Granard Booktown Festival to bring renowned authors to Longford

Granard Booktown Festival is back for another year and with it a stellar line up of household names and writers from around the world will be coming to Granard in County Longford from April 16 to 19.

Co-Director Granard Booktown Festival John Connell explained, “This year the festival will have the smash hit comedian Jarlath Regan joining us as our Friday headliner in conversation with Aoife Barry, award winner Sebastian Barry in conversation with Bryan Dobson as our Saturday headliner and we close the festival with former state pathologist turned crime writer Dr Marie Cassidy in conversation with renowned journalist Paul Williams.”

The town of Granard will once again come alive with books from Thursday, April 16 to Sunday, April 19.

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John added, “This year we will be offering for the first time writing workshops over the weekend with poet Stephen Sexton on poetry, journalist and author Aoife Barry on non fiction and Claire Keegan on creative writing.”

The festival will also host a special screening of ‘That they may face the rising sun’, the film adaptation of the wonderful John McGahern book by Pat Collins. John remarked, “Belinda McKeon will also be in conversation with Pat about the film. We will also remember John McGahern’s legacy in a special panel over the weekend.”

The festival will also remember two former festival guests Manchan Magan and Conor Gearty over the weekend with special events.

Other events include RTE’s Miriam O Callaghan on her bestselling book, journalist Gavan Reilly on the secret life of Leinster house, smash hit writer Aisling Rawle (The Compound), and author of the hit book on rapper Tupac Shakur, Dean Van Nguyen.

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John outlined that Granard Booktown Festival is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), ensuring the festival is welcoming and accessible for everyone. 

He explained, “Accessibility is led by our dedicated Accessibility Officer, James Cawley, a disability advocate with extensive expertise in accessibility and EDI. We are delighted to say that: All festival venues are wheelchair accessible with accessible bathrooms, Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpretation is provided at every event, and a Sensory Quiet Room is available throughout the festival.

"To further showcase our commitment to equity this year we have introduced a complimentary ticket for those who require support to attend the festival such as a personal assistant.”

John also pointed out, “In another first we are also launching day tickets for the festival so you can buy a ticket to enjoy many events. There is a limited number of day tickets but we will announce more details on this very soon.”

Tickets are now on sale and book early to avoid missing out. More info on the programme can be found on the Granard Booktown Festival website granardbooktownfestival.ie