New voices and classic stories at the Iron Mountain Festival

New voices, classic stories, the weave of straw and hay, urban renewal and the challenges facing migrant populations are some of the features and themes of this year’s Iron Mountain Literature Festival running from Friday October 7-9.

The festival continues to draw much of its motivation from the works and legacy of John McGahern, an approach that has allowed for a wide-ranging literary event combining panels, talks, readings, and field trips that look to ideas central to and arising from an exploration of place, home, and identity and the role of literature in shaping an understanding of history and human experience.

This festival welcomes Australian author, poet, rapper and visual artist Omar Musa. A Bornean-Australian with ancestral lineage with Duffs and Dunnes of Co Tipperary and Down, he talks with Vincent Woods on Saturday, October 8.
Achieving ground breaking success as a rapper, poet, author, visual artist and more, Omar Musa defies categorisation as he moves seamlessly between artforms with the release of four poetry books, four hip-hop records and a standing ovation at TEDx Sydney at the Sydney Opera House.
His debut novel ‘Here Come the Dogs’ was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Miles Franklin Award and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.

The festival is honoured to have Sally Hayden, award-winning journalist and photographer currently focused on migration, conflict and humanitarian crises.
Her first book ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’, published in March and winner of this year’s Orwell Prize for Political Writing, is a staggering account of the migrant crisis across North Africa and a ground-breaking work of investigative journalism.

Sally will read from the book and discuss her work as a journalist in East Africa as part of this year’s Iron Mountain Literature Festival, where she will be joined by Leitrim-based writer and human rights activist Donal O’Kelly.
Donal has been dealing with migration and asylum for decades in his writing, such as in his 1994 play “Asylum! Asylum!” which looked at the plight of a Ugandan refugee who arrives in Ireland without a visa, his 1998 music-theatre piece “Farawayan,” which dealt with the experience of being vulnerable far away from home, and his long poem-with-music, “Direct Provision,” about the treatment of asylum-seekers.

Author Brian Leyden, sean nós singer Fionnuala Maxwell and piper John Touhy present the premiere of new work on the theme of journey commissioned by the Iron Mountain Festival as part of the Leitrim Live Performance Scheme on Friday, October 7.
On Saturday, October 8 Anne O'Dowd will discuss her research that led to her book 'Straw, Hay & Rushes in Irish Folk Tradition' with Vincent Woods, following Edwina Guckian about her work, inspired by Anne's research.

Day 3 sees the festival go off site for Rynn’s Pub, Ballinagleara at the foot of Sliabh an Iarainn (Iron Mountain) to join with the Ballinagleara Traditional Music Festival for the Iron Mountain Session.
There’s so much more with Architect Valerie Mulvin, Poet Moya Cannon, novelists Austin Duffy, Eoin McNamee, and Bernard MacLaverty, writer Louise Kennedy, actor Barry McGovern and singer songwriter Lisa O’Neill.
www.ironmountainfestival.ie