Enniscorthy-born writer Colm Tóibín received an honorary master’s degree in Languages, Cultures and Literary Translation from the University of Macerata on Tuesday evening….
The ceremony opened the fourth Macerata Humanities Festival and was attended by Ireland’s Ambassador to Italy, Elizabeth McCullough.
Presenting the degree, Rector John McCourt, himself Irish and a scholar of Irish literature, said: “Usually a degree recognises what someone has learned at university. Today we recognise what a university can learn from a great writer.”
McCourt spoke of the Enniscorthy lives readers encounter in Brooklyn, Nora Webster and Long Island. He also praised Tóibín’s work as a critic: “He has a wonderful knack of writing about complex and complicated things clearly, without making them less complicated.”
McCourt recalled Tóibín’s answer when asked which traits he most deplores in others: “Humourlessness and laziness.” “Looking at his bibliography, one feels that laziness has never had much opportunity to settle in,” McCourt said. “His energy is boundless and infectious. And anyone who has spent time in his company knows that humourlessness would be shown the door even faster.”
Italian writer Mario Fortunato, a friend of Tóibín’s for more than 25 years, delivered the laudatio. Tóibín then joined McCourt to discuss the origins of his stories, the craft of writing and the experience of seeing Brooklyn become a feature film.
His advice to aspiring writers was to imagine something they had deeply wanted to do but never did, and write as though they had done it. Above all, he said, they must sit down and write.
Jason Redmond
From Gorey, Jason is the owner of Wexford Weekly. He is also a post-primary English and History teacher.
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