On Tuesday, July 30, join the Arts Council in partnership with Westmeath County Council for the opportunity to celebrate the life, work and legacy of John Broderick. The event will recognise his contributions to the Irish literary canon and to LGBTQ+ fiction in Ireland. 

The Athlone native, born on July 30, 1924, was known to be a controversial writer. His first novel, The Pilgrimage (1961) was banned by the Irish Censorship Board under the Censorship of Publications Act for its depiction of adultery and references to homosexuality. Over his lifetime, he authored 12 books, including The Fugitives (1962), Don Juaneen (1963), An Apology for Roses (1973), The Trial of Father Dillingham (1974), The Pride of Summer (1976), London Irish (1979), A Prayer for Fair Weather (1984), The Rose Tree (1985), The Flood (1987) and The Irish Magdalen (1991 posthumously). 

The literary critic’s most well-regarded novel was The Waking of Willie Ryan (1965). Its synopsis reads: “Willie Ryan, a gay man now sixty years old, returns, unrepentant, to his hometown after twenty-five years in the insane asylum where his family had him committed.”

This year, the story will be republished by Lilliput Press and available in print and as an audiobook (as read by actor Naoise Dunbar) in commemoration of Broderick. In 2007, Lilliput Press also published a selection of his non-fiction writings with some previously unpublished fiction in Stimulus of Sin.

After Broderick’s death in 1989, it was revealed that he left his estate to the Arts Council for “the benefit and advancement of the Arts in Athlone”. Broderick’s generosity has helped create a writer’s residency program in Athlone which has been awarded to writers such as Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Martin Dyar and Keith Payne, each of whom spent considerable time with Broderick’s work. 

 

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Speaking at the special event in July will be Annemarie Ní Churreáin, a previous winner of the John Brodrick Award and poet whose works include Bloodroot (2017), Town (2018), The Poison Glen (2021) and Ghostgirl (2023). The Donegal native is also the poetry editor at The Stinging Fly magazine.

Also talking at the event is a lecturer in English at Maynooth University, Michael G Cronin. Author of Thoughts: Sexuality, Catholicism and Literature in Twentieth-Century Ireland (2013), Sexual/Liberation (2022) and Revolutionary Bodies: homoeroticism and the political imagination in Irish writing (2024), he specialises in twentieth-century and contemporary Irish literature, the history of the novel and sexuality studies. 

The Luan Gallery is set to host the celebration, boasting a dynamic contemporary visual art programme of both established and emerging artists from Ireland and abroad. As the first purpose-built municipal art gallery in the midlands, the gallery promises to provide a wonderful landscape to display Broderick’s life works. 

The event will see Broderick celebrated on what would have been his 100th birthday. It will also feature the announcement of the John Broderick Writer In Residence Award 2024 and the republishing of The Waking of Willie Ryan in print along with the release of its first-ever audiobook edition. Reserve your free ticket to the celebration here!