Irish Writers Union
The Irish Writers Union , also known by its acronym, IWU, and formerly known as Comhar na Scribhneoirí, is a representative association devoted to furthering the professional interests and needs of writers in various media in Ireland. It is based in the building of the Irish Writers Centre, in the centre of Dublin. The IWU is a member of the European Writers' Council, which itself is the largest federation worldwide that solely represents writers. The Irish Writers Union became an affiliate of the trade union SIPTU in 1993, but retained complete autonomy in the running of its own affairs. It is the only nominating body in Ireland for the Nobel Prize for Literature. The IWU is also a nominating body for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency also works with the IWU.
Membership and meetings
Full membership of the IWU is open to those who have had a novel, non-fiction book or volume of poetry published in print, a play performed publicly, or any equivalent achievement in the literary arts; associate membership is open to others who satisfy the Union's governing committee that they are actively engaged in writing. For e-book authors, including those who are self-published, there is a sales value threshold for full membership, with other eligible for associate membership.The National Executive Committee of the Union meets monthly throughout the majority of the year at 19 Parnell Square, Dublin City, and an AGM open to all members takes place annually in the same premises, usually in March.
Notable members
The association has a category or 'honorary life members', and holders of this status, past and present, include Michael D Higgins, William Trevor, Robert Greacen, Liam Mac Uistin, Benedict Kiely and Sam McAughtry.In the early 1990s, following her relocation to Co. Cork, Astride Ivaska became active in the Irish Writers Union. During this period, Eithne Strong and Gabriel Rosenstock were also involved in the organisation. Leland Bardwell, Seamus Deane, Brendan Lynch, Dave Duggan, Mary O'Donnell, Margeretta D'Arcy, John Arden and Sebastian Barry were also involved in the Irish Writers Union at the turn of the 21st century. Sam McAughtry, as well as Fred Johnston, Anne Chambers, and the author and playwright Miriam Gallagher, also served on the executive committee. Other notable members included Ann Henning Jocelyn, Countess of Roden, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Frank Ryan. Richard Pine has served as honorary secretary. As per the organisation's website, the Irish novelist, Edna O'Brien, a member, was twice the IWU nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature. According to an issue of the Irish Literary Supplement, the Irish Writers Union hosted an 80th birthday celebration in May 2000 at the James Joyce Centre for member James Plunkett.
Other notable members have included Catherine Dunne, Sally Rooney, Gerry Adams, Seamus Heaney, Benedict Kiely, John Montague, Thomas Kilroy, Val Mulkerns, Michael Hartnett and Brian Friel.
Chairpersons
The inaugural chairperson of the Irish Writers Union was Jack Harte. Among the former chairpersons of the IWU are the writer Eilís Dillon, who also was a niece of the poet and 1916 Easter Rising leader, Joseph Plunkett. Morgan Llywelyn, Helena Sheehan and Conor Kostick have also served as chairpersons of the Irish Writers Union. Additional individuals to have served as chairpersons include Anthony P. Quinn, known as the author of Credit Unions in Ireland, and Wigs and Guns: Irish Barristers in the Great War, as well as Anthony Roche, author of Bearing Witness: Essays on Anglo-Irish Literature. The screenwriter, playwright, and children's author, Lindsay J. Sedgwick, was serving as chairperson by 2023.History
Foundation
The foundations for the Irish Writers Union were laid in 1985 when Jack Harte, at that time principal of Lucan Vocational School, County Dublin, set up a writers' advisory office, availing of the Social Employment Scheme. Harte employed a secretary and two workers in this office, one of whom, Joe Jackson, went on to become Ireland's first Writer-in-Residence. From the outset, the aim of the project Harte had in mind was to establish a writers' union and a centre for Irish writers. Employing the poet Padraig MacGrane to collect names of writers, Harte obtained the names and contact details which were used, in the summer of 1986, to distribute letters that outlined the plans and objectives of the proposed union and asking the recipients if they were interested in joining. Most of those contacted expressed an interest.In the autumn of 1986, approximately 120 members-to-be met up in Buswell's Hotel, Kildare Street, Dublin City, to draft the constitution of a writers' union. Over a three-hour meeting, a 65-clause constitution was arrived at. The Irish Writers Union was launched on 15 December 1987 at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, with its constitution already in effect as of 1 January 1987. Harte was its first chairperson, a post he was to retain for three years. At the time of its foundation, the Irish Press wrote that "the Irish Writers Union, which aims to establish creative writing as a working profession, will negotiate on behalf of members for better contracts, better working conditions and more pay". Several founder members of the union were also members of Aosdána; one founder member was Philip Casey.
Figures such as Celia de Freine, Liz MacManus, Eilis Ní Dhuibhne, Sam McAughtry and Michael D. Higgins assisted in the establishment of the Irish Writers Union. In the 1990s, the organisation was also known as Comhar na Scribhneoirí.
Campaign issues
Contracts
Among the issues facing the union was the question of the practical management of authors' rights, and the relative positions of authors and publishers. From its early years, the IWU supported the idea of a model contract for writers and advised authors in this regard, helping writers negotiate their contracts with publishers. To this day, this service remains central to the activities of the Union. There was a lack of clarity around copyright in Ireland in the 1980s, and in part due to the efforts of the Irish Writers Union, the situation was clarified in keeping with international best practice.In 1989, the Irish Writers Union called for the Government to change the law which allowed publishers to sell works over fifty years old without needing to pay 10-20% in royalties to their creators. The union asserted that this provision discriminated heavily against writers. This arose following the public revelation that the family of W. B. Yeats was to be deprived of all copyright and royalty fees for his works due to this provision.
According to The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, as of 1994, the Society of Irish Playwrights agreed royalty rates in conjunction with the Irish Writers' Union.
Censorship
At the 8th European Writers Congress, held in Madrid, Spain during May 1987, the Irish Writers Union and the Society of Irish Playwrights jointly proposed a motion, which passed unanimously. The motion declared "this Congress condemns all forms of artistic censorship, and urges all governments to rescind any legislation which infringes the right to freedom of artistic expression". The IWU's office at this time is described as being located at the Irish Transport & General Workers Union headquarters at Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.In 1989, the Irish Writers Union accused sections of the Muslim community in Ireland of "hysteria" in their reaction to the publication of the controversial novel 'The Satanic Verses'. Representatives from the IWU criticised the group for attempting to have the novel banned in Ireland. They were joined by Steve McDonagh, then president of the Irish Publishers Association in supporting the novel's author, fiction writer Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, as well as bookshops, against physical intimidation.
The censorious attitude of the Irish state towards a wide variety of publications and movies was a very restrictive one through much of the mid-twentieth century; many books now considered central to Ireland's literary heritage, such as James Joyce's Ulysses, were banned from sale or distribution in Ireland. Although Brian Lenihan Snr introduced the Censorship of Publications Act, 1967 whereby the previously permanent ban on a given work was replaced by a twelve-year ban, this did little to assist the distribution of short-lived works.
In the 1980s, a new Censorship of Publications Board composed of a body of retired judges started banning books afresh, among them works by Angela Carter; Alex Comfort's 'The Joy of Sex'; and various academic volumes dealing with erotic Classical art. The ban was upheld against the protests of the Irish Writers Union. A member of the Senior Council offered to take up the Union's cause on a pro bono basis, on the grounds that the Board were interfering with the legitimate rights of authors to earn a living. The poet and IWU member Robert Greacen had known Alex Comfort from their days as medical students in Dublin and put Jack Harte in touch with Comfort. On the grounds of performing a reading from his poetry, Comfort felt able to accept an invitation to appear at Buswell's Hotel, an event at which Comfort's views as a medical doctor and scientist on the importance of being able to write about sexual matters were aired. Such acts as these chipped away at the authority of the Censorship Board and when its five-year ban expired, 'The Joy of Sex' duly appeared on Irish bookshop shelves.
The Irish Writers’ Union also sought the cessation of what it termed the "covert action" and "arbitrary and clandestine procedures" employed by the Censorship Board. It highlighted the Censorship Board's lack of public accountability, its secretive operations, and its absence of obligation to openly justify the banning of a work or the process by which a work was identified. The Writers' Union advocated for fresh laws for censorship to be administered via the judicial system, instead of a technical committee, so granting authors and publishers the opportunity to an open forum.