Live Literary Festival brought joy and hope
The Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival 2020 has been successfully and safely hosted in the town, amid these strangest of times, with a four-day varied line-up of literary events bringing joy to artists and audiences alike.
Those who did not secure tickets and who could not make the events can view them, as live, on the nenagharts.com website at any time over the next two weeks for the small fee of €5.
The festival was a beacon of hope as we head into the dark months of the year, with all the artists expressing their joy and gratitude at the opportunity to be with other artists and live audiences in Nenagh, many of them making return visits to the festival.
MANY CHALLENGES
"We are delighted to have been able to successfully host the festival this year despite the many challenges involved, but it was worth it, to keep public and live artistic activity alive in our community this year," said Geraldine McNulty, Chairperson.
Among the highlights were the joint appearance of local award-winning novelist Donal Ryan and Andrew Flynn in Nenagh Arts Centre with scenes from Ryan’s novel 'The Thing About December' enacted by members of Flynn’s Decadent Theatre Company. In a lively and highly entertaining session, the limited but enthusiastic audience were reminded of Ryan’s extraordinary ability to recreate the local idiom, brought alive so powerfully when he reads from his work. Both spoke about what brought them together as artists, even though Ryan was initially reluctant, and what emerged from it.
CORMACK BROTHERS TRIAL
Nenagh Players brought alive the famous Cormack Brothers trial, outdoors at Nenagh Heritage Centre, scene of the execution of the two brothers, on Saturday afternoon, in a festival tribute to Nenagh 800, in two scenes from Jim Minogue’s 'Trainees' directed by Martin Nolan.
Sunday afternoon’s Tea and Cake with Jane Austen turned out to be a highly popular event with the many Jane Austen fans in the area, the setting in the beautifully decorated marquee looking out on to the lake in front of Ashley Park being perfect for the recreation of the era by Rose Servitova, author of 'The Watsons', where she completed an unfinished Austen novel, and the fascinating recreation of the costumes of the era by Melissa Sheils.
Hearing authors speaking their work is one of the joys of an arts festival, and on both Thursday night’s Mystery Thrills and Suspense night and Saturday’s 'Guests from the West' event, audiences heard new and established writers read and speak about what has inspired their work, in interesting and entertaining events.
THANKS
The Committee of the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival would like to thank Eva Birdthistle and her staff at Nenagh Arts Centre for their dedication to supporting the festival and their commitment to the safety of audiences and participants alike, and for making the events available online for the next two weeks. The committee also acknowledges the festival sponsors: Tipperary County Council, the Arts Council and Creative Ireland, without whose support the festival could not go ahead.
Local support for the festival has also been very much in evidence this year as always and the committee encourages all the festival supporters to go online at nenagharts.com to view all of this year’s events.