Castlepollard to celebrate legacy of literary Longfords

Pakenham couple were involved in Gate Theatre

This coming weekend sees Castlepollard celebrate one of Westmeath’s most remarkable literary couples, Edward and Christine Pakenham. A programme of events, all of which are free, has been drawn up by the North Westmeath History Society with the assistance of the Pakenham family, to honour the impressive body of work that both Edward and Christine produced during their lifetime and hopefully reawaken interest in their novels, plays and poetry.

This literary husband and wife team met while both 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 quite happy to remain and live in Ireland. Edward 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.

In the early 1930s, Edward and Christine, both avid theatre-goers, became involved in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, established in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammor. 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 Macliammor retained the Gate Theatre name for their company.

Edward and Christine and their company of actors spent the next almost 30 years travelling around Ireland for six months every year performing a mixture of modern and less than modern dramas in the halls and cinemas of many Irish towns. The Castlepollard weekend runs from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th October, with an exhibition in Castlepollard Library.

The weekend opens at 8pm on Friday evening in Hotel Castle Varagh with a talk by Bill Ryan on 'Lord Edward Longford', 1902-1961; Saturday at 11am sees a talk by Martin Morris on 'The Pakenhams and the Longford Connection', also in Hotel Castle Varagh; and at 3pm in St Michael’s Church of Ireland a talk by Joe Murphy on 'Irish Bardic Poetry translated by Lord Longford' accompanied by music from Clann Lir. On Saturday at 8pm in Hotel Castle Varagh, there will be a talk by Ruth Illingworth on Lady Christine Longford, and on Sunday at 3.30pm, a talk by Thomas Pakenham, entltled 'Memories of my uncle Edward and aunt Christine'.