Literary Enniskillen: Oscar Wilde celebrated with a new festival in Ulster

Local boy Oscar Wilde is being fêted with a new literary festival, writes William Cook

Go Wilde: Castle Coole

I'm sitting in the Jolly Sandwich Bar on Enniskillen's historic high street, drinking coffee and chatting with Sean Doran. Sean doesn't come from Enniskillen – he was born and raised in Derry – but you can tell he loves it here. His deep affection for this place stems from a strange quirk of cultural history. Curiously, two of Ireland's greatest writers, Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde, both went to school in Enniskillen. Doran is determined to put their literary beginnings on the map.

For the past three years, Doran has mounted the Happy Days Festival in Enniskillen, devoted to the works of Beckett. Happy Days will be back again in July. But this year Doran is trying something new: from 1-4 May, Enniskillen will host its first Wilde Weekend, a celebration of Oscar Wilde, and some literary heavyweight guest speakers including Alan Hollinghurst, Will Self and Neil Bartlett have been persuaded to take part.

As we walk along the high street, Doran outlines his plans for his inaugural Wilde Weekend: a series of talks and readings rather than performances of plays. The settings he has chosen are intensely atmospheric: The Ballad of Reading Gaol in Enniskillen's Old Gaol; The Decay of Lying in Castle Coole, one of the county's palatial stately homes. It sounds like fun, but Doran is deadly serious. "It's the writing that interests me most," he says. "The language is simply beautiful." It is even more beautiful read out loud.

Doran also has plans for Cole's Monument, which stands in Forthill Park, above Enniskillen. The figure at its summit is Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, one of Wellington's generals. Doran is convinced this was the inspiration for Wilde's Happy Prince. As we survey the monument, I see what he means: "High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince," begins Wilde's fairy tale. And yet, like Wilde's Happy Prince, Enniskillen has lost some of its lustre. These festivals help to make it shine again.

A plaque commemorates the writer

Doran used to be the artistic director of the English National Opera, and previously organised arts festivals in Belfast and the Western Australian capital, Perth. He knows the key to a successful festival is a broad range of venues – the quirkier the better. Enniskillen could almost have been built with this in mind. The city's Ardhowen Theatre is a smart, modern auditorium in a tranquil lakeside setting, but Doran has also requisitioned more unusual venues, from the old Regal Cinema (a barn of a building, with murals on its walls) to the Marble Arch Caves, a few miles away.

Enniskillen's churches have all been happy to play their part. We drop into Saint Michael's, the local Catholic church (which will stage a reading of De Profundis and Saint Macartin's Cathedral (Church of Ireland) across the road. Inside are some sombre reminders of the Troubles: memorials to fallen members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and of the Ulster Defence Regiment.

We head uphill to Wilde and Beckett's alma mater, Portora Royal School. Founded in 1618, it's been on this site since 1778 – a sturdy Neoclassical pile overlooking Enniskillen and the rolling hills that surround it. Portora, which went co-ed in 1979, looks much the same as it would have done when Wilde and Beckett boarded here.

There are plaques to both writers on the walls outside and fulsome tributes within. In the old school hall, Wilde's name is preserved in gold leaf on the board of honour as Portora's Royal Scholar of 1871. The name was removed when he was imprisoned for indecency, but when it was eventually restored, it shone brighter than the others, because it was freshly painted – or so the story goes. Even more than Wilde, young Samuel Beckett was a model schoolboy. He captained Portora's rugby and cricket teams, and won a scholarship to Trinity College Dublin.

I end my literary exploration with a cruise on Lough Erne. Stephen Nixon, a Portora old boy and now director of Erne Tours, takes me out on his boat, Kestrel. Enniskillen is the centre of Fermanagh's lovely Lakeland, a nirvana for hiking, fishing, bird-watching and messing about in boats. The setting could scarcely be more scenic. I spend the night at Lough Erne Resort, which hosted the 2013 G8 summit. One room is dedicated to Gordon Wilson, the brave peacemaker who lost his daughter in the Remembrance Day bomb in 1987.

The hotel is in a tranquil setting, a panorama of woods and water. Wilde was not one for the great outdoors ("All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals," he declared) but as the sun sets over Lough Erne I think even he would have been struck by this serene scene.

Getting there

Enniskillen is 60 miles from Derry/Londonderry, 80 miles from Belfast, and 100 miles from Dublin. Translink Goldline bus 261 runs from Belfast to Enniskillen hourly on weekdays and bi-hourly (or thereabouts) at weekends, taking two hours (028 9066 6630; translink.co.uk).

Staying there

The five-star Lough Erne Resort (028 6632 3230; lougherneresort.com) has doubles from £63, including breakfast. Dinner is £45 for three courses. Try the Fermanagh black bacon, from local butcher Pat O'Doherty. Resident chef Noel McMeel served this dish to the G8 leaders in 2013.

Visiting there

Erne Tours (028 6632 2882; ernetours.com)

The Jolly Sandwich Bar (028 6632 2277; thejollysandwichbar.co.uk).

Wilde Weekend, 1-4 May (wildeweekendenniskillen.com).

Happy Days Festival, 23 July to 3 August (028 6632 5440; happy-days-enniskillen.com).

More information

discovernorthernireland.com