children | Marita Conlon-McKenna

Kinsale Town, Cork

I will be heading to one of my favourite places in Cork, the town of Kinsale for its ‘Words by Water Festival’ next weekend. It runs from October 2^nd to the 5^th.

There is a wonderful line up of events and workshops organised over the few days in the most beautiful setting, overlooking the water. Could anything be more perfect, writers, books and lots of lovely words!

I will be talking in the wonderful new library in Kinsale on Saturday 4^th October where hopefully I will get to meet lots of young readers and future writers.

The library was originally an old mill from the 1800’s which has been repurposed into a state of the art library and cultural space. It is always great to see exciting regeneration projects like this rather than the terrible dereliction and decay of old buildings that blight so many of our towns and villages.

Kinsale Library, designed by Cork County Council Architects, Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, 2023 /Photograph Jed Niezgoda – jedniezgoda.com

In Greystones Community School’s amazing woodland inspired Library

‘Children of the Famine’ is Number One, top of the Irish Children’s Best Selling book list.

May and June are always extra busy for me before the summer holidays trying to get around to visit some of the many schools that have been using my books, and meeting my young readers and some very creative aspiring writers, before I go on holidays.

In the past few weeks I have visited wonderful schools in Ballymun, Castleknock, Foxrock and finished up in Greystones Community Primary School in Wicklow.

This is a pretty new school and I got a wonderful welcome when I talked to a big gang of brilliant readers in their amazing woodland inspired library. I was surrounded by deers and foxes and to my mind what looked like two beautiful hawthorn trees.

A few classes there are also reading my book, ‘Safe Harbour’ which I set in Greystones, as it is one of my all- time favourite places.

I was so happy to see the beautiful Kenny’s Edition of ‘Children of the Famine’, which combines the three books ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ , ‘Wildflower Girl ‘and ‘Fields of Home,’ went straight to number one and top of Ireland’s Children’s Best Selling list. Hard to believe that it is exactly 35 years ago since my first book, ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ was published.