Inspirational poetry and prose from the Red Line Book Festival

Poetry night is always a highlight of the Red Line Book Festival and this year the event took place on Wednesday of last week at Clondalkin Library.

The Red Line Poetry Competition Judge Annemarie Ní Churreáin began the evening with a fascinating discussion with Amy Abdullah Barry, Breda Wall Ryan and Peter Sirr about their work. This was followed by the announcement of the winners of the 2023 Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition.

First place went to Derval Tubridy from Bandon in Cork for her poem ‘Alana Burke’.

Second place went to Martin Meyler from Dublin for ‘No other God before me’ and third place went to Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha for ‘Scrúdú’.

This was an incredible achievement as almost 300 poems were entered this year of an exceptionally high standard.

Over 40 events in county libraries and exciting venues across South Dublin for The Red Line Book Festival are taking place this week in five different strands including ‘Family’, ‘Fiction & Poetry’, ‘Performance’, ‘Crime & Horror’ and ‘History’.

The festival programme was once again packed with wonderful authors and personalities such as John Banville, Gerry Creighton, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, C Pam Zhang, Andrea Mara, Francis Brennan, Marty Morrissey and Niall Quinn to name but a few.

Talking about words Photography by Lafayette

A highlight of this year’s festival programme was a special conference on the Decade of Centenaries, hosted by historian, author and presenter Turtle Bunbury, on Sunday in The Civic Theatre. This included a talk from David McCullagh on Éamon de Valera’s 1923, while historian Liz Gillis shared ‘The Story of Noel Lemass: His Life and Death’. She also was in conversation with Niall Quinn about the story of footballer, rebel and politician, Oscar Traynor.

Flor McCarthy told the deeply personal story of her family’s links on both sides of the War of Independence, and Caitriona Crowe rounded off the conference with ‘The Decade of Centenaries: a retrospect’.

Literary and theatrical events featured heavily throughout the festival and one of the many highlights of the festival this year is called ‘The Art of Collaboration Presents: Music, Movement & Words to Inspire Well-Being’, inspired by the connection of music to wellness and mental health.

This explored – together with their audience – music, movement, dance and words connecting in Irish and Indian culture, including some beautiful music and dance from India and Ireland.

Also included in the festival is a range of events and shows such as ‘Roald Dahl and the Imagination Seekers’, a family fun day at the Cultural Quarter in Tallaght, and writing workshops. The Writer in Residence programme: The Queenship Cypher explores the art of lyrical storytelling and the programme aims to attract aspiring female MCs, producers, dancers, and visual artists with the aim of fostering career expansion and artistic development.