There are many ways to open a game of chess; the Queen’s Gambit, The King’s Indian Defence and the Dutch Defence, to name but a few.

However, the opening moves of the Beckett Enniskillen Chess Set were particularly dramatic, as hooded characters moved the giant pieces to their metaphorical squares at selected locations across Enniskillen, as the town was transformed into a living chess board.

64 different locations

Invited guests gathered at Enniskillen Castle on Friday, October 15 to observe the spectacle and celebrate the launch of the new permanent public art installation by sculptor Alan Milligan, the next phase of a Literary Tourism Project that is already reaping benefits for the town and county.

The large scale chess set comprises of 32 1.5ft tall bronze chess pieces representing characters and motifs from the work of Samuel Beckett, and 64 1ftsq steel cubes as chess squares in bronze mounted on wood.

The pieces will be mounted in 64 different indoor locations across Enniskillen within the four ‘corners’ of Enniskillen Royal Grammar School (Portora site), Forthill Cole’s Monument, Enniskillen Castles Museum and National Trust Castle Coole, forming a chess set that will be played throughout the year with performances at three key times.

The installation is the second phase of the Enniskillen Literary Tourism project, the first of which, The Flight of the Little Golden Swallow, saw the installation of 150 little swallows in gold leaf across Enniskillen Island Town during early summer 2020, on the exterior facades of retail stores and community buildings including its schools.

Sean Doran Artistic Director of Arts Over Borders, the organisation delivering the project explained that The Flight of the Little Golden Swallow over the past few months has been wholly welcomed by Enniskillen’s traders and wider community and has fired the imagination of many who understand exactly what the project aims to achieve and how it can be maximised to the town’s advantage.

Now the second phase of the project builds on another of the town’s adopted sons, Samuel Beckett. Beckett famously attended Portora Royal School in the 1920s.

With chess as one of the central themes in the writer’s work, Doran first commissioned sculptor Alan Milligan in 2013 to produce the Beckett Enniskillen Chess Set for the Beckett Festival held in Enniskillen and its surrounds. With this latest project the pieces will be brought out of storage and will become a living artwork with a game of chess performed each year.

Potential for literary tourism

In Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland Border counties, the potential for literary tourism is particularly rich and unparalleled worldwide through its literary heritage with Seamus Heaney, C S Lewis, W B Yeats, Brian Friel, Jonathan Swift, Flann O’Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and of course Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde school day associations in Enniskillen.

Bernie Mooney, Project Manager said: “Significantly, this project is part of a wider European Initiative, the NPA funded SPOT-LIT programme, supporting economic development through the vehicle of literary tourism and Enniskillen will benefit greatly from the additional visibility and growth this will bring to the area.”

A key issue that the project will address is seasonality for Enniskillen and Fermanagh. Those behind the literary tourism project see the Flight of the little golden Swallow which is installed on external walls as particularly appealing in spring and summer while the board and the pieces of the Beckett Enniskillen Chess Set will be located internally and therefore fitting for autumn and winter viewing. Added to this is the performances that will take place at key points throughout the year.

Sally Rees, Project Support, who has worked with local businesses and organisations on the installation of both The Flight of The Little Golden Swallow and the Beckett Enniskillen Chess set, commented: “Essentially these two contrasting installations are strategically complementary lending themselves to different seasons. Both provide the opportunity for tourist trails that will take visitors across and around the town to places of interest and into community buildings, public buildings, shops, cafes and places of worship and ultimately have a very wide appeal.

“Added to this of course, is the live performances of the chess game at key points throughout the year.”