lives in Newtownards and has been writing poems and stories since childhood. Brought up in North Belfast, she graduated in English and Philosophy from Queen's University, Belfast, then went on to gain an MA in English. She has four grown up children and is married to author, media producer and broadcaster, Raymond McCullough, with whom she co-edited the Irish magazine, 'Bread', from 1990-96. In 1995 they published a non-fiction book called 'Ireland – now the good news!' Over the past few years Gerry has had more than fifty short stories published in UK, Irish and American magazines, anthologies and annuals – as well as broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster – plus poems and articles published in several Northern Ireland and UK magazines. She has read from her novels, poems and short stories at several Irish literary events. Gerry won the Cúirt International Literary Award for 2005 (Galway); was shortlisted for the 2008 Brian Moore Award (Belfast) and for the 2009 Cúirt Award; and commended in the Seán O’Faolain Short Story Competition. ‘Belfast Girls‘, her first full-length Irish novel, was first published in November 2010; 'Angel in Flight' (the first Angel Murphy thriller) in June 2012 and 'Lady Molly and the Snapper' – a young adult time travel adventure novel set in Dublin (August 2012). She has just published 'Angel in Belfast', the second Angel Murphy thriller (Precious Oil Publications, Kindle Edition).
FAÍLTE! On behalf of the William Carleton Society, I welcome you to the 22nd international Summer School. The three days of events in Clogher promise to be our most exciting since the start of the Summer School in 1992. A new emphasis has been given to the evening events, with the help of funding from the 'Shared History, Shared Future' project, financed by the EU Regional Development Fund and administered by the South West Cluster Peace III Partnership.
After our opening lectures on Carleton, we will be discussing the subject of language in the Clogher Valley during Carleton's youth. There will be talks on Augher, with reference to the Miller George Duffy and his daughter Anne. One session will as is customary be devoted to modern Irish literature. We are particularly pleased to be joined by a new Irish novelist, Ciaran Collins from Kinsale, County Cork and to welcome back a previous speaker, Patricia Craig from Belfast. They will be joined by Tyrone man Anthony Quinn and Tony Bailie from County Down, poet and author.
The school's final session will be devoted to dealing with the past. Whereas we can usually deal comfortably with the distant past, it is not so easy to tackle events which have taken place in the past forty years or so, especially in border areas such as Tyrone and Monaghan that were affected by the "troubles". Carleton wrote about sectarianism and party fights, the battles between orange and green. We therefore intend to look in some detail into the nationalist as well as the orange and unionist traditions, in an attempt to help us understand better our present situation and the need to move forward in the community.
The final event of the 2013 Summer School is a coach tour of County Fermanagh with a major focus on the work of Shan Bullock, who was influenced by Carleton. We will visit the Crom Estate and the county town of Enniskillen, which recently hosted the G8 Summit.
If you have any comments on the programme, please feel free to approach any committee member, or if you have any thoughts about how we could improve next year's event. I hope we will see you back at Corick House for next year's Summer School from August 4th to 7th 2014.
This is my second and final year as Summer School Director. I would like to thank all the committee members and patrons as well as our Honorary Director, who have helped to organise this event. All of them give up their time and services voluntarily to make this annual event a success. Our hope is that it will continue to attract visitors to the beautiful Clogher Valley so that they can learn more about the history of the area and gain a valuable introduction to the works of Ireland's leading author of the 19th Century, William Carleton.
Next year will be the 145th anniversary of the writer's death. We intend to organise a special cross-community service in Dublin on Thursday 30th January 2014 at Sandford Parish Church in Ranelagh, where we have made new friendships over the past two years. Please continue to support our work.
Michael Fisher
Director, William Carleton International Summer School 2013
