Using the backdrop of the infamous Battle of the Books, which took place at Drumcliff in County Sligo 1500 years ago as a jump-off point, we will create a book of our own, which will be curated by award-winning writers Una Mannion and Eoin MacNamee alongside Professor Sean Golden. The book will focus on Sligo’s cultural, social and environmental history, on how arrivals of different cultures across millennia have influenced and shaped the landscape and environment, and reciprocally how the county’s sense and depth of cultural identity has been shaped by a unique and compelling landscape and environment. The content will build in many ways on themes unearthed and explored through our “Walking Birds Mountain” annual artists symposium and our other “Under Wave” cultural programmes over the last four years in particular.
 
The creation of the book however is crucial but only an initial part of this project. Building on our relationships and track record with social, community and arts groups throughout the county we will then oversee a range of community events and measures that will ensure a copy of this book is received by every household in County Sligo. The central idea is to examine, reclaim and underpin communal ideas around social and cultural connection and cohesion through an artistic enterprise. 

The Blue Raincoat Theatre will lead on this project in collaboration with IT Sligo.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.