Imagining the world in Kells .....
The fourth Hay Festival Kells opens today in the north Meath heritage town.
There will something for everyone at Kells this year, John Bruton will join Ken Murray in a wide raging discussion about international politics. Eamon Gilmore will reflect on his years in the Dail while Mary Black will entertain as only she can do. There will be Antiquarian Book auctions,walking tours of Kells and Headfort Demesne, along with walks to the megalithic cairns of Loughcrew and the Girley Bog while the less active can enjoy afternoon tea in the Headfort Arms Hotel. The irrepressible Frances Brennan may call into the famous hotel with a few tips while he is in town. This year Kells is particularly honoured to be welcoming the new Children’s Laureate PJ Lynch who will talking with the first ever Children’s Laureate Siobhan Parkinson in a very special Laureate-filled event.
At the centre of all these activities will be a celebration of books and once again the picturesque Meath town will welcome some of the best know names in contemporary literature. Joining the British writer Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette, The Buddha of Suburbia, Love and Hate) will be Patrick McCabe (The Butcher Boy), Kevin Barry (Beatlebone), Lisa McInerney (The Glorious Heresies), Jax Miller (Freedom’s Child), Liz Nugent (Unravelling Oliver), Oona Frawley (Flight), Vanessa Ronan (The Last Days of Summer). Sinead Gleeson will host a workshop based on her compilation of Irish women’s writing The Long Gaze Back.
Playing with the notion that the Book of Kells was the first graphic novel, Irish Times journalist Karlin Lillington and comic-book writer Maura McHugh have curated.
The Image, a series of talks and workshops by Rhianna Pratchett (Tomb Raider), Michael Carroll (Judge Dredd), Paul Bolger, Maeve Clancy, Allan Cavanagh, Damien Marshall, and Maura McHugh.
The festival will mark the 25th anniversary of the first entry in Zlata’s Diary of the Bosnian Civil War with a visit from the author Zlata Filipovic. Roisin Ingle will discuss her hugelypopular Irish Times column and Paul Kimmage will discuss cycling and the topical issue of drugs in sport.
Returning to Hay Festival Kells will be US dramatist Matthew Spangler (The Kite Runner, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). Chelsea Flower Show winner Mary Reynolds will examine our use of land through sustainable, natural agriculture and gardening.
History
The centenary of the Somme will be marked by lectures from Brian Ervine and Myles Dungan. Prof Ronan Fanning will discuss Eamon de Valera, and Tony Bucher from San Francisco will look at some of the Irishmen who helped to shape the city. The Easter Rising will be discussed by Catriona Crowe, Padraig Yeates, Sinead McCoole, Joe Duffy (Children of the Rising) and GeneKerrigan (The Scrap).
Dick Farrelly Centenary
Kells native Dick Farrelly wrote The Isle of Innisfree, heard first in John Ford’s classic The Quiet Man. Farrelly’s contribution to contemporary culture will be discussed by his son Gerard, there will be performances of his work by Gerard and his partner Sinead Stone, a talk by Des McHale and a screening of The Quiet Man.
During the festival (23rd-26th June 2016 ) the children of Kells Parochial National School will be joined by their friendsfrom the Connor National School in County Antrim. Together the children have developed projects for an exhibition to commemorate the Battle of the Somme which devastated communities both North and South of the border. This project was assisted by the the Reconciliation Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Listings and online ticket bookings are available at hayfestival.org/kells