longside this the A Archive features a short excerpt Northern Northern from ‘Hopdance’, an Ireland Ireland unpublished novel LiteraryArchive LiteraryArchive by Stewart Parker (1941 -1988). Here we see the talent behind ‘Pentecost’ and ‘Northern Star’ employ the lyrical language Together, the manuscripts form of those plays for a biographical account of an important part of literature his Belfast childhood. from Northern Ireland, and the Digital Archive will bring this

he Archive also work to an even wider audience. T features two poems by John Hewitt (1907 – 1987), ‘A Little People’ www.niliteraryarchive.com and ‘A Mortal Place’. These poems were written a year before his death and, again, reflect on the violence besetting the country and the desperate search for some kind of way forward.

he letters of John Contact Us T Boyd (1919 - Northern Ireland Literary Archive 2013), working in Linen Hall Library his professional role 17 Donegall Square North as a BBC Producer, Belfast BT1 5GB see him liasing with Northern Ireland a host of writers including Michael Phone: +44 (0)28 9032 1707 McLaverty, Frank Email: [email protected] O’Connor, St. John www.niliteraryarchive.com Ervine and T.S. Moody. www.linenhall.com

Design by www.csgwd.com In the letters he W.R. Rodgers’ he Linen Hall Library has in its sent to George (1909 – 1969) and Mercy letters to, once T collections over a dozen archives McCann, local again, George and belonging to writers who were born benefactors and Mercy McCann or grew up in Northern Ireland. Down supporters of the further examine Arts, we are given the writing life, the through the years, several families a glimpse of the search for space and Estates have chosen the Library as writer’s life away to create while the repository for these manuscripts from the work balancing this itself. with humdrum and letters, knowing the Library will domestic issues. provide secure and respectful storage. he tough practicalities of being a writer is n 2016, funded by the Department for T a theme that runs throughout the letters. I Communities, the Library was able to The long conversations between Robert Greacen review the entire Collection and choose key (1920 – 2008) and the poet Derek Stanford further depict the ongoing struggles. parts to digitise and make available online. Joan Lingard’s (1932) ‘Across the Barricades’ is a book that remains important for all those who studied it at School and beyond.

he Archive begins in the late 19th Century T and the work of Samuel Ferguson (1842 – he Archive also 1916). The two poems, ‘Conary’ and ‘Deirdre’, T features the original form an important part of his work, bringing manuscript of Sam to life Celtic myth and legend in a wonderfully Hanna Bell’s (1909 dramatic and accessible language. – 1990) ‘December Bride’, a treasured part of Northern Irish he work of Louis MacNeice (1907 – Literature and a strong, 1963) is renowned for its longing for a T clear-eyed novel about meaningful, substantive life separate from family life and tragedy. the restrictions of politics and religion.