German Ambassador guest at Achill Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend

THE annual Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend takes place on Achill Island from May 2 to 4, with an international panel of writers and speakers.

The opening event and registration is this Friday at St. Thomas' Hall, Dugort (F28 H320) at 7 p.m., with guest speaker German Ambassador David Gill. Ambassador Gill wil also present school essays prizes to students from Coláiste Pobail Acla.

The keynote talk is by Jan Philipp Albrecht, a member of the board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation since June 2022. Prior to that, he was Minister for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment, Nature and Digitalisation of the State of Schleswig-Holstein for four years and nine years as a Member of the European Parliament, where he became the youngest German member in 2009.

As a member of the European Parliament, he negotiated numerous digital, trade and legal policy projects, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation as Parliament's rapporteur.

Also on Friday eveneing there will be a reading of the works of award-winning Katerina Poladjan, while Upheaval will be read by actress and translator Wiebke Acton.

Saturday starts with a nature walk at Keem Bay with Micheál O'Briain, visiting one of the remarkable jewels in the crown of Achill Island’s natural heritage.

The Anne Shannon memorial writers workshop takes place with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Irish Times Award for Poetry, the O’Shaughnessy Award of the Irish-American Cultural Institute which called her “among the very best poets of her generation”, the International Griffin Poetry Prize and the 1573 International Poetry Award, one of China’s highest literary honours.

A screening of Petra Kelly - Act Now will be introduced by director Doris Metz. Activist Petra Kelly was convinced that a single person could change the world and, as co-founder of the German Green Party, she did. Director Doris Metz crafts an enlightening portrait of one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century.

A talk on translations will be given by Hans-Christian Oeser, who has translated over 30 Irish authors into German, as well as several German poets into English, and he will join Hans-Henner Becker to discuss aspects of his approach to translation, giving some short samples in the process.

80 at 80 is an evening of Paul Durcan’s poetry to celebrate his 80th birthday. Take a look back on the extraordinary career of one of Ireland’s most lauded and popular poets through readings of his much-loved poems by poets and admirers.

Sunday kicks off with a guided walk in the Currrane landscape to Lough Ard with Tomás McLoughlin.

Later, the Achill Writers' Group readings will be followed by music by Laoise Kelly and Diarmuid Gielty.

For the full programme of events, tickets and booking, see heinrichboellcottage.com.

Further information and accommodation is available via Achill Tourism.