Nature poet Jane Clarke, whose collection A Change in the Air was shortlisted for major awards, will read from her work and she and ecologist and broadcaster Anja Murray (Wild Embrace) will discuss Ireland’s natural world, the environmental challenges we face and how creativity can inform and shape a response to them.
Award-winning author Katriona O’Sullivan, whose memoir Poor became an international bestseller, will be interviewed by leading psychologist and author Richard Hogan. From her journey through poverty and early motherhood to overcoming barriers to education, Katriona has become an inspiring voice for equality and inclusion. A festival highlight.
Inspired by his poetry collection Harry Kernoff’s Guest, this talk by poet Vitor Vicente explores how Kernoff’s art immortalized Dublin’s everyday heroes – labourers, bartenders, and street characters – capturing their dignity and resilience. Discover his unique celebration of folks’ struggle and their enduring impact of Kernoff’s work on Ireland’s cultural and social history.
Join The Writers’ Block for an afternoon of stories and poems in an open mic session. We are a group of local writers who meet every two weeks to share and discuss our work. We’d love to have you at our event and hear what you’ve been writing. You can just sit back and soak it up if that’s your preference, but if you’re up for reading that would be fantastic too.
Paul Murray, whose bestselling novel The Bee Sting won numerous awards and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is joined by fellow author, and academic, Kevin Power (Bad Day at Blackrock) to discuss novel writing, the author’s life and why, if a book is gripping, you don’t care about the page count. A festival highlight.
A special festival screening of 2025’s critically acclaimed documentary on Edna O’Brien, Blue Road. The film includes interviews with the writer just months before her death in 2024 at the age of 93, as it explores stunning archive material from the life of this extraordinary writer, as well as extracts from her personal diaries, read by Jessie Buckley.
Followed by a Q&A with writer and director Sinéad O’Shea.
Join bestselling children’s author Shane Hegarty (Darkmouth, Boot, The Shop of Impossible Ice Creams) for Magic Ice Creams and Monster Mayhem, as he shows you where he finds his funny and fantastical ideas. Then it’s the turn of the kids to come up with their own wild ideas. Suitable for age 7+.