October Festivals!

Posted on 20/10/2016 by fionaconlonmckenna

Trinity Lit Society Award 2016 with Ruth Atkins

It’s October and it’s book festival time!

Rebel Sisters has just come out in paperback and it is such a privilege to have so many book clubs reading the book. Also, it’s great to hear that so many of you are going on to research and discover more about 1916. I love it when people come up and share their own 1916 family stories with me, as I do events around the country.

Huge thanks to the Trinity Literary Society for their lovely award which I was very honoured to receive. Talking about books and writing in Dublin’s beautiful old college always reminds me of the writers that have crossed its cobble stoned squares over the years.

Marita with Lia Mills and Sinead Moriarty

Then it was up to my old school, Mount Anville, for a very special Authors’ Night with Lia Mills and Sinead Moriarty. We are all past pupils and it was fun remembering our school days and our first forays into writing with a big group of book lovers.

Then down to North Tipperary to the Drumineer Arts Festival. What a lovely event,held in Nenagh Castle – that has been restored! Talking history in the Round Room of the Castle was very special and having harpist Laura O’Sullivan to play certainly added to the atmosphere.

Marita in Nenagh Castle with Margaret Kennedy and Laura O’Sullivan

Then it was the Red Line Festival in Tallaght where I was delighted to join writer Dermot Bolger on stage in the Civic Theatre in Tallaght for their Readers’ Day. On Sunday, Dermot and I took part in a recording of RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany in the Civic Theatre.

Now I’m packing my bags again to go to Cork for this year’s Children’s Book Festival where I will get to meet and talk to lots of young fans…

London Calling

Posted on 11/09/2016 by fionaconlonmckenna

Emily Hayward-Whitlock, Marita and Caroline Sheldon

Just back from a busy few days in London, with a special Champagne celebration lunch with my editor Francesca and agent, Caroline Sheldon, to mark the success of Rebel Sisters and its upcoming paperback edition in October.

I barely had time to get back to my hotel and change for the big party held at The Art Workers’ Guild on Queen’s Square to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency.

What a fantastic night! The old portrait lined hall was thronged with authors and illustrators, editors and publishers, all delighted to congratulate Caroline on her hard work and achievements over the years, looking after so many of us writers and illustrators. Caroline knows the book industry inside out and it is lovely to know that you have her there to support and encourage you.

All around the room, Caroline and fellow agent Felicity had on display some of the wonderful books that they have worked on. It was a very special night with great food, wine, chat and lots of fun at what was one of London’s publishing parties of the year!

Shadowed Women Art Exhibition

Posted on 06/08/2016 by fionaconlonmckenna

IMG-20160729-WA0001 It was an honour to open talented textile artist Ciara Harrison’s Exhibition ‘Shadowed Women’ in Limerick’s Hunt Museum. Ciara’s portraits of the seven widows of the 1916 Easter Rising have an ethereal and almost ghostly quality.

Her charcoal drawings and embroidered layers in black cotton organdie, although seeming fragile, give a unique perspective to these often forgotten women. The portraits include sisters Grace and Muriel Gifford, Maud Gonne, Kathleen Clark, Agnes Mallin, Aine Ceannt, and Lily Connolly.

IMG-20160729-WA0002 ‘Shadowed Women’ was commissioned by The Little Museum of Dublin and is on view at The Hunt Museum until the end of August. Downstairs in The Hunt Museum, artist Robert Ballagh’s 1916 Centennial Reflection Exhibition ‘A Terrible Beauty’ is also on show until 28th August 2016.

Both exhibitions are well worth a visit over the summer in this wonderful museum!

From Limerick, I travelled down to the Ardmore Pattern Festival in Waterford, which this year is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. The sun was shining and huge crowds turned out for the week of varied events.

Saturday morning started with a big gang of young readers coming along to meet me at the school, with their books, ideas and questions.

Later on the venue was the 300 year old St Paul’s Church, which was the perfect setting to discuss and talk about history, 1916 and my book Rebel Sisters to a wonderful group of history enthusiasts and book lovers.

Books and Bealtaine Festival

Posted on 23/05/2016 by fionaconlonmckenna

I am having one of these madly busy weeks. Just got back from talking down in Scoil Mhuire in Abbeyside, Waterford and headed to The Ark in Temple Bar to take part in the Bealtaine Festival at an event with Sarah Webb and Cormac Kinsella. Lots of lovely book talk!

On Tuesday night it was off to Hodges Figgis for the launch of Sam Blake aka Vanessa O’Loughlin’s new crime thriller book Little Bones. It is set in Ireland and I’m sure will be a big success. Vanessa has done so much to inspire and help other people get into print, so now it is her turn to write a best seller. Met lots of lovely ladies who just happen to be crime writers too, so be prepared – there will be lots of fictional murders heading your way!!!

Finally I am delighted to hear the very good news that my friend the illustrator PJ Lynch is the new Children’s Laureate 2016.

Signatories – a great 1916 drama

Posted on 28/04/2016 by fionaconlonmckenna

I saw Signatories at the Pavilion Theatre last night and really enjoyed and was moved by this rich, multi layered dramatic reflection on the lives of the seven signatories of the Irish Proclamation and Elizabeth O’Farrell, the young nurse charged with bringing the surrender order from garrison to garrison.

The series of eight ten minute monologues was commissioned by UCD as part of its Decade of Centenaries Programme. Directed by Patrick Mason with writers Frank McGuinness, Emma Donoghue, Thomas Kilroy, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Marina Carr, Joseph O’Connor, Rachel Fehily and Hugo Hamilton each writing about one of the signatories.

Emma Donoghue’s piece on an aging Elizabeth O’Farrell – played by Barbara Brennan – recalling the surrender, waving her white flag as she moved from place to place was a strong and most memorable opening to this dramatic and emotive piece of theatre. It was first staged in Kilmainham Jail over three nights and now will be staged in a few more places including the National Concert Hall and the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, a hundred years after the men faced their executions in Kilmainham.

Watching and listening to the last hours and words and thoughts of some of the signatories as they waited in their cells to be executed, certainly brought the humanity and tragedy of the 1916 Rising to life.

The bravery and courage of Padraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, Tom Clark, Sean MacDiarmada, James Connolly and Eamonn Ceannt, and their belief in a free Ireland certainly deserves to be remembered by some of Ireland’s finest writers.

Book a ticket as soon as you can and hope that Signatories will transfer in time to a theatre near you.