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PHOTOS – Limerick Literary Festival 2018 bridges the gap between authors and readers

Pictured at the launch of the Limerick Literary Festival 2018 at O Mahonys Booksellers on O Connell Street was Valerie Dolan, Dolans Pub, Carlan Wood, Limerick, Jennifer Moroney Ward, Limerick and Tara Robinson, Limerick. Picture: Oisin McHugh True Media.

Limerick Literary Festival 2018 to bridge the gap between authors and readers

The Limerick Literary Festival 2018 in honour of Kate O’Brien will take place Thursday, February 22 until Sunday, February 25, 2018, for the thirty-fourth annual edition. The event continues to honour the life and works of the Limerick author, whilst attracting prominent participants from all over the world.  It continues to provide a platform where readers can meet their favourite authors and other readers. This year’s theme is ‘Bridging the Gap’.

Limerick Literary Festival 2018

Pictured at the launch of the Limerick Literary Festival at O Mahonys Booksellers on O Connell Street was Willow Byrne, Ballinacurra. Picture: Oisin McHugh True Media


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The official opening of the Limerick Literary Festival will take place at the Limerick City Gallery of Art on Friday, February 23 at 6 pm and will be launched by Billy Keane, followed by As Music and Splendour recital with Mezzo-Soprano Martha O’Brien.

On Saturday, February 24, Deirdre Sullivan, Kit de Waal, Fergal Keane, Kevin Barry, Lisa McInerney and John MacKenna will also present a series of talks and readings about their work at the city gallery.

Blindboy Boatclub from The Rubberbandits will also be contributing to the festival and Dolans will be hosting an event called ‘The Revolution will not be Spotified’ as a part of the festival. This event will be held on Saturday, February 24 at 7.30 pm.

Returning events to the festival include Desert Island books which will take place in The Belltable on Sunday, February 25 at 12 pm where Pat Shortt, Roisín Meaney, and Lisa Harding will discuss their three favourite books that they would take to a desert island.

This will be followed by the Kate O’ Brien Lecture, which will commence at 2 pm in The Belltable.

New events at the festival this year include an evening with Stanzas at Chez Le Fab on Thursday, February 22, a graphic novel event at Ormston House as well as workshops from writers Sarah Moore, Dan Mooney and Donal Ryan at Narrative Four.

Kate O’Brien, a world-renowned novelist and playwright, was born in Limerick in 1897. Her novels were some of the earliest examples of Irish literature to feature homosexual themes, which ultimately lead to them being banned on release under the Irish Free State’s censorship laws.

Her first novel, Without My Cloak (1931), is a chronicle of middle-class Irish life. Its theme would be constant throughout her novels, namely the struggle (particularly the struggle of Irish women) for individual freedom and love against the constricting demands of family, bourgeois society and Catholic religion. The Ante-Room (1934), Mary Lavelle (1936), Pray for the Wanderer (1938), The Land of Spices (1941), The Last of Summer (1943), O’Brien’s most successful novel was That Lady (1946), set in sixteenth-century Spain.

More information on the Limerick Literary Festival 2018 can be found at 085-1207416

or www.limerickliteraryfestival.com.

For more stories on the previous Limerick Literary Festivals click here

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.