.

The museum’s curator of film and video digitised over one hundred of these tapes in a studio at Kerry College | Monavalley Campus with funding provided by the Heritage Council.

The result is a rich archive of recordings that celebrate film and literary traditions in North Kerry. Most of this material has never been shown in public. It includes a poetry reading by Brendan Kennelly (1936-2021) shot at Carrigafoyle Castle.

On 30 September, we convened a midnight court inside the castle in partnership with the OPW and the Brendan Kennelly Trust, represented on the night by Dr Mary McAuliffe. Ciara Finn set the scene with an atmospheric lighting scheme and we screened a short film of Kennelly reading his poetry.

The impact was extraordinary. 

Kennelly brought the space alive and, despite the late hour, the people who gathered remained for a post screening discussion – moved as much by the power of poetry inspired by the castle as the magic of being in the castle at midnight.

 

 

Photo: Lisa Fingleton

 

Valeriia Matiakh lights up Carrigafoyle Castle in prep for a Midnight Court. Photo: Ciarán Walsh

 

 

 

in association with

 

 

 

 

 

A showcase of film and photography from rural Ireland’s literary heartland

Tony Fitzmaurice, 1953, Ballybunion People © Kerry Writers’ Museum

 

Kerry Writers’ Museum marks International Museum Day on Sunday 18 May with a public event celebrating the acquisition of three very important collections.

A major Heritage Council award has made it possible for the museum to acquire Jimmy Deenihan’s remarkable library of North Kerry Literary Trust video recordings of Kerry writers and their associates. Kathy Reynold has gifted Tony Fitzmaurice’s collection of over 26,000 world class social documentary photographs shot in and around Ballybunion in from 1954 on wards. Leo Finucane  will gift a collection of material created over an extraordinary career as a filmmaker based in Moyvane.

Kerry Writers’ Museum received €47,750 from the Heritage Council to continue recovering and archiving films shot in rural north Kerry. This funding will enable the museum to develop a viewing library with trained staff to provide free, public access to these and other collections as they are archived and digitised. That places Kerry Writers’ Museum at the forefront of a strategic drive to manage public engagement with archives like this at a local level.

Community Cinema kicks off part 2 of Heritage Council film project in Kerry

 

 

 

Kerry Writers’ Museum received €47,750 from the Heritage Council to continue recovering and archiving films shot in rural north Kerry. It brings total investment by the Heritage Council in this project – developed by Ciarán Walsh | curator.ie – to almost €100,000 over two years.

A special screening of Leo Finucane’s film Father And Son at Clounmacon Community Centre is a continuation of the community cinema programme and the first act of the second phase of this groundbreaking project (video below).

The 2025  grant allows Kerry Writers’ Museum to complete its acquisition of two very important collections. The first is Jimmy Deenihan’s remarkable library of North Kerry Literary Trust recordings of Kerry writers and their associates. The second is the Tony Fitmaurice collection of photographs, which his niece Kathy Reynoldshas given back to the people of Listowel and Ballybunion.

Heritage Council funding will also enable the museum to develop a viewing library with trained staff to provide free, public access to these and other collections as they are archived and digitised. That places Kerry Writers’ Museum at the forefront of a strategic drive to manage public engagement with archives like this at a local level. The partnership with Leo Finucane and Clounmacon Community Centre is an important part of that project.