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| M2C 2013 festival marquee (Photo credit: Ger Holland) |
Here's a quick round up of the 2013 Mountains to Sea dlr book festival. I've had to be brief as there were so many events, but this should give an overview of what happened during festival week. There's lots more photos on our Facebook page so please do have a browse through these also.
DAY ONE - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD
An Cathoirleach Cllr Carrie Smyth opened our first event - Sunday Miscellany. Contributers included Gemma Tipton, Sean Moffatt, Barbara O'Hogen, Leo Cullen, Bernard Farrell & Martina Devlin. Music was provided by Josh Johnson and The Gregory Walkers. It was a beautiful start to this year's festival and Martina Devlin's heartfelt tribute to Seamus Heaney deserves a special mention. This recording of Sunday Miscellany will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday September 29th.
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| Catriona Crowe & Margaret Atwood (PhotoCredit: Angelique Cheronnet) |
dlr County Librarian Mairead Owens opened the next event - Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood in conversation with Catriona Crowe. This was the first of this year's events to sell out and there was a packed audience in the Pavilion Theatre eager to see her read from new novel MaddAddam followed by a lively and entertaining dialogue with Catriona Crowe.
DAY TWO - WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 4TH
We had two schools events in the morning - Niamh Sharkey Author and Illustrator lit up the Pavilion Theatre with her Hugglemonsters while over in County Hall Patricia Forde held a special bilingual story session featuring a crazy cast of characters. Later on in the afternoon Derek Landy delighted the his fans by staging (with audience participation) the first chapter of his new book. And then spent over THREE HOURS signing books!
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| Niamh Sharkey & Norton Virgien with some mini hugglemonsters (Photo credit: Angelique Cheronnet) |
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| Raja Shehadeh and Richard Crowley (Photo credit: Ger Holland) |
Over in The Maritime Museum Imram Féile Litríochta Gaeilge created a stunning bi-lingual poetry show exploring ‘Mountains to Sea’ and Dún Laoghaire - featuring beautiful on-screen projections by Margaret Lonergan, and music by Colm Mac Con Iomaire of The Frames and singer Máire Ní Choilm.
DAY THREE - THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH
Liz Pichon was in sparkling form yesterday and gave us not one but two kids events in Pavilion Theatre! - she got the entire audience doing some fantastic doodles.
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| Liz Pichon - schools event (Photo credit: Ger Holland) |
- Anne Enright was in conversation about her writing life (and pre-writing, actress life) with Declan Hughes. There was a warm rapport between the two that led to a wonderfully relaxed interview.
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| Anne Enright (Photo credit - Angelique Cheronnet) |
- Ronan Fanning talked about his new book Fatal Path to Michael Laffan in the beautiful surroundings of The Maritime Museum.
- Housam Najjair told Mary Fitzgerald about his experience in the Libyan revolution of 2011 and read from his book Soldier For A Summer
DAY FOUR - FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6TH
Philip Ardagh had the children in fits of giggles at The Mill Theatre and Gary Northfield and Oisin McGann amazed and wowed the children at the Pavilion with their drawing and stories. Charlie Higson spoke about the magic of story and writing to a fascinated audience and followed it with a super signing in Eason.
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| Gary Northfield (Photo credit: Angelique Cheronnet) |
In the first of our Poetry Now events Eavan Boland was in the Pavilion Theatre in conversation with Siobhan Campbell - it was a fascinating interview with Eavan talking about her work at Stanford University among many other things.
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| Eavan Boland (Photo credit: Mark Granier) |
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| A.L. Kennedy (Photo credit: Ger Holland) |
The next Maritme Museum event was another great Poetry Now event - David Harsent and Mary O'Donnell.
The last event in the Pavilion was a very special event sponsered by Bord Gáis Energy Book Club - Judy Finnigan in conversation with Andrea Hayes. There was a lovely surprise for the audience when Judy was joined by husband Richard Madeley (the BGE Bookclub goodie bags were hugely appreciated)
DAY FIVE - SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH
The start of a very busy and enjoyable weekend and chock a block full of literary treats! The morning started with workshops for adults and kids and there was not one but two group tours - one by bus and one on foot led by dlr Writer in Residence Declan Hughes.
Richard Madeley entertained some very eager fans in the Pavilion Theatre while in County Hall people gathered to see who had won the Irish Times Poetry Now award. The award went to Dennis O’Driscoll’s final collection Dear Life and the award was accepted by his widow Julie O'Callaghan.
Back in the Pavilion in the afternoon Thor Gotaas talked to Diarmaid Ferriter about his book Running: A Global History arrived dressed appropriately enough in his running gear.
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| Thor Gotaas (Photo Credit: Ger Holland) |
We had a wonderful panel discussion in County Hall - Great Ad-app-tations: The Picture Book & Beyond with four experts in their fields - Kate Wilson, Niamh Sharkey, Norton Virgien & Gary Northfield. A second panel later on - New Voices - discussed writing, editing & promoting a new children's writer with Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Sheila Agnew, Caroline Walsh, Elaina O'Neill & Phil Earle.
Roddy Doyle packed out the Pavilion Theatre for his event - talking to Fiach Mac Conghail about his new book The Guts while back over in the Kingston Hotel two young Irish writers - Ciaran Collins (The Gamal) and Kevin Maher (The Fields) spoke with Edel Coffey about their debut novels.
The first poetry reading of the day was Michael Longley and Jane Yeh at the Pavilion, a memorable occasion with both poets reading a Seamus Heaney poem alongside their own work.
Patrick Ness came to County Hall to do a second event, this time chatting to our Teen Curators Aaron Williams, Sinéad Gallagher and Olivia Coughlan.
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| Colum McCann and Sean McCann (Photo credit: Angeliique Cheronnet) |
The evening finished with a sold out show in the Pavilion - Sinead Gleeson talked to novelist Colum McCann and his father, acclaimed journalist, Sean McCann.
DAY SIX - SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH
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| Children's choir - The Supertones (Photo credit: Ger Holland) |
At the Kingston Hotel the winner of the dlr Strong/Shine Poetry Award was announced after each of the four nominees read from their work - congratulations to Michelle O'Sullivan who won for her collection 'The Blue End of Stars'. Blake Morrison and Ross Skelton were in the Pavilion speaking about their memoirs with Pat Boran.
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| Michelle O'Sullivan (Photo credit: Mark Granier) |
Over in County Hall at a riotous kids event, the fabulous Supertones sang for us while Stephen James Smith, Grainne Clear, Diana Bunici & David Maybury took turns reading from Roald Dahl's work and battled it out for the ultimate triumph of being declared the winner of The Dahl Factor - take a bow Stephen James Smith!
Family Curator Sarah Webb chatted to Cathy Cassidy about her writing, illustration and inspiration in the Pavilion. Cathy later signed books for two hours for her many fans who came to Dun Laoghaire to see her.
Maurice Riordan and Dutch Poet Laureate Anne Vegter gave a marvellous reading in County Hall while later on in the Maritime Museum Peter Conradi talked to dlr Writer in Residence Katy Hayes about his latest book 'Hot Dogs and Cocktails'.
There was a treat in store for TV fans of Nordic Noir at the Writing for Television event in the Pavilion Theatre. Screenwriters Allan Cubitt, Hans Rosenfledt & Ben Richardson spoke to Rachel O'Flanagan about their work and Hans showed a preview of The Bridge, Season 2.
Later in the Maritime Museum Sara Keating chaired a fiction event with Susan Stairs and Deirdre Madden. Our final event of the festival was Michael Harding in conversation with Tommy Tiernan with a full house in the Pavilion - a tremendous show to end the festival.
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| Michael Harding and Tommy Tiernan (Photo Credit: Ger Holland) |
