Literary Enthusiasts Book In For Ennis Festival

Arts and Entertainment - Books

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 19:02

Written by Mark Dunphy

An estimated 3,000 literary enthusiasts and some of Ireland and the UK’s best known writers descended on Ennis for the 2010 Ennis Book Club Festival at the weekend.

Supported by Clare County Library, the three-day programme of events attracted Book Club members and book lovers from all over Europe and North America. The Festival programme featured author visits, readings, lectures and workshops, exhibitions, walking history tours, musical entertainment and chocolate tasting in various venues around Ennis. It also included Ireland’s first ‘Book Club of the Year Award’ and a professional development workshop for library staff.

Among the contributors to the fourth annual festival were Lionel Shriver, prolific journalist and Orange Prize-winning author of ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ and ‘The Post-Birthday World’; Joseph O’Connor, journalist, screenwriter and author of ten Irish number one bestsellers including ‘Star Of The Sea’, ‘Cowboys and Indians’, ‘Desperadoes’, ‘The Salesman’ and ‘Inishowen’; Tim Pat Coogan, biographer, historian, journalist and writer of “Michael Collins” and ‘Ireland in the Twentieth Century’; Diarmaid

Ferriter, author, historian, and university lecturer; Paul Howard, journalist, author and creator of the cult character Ross O'Carroll-Kelly; and Fiona Looney, columnist, playwright, scriptwriter and media personality.

Other participants included multi-award winning poet, Paul Durcan; Irish historian, crime novelist, journalist and broadcaster, Ruth Dudley Edwards; Irish author of ‘Tenderwire’, Claire Kilroy; US essayist, poet, short stories writer, funeral director and winner of the American Book Award and The Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, David McWilliams, Economist, Broadcaster and Journalist and author of “The Pope’s Children” and “Follow the Money: The Tale of the Merchant of Ennis”; Joe Duffy, Presenter of RTE Radio One’s popular daytime show ‘Liveline’; Thomas Lynch; historian and author of 1916 Rising novel ‘Blood Upon the Rose', Gerry Hunt; American poet Knute Skinner, Irish journalist, columnist and politician, Senator Eoghan Harris; poetry group Clare Three-Legged Stool Poets; editor of Irish magazine ‘Rí-Rá’, Aidan Courtney; Ennis-based graphic novel analyst David O’Leary; and journalist, broadcaster, author and founder of Grow-It-Yourself Ireland, Michael Kelly.

Academic contributors to the festival included Dr. Paul Delaney, School of English at Trinity College, who will lead a discussion on popular writer Colm Tóibín's work; Alan Titley, author, playwright, poet and Professor of Modern Irish and Head of Department at University College Cork; and Niall MacMonagle, reviewer, editor and English teacher at Dublin’s Wesley College, who will present a workshop entitled ‘How to Read a Novel’.