An exciting new programme has been announced for the Red Line Book Festival on October 16th – 22nd with over 40 events in fascinating performance venues including the Civic Theatre, Tallaght Stadium, Rathfarnham Castle, Pearse Museum, the Coach House, Palmerstown and Brú Chrónáin-Round Tower Visitor Centre Clondalkin with a variety of local cultural and historical offerings. The Red Line Book Festival is produced by South Dublin Libraries and Arts at South Dublin County Council offering a programme of events and workshops that appeals to people of all ages and interests, from children to adults, casual readers to bookworms.
This year, The Red Line Book Festival will present events in six different strands including ‘Family’, ‘Fiction & Poetry’, ‘Performance’, ‘Crime & Horror’,’Lifestyle’ and ‘History’. The festival programme is once again packed with wonderful authors and personalities such as John Banville, Gerry Creighton, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, C Pam Zhang and Andrea Mara to name but a few. We also look forward to meeting crime journalist and podcaster Nicola Tallant and authors Nick Foster, Sharon Lawless and Maresa Fagan in what is sure to be an intriguing insight into unsolved murders in Ireland.
A highlight of this year’s festival programme is a special conference on the Decade of Centenaries, hosted by historian, author and presenter Turtle Bunbury. This will include a talk from David McCullagh on Éamon de Valera’s 1923 while historian Liz Gillis will share “The Story of Noel Lemass: His Life and Death” and she’ll also be in conversation with Niall Quinn about the story of footballer, rebel and politician, Oscar Traynor. Flor McCarthy will tell the deeply personal story of her family’s links on both sides of the War of Independence and Caitriona Crowe will round off the conference with “The Decade of Centenaries: a retrospect”.
Literary and theatrical events feature heavily throughout the festival with selected highlights including John Banville discussing his life and work with author Dermot Bolger, “Aisling Ever After” authors Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen chatting with Muireann O’Connell about their best-selling series, true crime podcaster and journalist Nicola Tallant exploring some of Ireland’s unsolved murders with authors Nick Foster, Sharon Lawless and Maresa Fagan. Also included are a range of events and shows such as “Roald Dahl and the Imagination Seekers”, a family fun day at the Cultural Quarter in Tallaght, writing workshops, and “The Art of Collaboration”, which will close this year’s festival.
Other highlights include Francis Brennan, who will be talking about growing old gracefully and local Tallaght author Jennifer Carroll who will be talking to about her new book Jen’s Journey. The Writer in Residence programme: The Queenship Cypher explores the art of lyrical storytelling and the programme aims to attract aspiring female MCs, producers, dancers, and visual artists with the aim of fostering career expansion and artistic development. See www.redlinefestival.ie for the full programme of events taking place across all venues.
(L to R) JJ Doyle (10) from South Dublin, Gerry Creighton author of ‘My life with Elephants and other animals’ and star of The Zoo TV Show and Ciara Coleman, age 10 from Knocklyon pictured at The Red Line Book Festival launch at Brú Chrónáin-Round Tower Visitor Centre in Clondalkin.
