With this issue, we at Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat are beginning what we hope will be a long exchange of information, ideas, and experience with those who come to do their creative work here. We also intend to make it possible for all of us to stay current with the ongoing work of each writer and artist to inspire us in our own processes as well as support the future efforts of our residents. Please feel free to make comments or suggestions, provide tips or lessons learned, and offer your advice or your work for inclusion. Who knows? Maybe someday we will be publishing an anthology of both the writing and the visual art produced by Anam Cara residents.

Pass the word along . . .

The best way for people to become acquainted with Anam Cara is through the interest or experiences of others- by word of mouth. If you know someone who might be interested in spending time here, please let them know that the web site's address is: http://www.anamcararetreat.com

Wait a minute . . .
and the weather will change here in southwest Ireland. Right now spring is moving onto Beara in fits and starts. The daffodils are blooming, and a multitude of birds are vying for best song of the day. We have had quite bit of rain over the past three days, and the temperature has been unseasonably low, in the high 40s. Prior to that, the days had been full of sunshine, double rainbows, and billowing white clouds. Late this afternoon, the sun came out again, Coulagh Bay turned to jade, and the mountains of the Ring of Kerry took on their usual shades of lavender. The forecast over the next few
days is for spring and the Sun to return with a vengeance to begin their work on re-establishing Beara's summer range of greens.

Anam Cara Residents Present . . .

First Art Exhibit

The work of Deborah Barlow, a Boston, Massachusetts-based visual artist, opened the exhibition programme at Anam Cara on February 14. The show is the first of an ongoing series of art exhibits planned at the Retreat. We chose Ms. Barlow's work because of its close affinity to the landscape of the region. Many artists and writers are drawn to Anam Cara-and to Ireland in general-because there is a spirit and a mystery in the land here. These paintings celebrate that mystery and spirit.

For the last fifteen years, Ms. Barlow has explored landscapes that hold remnants of ancient civilizations. She has studied the stone circles and other Neolithic monuments along the Celtic coastline of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland as well as the petroglyphs of the deserts of the American Southwest. These ancient elements are merged layer upon layer with contemporary forms, creating a visual experience that spans both old and new, seen and unseen, known and unknown.
The house was filled to overflowing with brilliant sunshine that made Deborah's glorious paintings even more vibrant and with the community of art enthusiasts that make Beara home. Deborah was overwhelmed with the warm and supportive reception that she and her exhibit received. "To have my work be understood and accepted by such an incredibly gifted group was the highlight of my career as an artist."

On the fourth day of the exhibit, twenty young people and their teacher, Ms. Sheila Harrington, walked the half mile from Eyeries National School to meet with Deborah, see her paintings, and then work with her on projects of their own. Their work showed a great deal of promise, and Deborah plans to work with them again when she returns to Anam Cara for a fortnight at the end of April.

Singing with Confidence Workshop

Anne Lister, a singer/songwriter and storyteller from London, finished her week here with several new songs for her next CD and a very successful workshop attended by a number of choral singers from Beara. During the three-house session, she took the group through several exercises that stretched their singing ability and pushed their confidence in that ability. By the end, all who participated sang fine solos, much to their own surprise and to the delight of the other singers. Anne's musical gift-"to sing the land awake"-is readily apparent in her newest songs and played a big part in the success of her workshop.

The Writer's/Artist's Workshop

Preparing for a Retreat

By Maire L. Bradford, Arlington, Virginia

Maire worked on two different writing projects as well as her poetry during her three months at Anam Cara. Her experience here as well at other working retreats prompted her to send along the following tips:

1. Come prepared to work on a specific project that requires focus and concentration.

2. Come with necessary equipment in working order. Check with Sue beforehand on support for computers, musical instruments, etc.

3. If this is your first trip to Ireland, plan a few days of sightseeing before you check into Anam Cara. You will be able to see some nearby sites and antiquities, but sightseeing tours are invasive of your creative time.

4. Try to leave the world behind. Let family, friends, and colleagues know that you will be virtually incommunicado during your time here. Of course, you can be reached in case of real need, but don't use precious time phoning, writing, and e-mailing others. You need to be ready for solitude to work at a retreat.

5. This is a chance to Be Still, to Be in the Moment, and to just BE. You can hear your own voice if you stop talking and listen. The day will be organized so that you can spend it in quiet work. In the mornings and evenings, you can visit with others--or not--as you wish.

6. Sue provides a comfortable, safe, and supportive place to be alone with your thoughts, your inspirations. You can set your own pace with rest and physical exercise. You have no reason to take care of anybody but yourself. Come prepared to take advantage of the chance to work on your own.

Anam Cara Residents . . .

Publishing Update

Nessa O'Mahony recently launched her first book of poetry [Bar Talk, iTaLiC Press, £5.99] in Dublin. She reports:

It was a brilliant night! I couldn't believe how many people turned up--we reckon somewhere about 150--and the atmosphere was electric. Everybody was obviously thrilled for me, and it was great to see so many of my family and friends gathered in the one place enjoying themselves. The National Museum was a marvelous location . . . I'm very happy with the book and how it looks-it's a nice production, and Anne Enright gave it an excellent introduction.

A Profile

Maeve O'Sullivan is an arts manager and radio broadcaster who also writes poetry in general, and haiku poetry specifically. She has published poetry in various Irish journals including Women's Work, Haiku Spirit, Incognito
and Acorn (paper and Electric). While at Anam Cara, she wrote the following:

Four eggs in a bowl
on the kitchen table
shells empty but intact.

Maeve enjoys being in the countryside, as it is conducive to writing haiku. (The genre originated as "nature" poems in Japan.) On her return from Anam Cara, she moved from Dublin City centre to a house in Islandbridge, right on the
River Liffey. This new location has inspired many, many haiku, some of which we include below:

Noises of traffic flowing
west along the road
east on the river.

Preening himself
on the full moon tide
- a mallard.

Waning moon
reflected in the river -
such a cold night.

Autumn leaves falling
slowly onto the river
frosty morning.

And a seasonal one, hot off the blackboard (in the kitchen of Weir View House, where she writes them):

Reaching down
to switch off the lights
smell of pine.

THE RECIPE BOX

Several residents have requested recipes for food prepared at Anam Cara. and volunteered their own favorites. We will start this feature of the newsletter with:

Anam Cara's Irish Brown Soda Bread

1 ¼ lb. (4 ½ C) wholemeal flour
4 oz. (2 ½ C) bran
2 oz. (1/2 C) brown sugar
¼ oz. (3 t) bread soda (baking soda)
1 Liter (4 ½ C) buttermilk
Sift the bread soda and all the dry ingredients together. Add the buttermilk and bind thoroughly. Turn out into three greased 1-lb. tins. Cook for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Freezes well.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

LAUNCH OF BEARA PENINSULA WEB SITE
CASTLETOWNBERE, WEST CORK
FEBRUARY 1999
The Beara Tourism and Development Association's web site is now on the Internet:
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~bearatourism
The Beara Peninsula is the wildest and most romantic peninsula in the South West of Ireland. This new web site provides an in-depth look into all that Beara has to offer from walking trails to stone circles, from accommodations to festivals.

WEST CORK CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
BANTRY, WEST CORK
27 JUNE - 4 JULY 1999
One of Europe's finest chamber music festivals, this year's programme includes a late-into-the- night literary festival, called "The Midnight Court," and the launch of the book presenting this year's International Fish Short Story Contest winners.

BEARA ARTS FESTIVAL
SEVERAL LOCATIONS ON BEARA PENINSULA
24 JULY - 7 AUGUST 1999
Detailed information and programmes will be available here closer to the festival.

Meet Mary O'Malley
I first became familiar with Mary O'Malley's marvelous poetry [see related story on page 4] when I spent a month on Connemara in County Galway, the place about which she writes in Where the Rocks Float [Salmon Poetry, 1993]. As Eavan Boland said, "Many poets write about place. Not many write about the spirit of place with the tenacity and eloquence of Mary O'Malley. She has sought out, with careful language and a vivid tone, the emotional colour of the west she knows. She investigates its desolation and its history and is a true artist in sketching the beautiful, small details without which the essence of place, and the identity dependent on it, can be all too easily erase." Here's a sample of her gift:

Saving the Turf for Leo Hallissey

Once we were like Synge's peasant,
harvesting wilderness with a sleán,
too tired from bearing and rearing
to count wild flowers,

tired keeping the slow fires
and watching children die or go
through the flaming furze.
We only notice what is scarce.

Now we know the bog road is where
Fire and water meet, and burn.
This is no place to be alone at night
When dark shapes rise and quietly move,

our immigrant host. Briefly released
from footing real estate in Boston,
they swim through a rent in politicians' dreams,
the wild Irish, civilised and gone.

They are circling over the smouldering bog,
nightbirds, calling for something lost.

Upon leaving the morning after her reading here, Mary blessed Anam Cara by saying: "You really made me feel welcome, and I felt very comfort-able in the house. I think it is a place in which serious work can be done. I'll be back."

Literary Festival Reading Held at Anam Cara

The Connacht/Munster Literary Festival, sponsored by the Munster Literature Centre in association with the Triskel Arts Centre, took place in many locations around Cork County from 3-7 February 1999. On 5 February, the Beara Community Arts Society invited Mary O'Malley, a poet from County Galway, and Ré Ó Laighléis, a novelist, short story writer, and playwright from County Clare, to read first in the afternoon to a group of students from the Beara Community School at the Ford Rí Hotel in CastletownBere and then in the evening to a group at Anam Cara.

Mary O'Malley is a founding member of the Cúirt Poetry Festival and lives in Moycullen Gaeltacht. Her publications include A Consideration of Silk (Salmon, 1990), Where the Rocks Float (1993), and The Knife in the Wave (1997). She is a member of Aosdána.

Born in Dublin, Ré Ó Laighléis writes in Irish and English. His short stories include: "Punc agus Scéalta Eile" and "Ecstacy agus Scéalta Eile (Mondadori); his novels include: Sceoin so Bhoireann, Stríocai ar Thóin Séabra (Coscéim, 1998), and Terror on the Burren (Moíin, 1998). Ré is currently Writer in Residence for the Mayo County Council.

Before the evening began at Anam Cara, Mary and Ré joined those working here for supper and a bit of "good craic." Both writers are gifted storytellers, and they regaled us with many, sometimes hilarious, stories about the rewards and challenges of being writers. After they took turns reading, Mary from her poetry and Ré from his poetry, we and others who had come just for the evening sat around the fire and then the kitchen table sharing anecdotes until normal Irish partyending time-4:00 A.M.

We are very grateful to the organizers of the Connacht/Munster Literary Festival and to the Beara Community Arts Society for including Anam Cara as a venue. Getting to know Mary and Ré and their work better will be a high point of the year.

KEEPING IN TOUCH . . .

Q: How are the First Ladies doing? Are they still laying six eggs every day?
A: The First Ladies are in fine form: Eleanor, the one who refuses to stay in the hen yard, has established the winter laying schedule-five a day instead of six, giving one First Lady a rest each day. Roslyn has agreed to supervise the hatching out of a number of foster duck eggs. Hilary, Jackie, Martha, and Mary Todd are preparing the vegetable garden for the spring planting.
Q: What's the latest proverb from Frank O'Leary?
A: The old dog for the high road; the pup for the lane. Translation: Those with experience can move along the wide thoroughfares; those who are just learning can be found on the narrow, winding, unpaved paths.
Q: How is the construction of the O'Neill Path to the River progressing?
A: The chip (gravel) and railroad sleeper (tie) path is completed, and we have installed a working bench halfway down the path that has a view of the river and the sea. We are now working at clearing the scrub brush from the hazelnut grove on the hillside between the house and the river and putting in the bridge to the river island. Next, we'll tackle the refurbishing of the old stone mill and the old pump house to create all-weather working spots.
Q: How are the plans for a Beara Writers Group going?
A: Denice Hall, Cork County Writer in Residence, met with a group of Beara writers two weeks ago to explore the possibilities of forming such a group. At this point, the plan is to combine reading and response sessions with workshops, some of which will be provided by Anam Cara residents. Residents will also be welcome to participate in the group while working on Beara.

From the Work of a Writer in Residence . . .
The following is a letter to the editor written by Judith R. Dushku, Associate Professor of Government, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts, who is working at Anam Cara on a economic and political history of Romania over the past ten years. Based on her research, she has submitted her insights into the causes and solutions to the recent miners' strike in the Jiu Valley:

DECEIT DOES NOT HELP MINERS IN ROMANIA

During the fall of 1998, as part of the research I am doing for a book on the Romanian transition and its impact on the lives of the people there, I interviewed over 100 people in their homes and workplaces in Romania. In early December, I was in the Jiu Valley conducting interviews with miners, both employed and unemployed. I also interviewed Labor Ministry officials, family members of miners, and people working in the agencies that have been established to advise miners on opportunities for them in the new, globalized, Romanian economy. I believe that what I learned and experienced in the Jiu Valley will shed some light on the three-week-long miners' strike, and the issues behind it, that preceded last week's confrontations on the road to Bucharest.

From January 17 - 22, between 7,000 and 10,000 miners from the Jiu Valley coal mining area of Romania, marched towards Bucharest with signs and shouts demanding jobs and higher wages and that attention be paid to them. They are most angry, they say, because they have been deceived.

Deceived? Were they led to believe that they would have permanent jobs in these unprofitable mines? Were they led to believe that they would have higher wages? Unlikely. They were told that the mines would close, that they would not have mining jobs or higher wages; however, they were also told that they should not worry because new jobs would be coming to the Jiu Valley very soon--good jobs for any hardworking people who were willing to change.

Some miners rejected any suggestion of change. But a goodly number of responsible and hopeful people signed up to train for exactly what was promised. They agreed to do what they had been told was required to ensure a future with new and good jobs. But those jobs never came. These people took courses on how to start a business in the global marketplace but found that what they learned was inapplicable in the economically depressed Jiu Valley in economically depressed Romania. Job counselors advised them that a dynamic tourism industry was just around the corner and that soon jobs would be available in new hotels and ski resorts. Even if there was such a possibility, to unemployed miners, this promise seemed remote because there have been no signs, as yet, of investment in such enterprises.

But maybe the worst of the deceit is that they were told that there would be ample employment if they returned to the villages of their birth and took up the profession of their ancestors-namely, subsistence farming. To some of the hungriest, this was a tempting solution to having no pay check with which to buy food. Many took the advice and their severance pay and returned to rural villages, near and far. But instead of opportunities to make a living in agriculture, they found unemployed, long-lost cousins who had been given the same malarkey: Profits can be made in farming in Romania today.
And why is that malarkey? Over 40% of Romania's workforce is engaged in farming compared to Poland's 28% the 6-7% in France, the UK, Italy, and Germany, where even though the farmers are subsidized they still cannot make a living because the advances in agricultural technology have made it possible for fewer farmers to produce more than the markets will bear. This is no time to encourage more people to move back into agriculture.

So what kind of advice is this for unemployed miners in Jiu Valley? It is bad advice, and bad advice makes people mad, especially when they are feeling vulnerable. In the past, when Romanian miners got mad, their leaders told them that they would get what they wanted only if they demanded it forcefully in Bucharest, the capital. Although hey knew they had earned a bad reputation from doing so, they also know that the government measures the degree of miners' dissatisfaction by such acts.

Last year, many journalists and officials visited the Jiu Valley and asked the miners how they were faring with the layoffs and with the lack of any jobs for the over 18,000 unemployed. They clearly and honestly explained that they were not making it and that they had not found the promised opportunities in farming. Even though they told all who asked that they were frustrated, nothing changed. They were told that Bucharest was hearing their complaints, but still no jobs.

Then winter came. No one seemed to be listening. There was no money for fuel and food. They reminded one another of their time-tested methods. Three weeks ago they went on strike in the Jiu Valley, but still no one seemed to be giving a thought to a bunch of dirty men who used to work eight hours every day underground on their hands and knees in sweat and coal dust.

And then an old ally showed up to give voice to their frustration-Miron Cozma, their old union leader, now out of jail and ready to storm Bucharest to seek his own revenge. So, revved up by the wild words of their worn-out but still screaming advocate, they took up their shovels and picks and sticks and tromped towards the capital. On the way, they were met with tear gas and tanks and by the Prime Minister. Somebody is listening, they thought, and they turned back toward their homes in the Jiu Valley.

Who knows what they were told. Those commitments have been kept under wraps. But if they were told more lies about the future of jobs on Romania's farms, they will be back. This is no time for deceit.

No effort is being made here to excuse miners for the violence that they have perpetrated in the past or during last week's march; what I am saying is that their non-violent efforts to be listened to and taken seriously and to make good on the promises that were made to them need to be recognized. The Jiu Valley miners want to be dealt with fairly and honestly and to be included in the circles of decision making that might lead to some long-term solutions.

What excuse is there now for excluding a large group of citizens from information about economic realities that effect them all? People stay ignorant only when they are not taught. Miners are accused of gross ignorance; yet, when the information they get is false, they cannot be blamed for what they don't know. Miners need not be perpetuated in their historical role as ignorant thugs.

At a minimum, advice to unemployed Romanian miners needs to take into account the realities of the agriculture and food markets in the whole of Europe today. For the sake of every unemployed farmer in East or West Europe as well as the miners themselves, no Romanian miners should be told that they can slip quickly into new and promising careers as modern farmers

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