A complete run of Threshold, the literary magazine produced by Belfast’s Lyric Theatre from 1951 to 1990, is to be made available online as part of the University of Galway’s archive devoted to the venue and its founder, Mary O’Malley.
One of Northern Ireland’s longest-running literary periodicals of the last century, Threshold played a crucial role in O’Malley’s ambition to position the Lyric Theatre within the region’s wider arts environment.
Providing an outlet for established and emerging writers of poetry and fiction, it also featured topical essays, reviews, and criticism. Among many notable contributors and guest editors were Seamus Heaney, John Hewitt, Mary Beckett, Kate O’Brien, Gerald Dawe and John Montague.
The digital archive of more than 3,000 pages from all 51 issues of the magazine—including special themed issues on topics including W B Yeats, Irish-America and literature during the Troubles—will be launched as part of the 40th Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway on Friday 11 April.
The event will also include a panel discussion about the history of Threshold and the future of literary periodicals. Speakers include Conor O’Malley (Mary O’Malley’s son), Lyric Executive Producer Jimmy Fay and University of Galway archivist Barry Houlihan.
Fay hailed the archive as “a wonderful resource for students and enthusiasts of Irish theatre and literature…. It is an astonishing source of inspiration and another reason to celebrate the long-reaching and all-embracing vision of Lyric Theatre founder Mary O’Malley”.