Arts and Literature
- June 16 - The first public celebration of "Bloomsday" takes place in Dublin. Writers Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and Anthony Cronin travel in a horse drawn coach stopping at numerous pubs to retrace the steps of the characters from James Joyce's novel Ulysses.
- November 19 - Brendan Behan's first play, The Quare Fellow, premières at the Pike Theatre, Dublin, to great reviews.
- First Cork International Choral and Folk Dance Festival.
- English-born painter Derek Hill settles at St Columb's Rectory, near Churchill, County Donegal.
- Publication of Christy Brown's autobiography My Left Foot.
- Publication of Iris Murdoch's first novel, Under the Net.
Read more about this topic: 1954 In Ireland
Famous quotes containing the words arts and, arts and/or literature:
“No performance is worth loss of geniality. ‘Tis a cruel price we pay for certain fancy goods called fine arts and philosophy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)
“The literature of the poor, the feelings of the child, the philosophy of the street, the meaning of household life, are the topics of the time. It is a great stride. It is a sign,—is it not? of new vigor, when the extremities are made active, when currents of warm life run into the hands and the feet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)