Holding Cúirt

For lovers of literature, springtime in the West of Ireland means, among other things, that it is time for Cúirt. An international festival of literature, it does for book lovers what summer’s Galway Film Fleadh does for film buffs.

Cúirt has come and gone for another April, and thanks to serious prompting from our kid, the Missus and I found ourselves present there on the final day. Given all the things that have been taking up our time over the past few weeks, we quite likely would have missed the whole festival altogether if we hadn’t committed ourselves by buying tickets months ago. So, we took time out from an ongoing series of family gatherings—organized around mourning a recently departed and much beloved family member—to head to Galway on a Sunday.

The word cúirt is Irish for court, and it refers to the old Gaelic tradition of the court of poets. Thus, the name was chosen for a modern literary festival founded forty years ago this year. It began as a three-day international poetry festival and since evolved into a week-long program of events celebrating all kinds of literary arts. These include readings, discussions, book launches and workshops.

The particular event we attended included readings, discussion and singing performances by Scottish musician and author Stuart Murdoch. He will be best known by the band name under which he and his various collaborators perform: Belle and Sebastian. (The name was borrowed from a 1960s French children’s novel and TV series.) My kid has long been a fan of the group, to the point she even dragged her mother along to a concert in Paisley, Scotland, a year and a half ago. Currently studying in Chicago, she couldn’t make Murdoch’s appearance at Cúirt, but she convinced her parents to go in her stead.

That is how we came to be present in the intimate Mick Lally Theatre, part of Galway’s historic Druid Theatre, to hear Murdoch read passages from his debut novel Nobody’s Empire, which is also the title of one of his songs. His previous books include the 2010 memoir The Celestial Café, a 2022 collection of song lyrics (with illustrations by Pamela Tait), and the screenplay for the 2014 movie God Help the Girl, which Murdoch directed.

Nobody’s Empire is a semi-autobiographical (autofiction, as described by his publisher) coming-of-age account of his fictional alter-ego Stephen’s youthful struggle with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, his forming of an ad hoc support group with a pair of friends, and his discovery of his talent for music. A life-changing journey to America and a spiritual awakening follow.

Not surprisingly, Murdoch turned out to be one of the most genuinely nice and engaging people one could hope to meet, generous with his time and himself. A special treat was getting a mini-concert with him on guitar. He noted that, while he had played concerts in Ireland before, this was his first time ever singing in Galway. One hopes he will be back.

Afterwards, as people queued up with copies of his book—and a fair few Belle and Sebastian LPs—he graciously signed all of them and chatted with all comers as long as they wished. He wrote a message to our kid in our copy of the book, while patiently listening to the Missus’s full recounting of the comedy-of-errors journey from Dublin that mother and daughter made to Glasgow and the snafu of (paper) concert tickets that remained in an inbox somewhere in Trinity College while venue staff sorted things out so the ladies could be allowed entry to the concert hall. He even graciously recorded a voice message to our girl on Mom’s phone, thanking her for having come to the concert.

It was the kind of experience that reaffirms one’s faith in life and in springtime.