Beckett centenary to be marked in Paris

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — The Irish community in Paris is preparing to mark Thursday's centenary of the birth of the playwright Samuel Beckett who lived and died here and wrote many of his best-known works in French.

A commemoration and reading is to be held at Beckett's grave side in the Montparnasse cemetery where the Nobel Prize-winning author is buried.

"He was an important part of the Irish diaspora as well as being a huge figure in world literature with a unique voice," organiser Peter Mulligan from the Irish Community Arts project, based in Northampton, central England told AFP.

Some Irish earth is also to be scattered over the tomb, but Mulligan stressed the event aimed to celebrate Beckett's links to both France and Ireland.

The Irish embassy is also...