Garrett Carr is a writer and was raised in the harbour town of Killybegs, Co. Donegal, which is the setting of his debut novel The Boy from the Sea. It was described as “vivid, loving and genuinely funny” by The Sunday Times and is being translated into a dozen languages. His non-fiction book The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland’s Border, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and described by Colm Toibín as “great writing about landscape and history”. He now lives in Belfast and teaches Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast.​

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Eoghan Daltun is a sculpture conservator, a farmer, and author, and, above all, a rewilder. In 2009, he bought a long-abandoned 73-acre farm overlooking the Atlantic near Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork. Much of the land was covered in wild native forest which, although very beautiful, was ecologically wrecked by severe overgrazing and invasion by a host of alien plant species. Over the years since, Eoghan has brought life in all its explosive vibrancy back to the land, with new temperate rainforest spontaneously forming where previously there was only barren grass. He charted the restoration of this rich ecosystem in his award-winning memoir An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey in the Magic of Rewilding.  Eoghan lives on the farm with his two sons, Liam and Seánie, their collie dog, Charlie, and five Dexter cows: Maggie, Gertrude, Amber, Nelly and Minnie. The Magic of an Irish Rainforest: A Visual Journey is his second book.

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Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College, followed by a Master’s in Victorian literature at Oxford. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and fea-tures for publications including The London Review of Books, The Guardian and Vogue. Naoise’s debut novel Exciting Times was published by W&N in the UK and by Ecco in the US in 2020, and became a Sunday Times bestseller, widely translated and optioned for TV. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for several prizes, including The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Exciting Times was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards and the Waterstones Book of the Year in 2020. Her second novel is forthcoming.

 

Fintan Drury was a journalist with RTÉ in the 1980s. Before co-anchoring Morning Ireland for its first three years, he was a correspondent in Northern Ireland and reported from Britain, Europe, Africa and the USA. In 1985 he volunteered in the then largest refugee camp in the world, in Darfur, with GOAL. A longtime activist on migration, he’s written extensively on the subject. In 2016 he volunteered in a refugee camp in Athens, which led to a fifteen-part series in The Irish Times on the diary of a Syrian refugee. Fintan now lives and works in Dublin; he is chair of SARI (Sport Against Racism Ireland). His latest book, Catastrophe: Nakba II, offers an unflinching and insightful analysis of the decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel.

 

Marie Farrington is an Irish artist. Her practice reflects on the act of making through geological and archaeological lenses. Using casting, carving and other sculptural processes, she engages with memory  through situated encounters with landscape and architecture. Her works make formal reference to field sampling, built heritage, and histories of display. Marie holds a Three Year Membership Studio at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios. Selected solo exhibitions include Diagonal Acts - Act 1, Kunstverein Aughrim, IE (2025); The Unseen Eyebeam Crossed, puntWG, Amsterdam, NL (2024); Glossaries for Forwardness, Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin (2023). Selected group exhibitions include Imprints & Breadcrumbs, CCA Odapark, Venray, NL (2025); The Wave, Collecteurs, The Museum of Private Collections (2022); A Vague Anxiety, Irish Museum of Modern Art, IE (2019). Residencies include Fire Station Artists’ Studios (2018-22); Dublin City Council’s Albert Cottages (2023); and SEA Foundation Tilburg (2023). Her work is held in the permanent collections of The Arts Council of Ireland, Trinity Centre for the Environment, and the OPW Irish State Art Collection. Marie Farrington is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.

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Cathal Hayden was born in the village of the Rock, Co. Tyrone in 1963. The third of eight in a family steeped in music, his first instrument was a tenor banjo before progressing on to fiddle. He recorded his first solo album, Handed Down in 1980, with Arty McGlynn who went on to produce Cathal’s second solo offering, the self-titled Cathal Hayden, in1999. Cathal’s joined the band Arcady in 1988 before moving on to form Four Men and a Dog in 1991.  Their first album, Barking Mad, became the first Irish band to receive the Folks Roots award for best album. Pursuing a solo career after Four Men and a Dog, Cathal has collaborated with many musicians including Máirtín O’Connor, Arty McGlynn, Alan Kelly, Paddy Keenan and Seamie O’Dowd. In 2002 he reunited with Four Men and a Dog to produce Maybe Tonight. Cathal has also collaborated in arranging the score for the Marie Jones play, The Blind Fiddler with Máirtín O’Connor and Cathal Synnott which has played to audiences in the Lyric Theatre and Grand Opera House in Belfast and the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has featured on numerous national televisions and radio broadcasts, both in a solo and group capacity.

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Bridget Hourican is an historian, journalist and author of literary nonfiction. Born in Belfast of mixed Irish-Palestinian heritage, she grew up in Brussels and is now based in Dublin. She has worked as literary editor for The Dubliner and contributor to the Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge University Press). Her ‘gonzo’ biography of the Irish Romantic poet, James Clarence Mangan, Finding Mangan, the Lives and Afterlives of Ireland’s National Poet is published by Gill Books in August 2024. 

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Colum McCann is the author of seven novels, three collections of stories and two works of non-fiction. Born and raised in Dublin, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the U.S National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination.   His work has been published in over 40 languages.  He is the President and co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organisation, Narrative 4. His latest novel Twist was published earlier this year.  

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Bethan McKernan has just returned home to Wales after four years as the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent. Since the Gaza war broke out, she has broken stories about Israel’s use of AI in the conflict and presented and produced several Guardian films from Israel, the West Bank and Syria. In May 2025, she was part of a team that won the UK Press Awards investigation of the year for lifting the lid on a Mossad operation to sabotage the international criminal court war crimes investigation into Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2020, she was honoured with Amnesty International’s Gaby Rado memorial award, which recognises outstanding human rights work by an early career journalist. Based in the Middle East for a decade, Bethan also lived in Beirut and Istanbul and has worked across the region, with a particular focus on the fight against Isis in Syria and Iraq and the civil war in Yemen.

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Pete Mullineaux is a Galway based writer, musician and teacher. He's published five poetry collections, most recently We are the Walrus (2022) which featured on the cover of World Wildlife Fund’s The Circle magazine. Pete plays fiddle and his third collection Session (Salmon 2011) is inspired by Irish Traditional Music. ‘A gem!’ – Irish Music Magazine. Three plays have been produced by RTE radio including the sci-fi Butterfly Wings and his debut novel Jules & Rom - Sci-fi meets Shakespeare (Matador 2021) is a futuristic take on Romeo & Juliet, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence. He’s been interviewed about his work on RTE’s Arena programme and his poetry film Careful what you wish for Orangutan won the 2023 Home-stage Poetry & Folk in the Environment Competition. His work has been described by reviewers as “sensitive and profound”, “gorgeous and resonant” and “grimly funny” with comparisons to Roger McGough, John Clare, John Cooper-Clarke and Pete Seeger.

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Ahmed Najar is a Palestinian writer, playwright, director, media commentator, and financial analyst based in London, originally from Gaza. His writing powerfully explores themes of exile, identity, inherited trauma, and psychological survival amid political turmoil. Ahmed's work has appeared prominently in leading international publications, including The Guardian, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Metro, iNews, TRT World, and The Big Issue. He is a frequent commentator on global media platforms such as BBC, Sky News, and Al Jazeera English, addressing critical issues surrounding the Palestinian struggle. Currently, Ahmed is completing his memoir, Even the Sky Turned Away, a deeply personal narrative that combines his experiences of growing up under occupation in Gaza with reflections on the emotional and psychological toll of exile and displacement. His writing vividly blends personal memoir with historical and political insights, giving voice to the resilience and complexities of Palestinian life and identity. In addition to his literary and media work, Ahmed is an accomplished playwright and director, whose artistic projects have focused on illuminating Palestinian narratives through theatre and performance. Ahmed also serves as Treasurer for Friends of Palestinian Universities (Fobzu), is an advisory board member for the British Palestinian Committee, and regularly engages in public speaking and advocacy on Palestinian rights and human rights issues. He holds degrees and professional experience in finance and economics, bringing a nuanced analytical perspective to his writing and commentary.

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Máirtín O’Connor is one of the most outstanding and creative forces in Irish traditional music. He began playing the accordion at the age of nine, and his remarkable career has seen him as a member of many of traditional music’s leading groups including Midnight Well and De Dannan. His first solo album A Connachtman’s Rambles established him as a solo musician and proved a major critical success. Máirtín’s second solo album Perpetual Motion, released in 1990 was followed in 1993 by his album Chatterbox giving further evidence of his outstanding technique, imagination and compositional talent. Máirtín has worked with many national and international musicians such as Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Mark Knofler, Tanita Tikaram, Townes Van Zandt, Chieftains, the Dubliners, Davy Spillane, Maire Brennan and the Waterboys. In 1995 Máirtín became the first recipient of the Allied Irish Banks, Traditional Musician of the Year award at a ceremony in his hometown of Galway. As a soloist he has performed with the RTE Concert Orchestra on Bill Whelan’s Seville Suite and in 1995 he played a major role in Bill’s world renowned Riverdance.

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Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway. Her sixth novel Seaborne, about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny, was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. Her fifth poetry collection, Menagerie, was published by Arlen House in spring 2025. She is currently writing a memoir about late-diagnosed autism.

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Fintan O’Toole is an award-winning journalist and one of Ireland’s most influential public intellectuals and critical voices on politics and the arts. His writing career began with In Dublin as the theatre critic, a role he later took up with The Sunday Tribune, The New York Daily News and The Irish Times. In 1988 after a period as editor of Magill, he joined the Irish Times where  his column has featured for 30 years. Fintan is advising editor of The New York Review of Books and  also contributes to The New Yorker, The Guardian, and other international publications.  He has written over twenty books on theatre, politics, biography and cultural history, including We Don't Know Ourselves, which was named as Book of the Year in Ireland and one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times. He won the Orwell Prize and European Press Prize for his political commentary and in 2024 received the Robert B. Silvers Prize for “inclusive political commentary” and has been elected to the Royal Irish Academy, the American Academy of Arts and  Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is currently working on the official biography of Seamus Heaney.​

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Moya Roddy’s second poetry collection The Dark Art of Darning was described by Rita Ann Higgins as “enthralling, entangled, daring; Out of the Ordinary her debut was short-listed for the Strong/Shine Award. She was shortlisted for the Hennessy Award and won a New Irish Writing Award. Her first novel The Long Way Home was described as ‘Simply Brilliant’ in the Irish Times. Her collection Other People was nominated for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She trained as a director/scriptwriter and has been commissioned widely. Que Sera Sera which she wrote and directed was nominated for a Sony Award and her work’s been broadcast on Channel 4, RTE Radio and Television. She attended the National College of Art and more recently completed a Portfolio course at GTI. She’ll be having a solo exhibition of her work in 2026. Moya facilitates meditation at Brigit’s Garden (all welcome) and spends any free time in her own wild garden.

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Barry Ward is an Irish actor. He grew up in Blanchardstown and studied English and Philosophy at NUI Maynooth. He began his career as a child actor in the RTÉ/BBC series Family (1994) and Plotlands (1997), and the film Sunburn (1999). His films since include Jimmy's Hall, Blood Cells (both 2014), Extra Ordinary (2019), and Dating Amber (2020), the latter of which won him an IFTA. On television, he is more recently known for his roles in the RTÉ series Rebellion (2016) and Taken Down (2018), the Sky Atlantic series Britannia (2017–2019) and Save Me (2018–2020), and the BBC series The Capture (2019). He is currently studying MAs in Philosophy & Scriptwriting.​

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Clair Wills is a critic and cultural historian. Her essays on contemporary fiction, poetry and cultural institutions appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. She is the author of Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain, which won the Irish Times International Non-Fiction Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize; That Neutral Island: A History of Ireland During the Second World War, which won the PEN Hessell-Tiltman History Prize, Dublin 1916; The Best Are Leaving; and The Family Plot: Three Pieces on Containment. Her most recent book, Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets, published by FSG in April 2024, is a study of four generations of unmarried mothers in her own family, set in the context of the intertwined histories of Britain and Ireland from the 1890s to the 1980s, which won the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Wills is the Regius Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge.

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Vincent Woods’s plays include At the Black Pig’s Dyke (Druid Theatre Company, 1992); Song of the Yellow Bittern (Druid Theatre Company, 1994); and A Cry from Heaven (Abbey Theatre, 2005); and for radio, The Leitrim Hotel, The Gospels of Aughamore and Broken Moon. Poetry collections are The Colour of Language and Lives and Miracles. He has co-edited The Turning Wave: Poems and Songs of Irish Australia, and Fermata: Writings Inspired by Music (with Eva Bourke); and in 2016 published Leaves of Hungry Grass: Poetry and Ireland’s Great Hunger (Quinnipiac University Press). Awards include the Stewart Parker Award for Drama and The Ted McNulty Award for Poetry. For many years he has been a regular presenter of arts programmes and documentaries on RTÉ Radio 1. Vincent was part of the Leitrim Equation performance, and the music and spoken word performances Open Room (2018) and Portal at Boyle Arts Festival in July 2019. Borderlines (with Henry Glassie) was published in 2018. He is a member of Aosdána.

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