RTE broadcaster Des Cahill will be part of a debate on the role of football in culture at the first annual Dalkey Book Festival which takes place the weekend after next at various venues in the Dublin seaside town
South county Dublin will be awash with literary talent the weekend after next when the first Dalkey Book Festival gets underway. Novelists, playwrights, poets, actors and journalists will descend on the quaint seaside town to take part in a three-day festival designed to showcase and celebrate Ireland’s cultural wealth.
Organised by David McWilliams, Sian Smyth and Oliver McCabe, the not-for-profit festival will kick off with a sporting evening with journalist and broadcaster Eamon Dunphy, Des Cahill from RTE Sports, playwright and poet Dermot Bolger and Sunday Independent columnist and Liverpool fan Declan Lynch.
On the 20th anniversary of Italia ’90, the trio will be in Dalkey Town Hall at 8.30pm on Friday, June 18th to debate the role of football in culture. For those who prefer to digest their culture while out of doors, actor Eamon Morrissey will escort people on a Flann O’Brien walk at 5pm on Saturday.
Joe O’Connor will discuss his new novel, Ghost Light, with author Martina Devlin in the Dalkey Heritage Centre at 3pm on Saturday. Local writer Maeve Binchy will give a talk in Finnegan’s pub on Sorrento Road on Sunday morning. Actor Nick Dunning will perform George Bernard Shaw.
Poet and friend to U2 Gary Jermyn will perform Allergic to Beckett, while crime writers John Connolly and Declan Hughes will debate the ten best crime novels to read in a lifetime. Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, Conor McPherson, Bruce Arnold and Mark Little are also part of the line-up.
The weekend’s sponsor is Zurich and the festival is supporting the Dyslexia Association. For details on all the events and how to book tickets (which range from free to €15), click on http://www.dalkeybookfestival.org/
