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PB October/November 2023 October/November 2023 49
Mac Giolla Easbuig. “It is a long way from the
spirit of MacGill, the ‘navvy poet’, who spoke out
for the working classes and the oppressed in
books like ‘Children Of The Dead End’”.
So why does the School persist?
Even before the pandemic, the MacGill School
was criticised as “male, pale and stale”, and
though it has gone some way to address its
onetime gender imbalance, the criticism still
holds.
It can be argued the School lost its lustre over
a decade ago. The tipping point may have been
2015, when Enda Kenny was greeted by water-
charge protestors outside the Highlands Hotel.
Glenties was no longer a ‘safe space’ for many
in the political class.
The School, usually scheduled immediately
after the Dáil shut down for the summer, allowed
everyone to decompress. As a bonus, the
newspapers, deprived of daily copy from
Leinster House, could often be relied on for full-
page coverage. This gave it an infl uence not so
much from who was listening in the audiences,
but from who read it the following day in the Irish
Times.
There was a buzz about the place for the
week, and only about three places to bump into
everyone, which gave it a crowded intimacy as
politicians and political correspondents jostled
with retired civil servants and politics geeks
ordering a fi nal round before closing.
Newspapers have declined since then too, as
audiences move to digital newsfeeds. Coverage
this year was reduced to a solitary daily article.
In the post-Twitter era, MacGill feels like a very
last century way to do things, an antiquated
infl uencer pattern.
There was a time when the summer was fi lled
with these festivals. Yeats International in Sligo,
Merriman in Clare, Humbert, Parnell, Hewitt,
Hopkins, Goldsmith, Greaves, Kennedy. Some
have fallen by the wayside, though many carry
on, adrift of public consciousness. Somehow,
against the odds, for now, MacGill persists.
Mulholland expressing the hope he would be
able to visit in person next year.
The following day saw Stephen Collins in
conversation with Michael McDowell on the
stage, and a discussion on Northern Ireland and
the future. Sometimes, the Highlands Hotel can
feel like a Progressive Democrats school
reunion, as when Cox and McDowell mingle in a
crowd with Stephen Collins, author of ‘Breaking
the Mould’, and the nearest thing the PDs ever
had to a Boswell.
The fi nal day featured debates on climate
change and A.I. The Irish economy, the EU,
China, Russia, and Seamus Heaney also
featured.
So what is the point of this festival?
Looking through the programme, there is a
marked political slant. Left-leaning politicians
and commentators are a rarity on the main
stage.
“There is a neo-liberal, right wing bias”, says
local independent Councillor Micheal Cholm
T
he locals call it the white trousers
festival. A name earned for some of
the unusual and unconventional
sartorial choices of the mostly grey-
haired attendees.
The MacGill Summer School, run by former
RTÉ producer and editor Joe Mulholland, is now
in its 43rd year, still shuffl ing along in the small
West Donegal town of Glenties. The festival
o ce, a small shopfront in the middle of the
single street town, nestles among a parade of
pubs festooned in GAA colours, fast food
takeaways, corner shops, and the inevitable
Apache pizza restaurant.
Despite its longevity, the festival has not on
the surface inspired any ancillary activities in
the town. Bars and restaurants may benefi t, but
there are no stores o ering discounts to MacGill
ticket holders, no pub called MacGills or The
Dead End, or even Rat Pit. In contrast, two shops
on the main street proudly carry the word
Lúghnasa in their names, cashing in on the
25-year-old success of the Meryl Streep vehicle
Dancing at Lúghnasa (1998). The fi lm was shot
nearby, and the fi ctional Ballybeg, featured in
several of Brian Friel’s works, is widely believed
to be Glenties.
The theme of this year’s summer school was
‘A New Global Order: Precarious & Dangerous?’,
a title which sits uncomfortably close to the New
World Order conspiracy theory. It’s unlikely
though, that the Highlands Hotel will be the
birthplace of a Totalitarian Single World
Government.
The fi rst afternoon opened with a speech by
Larysa Gerasko, Ukranian ambassador to
Ireland. Former PD leader, Pat Cox, gave a
presentation on his travels to the embattled
country both before and after the Russian
invasion in 2022. During his speech, the MEP
and former RTÉ presenter recalled how widely
travelled Patrick MacGill was, but although he
mentioned that MacGill had written an article on
trench warfare and his WWI service with the
London Irish Rifl es, he did not mention the Irish
writer also worked for the British War Department
as a propagandist.
On the second night US congressman Brendan
Boyle gave the annual John Hume lecture. The
Irish-American son of a Donegal emigrant spoke
via internet link from Washington, with
MacGill feels like a very
last-century way to do
things, an antiquated
infl uencer pattern
Mulholland Drivel
MacGill is conservive nd poinless
By Gerrd Cunninghm
Summertime with McDowell nd Collins
OPINION
