The Fourth Annual Dromineer Literary Festival will take place over the last weekend in September, Friday 28th~Sunday 30th 2007.
Friday September 28th: Festival Launch
The winners of the competitions will be announced and works read to the audience. Competition rules and entry details will be available on our website.
Eminent artist Judy Hamilton will present an exhibition of paintings 'A Great Light Begins', interpreting a range of poems from Virgil to Jane Hirschfield. The visual aspect of the Literary Festival has become a celebrated feature of the weekend. Judy’s work will be on show in the exhibition area of Lough Derg Yacht Club especially created for the Literary Festival.
The adult poetry competition will be judged by Poet and Publisher Pat Boran, who will also host a poetry writing workshop for adults on Saturday September 29thth at Lough Derg Yacht Club.
The adult Short Short Story competition will be judged by Writer Vincent McDonnell, who will also host a short story writing workshop for adults on Saturday September 29th in Dromineer.
Children’s author Mary Arrigan, hugely popular with our audience young and old, has agreed to judge the children’s poetry competition again this year and will hold writing and reading workshops on Saturday September 29th at Lough Derg Yacht Club.
Saturday September 29th
Adult Short Story and Poetry workshops and Children’s’ Workshops will take place during Saturday morning and afternoon.
Our Meet the Authors session on Saturday nightwill feature Andrew Nugent OSB, of Glenstal Abbey and Nenagh Author Julian Gough. Andrew Nugent has recently published Second Burial, a thriller set in the Nigerian immigrant community. Julian Gough has recently won the UK National Short Story Prize for his story The Orphan and the Mob. The audience is invited to read these works in advance so that they can join in open discussion with the authors.
Sunday September 30th
Tul Toinne and the Deluge. Aboard the 'Spirit of Killaloe' on the waters of Youghal Bay , Professor Daithi O hOgain of the Folklore Department of UCD will tell of the legendary survival of Fionntan mac Bochna in the hill of Tounthinna. Moderator: Daniel Grace.
To close the festival an event entitled North Tipperary’s Favourite Poems will be held at Lough Derg Yacht Club. Avid readers of poetry and prose, the people of North Tipperary will be invited to identify their favourite poem and the poems most named will be read to an audience at a candlelight reception at Lough Derg Yacht Club. Reader: Daniel Costello. Music by Ama Deus.
Comments from artists who attended the festival
The Dromineer Literary Festival is a model of its kind; professional, welcoming and properly ambitious. May it strive and prosper!". Theo Dorgan
"It was a real pleasure to be associated with the Dromineer Literary festival. It was organised not just with efficiency, but even more importantly, with energy and enthusiasm. Its use of emerging writers' work was a challenge but very successfully delivered. I very much enjoyed reading poems from my collections at the festival." Michael D. Higgins
"Congratulations! I won't forget having been involved this year... It was a really lovely experience, very memorable, am sure it'll percolate into a Dromineer poem before too long!" Yvonne Cullen
"I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was very happy to be involved. You'll go from strength to strength." Mary Arrigan
"Intimate, immediate and local, all in the best possible senses, The
Dromieer Litertary Festical was a joy to attend." Dermot Bolger
"I found Dromineer to be a warm and welcoming festival, full of people who love the written word. It was a place to meet poets and novelists and enjoy the banter. The Dromineer literary festival is, in every sense, in the heart of Ireland. Long may it run." Tony Curtis