14/10/2024
A fuller description of all the events happening at the forthcoming Literary Festival.
Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival Podcast
"Quills & the Quarter: Exploring the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival"
The Quills & the Quarter podcast, hosted by Phil O’Kennedy, aims to delve deep into the vibrant world of literature showcased at the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival taking place on 17th – 20th October, 2024.
Over the course of five episodes leading up to the festival, we will introduce listeners to the festival's history, its organisers and notable guests including independent journalist, travel writer and You Tuber, Yvonne Reddin, former Derry Journal editor and author, Pat Mc Art and distinguished figure in journalism, Roy Greenslade. Through engaging discussions and interviews you’ll get a taste of what’s to come in the festival, which this year is celebrating its nineth year.
Quills & the Quarter offers a unique opportunity to engage with the vibrant literary community of Letterkenny and to experience the excitement of the Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival from anywhere in the world. Join us as we embark on a journey through the pages of imagination and creativity, celebrating the power of words to inspire, provoke, and enthuse.
So listen in wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss any of these enjoyable and thought provoking interviews.
Sponsors: Letterkenny Credit Union, Kernans Retail Group, O’Gorman, Cunningham & Co.LLP solicitors
Thursday, 17th October
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Letterkenny Central Library
Free Event
Intercultural Evening
Performances from the New Land Choir, poetry and music from Polish Artists, readings from Raphoe Diamond Writers with Celine McGlynn. Everyone is welcome!
Sponsor: Mac’s Deli
Friday, 18th October
Time: 11 am
Venue: Century Cinema Letterkenny
Free Event
The Steinbeck Connection - Second Level Schools
Douglas Bartlett, founder of the Steinbeck Festival Limavady, will give a short talk on John Steinbeck’s connection to Limavady’s Roe Valley, followed by a screening of the film ‘Of Mice and Men’.
Sponsor: Rushe Fitness
Friday, 18th October
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Donegal County Museum
Free Event
Official Opening of the Ninth Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival
The Festival will be opened by Kathy Donaghy, Irish Independent Journalist, Author and Broadcaster. Her opening talk explores the influence of homeplace on her writing, and the power of words and books to change our lives.
Kathy is a journalist and author, living and working in Inishowen, Co Donegal. Her first book, Finding My Wild, was published by O’Brien Press in February 2023. She is a regular contributor and columnist with the Irish Independent. She also writes for Lonely Planet and Sunday Miscellany.
She runs creative writing courses with the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin as well as facilitating and moderating events. She has a BA in English and French and a BA in legal studies. She is married with two sons and when she is not writing, she’s exploring the wilds of Donegal with her border collie.
Sponsor: Magees Pharmacy
Saturday, 19th October
Time: 12 pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Admission: €5 at the door
'From Manuscript to Market - How to become visible to your audience'
Join experienced journalist and interviewer Yvonne Reddin, along with author Paddy Osborne, as they take festival audiences on an inspiring journey through the joys and challenges of their self published writing experiences. From the initial concept to the emotional moment of holding a debut novel for the first time, they'll share their personal stories and insights into the world of writing. This event is for anyone who has written a book and is now wondering how to reach their audience. A valuable event for all evolving writers! Jean Curran will lead the discussion.
Sponsor: Shop Lk
Saturday, 19th October
Time: 3 pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Admission: €5 at the door
Storytelling with Sinead Rice McAleavey
Sinead is a champion storyteller from Co Down who will share her talents and her stories in this immersive event, as well as offer some tips and tricks for beginners and improvers. If you have always fancied storytelling but don't quite know where to begin, come along, share a story, get some feedback and see where it leads! Swap a tale or two with a Co Down storyteller who is keen to hear the stories of Letterkenny and Donegal in return. Sinead's tales are tall and short ones, old and new, hilarious and heartbreaking!
Sponsor: Cllr Gerry McMonagle
Saturday, 19th October
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Admission: €5 at the door
Guest Readers: Trish Bennett and Bernadette Gallagher
Trish is an award-winning writer and performer from Leitrim, living in Fermanagh; she will read from a selection of her memoir poetry. Her writing spans poetry, memoir, and short stories. She delves into a myriad of themes, from the landscape of her people to the comical escapades of her family and other creatures. Bennett won the Roscommon New Writing Award 2022 and the Leitrim Guardian Literary Award for Poetry in 2017 & 2018. Her work was Highly Commended in the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival, and has been listed in other competitions, such as The National Poetry Competition, Mslexia, Fish, Allingham, North West Words, Bangor Literary, Trim and Mono, and featured on radio/TV and at festivals across Ireland and the UK, including at the London Irish Centre, Cúirt and Culture Night. Her poetry is widely published in the UK, Ireland and the USA. In 2019, Hedgehog Poetry Press published 'Borderlines', a micro-pamphlet. She’s working on her debut poetry collection. trishbennettwriter.com
Bernadette Gallagher is a poet from Donegal living in County Cork. She is the author of The Risen Tree, (Revival Press, 2024) her debut poetry collection.
Her work has been published in Crannóg, Agenda, The Stinging Fly, The North, Stony Thursday, Southword, Irish Examiner, The Frogmore Papers, Ó Bhéal Five Words, and in various online journals including: HeadStuff.org, Live Encounters, Backstory, Other Terrain, Shot Glass Journal, The Poetry Shed, Bealtaine, Drawn to the Light Press, UCD Poetry Archive and Words Lightly Spoken podcast.
She enjoys reading her poetry to live audiences from Cork to Donegal, New Delhi to New York.
An essay by Bernadette on Dorothea Herbert (1767-1829) is published by Cork University Press in Irish Women Poets Rediscovered: Readings in poetry from the eighteenth–twentieth century edited by Maria Johnston and Conor Linnie.
She has received awards from the Arts Council of Ireland and Cork County Council.
bernadettegallagher.blogspot.ie
Sponsor: Donegal ETB
Saturday, 19th October
Time: 7pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Free Event
Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Flash Fiction Competition
Prize Winners’ Evening / New Voices
Everyone is welcome to this event, our second Literary Festival Competition, to hear readings by shortlisted writers, and celebrate the presentation of prizes.
Main sponsors: Bookmark Letterkenny and Donegal ETB
Saturday, 19th October
Time: 8pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Admission: €5 at the door
The Jane Austen Event: Roy Greenslade – The Peer, the Priests and the Press
Roy Greenslade became fascinated by Lord George Hill when he realised he was living in the house in Ramelton occupied by Lord George in the 19th century. He learned that Hill had been the controversial owner of 24,000 acres of Gweedore and therefore responsible for the lives of some 3,000 tenants.
Roy set out to discover what kind of man he was, and the result was his book, The Peer, the Priests and the Press. It tells the story of Hill’s life in Donegal and his clash with a campaigning Belfast journalist, Denis Holland, who questioned Lord George's claim to be a kindly, reforming landlord. This led to a parliamentary inquiry. Hill’s grave can be found in Letterkenny’s Conwal Church, shared with his first wife, Cassandra Knight, a niece of Jane Austen. After her death, he married her sister, which caused yet another parliamentary inquiry.
Sponsor: La Maison
Sunday, 20th October
Time: 1 pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Admission: €5 at the door
Lecture by Professor John Brannigan UCD. Brendan Behan: The Hack and the Literary Genius
Brendan Behan: The Hack and the Literary Genius
When Brendan Behan was feted around the world for his literary genius in the late 1950s, he was still anxious that back in Ireland he was regarded as a ‘hack’ writer. This lecture traces Behan’s anxiety about his literary reputation back to his weekly column for the Irish Press in the early 1950s, in which he earned his living every week by writing about the daily comedies and tragedies of the people around him in Dublin. Behan's newspaper articles reveal a serious writer, capable of great comic set pieces and amusing yarns, as well as deep knowledge of Irish history and culture, and a fondness for travelling around Ireland and Europe. They also reveal his constant awareness of the capricious nature of literary fame, and the perils of being regarded as a 'literary genius'.
When Behan was feted around the world for his literary genius in the 1950s, he was still anxious about his reputation in Ireland. This lecture traces the source of his anxiety back to his weekly column in the Irish Press.
Sponsor: Cllr Donal Coyle
Sunday, 20th October
Time: 3 pm
Venue: Conwal Parish Church
Admission: €10/€5 at the door
Donegal Chamber Music Concert
The programme will include music by Smetana, Fauré, Holst and Mancini, among other works, highlighting these composers' anniversaries this year.
Sunday, 20th October
Time: 5pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Free Event
The 2024s. Afternoon Concert
It is our pleasure to bring you an hour of eclectic music in Irish and English to suit all tastes and ages. Solos, duets and group performances will be accompanied by a variety of instruments. We look forward to sharing our music with you.
Sunday, 20th October
Time: 8pm
Venue: Dillons Hotel
Admission: €5 at the door
An Evening with Pat McArt
For more than 30 years, Pat McArt had one of the most demanding, but exciting, jobs on the island. The Letterkenny man was at the helm of the Derry Journal newspaper group for most of the Troubles and the Peace Process. His memoir of his life and times, ‘War Peace and the Derry Journal’, published at Christmas by Colmcille Press, has sold all over the world. The former chair of the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter will be in conversation with his former colleague Garbhán Downey, now director of Colmcille Enterprises at the Arts Centre on.
Sponsor: McGinley Motors Letterkenny
