'Delighted' to be part of Beckett Festival

THE HEADMASTER at the former school of literary great Samuel Beckett has said he is ‘delighted’ there is to be a festival to honour one of the school’s most famous past pupils.

Neil Morton, Headmaster at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen said the school were delighted to be involved in the forthcoming ‘Happy Days’ festival and paid tribute to Sean Doran, the festival director, for bringing this to fruition.

“It is wonderful that we are celebrating Beckett at this place where he was educated, and in the town he received his early education in,” said Mr Morton.

Mr Morton said while the programme hasn’t been finalised he knew the school would be hosting a few events including talks in the famous Steele Hall.

“There will be something every day at Portora during the festival (which takes place this August).
The Portora headmaster said the school didn’t have enough resources to do something like this by themselves.

“For Beckett’s centenary there was a huge budget with a bridge named after Beckett in Dublin but  little happened north of the border, and the Arts Council didn’t do much up here.”

“It’s a pity there wasn’t the same resources to celebrate Oscar Wilde, another former pupil of Portora,” continued Mr Morton.