Carrick-on-Suir's Brewery Lane Writers' Weekend celebrates its 10th anniversary

Creative writing enthusiasts gathered in Carrick-on-Suir last weekend for Brewery Lane Writers’ Weekend, which marked its 10th anniversary.
Brewery Lane Theatre was the venue for the intensive three- day academy for 12 aspiring scribes that ran from last Friday, (April 14) morning to last Sunday afternoon.
The Writers’ Weekend workshops and tutorials were facilitated by award winning eco-poet and environmental writer Grace Wells and ecological artist and educator Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, who founded Haumea Ecoversity, which runs courses on ecological literacy for creative people.
Group workshops took place in Brewery Lane Theatre in the morning while the Tudor Artisan Hub a short distance away hosted the afternoon one-to-one tutorials.
A highlight of the weekend was a special Poetry Plus session at Brewery Lane Theatre’s tearooms last Friday night.
Poetry Plus is a monthly event, organised by Brewery Lane Writers’ Weekend founder Margaret O’Brien, where writers come to read their work or recite the prose and poetry of other writers.
Margaret reported that a larger than expected number of people took part in the open-mic event thanks to a welcome visit from seven members of a new writers’ group in Cahir who joined the Writers’ Weekend participants in reading excerpts from their work.
Margaret founded Brewery Lane Writers’ Weekend in 2013 and based its writing workshops on the Arvon Foundation model in the UK. The Carrick-on-Suir woman is a writer, creative writing facilitator and tutor. She is affiliated to Amherst Writers & Artists, a non-profit international arts organisation that believes writing as an art form belongs to everyone.
The novelist and poet Nuala Ní Conchúir was the guest writer at the first Brewery Lane Writers’ Weekend. Lia Mills, Jessica Traynor and Catherine Dunne are among the other writers to share their expertise and guidance to budding writers in the intervening years.
The Writers’ Weekend, like many cultural events, took a two year break during the Covid pandemic, but made a welcome return last year. And Margaret was very proud to celebrate its 10th anniversary last weekend.
She believes Brewery Lane Writers’ Weekend is an important focus of learning for creative writers living outside the country’s major cities.
“When you are living in a country town you have a very limited opportunity to meet with people who are also interested in writing, poetry and literature.
“The response among the group of writers when we finished on Sunday was that they felt something amazing had happened over the weekend in this little theatre, which is in the centre of town but is also quite private.
“You feel you are just away from everything, giving yourself time to looking after your creative side away from the busyness of everyday life.”
Margaret thanked the people behind Brewery Lane Theatre for making their lovely, intimate venue available to the Writers’ Weekend over the past 10 years, Linda Fahey for facilitating the tutorials at the Tudor Artisan Hub and Tipperary County Council’s Arts Office for its support.

Pictured below: Brewery Lane Writers’ Weekend founder and organiser Margaret O’Brien with members of the new Cahir Writers Group who attended the Poetry Plus session at Brewery Lane Theatre last Friday. From left: Margaret O’Brien, Anne Marie Clifford, Maureen Ryan, Teresa O’Donoghue, Eileen McCarthy, Isobel De Barra, Caroline Grace and Patricia Corbett.