A spellbinding evening outside Nenagh

McCann and Mac Con Iomaire at DNLF summer event

This year’s Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival summer event in Tullamore Park outside Nenagh was aptly titled Notes of Hope, featuring award-winning author Colum McCann and acclaimed musician and composer Colm Mac Con Iomaire.

Moderated by Dr Pragya Agarwal, a behavioural and data scientist, and freelance journalist, the event brought together McCann’s written notes of hope and Mac Con Iomaire’s musical notes of hope in a spellbinding evening that emphasised the tenet of how storytelling in written or musical form can transcend barriers and heal differences even when those differences seem to be worlds apart.

In front of a full house, McCann discussed his latest book, American Mother, the story of Diane Foley whose son, Jim, was murdered by Isis and how she met Jim’s killer face-to-face in an American prison; and Apeirogon, the fictionalised account of two real people whose daughters were murdered in the Middle East conflict.

Both works are a testament of how radical empathy and moral courage can be a force for good when, to quote what Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci described as "the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will" – that the will can overcome many challenges if hope remains alive. Shared connections can break down hatred and differences if the will is allowed to triumph.

STORIES AND MUSIC

Dr Agarwal, who will return for the festival in October, kept the conversation flowing, ensuring the evening was populated by stories and music from both guests about their journeys through the Middle East and how storytelling and music can keep a people’s hopes alive. There was the shared story of how Mac Con Iomaire was not able to bring his fiddle through an Israeli checkpoint but found a broken instrument in the house he and McCann were visiting on the West Bank. He restored it over the course of an hour to play Róisín Dubh for their hosts as children climbed the stairs to hear in music the story of the Irish nation’s lament.

Both also discussed their work with Narrative 4, a charity co-founded by McCann and which is based in Limerick. It allows people - mainly young people - to tell their stories in order to break down barriers and prejudices. The group will be in Nenagh in October during the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival, working with local students.

Mac Con Iomaire brought an evening on which no one wanted the storytelling to end to a close with Danny Boy, the tune he played at the unveiling of the statue to peacemaker John Hume.

Festival chair Geraldine McNulty thanked the Kennedy family for making the venue at Tullamore Park available to the festival. (In a unique move, the audience was bussed from Nenagh to the venue, making it seem like a school trip for adults).

Geraldine also thanked the festival’s main sponsors, the Arts Council, Tipperary County Council, Tipperary Arts Officer Melanie Scott, Nenagh Municipal District Administrator Rosemary Joyce, and Peter and Mary Ward of Country Choice, who sponsored a rosé and cheese reception ahead of the event.