I had a wonderful time in lovely Ennis talking at the Ennis Book Club Festival about Rebel Sisters and my writing. Lots of teachers, librarians and history students came along. The Ennis Book Club Festival’s varied programme was really excellent, with something to appeal to everyone.
I wish that I could have stayed longer but I had to rush back up home to Dublin on the train as I was talking at the Readers’ Day in Airfield in Dundrum, which is part of the Mountains to Sea Festival.
Airfield is one of my favourite places and was a wonderful setting for the Readers’ Day with the beautiful backdrop of the estate and gardens. Once home to the Overend sisters, it is now enjoyed and visited by so many people. It was lovely to listen to my friends Sinead Moriarty and Sheila O’Flanagan talk about their writing before I joined the crowd for lunch.
It was great to meet and talk to fellow 1916 enthusiast and writer David Kenny whose own book The Splendid Years about his great-aunt Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh, the Abbey actress, has just been published. The two of us could have stayed all afternoon talking about 1916. It is very heartening to see such a huge interest in the lives of the women of 1916.
This Sunday, March 13th at 4.00pm the fun continues in the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire for The Great Big Family Book Show as I join Eoin Colfer, Ryan Tubridy, Judy Curtin and Philip Ardagh to talk about our favourite children’s books!
Thank you so much to programme organisers Bert Wright and Sarah Webb from the Mountains to Sea DLR Book Festival for organising it all.
Marita Conlon-McKenna 