A Taste of McGahern's Leitrim in Ballinamore

John McGahern's works will be celebrated in a new event to be held in Ballinamore this weekend.
A Taste of McGahern’s Leitrim will include a day of free public talks on Thursday, May 10 in Ballinamore Library and a tour of McGahern's Leitrim on Friday, May 11.

The event is organised by post-graduate researchers at the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies (NCFIS) in Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT) and explores the Wild Rose County as immortalised in McGahern’s work.
As well as papers presented by early-career academics from NUI Galway, UCC and NCFIS, there will be keynote presentations from Dr Máire Doyle (12pm) and Dr Derek Hand (4pm), two leading voices on the writings of McGahern and the Irish novel respectively.

These free talks will run from 10am–5pm, followed by a complimentary Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin & Poacher’s Tonic reception at 5pm courtesy of The Shed Distillery based in The Food Hub, Drumshanbo.
The event will conclude with a dramatised reading at 5.30pm of Máire Doyle's stage adaptation of McGahern’s short story ‘A Slip Up’.

The event on Thursday 10th is free to the public to attend, with no booking necessary.
There are also limited spaces available to the public on the morning of Friday, May 11 for a McGahern-themed tour of the area, which will explore the stunning landscape of Roscommon/Leitrim and take in places of relevance to McGahern’s writings on the locality, to include Aughawillan, Cootehall and Glenview Folk Museum.

To book your place on the bus which departs Ballinamore Library at 9am email: emily.smith7793@gmail.com.
For more information including full programme details, see www.it-tallaght.ie/ncfis-news or contact Mary Bohan at Ballinamore Library at ballinamorelibrary@leitrimcoco.ie or on (071) 964 5566.