{"id":10703,"date":"2018-12-09T13:50:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-09T13:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/?page_id=10703"},"modified":"2019-09-04T09:41:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T09:41:02","slug":"ecic-2018-galicia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.obheal.ie\/blog\/erasmus-ecic-partners\/ecic-2018-galicia\/","title":{"rendered":"ECIC 2018 (3) \u2013 Galicia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review:<\/font> Festival dos Eidos<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

(August 22nd-26th 2018) \u2013 Parada do Courel, Galicia, Spain<\/p>\n

hosted by Fundaci\u00f3n Ux\u00edo Novoneyra<\/p>\n

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[L-R] Bernadette Gallagher, Ciar\u00e1n MacArtain, Rosie O’Regan, Paul Casey, Michael O’Callaghan, Suzanna Cosgrave and Kathy D’Arcy<\/font><\/center>
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\nIn August 2018, \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al poets & artists Bernadette Gallagher, Ciar\u00e1n MacArtain, Kathy D’Arcy, Rosie O’Regan, Sue Cosgrave, Michael O’Callaghan and Paul Casey were guests in Parada do Courel in a remote, yet renowned part of the Galician mountains to take part in Festival dos Eidos<\/strong><\/a>, for the 3rd of five exchanges held with \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al’s European literary festival partners.<\/p>\n

Here follows a collective review with a mix of photos from the Cork contingency:<\/center><\/p>\n


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Bernadette Gallagher<\/font><\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n


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\nFestival dos Eidos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Festival dos Eidos<\/em> takes place over 5 days towards the end of August in Parada, a mountain village in the Serra do Courel, in Galicia, an autonomous region of Spain. It is approximately a 3 hour drive or 35 hour walk from Santiago de Compostela! The festival is in honour of the life and work of the poet Ux\u00edo Novoneyra and is centred around his homeplace. In Of Stubborn Dreams<\/em> Ux\u00edo explains Os Eidos<\/em> as \u2018\u2026.places we carry inside us. Sometimes I\u2019ve heard say that eidos<\/em> are those spots or fields attached to the house or close to it; I\u2019d add to this that an eido<\/em> is that place where a person can feel good because it makes room for you, it\u2019s there for you.\u2019 It was there for me and I think for anyone who visits these fields.
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\nI was sitting in a friend\u2019s house in wildest Connemara about to return home after a short holiday when I received a text from Paul Casey asking if I would be available to join a group from \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al to attend the Festival dos Eidos. The idea of travelling to another wild place was welcome. I was invited to give a reading of my own poems along with other poets from \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al.
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\nThanks to Ux\u00edo Novoneyra Jr, Arturio, Oscar, Miguel and Ana and all of the team responsible for Festival dos Eidos. Festival dos Eidos is one of five festivals, along with \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al Winter Warmer, Salerno, Madeira and Voulmentin whose organisers formed the European Community of Inclusive Cultures (ECIC<\/a>). In 2016, ECIC was awarded an Erasmus+ grant to fund a two-year programme of workshops, learning activities and exchanges of best practice in curating literary festivals between the five partners.
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\nI enjoyed meeting people from the (ECIC<\/a>) and this was a learning experience \u2013 hearing the stories of the local people in Voulmentin, France who lived through the war, stories from Funchal, Madeira and Salerno about refugees being invited to join in activities including poetry film production. From Cork, Paul Casey, \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al presented a wonderful selection of poetry films from across the globe.
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\nAttending the steering team meetings was beneficial as I got a good understanding to the background and future plans of the ECIC, the five literature festivals<\/a> in Salerno, Madeira, Voulmentin, Parada and the Winter Warmer Festival in November where \u00d3 Bh\u00e9al will welcome our European partners to Cork.
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\nA highlight of the Festival dos Eidos for me was the dance by Hisako Horikawa from Japan. I was mesmerised by her solo dance in the forest and how she managed to incorporate an uninvited appearance by a dog and later with the tinkling of cow bells on their way home to be milked.
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\nAnother delight was the food prepared by a team of joyous and hard-working men and women. I quickly adjusted to having toast and coffee in the morning, a nutritious lunch and dinner at Galician time. Tinned fish was beautifully presented and my favourite was white tuna which I have as yet failed to find since my return to Cork.
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\nI was rarely tired in Galicia and I think this may be due to the wonderful mountain air.
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\nThere were documentaries and seminars including one on crowdfunding, an excellent documentary by Celia Parra on poetry films, by Carlos Lorenzo on the new generation of Galician poets and a theatrical show extraordinaire by Fantoches Baj \u2013 based on the words of Ux\u00edo Novoneyra.
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