The John Hewitt International Summer School is making a return to Armagh’s Market Place Theatre for the 38th year.
The theme of the event – held in the memory of Belfast poet, political writer and commentator John Hewitt – will this year focus on “Our country also: difference and belonging”.
From July 28 to August 2, 2025 the programme will see a host of courses, workshops, readings and seminars held across a week-long celebration of Literature,
The Arts & Ideas.
Addressing this year’s theme, The John Hewitt Society explain: “John Hewitt recognised that “our country” belonged to successive waves of migrants: not only his historical “Kelt, Briton, Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Scot,” but those forced to new lives in our time by a century’s wars and the collapse of an empire whose wealth was built on exploitation of the “colonies” that many of today’s immigrants once knew as “home.”
“Not a question of who belongs “here,” but of who “here” belongs to. An increasingly volatile issue as we watch the years of progressive dismantling of privilege (thanks to protestors of Hewitt’s generation) and gradual ending of so many forms of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation come under threat now from both politicians in power and protestors who want what they see as “their country” back.
“Join us in a diverse and multi-faceted week of culture and creativity, arts and entertainment, embracing all those to whom “our country” belongs today, including those too often under-represented communities, to explore and experience the richness that all kinds of “difference” brings to our shared sense of belonging.”
Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland said: “The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is proud to be the principal investor in the John Hewitt Society, through our National Lottery arts funds.
“The annual Summer School and Arts Festival interrogates the major societal issues of our day through the voices of artists, thinkers and activists, all inspired by Hewitt’s enduring influence.
“The theme of this year’s event, ‘Our country also: difference and belonging’, reminds us all that compassion and social justice, alongside belief in the power of art to unify and create a sense of shared understanding, remain as relevant and important today as they were for Hewitt.”
