Stellar lineup for Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival

Fiction, crime, memoir, sport, style, art and drama make for a varied and exciting lineup at this year’s Dromineer and Nenagh Literary Festival.

This year festival president, Donal Ryan has written, “this year, as every year, writers and artists from all over the world, from debutantes to household names, join local chroniclers and custodians of our rich histories and our endless vaults of stories in a celebration of the unifying power of creativity, the infinite potential of the arts to recognise, confront and offer solutions to the problems of this fracturing world, to generate empathy, and to create and sustain friendships and peace”.

Carlow-based artist Bridget Flannery has created a series of pieces under the title ‘River Traces’, which are inspired by Ryan’s novel ‘Queen of Dirt Island’. This art exhibition will be in Nenagh Arts Centre for the month of October.

The opening night this year has three local writers: poets Eleanor Hooker and Sean O’Connor, and novelist, Siobhan MacGowan, reading from their work. The same evening, bestselling author and screenwriter Emma Donoghue (‘Room’) comes to the festival for the first time. She’ll be joined onstage by Sinéad Gleeson to discuss her new novel, ‘Learned by Heart’.

Memoir and poetry will be discussed by award-winning writers Vona Groarke and Kit deWaal, who will also be conducting master classes over the weekend. For crime fans, bestselling authors Catherine Ryan Howard and Andrea Mara will be in Nenagh Arts Centre on Saturday night. Both authors’ recent books ‘The Trap’ and ‘No-one Saw A Thing’ have been runaway successes.

SOLSBOROUGH HOUSE EVENT

Solsborough House is the perfect setting for an event about the daughters of Ernest Guinness. Emily Hourican comes to the festival to discuss her fourth ‘Guinness Girls’ novel ‘Mummy Darlings’.

On the non-fiction front, Claire Walsh’s ‘Under Water’ is a candid and captivating memoir of how holding her breath taught her to live. She’ll be appearing on the annual Sunday morning KU EE TU cruise in conversation with Lia Hynes. Robert O’Byrne will be at Nenagh Castle discussing the lives of 10 families whose houses were burned down during the Irish Civil War with Vona Groake. There’ll also be music at this event by harpist Laura O’Sullivan and singer Cathie Ryan.

Aging Well in Style will be the central message to hotelier and TV presenter Francis Brennan’s talk at Ashley Park House on Sunday, October 8. He’ll be joined by local baritone Dylan Rooney.

The GAA today will be the focus of an event with Eimear Ryan, author of ‘The Grass Ceiling,’ and Stephen Murphy of Second Captains and author of ‘This is the Life’.

They’ll be looking at the role of women in the GAA and the plight of rural clubs in conversation with disability activist Joanne O’Riordan.

There’ll be theatre this year in the Nenagh Arts Centre. DNLF presents ‘Paddy Goes to Petra’, written and directed by Áine Ryan. Rural Ireland meets the Middle East in a plot that follows middle-aged farmer Paddy, whose lust for life has long vanished. A trip to the ancient city of Petra in Jordan encourages him to feel a fresh wonder for the world, develop new friendships and begin an exciting love affair… with himself.

‘Do Chuala Cheoil’ is a beautiful collaboration between singer and composer Fiona Kelleher, musician Caoimhín Vallely and award-winning filmmaker Dónal Ó Céilleachair, based on the poetry of Seamus Ó Céilleachair and Seán Ó Riordán (An Creagar).

This 45-minute film with music, poetry and visuals follows the course of the River Sullane, marrying the scenery with the poems and music, while adding elements of animation.

This will be followed with a talk in Ballycommon by ecologist, broadcaster and nature enthusiast Anja Murray, whose recent book Wild Embrace is an antidote to eco-anxiety, as she awakens us to the unseen wonders of Ireland’s natural world.