Registration

18.00

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Reception

19.30

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Welcome

20.00

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Homelands in the World

20.20

Kathleen Hill and Tess Gallagher

Reading

A Harvest of Words

21.00

Remembering writers Eoin Bourke, Tom Murphy, Macdara Woods. Matthew Sweeney  and singer-songwriter Thom Moore – with Vincent Woods, Maelíosa Stafford, Eva Bourke, Mary McPartlan and Seamie O’Dowd.

Reading

Melatu Uche Okorie

10.30

Author of ‘This Hostel Life’

Readings

Eva Bourke

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Tea/Coffee

11.10

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Harbour, Hostel, Home: New Voices in Irish Writing

11.30

Melatu Uche Okorie, Gráinne O’Toole, founder of Skein Press, Eva Bourke, co-editor of Landing Places.

Discussion

Darach Ó Séaghdha

12.00

Dispatches from a Changing Language

Readings

John Woods

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‘L’Attaque’: Gaelic Ireland and revolutionary France - Eoghan Ó Tuairisc’s 1798 Leitrim novel remembered.

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Lunch

12.40

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Farming, Planting, Writing:

John Connell and Thomas Pakenham

14.00

 John Connell reads from 'The Cow Book: A Story of Life on an Irish Family Farm' and Thomas Pakenham reads from 'The Company of Trees: A Year in a Lifetime's Quest'. 

Reading

Digging and Planting:

Land, farming and forestry – words and reality

14.40

John Connell, Thomas Pakenham, Edwina Guckian

Discussion

Lost and Found in Translation: 

15.10

Darach Ó Séaghdha, Eva Bourke, Melatu Uche Okorie, Kathleen Hill

Discussion

Truth is not Truth:

Journalism, Truth and Ethics in the Era of Trump

15.40

Maurice Walsh, Carole Coleman, Bryan Dobson, Susan McKay

Discussion

Tea/Coffee

16.10

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Beyond borders: New writing from Northern Ireland 

16.30

Ciaran McMenamin reads from his novel 'Skintown'.

Reading

Border Writing

17.00

Susan McKay discusses the work of Anna Burns ('Milkman', 'No Bones') and talks to Ciaran McMenamin about his writing. (Includes booklaunch by Susan McKay of Borderlines by Henry Glassie and Vincent Woods)

Discussion

John McGahern Award

17.40

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Break

18.00

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Bitter Freedoms, Solar Bones: Maurice Walsh, Mike McCormack 

20.00

Maurice Walsh reads from ‘Bitter Freedom’ and considers the essential role of journalistic and literary witness in history and politics. Mike McCormack reads from his work, including ‘Solar Bones’, winner of the 2018 Dublin Literary Prize.

Reading

Open Room

21.00

Composer and fiddle player Danny Diamond, dancer Edwina Guckian and writer Vincent Woods explore themes of memory, migration, inspiration and creative connection. An open room is made for words, dance, music and unexpected links between their individual art forms. Syrian Kurdish musician and Leitrim resident Mohammad Saif will join this open room to play music from his cultural tradition.

Performance

Liberty, Memory, Miley of the Spear: 

11.30

Thomas Pakenham reads from his book ‘The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798’ and considers ‘the year of the French’ in Leitrim and Longford. Alan Woods sings local ballads associated with the 1798 rebellion and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Reading

Field Trip

12.15

Excursion to Kilronan Cemetery followed by the Iron Mountain Session and readings in Mulvey’s bar, Ballinaglera, at the foot of Sliabh an Iarainn.

Field Trip

Bus returns to The Dock Carrick on Shannon

15.30

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