Mullingar festival seeks heart of gold nominees

This July, Mullingar, birthplace and childhood home of Josephine Hart is to host the first Heart of Ireland Festival and International Contest. The Heart of Ireland is a celebration of real people and the Real Ireland. While the street festival is a family friendly event entertaining all tastes and interests, the contest is open to men and women, 50 years and over, from the island of Ireland and the 70 million plus Irish Diaspora, based on good deeds, good character and balanced lives.

'We are looking for people who reflect the very best of what it is to be Irish. The ultimate award is the Heart of Gold.” explains Maria Bourke, event founder and manager.

“We are looking for men and women with good hearts, who do their best daily to make the world a better place. They enjoy a well-rounded life, balancing their personal passions with good deeds. They are the people who bring out the best in everyone around them. They are not necessarily those in the limelight positions in their families, communities or organisations. They are the doers. They connect people and make things happen. They give credit where credit is due. They do the right thing when no one is looking. They are the people you know you can approach for help. The people who support you in your struggles and are as quick to celebrate your successes. They reflect the very best of what it is to be Irish.”

“For 2015, we have created a simple mechanic. The nomination process for the island of Ireland is open now online until Friday May 8th. You can nominate someone on our website www.heartofireland.ie or by downloading an application form and submitting by post. We will be selecting a finalist from five areas in Ireland – Dublin, Rest of Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connaught. The deadline for international nominees is the 31st May. So far, four Irish Centres in the UK – Leeds, Manchester, London and Liverpool – have confirmed that they will be sending a contestant. We are hopeful that we will have at least one candidate from the US this year too.”

The complete list of finalists will be revealed on May 31st. The Contest final will take place on Sunday 12th July in Mullingar Arts Centre at 7pm.

The Heart of Ireland Festival is a two day Street Festival on 11 - 12 July, to entertain contestants, their supporters and the general public. “We plan to pedestrianise the town and create a 100 year timeline through the streets of Mullingar, bringing to life the evolution of Irish culture over the the last century.” Festival goers will enjoy a wide range of entertainment including a vintage carnival, traditional country fair, spoken word storytellers, street theatre, craft workshops, live music through the ages, and much more. Our insight: the concentration and flavour of ‘Irishness’ depends on when their emigrant ancestors left our shores. Our Arts Festival will allow people to reconnect where their family left off and thereafter experience Irish culture, post and past. This will also be the experience for those of us lucky enough to still inhabit our island.

So what connection does Josephine Hart have to the new Festival?

“We want to showcase the best of local midlands’ talent and our line up would be incomplete without recognising Josephine Hart, an amazing woman, the first female director of Haymarket, bestselling author, West End theatre producer and champion of struggling poets.” explains Festival Creative Director, Melanie Lynch. “She devised an ingenious formula for the renowned Josephine Hart Poetry Hour, inveigling leading actors to perform rather than recite the works of her beloved poets to great effect.”

Since her untimely passing in 2011, her ever devoted husband, Lord Maurice Saatchi and the Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation have continued her legacy, launching The Poetry App - unfinished before her death – now the No.1 bestselling app for poetry; the Books are my Bag initiative, to support and promote independent book shops in Ireland and the UK, and the Josephine Hart Poetry Hours in the British Library in London.

The Heart of Ireland organisers plan to recognise Ms Hart through two projects.

Firstly, the Heart of Ireland Festival wants to bring a key project of The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation to her native Mullingar, a fitting place to launch this initiative in Ireland for the first time. As a child, Josephine suffered unfathomable tragedy. By the age of 17, three of her siblings had died from illness and accident. Devastated, she retreated from the world and turned to literature for solace and guidance: “without reading, life would have been less comprehensible, less bearable and infinitely less enjoyable.” she once explained. At the age of 20 she left Mullingar for London armed with her love for literature: 'for a girl with no sense of direction, reading was a route map through life”. A poetry evangelist, throughout her life she strove to impart a love for words to the masses. This was Josephine's greatest gift.

In collaboration with Good 2 Talk – Mullingar’s affordable drop-in counselling service - Eleanor Carter, Director of the Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation, London, will facilitate a series of poetry workshops in Josephine’s hometown of Mullingar, with local schools which will culminate in the production of a beautiful illustrated book of verse. The book will be on sale during the festival in July. As Eleanor puts it, “the process is like poetry therapy”, teaching students the power of words and how words can help to make sense of difficult emotions and the challenges of growing up. Nobody passes through life unscathed. We must equip our young people with a tool kit for weathering the storms of life. The project aims to give students a love of poetry and literature - a valuable tool Josephine relied on throughout her life - as well as teaching students the importance of managing their mental health, whilst making them aware of the brilliant support service Good 2 Talk offers on their doorstep in Mullingar.

No tribute to Josephine Hart would be complete without a Poetry Hour.

During the Heart of Ireland Festival in July, the organisers are planning a special Josephine Hart Poetry Hour on the lakeshores of Loch Ennell. This event is being created in partnership with Mullingar Poetry Club, whose inception was inspired by Josephine; the award-winning Athlone based collective ‘Poetry in the Park’ and Josephine’s secondary school, St. Louis’ in Carrickmacross.

“We are humbled and excited to have the full support of Lord Saatchi and The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation for our festival,' Melanie concludes.

Lord Maurice Saatchi said: “Hart to Heart; the Heart of Ireland Festival is a wonderful tribute to Ireland’s literary greatness. The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour is delighted to take part in this great event.”

The first annual Heart of Ireland Festival & International Contest is taking place in Mullingar over the weekend of 10 - 12 July 2015, opening with the Irish Chamber Orchestra in Mullingar Arts Centre on Friday July 10th.For more information on The Heart of Ireland Festival visit www.heartofireland.ie. To be kept up to date, follow Facebook /heartofirelandfestival and Twitter @hi_ireland.