Mick Clifford: Will Listowel Writers' Week be the rock on which reunification flounders?

An ongoing row about the running of Listowel Writers' Week culminated in a difficult year for its most recent curator, Northern Irish poet Stephen Connolly. 

Stephen Connolly, who was curator for the 2023 Listowel Writers Week, has recollected of how he felt alienated and being told he “wasn’t really Irish”. Photo: Kerry's Eye

Listowel has found itself at the centre of a national — some would say international — incident.

The curator for the 2023 Writers Week festival in the Kerry town has hit out at reaction locally towards him, and specifically his northern accent and roots. The blast was delivered from Belfast, the city to which the now former curator, poet Stephen Connolly, has returned after a turbulent sojourn in north Kerry.