Weekend celebrates ‘Westmeath’s most remarkable literary couple’

Preparations are being finalised in Castlepollard for this weekend’s celebration of one of Westmeath’s most remarkable literary couples, Edward and Christine Pakenham.

A comprehensive programme of events, all free, has been drawn up by the North Westmeath Historical Society committee with the assistance of the Pakenham family.

The society put wanted to honour the impressive body of work that both Edward and Christine produced during their lifetimes, and to reawaken interest in their novels, plays and poetry.

Edward and Christine met while they were studying at Oxford University, and married in 1925. Unlike many of the old Anglo-Irish families, who were distinctly uneasy at the birth of the Irish Free State in December 1922, the fifth earl of Longford Edward Pakenham was happy to remain in Ireland. He had succeeded to the earldom in 1916, when his father was officially declared deceased a year after his death at Scimitar Hill in Gallipoli, in August 1915.

Despite being born in London and reared mainly in England and educated at Eton and later Oxford, Edward saw himself as an Irishman, as did his younger brother Francis.

Edward became interested in our native tongue and both he and Christine took lessons in the language. Edward joined the Gaelic League and by 1928 was a regular guest speaker at Feiseanna throughout Ireland.

In the early 1930s, Edward and Christine, both avid theatre- goers, became involved in the Gate Theatre in Dublin, established in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Michael Mac Liammóir. Christine had begun writing novels and Edward now began writing plays and producing them at the Gate in association with Edwards and MacLiammor.

In 1936, artistic and commercial differences resulted in the dissolution of the Longford, Edwards and MacLiammor partnership.

Edward set up his own acting company, The Longford Players, while Edwards and Mac Liammóir retained the Gate Theatre name for their company. The companies shared the theatre, each having six-month residencies.

Christine eventually abandoned her career as a novelist and joined Edward in writing comic and serious dramas. The couple and their company of actors spent the next almost 30 years travelling around Ireland for six months a year performing a mixture of modern and less than modern dramas in halls and cinemas. They also put on a variety of plays at the Gate Theatre.

Lord Edward and Christine maintained a company of actors who introduced the magic of the stage to rural and town audiences for almost 30 years at their own expense. Thanks to them, a generation were introduced to the world of the theatre and fell in love with it, and for that alone, they deserve to be remembered.

Programme of Events

There is an exhibition of material relating to Edward and Christine at Castlepollard Library from yesterday, Monday October 14, to Saturday October 19.

Friday

On Friday October 18, Bill Ryan will give a talk on Lord Edward Longford (1902-1961) in Hotel Castle Varagh at 8pm.

Saturday

On Saturday October 19, Martin Morris will give a talk, The Pakenhams and the Longford Connection, in Hotel Castle Varagh at 11am.

At 3pm, St Michael’s Church (CoI) will host a talk by Joe Murphy on Irish Bardic Poetry translated by Lord Longford. The event will also feature music from Clann Lir.

At 8pm in Hotel Castle Varagh, Ruth Illingworth will give a talk on Lady Christine Longford.

Sunday

At 3.30pm on Sunday, in Hotel Castle Varagh, Thomas Pakenham will give a talk, ‘Memories of my uncle Edward and aunt Christine’.

At 8pm, ‘Giant Cultural Quiz on 100 years of Irish cultural history 1900-2000 AD’, in Hotel Castle Varagh. The 10 rounds of questions will include visual and aural rounds concerning the arts, politics, sport, music, social history.