The Great Hunger | Marita Conlon-McKenna

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On stage with the cast- Maeve, Adam, Frankie, Julia, Conor, Colette and Philippa

What a great few weeks it has been as Cahoots wonderful stage production of ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ returned to the Mac Theatre in Belfast for a sold out run, before travelling to a wide variety of theaters across Ireland.

The stage play was adapted from my book by the great Charles Way and is blessed with an amazing talented cast and was directed by the incredible Paul Bosco McEneany with Garth McConaghies’s haunting, original music.

I couldn’t help but be blown away at seeing the reaction of audiences both young and old as I attended just a few of the shows in Cork Opera House and Wexford Opera House and The Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire.

It is really sad to say a final goodbye to all the cast and crew as the show ends its month long sell-out tour in The Market Place Theatre in Armagh. Thank you so much to everyone for all your hard work bringing ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ to life and staging it in such a magical and memorable way

Charles Way, Marita and Paul Mc Eneaney, With some fans at the National Opera House . The Cahoots cast and crew of ‘Under the Hawthorn tree 2020.

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Pat Donlon, Marita and Fiona Murphy of Transworld Ireland

Exciting times with the launch of my new book The Hungry Road at Eason’s book shop in Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre in Dublin on Thursday. It was great to see so many friends and family brave the elements to come along to celebrate with me on this very special night. My agent, Caroline Sheldon came all the way from London to cheer me on.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my wonderful publisher Fiona Murphy of Transworld Ireland who encouraged me every step of the way with this epic novel about The Great Hunger. My friend Pat Donlon, former director of The National Library of Ireland kindly agreed to launch ‘The Hungry Road’ for me. I felt it was serendipity as she has played such a big part in my writing career and was the one who launched my first book ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’.

Thank you to Eason’s who looked after the large crowd really well. They have always been so kind and so supportive to me over all my years of writing and publishing.

The launch party continued as the merry crew made our way to Davy Byrne’s to mark the occasion of the publication of The Hungry Road. A heartfelt thanks to everyone for helping to make it such a memorable book launch.