Further reading before you travel to the Greenbox Eco Tourism area
The Green Box boasts an incredible wealth of writers and artists within its boundaries. Here's a short introduction to just a few.
Brian Leyden
Nestled around the pretty town of Dromahair, Co. Leitrim are a cluster of creative artists including well known author Brian Leyden. Amongst his best known works are a collection of short stories entitled Departures, the novel Death and Plenty, and the memoir novel The Home Place. His work was the subject of the Jacobs Award winning radio documentary No Meadows in Manhattan. Brian Leyden has written articles, plays and documentaries and was County Leitrim's first Writer in Residence.
Johnny Gogan
Johnny Gogan is writer-director of two award-winning feature films, The Last Bus Home (1997) and Mapmaker (2001), both productions of his Leitrim-based company Bandit Films. His short films include Stephen (1990) and The Bargain Shop (for ZDF/ARTE TV, Germany). He has also made a number of music videos for Irish recording artists as well as widely screened Irish language documentaries for RTE and TG4 and a collaborative production with the Living Architecture Centre. He is the founding editor of Film Ireland magazine and is a published song-writer. Johnny has also written a novel called Ghost Writers.
John McGahern
High on everyone's list of favourites must be author John McGahern, known and respected throughout the world for his novels, poems and short stories. He has been a visiting professor at Colgate University and at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and is the recipient of the Society of Authors' Award, the American-Irish Award, and the Prix ÉtrangÚre Ecureuil, among other awards and honours. His hugely popular novel Amongst Women won the GPA Book Award, Irish Times Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was subsequently made into a four part TV series. His work has appeared in anthologies and has been translated into many languages. He is a member of Aosdána, an affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. His last novel is the autobiographical Memoirs and was very successful .In April 2006 JohnMcGahern died and was one of Leitrim most popular Literary ambassadors.
DBC Pierre
Surely the most controversial winner of literature's greatest prize, the Man Booker, was DBC Pierrre in 2003 with his novel Vernon God Little. It was his first novel incidentally and also scooped him an armful of other international awards. Pierre is the nom de plume of the now repentant Mexican-Australian wildman Peter Finlay who lived a colourful and buccaneering life before settling in Leitrim. He previously worked as a designer and cartoonist, was brought up in Mexico from the age of seven and twenty-three, and also travelled extensively. "DBC" by the way stands for "Dirty But Clean"!
Vincent Woods
Poet and playwright Vincent Woods was born in Co. Leitrim in 1960 and having lived in the United States, New Zealand and Australia has come full circle and moved back to his roots. Woods worked as a journalist with RTÉ until 1989, when he began writing full-time, he also spent a period as Mayo County Council's Writer-In-Residence. He has won several awards, including The Stewart Parker Award for Drama, the PJ O'Connor Award for Radio Drama, and the M.J. McManus Award for Poetry. His plays include John Hughdy/Tom John, At the Black Pig's Dyke, Song of the Yellow Bittern, Fontamara, and for radio, The Leitrim Hotel. His poetry collections include The Colour of Language. Woods is a member of Aosdána.
Dermot Healy
One of Ireland's leading poets and authors, Dermot Healy was born in Finea, County Westmeath, in 1947. His short stories are collected as Banished Misfortune and his novels include Fighting with Shadows and A Goat's Song and the autobiographical, The Bend for Home. He has written and directed plays, including The Long Swim and On Broken Wings, and wrote the screenplay for Our Boys directed by Cathal Black. His awards include the Hennessy Award (1974 and 1976); the Tom Gallon Award (1983); and the Encore Award (1995).He has edited The Drumlin and Force 10 and is a member of Aosdána. He lives on a cliff-top in Ballyconnell, Co. Sligo where "the Atlantic ocean runs under his kitchen".
Barrie Cooke
Born in 1931 in Cheshire, Cooke studied Art History at Harvard University and has been based in Ireland since 1954, currently living near Lough Arrow in Sligo. His richly expressionist, semi-abstract paintings have been strongly influenced by time spend in such far-flung places as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaysia. Nature in it infinite variety and irresistible flux is his chosen subject matter although he has painted some nudes. He has collaborated with a number of prominent poets including Seamus Heaney and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, both of whom share his fascination with the elemental. He has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. His work is represented in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague and in many other public and private collections worldwide.
Nick Miller
Self-taught painter Nick Miller was born in London in 1962, he moved to Dublin in 1984 and since 1993 has lived in Sligo. He was elected to Aosdána in 2001. He constantly redefines the focus of his interest, moving with dexterity to and from the figure, portraiture and still life, to his most recent landscapes pained from a truck converted into a mobile studio. The common threat is his wish to work directly in the presence of his subject. He has had many paintings and exhibitions including one with Chinese micro-carver and calligrapher Chen Zhongsen at the Model Arts and Niland Gallery Sligo. His work hangs in major public and private collections in Ireland, the US and Europe.
Sinéad Aldridge
Belfast-born artist Sinéad Aldridge has lived and worked in Sligo for many years. She trained at the Camberwell Art School in London and paints abstract oils. She has completed a number of residencies with venues including The Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Mayo County Council and the IMMA Artists Work Programme. She has had solo exhibitions in Fenderesky Gallery, Model Arts and Niland Gallery and Sligo Art Gallery. Her work is represented in public collections including Mayo County Council, Boyle Civic Collection and St. Louise's College, Belfast.
Ronnie Hughes
Ronnie Hughes is originally from Belfast but has lived in Sligo for the past nine years working from a light filled studio with a 'wall of windows' and an inspiring view. He has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Ireland and has participated in group exhibitions in America, Canada, Germany, Japan, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has received numerous awards including a one year residency in New York PS1 and three month residencies at Banff Arts Centre, Canada and Bemis Arts Centre, Nebraska. His work is held in many public and corporate collections including both Irish Arts Councils and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Diarmuid Delargy
Also born in Belfast was artist Dermot Delargy who studied at the University of Ulster and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. He has had solo shows at the Orchard Gallery, Derry, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast, and Taylor Galleries, Dublin and has participated in numerous international group shows. In 2001, the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo exhibited a series of his prints inspired by Samuel Beckett, which were bought by the Beckett Library in Dublin. His work explores the relationship between animals and the land, merged with classical imagery. He won the Gold Medal at the Large Format European Print exhibition in Dublin in 1994.
Susan McKay
Before moving into a career in writing, Susan McKay was a community worker in both Sligo and Fermanagh. She burst onto the literary scene in 1998 with her first novel Sophia's Story, a biography of child abuse survival. Her latest book is Without Fear - a History of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. She is a former Northern Editor of the Sunday Tribune, currently writes for the Irish Times and Irish News and is a regular panellist on television and radio programmes. She has won several major awards including Print Journalist of the Year (2000) and the Amnesty Awards (2001).
William Trevor
The Rainbow Ballroom of Romance Glenfarne, Co. Leitrim
Ireland’s famous rainbow Ballroom of Romance is situated in Glenfarne Co. Leitrim at a crossroads in the townland of Brockagh Lower along the N16 Enniskillen to Sligo Road. Dances were regularly held on Sunday nights and often on week nights from 1934 to 19520. The rainbow found further fame in the 1970’s when the English writer William Trevor wrote the book “The Ballroom of Romance” and sometime later a BBC producer having read the book decided to make a film based upon it
