Bus departs from The Dock at 10.00am sharp.

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This guided tour of Strokestown Park’s Palladian mansion presents an atmosphere of faded grandeur in this great Roscommon house, and its original collections of art, curios, and everyday objects, set across grand rooms and servants’ quarters, offer vivid insights into what life was like for everyone, above and below stairs.​ Following the guided tour of the house, guests can take a self-led tour of the compelling, highly interactive new National Famine Museum, where breathtaking local and national stories from this tragic period in Ireland’s past are brought dramatically to life.

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Bus departs Strokestown Park House at 13.30 sharp

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For this event, artist Richard Malone will introduce their exhibition at The Dock curated by Linda Shevlin and Mary Conlon. A Record of Tenderness is a powerful exploration of labour and class through a queer lens. Meticulously crafted, Malone’s textile assemblages celebrate stitching and weaving — long overlooked as important artifacts of Irish material culture. Throughout the exhibition, builder’s chalk, masonry paint and other tools highlight the unseen labour that goes into the making. These subtle interventions speak to the language of class and the skills that the artist has learned from their family.

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Martina Devlin reads from and discusses her new novel Charlotte, inspired by the life story of Charlotte Bronte and the Bronte family’s deep connections to Ireland.

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Ronan McGreevy & Rory Carroll read from their respective books The Kidnapping (co-author Tommy Conlon) on the 1983 IRA kidnapping of Don Tidey, and Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown; and discuss the delicate business of writing modern political history when many of those at the centre of the events are still alive and the events themselves remain a matter of dispute and controversy.

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The tragic and tangled politics of the Middle East are explored in Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East, the clear-eyed, passionate last book by the renowned journalist Robert Fisk, who died in 2020. His wife, Nelofer Pazira-Fisk, author of the memoir A Bed of Red Flowers will read from the book, discuss her work with her late husband and consider the abiding relevance of his writing and analysis, and the light it sheds on today’s conflict in Gaza, Israel, Lebanon and the occupied territories.

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Denis Bradley reads from and discusses his memoir Peace Comes Dropping Slow, which was published earlier this year. Denis Bradley played an important role in helping to forge peace in Northern Ireland, bringing together representatives of the IRA and the British government and ensuring that crucial peace talks continued at times of crisis. His memoir describes his years as a priest and community activist in Derry, and looks to future politics and political realities in Northern Ireland, concluding with a positive vision for a ‘unitary highway’ towards a Shared Island of Ireland.

Cathaoirleach of Leitrim County Council Cllr. Paddy O'Rourke presents the 2024 John McGahern Award.

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Novelist and film maker Neil Jordan reads from and talks about his memoir Amnesiac and his most recent novel The Well of Saint Nobody; shares his memories of John McGahern and discusses McGahern’s writing and legacy.

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Poet Mary O’Malley reads from her compelling work, including poems from her most recent collection The Shark Nursery.

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Actor Brendan Conroy, who plays the role of Bill (an exquisite portrayal of a man marginalised and minded in his community) in Pat Collins’s film That They May Face the Rising Sun, reads his personal choice from the writing by John McGahern.

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