Borris House – Festival of Writing and Ideas.
Last Sunday I visited the lovely village of Borris in Co. Carlow. The Blackstairs Mountains slope gently down to unfurl an idyllic village alongside the River Barrow. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm and everything and everyone looked finely turned out and tuned in. The festival of writing and ideas is relatively new, a few years old. I have visited before but forgot how special this event is. Borris House, the imposing seat of the High Kings of Leinster opened its gardens and doors for the extended three-day event. This year the History Festival of Ireland was incorporated. Last year the History Festival was a separate weekend event and was held in Huntington Castle, Clonegal. I could not begin to list the number of fantastic talks and workshops which were scheduled in Borris over the weekend. Check out the website information http://www.festivalofwritingandideas.com where you can peruse the wonder. Writers, historians, architects, visual artists, musicians, philosophers and academics galore were there. Enquiry and discussion, learning and laughing took place indoors and every so often the crowds poured out onto the lawns for coffee, cake, whiskey, pizza or other delicacies.
The first person of interest to me was one of my long time idols, David Gilmour, yes the David Gilmour of PINK FLOYD! There he was sitting on a wall chatting to Neil Jordan, film director. Just sitting there, chatting, not being bothered by anyone for autographs or photographs or just gawking at him. I had to severely restrain myself. Everyone else was either extraordinarily well behaved and refined and would find any display of adoration or fawning distasteful or they didn’t know him from Adam. So I discreetly glanced and kicked myself for being such an ass. What harm a little hello or photograph or even autograph! This is the guy I have listened to for hours singing and making that guitar sing with a glass of wine in my hand and a head full of trouble. This is the guy that made it all bearable. But I behaved, just like everyone else. Am I a fool? David and his wife Polly Sampson, the author were appearing for the first time together talking about their creative partnership. Imagine that!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to the Gilmour/Sampson gig but I had booked to attend a conversation between A.C. Grayling and Michael Harding. Grayling is Professor of Philosophy and is the distinguished author of many wonderful philosophical and academic books. His topics cover several fascinating areas such as philosophical logic, metaphysics and epistemology. I heard him here in Borris three years ago when he spoke around his book ‘The Good Book’ which could be described loosely as a humanist alternative to the Bible. I loved him then and I loved his talk last Sunday. He was in conversation with Michael Harding, our much loved author and storyteller. I don’t think there is anything written by Michael which I have not read, so I feel that I know him well. Of course I have never met him. A packed ballroom listened as they discussed life and death, right and wrong. They touched on subjects of truth and meaning and held their audience in rapture. An hour such as this has been described by some as flimsy and never long enough to seriously tackle any subject. Yet I feel the pleasure of an hour like this, just kicking thoughts and ideas around on the pitch of the mind, can be restorative and uplifting. Hope and inquiry is raised and sprinkled liberally, brain and soul food is plentiful.
Another conversation attended was that of the comedian Tommy Tiernan and Limerick author, Kevin Barry. This failed to impress in quite the same way but was an interesting alternative for a more logical mind.
Time and commitments limited my enjoyment of the day. Next year I will return. I will save up and try to make a full weekend of it. What a wonderful way to spend a weekend at the foot of the lovely mountains in Co. Carlow.
I will leave you with my interpretations of some of the wonderful moments from A.C. Grayling’s conversation with Michael Harding.
Death and dying are very different events. Death is about other people leaving us and the pain and grief we are left with. Dying is personal, it is about our own departure from this world. We will not be left with pain and grief at the end of it.
Walter Pater, the 19th century British Philosopher wrote that to be successful in life we should not form habits. Habits limit the soul and the mind.
The Great Philosophers suggested that in life if we achieve two things we will have lived well – courage and self-mastery over our fears and appetites. It is impossible to define a huge concept such as ‘truth’. However, we can begin to understand it by breaking it down to smaller moral and practical concepts i.e. is it true that rain falls from the clouds?
Death and dying give shape to our endeavours.
We must be open in our vulnerability, we must not fear exposing our emotions as they are – human and honest. The brave face does not always serve the common good.
I awake expecting to see the blossoms of spring, I awoke to find the rains of autumn had already begun (from Tang Dynasty Poem).
When we die, we return to the cosmos. Our body matter alters. We came from some other form of matter so then we return. We are, in some form, still in the cosmos, there is nothing after all outside of this.