Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival

This opening event brings together lyricism and music from Helen Hutchinson, Linda McKenna, Michael Dooley and Bríd Kenny.

Diarmaid Ferriter’s new book The Revelation of Ireland demonstrates how we live in a very different country now to the one it was in the mid-1990s. Dramatic economic, social and cultural changes, including the Celtic Tiger boom and increasingly secular debate about abortion, the status of women and same-sex marriage underlined the scale of the transformation.

In this event 3 brilliant contemporary Irish writers will discuss their recent debut novels.

To mark his 70th birthday, Michael Harding took a holiday in Spain, walking a short part of the Camino de Santiago in the early summer of 2024. But as he set off on this pilgrimage, Harding wasn’t alone. Accompanying him was his father, who passed away when Michael was just twenty-two. A man who was distant and aloof, but who had a profound effect on the writer’s life. In his new memoir, Harding travels back in time to the Ireland of his youth, to the Holy Wells and pubs he visited in a search for a sense of connection and he begins to unpack the long ago trauma of losing a father he never really knew

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” – Rachel Carson, Silent Spring Poet Jane Clarke will lead a workshop exploring how poetry helps us fine-tune our senses and pay attention to the wonders and realities of our threatened world.

Fred & Alice is a quirky love story about 2 amazing mischievous characters who meet in a home. It wasn’t really a home but Fred always called it a home because that was where he lived, and if you are not living at home then where are you? It was love at first sight for Alice. Fred didn’t talk to her again for years but then eventually Fred got used to her and it was love at first sight for him too.

Mark Moriarty has been an inspiration to many home cooks with his books, TV shows and Irish Times Columns. Denis Cotter has been at the avant garde of vegetarian and seasonal cooking since he opened his acclaimed Cork restaurant PARADISO in 1993. In this event both chefs will discuss food, recipes, the best way to eat and their latest books with Peter Ward of Nenagh's Country Choice.

A stunning, lyrical novel told in twenty-one voices Donal Ryan's Heart Be at Peace is a stunning, standalone literary novel in its own right, and a sequel to Donal Ryan's multi-award-winning bestseller, The Spinning Heart. Donal Ryan will be in conversation with writer and radio producer Paula Shields. The event will open with a reading by Geraldine Mitchell from her latest book Naming Love.

This event brings together nature writer Eoghan Daltun and poet Jane Clarke to explore the connecting themes of restoration and hope in their work.

The sea has always been a part of Nuala Moore’s life: her earliest memory is of jumping off her father’s fishing boat in Dingle Harbour and swimming back to shore. Since then, she’s swum in some of the coldest, most remote and dangerous waters in the world, from the Bering Strait to the Drake Passage. After years of marathon swimming, Nuala struggled to balance sacrifice and achievement. Her work–life balance, coupled with caring for her father, forced a change in her pathway. She turned to ice swimming. For Nuala, these extreme situations offered freedom and a chance to find her true north. This special talk will be on board the Ku-Ee-Tu. Nuala will be in conversation with Nathan O'Donnell a Nenagh native and author of The Book of Invasions an exploration of swimming in Lough Derg.