0:00:25 > 0:00:26FIDDLE MUSIC
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Hello! The Arts Show is in Dublin,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47a city steeped in Vikings and Guinness,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50James Joyce and stag weekends.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Its rich history echoes through these streets, built on words
0:00:54 > 0:01:00and supercharged by a culture clash of poetry, prose and politics.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02A bit like The Arts Show.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Writer Lucy Caldwell on why Charlotte Bronte
0:01:05 > 0:01:08may have kept on her brassiere, but burned the rule book
0:01:08 > 0:01:10for generations of women writers.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Fermanagh actor Ciaran McMenamin
0:01:12 > 0:01:16tells us about the art that first blew his mind.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19From the River Foyle to the River Styx, we journey into the Underworld
0:01:19 > 0:01:22with the brilliant Seamus Heaney as our guide
0:01:22 > 0:01:24and the BBC weatherman, Barra Best, channels
0:01:24 > 0:01:28his inner Swayze and gets creative behind a potter's wheel.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32I'm on Twitter now at BBC Arts Show.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39Dublin is, of course, firmly in the spotlight this year,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42with the centenary of the Easter Rising just around the corner.
0:01:42 > 0:01:471916 saw politics and culture violently collide,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51with the General Post Office, or GPO, at the centre of events,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54as the headquarters of the Irish Volunteers during Easter week.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01While the rising itself failed,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05it did put in motion a series of events that would ultimately
0:02:05 > 0:02:08see the formation of an independent Irish Republic.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12But when the new government issued its first banknotes in 1928,
0:02:12 > 0:02:16I wonder, did its citizens realise that the emblematic face
0:02:16 > 0:02:21representing Ireland was that of a British society hostess?
0:02:25 > 0:02:26When the Free State was established
0:02:26 > 0:02:28they wanted, obviously, a new currency,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31'they wanted to move away from the notes
0:02:31 > 0:02:33'with the Royal figurehead.
0:02:33 > 0:02:34'And they went, instead,'
0:02:34 > 0:02:37to looking at somebody who would symbolise Ireland,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40a personification of what was an Irish beauty,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43what was an Irishwoman of the time.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46'Of course, ironically, we know now that it was an American
0:02:46 > 0:02:49'who never lived in Ireland who ended up on that currency.'
0:02:52 > 0:02:56Kathleen Ni Houlihan, the emblematic face of the new Free State,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58was painted in 1927,
0:02:58 > 0:03:02but artist Sir John Lavery began painting Irish political figures
0:03:02 > 0:03:04in 1916.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07John always believed that he was commissioned to paint
0:03:07 > 0:03:11the image of Eire for the new Irish Free State currency
0:03:11 > 0:03:15because of their involvement in the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18He just took a painting that he had of his wife
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and he repainted it, placed a black shawl around her
0:03:21 > 0:03:23and had her with all the emblems,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25the Killarney Lakes in the background,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29leaning on the harp, but at the end of the day, for those who knew,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33it was just a reworking of yet another portrait of his wife.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38She would have entered London society
0:03:38 > 0:03:41when her husband was already well established.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43He was friends with Asquith,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45who was the British Prime Minister at the time.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47He was painting society ladies.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50He'd already painted a very well-known portrait
0:03:50 > 0:03:52of the visit of Queen Victoria to Glasgow
0:03:52 > 0:03:56and he'd made his name painting the portraits of the Royal family,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59people from established society, and he was very personable,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02so he really was well accepted.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Hazel had a really lovely introduction.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11He already had a studio in South Kensington,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13located on Cromwell Place,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16so they had a lot of really well-known neighbours,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19and Hazel very quickly became the muse for a number of poets,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22a number of artists, and, of course, that meant
0:04:22 > 0:04:24she automatically had her picture constantly in The Tatler
0:04:24 > 0:04:27and The Sketch and all these women's magazines,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30so she became very, very well known, really, really quickly.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33It was said that one of the groups of women, who were
0:04:33 > 0:04:35so put out that their husbands always wanted to spend time
0:04:35 > 0:04:39with Hazel Lavery, set up a husband-protection society.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45At one stage, he actually painted her as The Madonna for a triptych
0:04:45 > 0:04:47that he was doing for Belfast St Patrick's Church
0:04:47 > 0:04:50and this was on display, when their visitors would come
0:04:50 > 0:04:54and see it. Of course, a lot of the other society ladies used to gossip
0:04:54 > 0:04:58and complain, because they would see she had seen herself as The Madonna.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07John's interest in Ireland
0:05:07 > 0:05:09was always at a remove in those early years.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11His connection to Ireland happened
0:05:11 > 0:05:14really around the time of the 1916 rising.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19He was given the opportunity,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22whilst into commission, he was given the opportunity
0:05:22 > 0:05:27to paint the appeal of Sir Roger Casement, who had been convicted
0:05:27 > 0:05:30of treason, for his involvement in the run-up to the rising.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34He was very aware of the political situation that had developed.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Well, Hazel was interested in Ireland.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41She became hugely interested in Irish politics
0:05:41 > 0:05:43and she used the circle that she had developed,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47the influences that she had with British parliamentarians,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51talking to them and trying to bring together connections.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01The Anglo-Irish Treaty was being negotiated
0:06:01 > 0:06:05and, of course, the famous Scarlet Pimpernel of that time,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Michael Collins, was the one that every society hostess wanted to get.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12He'd been elusive, he'd been talked about, nobody knew who he was.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14He had been leading this war of independence,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17and, of course, Hazel had the absolute in.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19She knew his sister, Hannie Collins.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Some people have considered them to have been, maybe, lovers,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27but in whatever the exact nature of the relationship is,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30there was a lot of correspondence between them.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34He wrote her poetry, he spoke to her in a very loving way.
0:06:34 > 0:06:35They exchanged books,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38they used to attend mass together in the Brompton Oratory
0:06:38 > 0:06:42and she is, in fact, the woman who managed to get him to go
0:06:42 > 0:06:45and see Lloyd George at that critical moment.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Michael Collins, of course, was killed in the early stages
0:06:51 > 0:06:52of the Civil War.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54In fact, when he had signed the treaty,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57he described it as having signed his own death warrant.
0:06:57 > 0:06:58And that came to pass.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01The Laverys were in Ireland when he was killed.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Hazel was distraught.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13It turned out that he had letters from Hazel Lavery on his body.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17They were returned to her by Collins' sister in later years.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21In fact, you can see the bloodstain on that letter.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25And she, obviously, treasured those scraps and those fragments.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34John himself, actually, commemorates Collins' death
0:07:34 > 0:07:36and he paints, the very famous now,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Love Of Ireland, where he paints him on his deathbed,
0:07:39 > 0:07:41draped with the tricolour,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45which has become a very symbolic and important image.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49While Hazel attended the funeral, he's painting the funeral.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Hazel had always suffered from ill health.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03She was so much younger than John. She suffered with nephritis.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Kidney disease, combined with a weakened heart
0:08:06 > 0:08:09meant that she had a long and slow and painful death
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and, in the last two years of life, she was mainly confined to bed.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19It was very difficult for her, because she was now out of society,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21so John set up a canvas, to keep her company,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23and he painted away in her room
0:08:23 > 0:08:27and the painting that he produced is so sad,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31because it actually sees the, sort of, the demise of the woman
0:08:31 > 0:08:34that he loves, the tiny figure in this massive bed.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43And then, when she died, before her coffin was taken for her funeral,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45he painted her coffin in her bedroom.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49He had lost the love of his life,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53who he had depicted from the moment he had met her through his art.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Thanks to her, we have a wonderful body of work from her husband,
0:08:57 > 0:08:58Sir John Lavery.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06What an incredible story.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10Well, I'm in Collins Barracks, the National Museum of Ireland,
0:09:10 > 0:09:15which is hosting a major exhibition to commemorate the events of 1916.
0:09:15 > 0:09:16Among the exhibits,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19some of which have never been on display before, is the actual
0:09:19 > 0:09:23proclamation of the New Republic and the table it was signed upon,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27the original signed orders and letters of surrender,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30the flag which flew over the GPO during the rising,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Roger Casement's coat and even James Connolly's bullet-ridden hat.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52Now, Fermanagh actor Ciaran McMenamin is currently appearing
0:09:52 > 0:09:55in a new production of After Miss Julie.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58The Arts Show caught up with him, to find out what arts
0:09:58 > 0:10:00and culture shaped him.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04The first piece of music
0:10:04 > 0:10:07that, literally, blew my mind...
0:10:07 > 0:10:10was when I accidentally found
0:10:10 > 0:10:14my dad's old Thin Lizzy, Bad Reputation LP,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18buried under my mum's Neil Diamond LPs.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20And I didn't know what it was.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23I would imagine I was about 11,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27and I lifted this black album covered with these three...
0:10:27 > 0:10:31sexy, scary-looking men in shades, staring out at me,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33and I put it on and, er...
0:10:33 > 0:10:36it actually did, literally, blew my mind.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39I was playing air guitar on my back on the floor.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43DRUMS AND GUITAR MUSIC
0:10:46 > 0:10:48My sister Aine and I
0:10:48 > 0:10:51sneaked into the Ardhowen Theatre, underaged,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54to watch David Lynch's Wild At Heart.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I'd never seen anything like it, the music,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59the sex, er...
0:10:59 > 0:11:02the violence, the reality, erm...
0:11:02 > 0:11:06the dark humour, this strange Wizard Of Oz theme.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09That was a moment when I went, wow.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Erm, cinema can be something completely different
0:11:12 > 0:11:14and completely exciting.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17The piece of art that made a huge impression on me
0:11:17 > 0:11:20was Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23I had been aware of Turner's work. I had saw
0:11:23 > 0:11:26photographs, documentaries about his work,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29but when I first, actually,
0:11:29 > 0:11:30in the flesh,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34saw his use of light,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37and stood in the National Gallery,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42trying to get my mind to work out how someone had done that
0:11:42 > 0:11:45with a brush and some paint
0:11:45 > 0:11:49hundreds of years ago, before photography,
0:11:49 > 0:11:54literally, did kind of cause my mind to fall apart.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57For a piece of theatre that made a huge impression on me,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00I'm going to choose something from later on.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03I'd, kind of, fallen out of love with theatre a little bit,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05cos I hadn't seen anything I'd liked.
0:12:05 > 0:12:06I hadn't done it myself for a while,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10and I went to The Lyric a couple of years ago to see
0:12:10 > 0:12:13my fellow Fermanagh man, Adrian Dunbar,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15in Brendan At The Chelsea,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and it genuinely, genuinely inspired me
0:12:18 > 0:12:20to come back to the theatre,
0:12:20 > 0:12:25for various reasons, but mainly because he managed to...
0:12:25 > 0:12:29tell me something important about alcoholism
0:12:29 > 0:12:32and completely entertain me, at the same time.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36So, you, literally, had that, kind of, crying and laughing
0:12:36 > 0:12:37in the same evening.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40I also thought I'd mention it because,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42for anybody that didn't see it, it's coming back.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47It's a really amazing night at the theatre and it actually did,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50in a weird way, save the theatre for me.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52So, thanks, Adrian.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid is an incredible story,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12full of as much drama and suspense as any TV box set
0:13:12 > 0:13:13we might watch today.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18It's a powerful poem, in which the young hero Aeneas battles the demons
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and the undead, to travel deep into the underworld,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23to meet the spirit of his father.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27But in a strange way, Aeneas's most recent journey starts
0:13:27 > 0:13:30right here in what was once St Columb's College,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33where a young Seamus Heaney was first introduced to Virgil
0:13:33 > 0:13:38in the 1950s by his Latin teacher, Father Michael McGlinchey.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44"Next comes a grinding scrunch and screech of hinges
0:13:44 > 0:13:47as the dread doors open and you see what waits inside,
0:13:47 > 0:13:51the shape and threat of the guard who haunts the threshold.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Farther in and more ruthless, still, the Hydra lurks, monstrous
0:13:54 > 0:13:57with her 50 gaping mouth-holes and black gullets
0:13:57 > 0:14:01and beyond the sheer plunge of Tartarus down to the depths,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04to darkness, a drop twice as far beneath the earth,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06as Olympus appears to soar above it."
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Book VI six of The Aeneid wasn't on the A-level curriculum in 1957.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15It was Book IX instead,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19but Heaney remembers his teacher pining for his favourite Virgil.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22In the foreword to his new translation, Heaney says
0:14:22 > 0:14:24that McGlincey was forever sighing,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27"Oh, boys, I wish it were Book VI."
0:14:31 > 0:14:34"But seeing Aeneas come wading through the grass towards him,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36he reached his two hands out in eager joy,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39his eyes filled up with tears and he gave a cry,
0:14:39 > 0:14:41At last! Are you here at last?
0:14:41 > 0:14:44I always trusted that your sense of right would prevail
0:14:44 > 0:14:46and keep you going to the end.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49And am I now allowed to see your face, my son,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and hear you talk, and talk to you myself?"
0:14:54 > 0:14:57This is a poem that Heaney would return to
0:14:57 > 0:15:00at key moments in his life, first translating passages from it
0:15:00 > 0:15:03after his own father's death in the '80s
0:15:03 > 0:15:07and on the birth of his first grandchild in 2007.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12And he was finalising work on it right up to his own death in 2013.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Seamus Heaney has called Book VI a constant presence.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Now with its posthumous publication,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21it marks the end of his own poetic journey.
0:15:24 > 0:15:25"There are two gates of sleep,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28one of which they say is made of horn
0:15:28 > 0:15:31and offers easy passage to true visions.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34The other has a luminous dense ivory sheen,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36but through it to the sky above,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39the spirits of the dead send up false dreams.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Anchises, still guiding and discoursing,
0:15:42 > 0:15:44escorts his son and the Sibyl on their way
0:15:44 > 0:15:47and lets them both out by the ivory gate.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Aeneas hurries to the ships and rejoins his comrades,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54then sails, hugging the shore to the port of Caietae.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59Anchors are cast from the prow, stern cushion on sand."
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Last May, I picked this up for a radio documentary I was making.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21It had been 25 years since I'd last played it. I dusted it off,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24even rejoined my old orchestra, met friends that I hadn't seen
0:16:24 > 0:16:28in decades and, best of all, my children now hear me play.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33You know what? It has been the best thing that I have done in years.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36So, if like me, you want to dust something off,
0:16:36 > 0:16:42or like Barra Best here, you want to create something new,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47BBC Get Creative is a one-stop shop for all your creative needs.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49- Barra.- We're giving it a go.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51It's the first time I've ever done pottery.
0:16:51 > 0:16:52Always wanted to have a go at it.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56I'm not too sure I'm the best at it, but Helen's give me a few good tips
0:16:56 > 0:16:59- to get me underway. - Helen, how's it going so far?
0:16:59 > 0:17:01Well, the clay's still on the weave, so it's a good start.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03But so far, so good.
0:17:03 > 0:17:04My clothes are still clean.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Of course I had to wear a white shirt today, as well.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09It's a little bit easier than I thought it would be.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11I thought I was going to be all over the place.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13It's just good to do something different and be a bit creative.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15I don't get a lot of opportunity to do
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- that at the moment, I'm so busy. - Is the weather not creative?
0:17:18 > 0:17:21Well, it can be in this country, definitely!
0:17:21 > 0:17:23It's all over the show, so that keeps me busy,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26but I don't think I'll give up the weather for this just yet.
0:17:26 > 0:17:27So, can you explain to me
0:17:27 > 0:17:29where this pot is going at the moment, Barra.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32- That's not going on! - It's not happening! THEY LAUGH
0:17:32 > 0:17:36- By the time you come back, that's going to be a masterpiece. - A masterpiece, OK.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39- OK, I believe you. I believe you. - Yes.- Well done, well done.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43So, leave Barra and head across here to where other work has gone on,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46and Rebecca, you are one of the creative champions,
0:17:46 > 0:17:47what's going on here?
0:17:47 > 0:17:52Well, Get Creative is a UK-wide initiative, it's run by the BBC
0:17:52 > 0:17:56and by voluntary arts and it's all about celebrating creativity,
0:17:56 > 0:17:57in all its shapes and sizes.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I've encouraged people to get involved, do something different,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03or take up something they loved doing when they were children.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06- So, how do you do it?- We encourage people particularly to take up
0:18:06 > 0:18:08crafts and have a go at that.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11We have an online resource called a Craft Map and a craft directory
0:18:11 > 0:18:14of makers and that's all on our website, which is craftni.org.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17You can go and find your local arts venue
0:18:17 > 0:18:20or local maker and find out what's happening near you.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Rebecca, thank you so much and thank you, everybody, for coming today.
0:18:24 > 0:18:25Barra, how are you getting on?
0:18:25 > 0:18:28- Here you go. Look at that for a masterpiece.- That's not bad.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31- I'm not even lying, it's one I prepared earlier.- You really did.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33- I absolutely did. - In true Blue Peter style.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35Yes, and I'm bringing it home. You're not having it.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Well done, fella. Don't give up the day job just yet.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40OK, I'll stick with the weather.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44And there is a Get Creative Day on April 2.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Barra Best, thank you so much.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02The Abbey Theatre famously played a role in the Easter Rising,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06with actors, playwrights and stagehands all taking part
0:19:06 > 0:19:10in the very real-life drama that was unfolding in the streets outside.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The theatre is at the centre of another controversy. The lack
0:19:13 > 0:19:19of female writers in its programming for 2016 has caused a huge storm.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23The online #Wakingthefeminists kick-started a very public
0:19:23 > 0:19:28conversation about why it was mainly all male writers' work on stage.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Charlotte Bronte lived well before Twitter,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36but she was a trailblazer for women in literature.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39We gave Belfast-born writer Lucy Caldwell a little more
0:19:39 > 0:19:42than 140 characters to explore.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55"I am no bird and no net ensnares me.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58"I am a free human being with independent will."
0:19:59 > 0:20:03These are the captivating words of an unlikely pioneer
0:20:03 > 0:20:06who lived at a time when women were barely allowed to express
0:20:06 > 0:20:10themselves. Their author blazed a way for women writing today.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21200 years ago this April, a baby girl was born to a curate
0:20:21 > 0:20:22and his wife.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It's here at this small parsonage in Yorkshire that she grew up
0:20:26 > 0:20:29to become one of the world's greatest writers
0:20:29 > 0:20:31in the English language.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Her name was Charlotte Bronte and she emerged at a time
0:20:35 > 0:20:39when the world of letters was no place for a respectable woman.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41She changed the course of literature.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44I feel greatly indebted to her.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47So where did this revolutionary voice come from?
0:20:51 > 0:20:54The world-famous Bronte sisters,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Charlotte, Emily, and Anne are actually half Irish.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01Even in her teenage years, Charlotte was described by
0:21:01 > 0:21:04a classmate as speaking with a strong Irish accent.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Their story begins in County Down.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Charlotte's father Patrick was born here in this two-room cottage.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19From these humble roots, he earned himself a place at Cambridge,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23with the help of local clergymen, who saw his potential.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28He went on to instil in his own children the same
0:21:28 > 0:21:30sense of the magic of books.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40He finally settled in this Pennine village on the edge of Howarth Moor,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44where he went on to raise one of the world's most literary families.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53To celebrate Charlotte's bicentenary, the Parsonage Museum
0:21:53 > 0:21:57is featuring an exhibition, Charlotte Great & Small.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02I met the curator and award-winning writer Tracy Chevalier.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06When I went up to the parsonage to look around they said,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08"What would you like to see?"
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I thought, "I'd like to see one of those miniature books that
0:22:11 > 0:22:14"the Bronte children made when they were teenagers."
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Then, I started looking at other things, like little watercolours
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and little needlework and then, I discovered Charlotte was tiny,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24- she was four foot ten, if that.- That's tiny.- Yeah.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Her hands were tiny, her feet were tiny - everything about her.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32At the same time, I was rereading her novels and, in them,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35she is expressing always this huge desire
0:22:35 > 0:22:37and I thought I'd like to contrast those two things -
0:22:37 > 0:22:41the small things in her life with the huge ambition.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47There is a wonderful anecdote of Charlotte's father after
0:22:47 > 0:22:48the publication of Jane Eyre
0:22:48 > 0:22:51summoning his offspring into his study and saying, "Children,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55- "it seems that Charlotte has written a book."- Yes.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59It's so... It's amazing, but it's a little painful, too,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03because really very little was expected of women at that time.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06It was not expected that they would ever have a career,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09the way we can now. We take it for granted now,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11but you couldn't take it for granted back then.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14There's a lovely quotation from one of her letters, where she says
0:23:14 > 0:23:18people of talent know full well the excellence that's in them.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22She, from a very early age, knew that she wanted to do great things.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24When she was 18, she wrote to Robert Southey,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28who was Poet Laureate at the time saying, "Here are some of my poems,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31"what do you think of them?" Remarkably he wrote back,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34a very famous letter where he says women should not write.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Even that was not enough to deter Charlotte,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39because she wrote back to him.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43She wrote back and said, "If ever I have any of those crazy ideas
0:23:43 > 0:23:46"to write I'll think of Southey and I will calm down."
0:23:46 > 0:23:49It's just, the tone is very funny.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52It's very subtle, because there's nothing you can point out to
0:23:52 > 0:23:56say she was being rude to him, but actually, there is an undertone of
0:23:56 > 0:23:58"I'm going to do just what I like."
0:24:04 > 0:24:08You've also edited an anthology called Reader, I Married Him,
0:24:08 > 0:24:09stories inspired by Jane Eyre.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11Would all of these writers be writing
0:24:11 > 0:24:13if it weren't for Charlotte Bronte?
0:24:13 > 0:24:18You know that's why I've asked women to write rather than men in this
0:24:18 > 0:24:21book because I think we owe her a debt of gratitude for being
0:24:21 > 0:24:23such a trailblazer for women.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31In a world where women had restricted liberties,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34writing was an escape for Charlotte and her siblings.
0:24:34 > 0:24:41This is a tiny little book made by Charlotte Bronte in 1829.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44She would have been 13 when she wrote this.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46You can see the date on the cover.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Oh, my goodness. The writing is...
0:24:49 > 0:24:52It could have been done like needlepoint.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Yes. This would have been made with a quill pen
0:24:55 > 0:24:59and the tiny writing became a secret code amongst
0:24:59 > 0:25:04the siblings so that if their father came across any of these tiny books,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06he wouldn't be able to read the contents.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12So they've got stories, poems and reviews.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18If we turn to the back, you will see that there are even advertisements.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22"To be sold, 1,000 horses by Gerald."
0:25:22 > 0:25:25One of the things I love about the Bronte sisters is,
0:25:25 > 0:25:30I'm one of three sisters myself, and we grew up making magazines,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34making manuscripts, writing secret codes and stories.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36It's absolutely extraordinary to look at.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38What is it, an inch and a half?
0:25:38 > 0:25:43Yes. This looks like it's made from a scrap of an old sugar bag.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47But they used wallpaper, whatever they could lay their hands on.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58I love the idea of the sisters writing at this very table.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00They would work feverishly
0:26:00 > 0:26:03until the clock struck nine at which point they would get up
0:26:03 > 0:26:05and start walking round the table, reading their work aloud
0:26:05 > 0:26:08and discussing their latest plots.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13It's amazing to think it was here that they wrote such
0:26:13 > 0:26:17classics as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Charlotte went on to create some of the most unconventional
0:26:27 > 0:26:31characters in literary history like Jane Eyre
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and my personal favourite, Lucy Snowe.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39Like her, they are small, plain and introverted, yet they lead
0:26:39 > 0:26:43rich inner lives and rage against injustice.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Once, after an argument with her sisters, she said,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49"I will prove to you that you are wrong.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53"I shall write a heroine as plain and small as myself
0:26:53 > 0:26:57"and she will be as interesting as any of yours."
0:26:57 > 0:27:01Defiant in her life and revolutionary in her writing,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Charlotte Bronte will long be esteemed as a fearless
0:27:04 > 0:27:06pioneer of women writers.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23And this is where the Rising came to an end,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27the Royal College of Surgeons on St Stephen's Green.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30The rebels signed the letters of surrender here.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35The building remains unchanged and bears the bullet marks to this day.
0:27:46 > 0:27:47And that's it for tonight.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51We're on BBC Radio Ulster, Tuesdays to Fridays at 6.30pm
0:27:51 > 0:27:54and online and Twitter too.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56You can't miss us. Until then, goodnight.