New chapter for Ennis Book Club Festival

LAST minute preparations are being made for the Ennis Book Club Festival, which will take place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It’s the seventh year of the festival, which has consistently attracted internationally renowned writers.
Ciana Campbell is chairperson of the festival and she says there is a lot to look forward to.
“It’s lovely to have a Booker prize winner in town in John Banville. Our Gathering event with Joseph O’Connor is going to be great fun as well, it’ll probably be sold out in advance.
“Marina Lewycka and Fergal Keane are coming over from the UK and we’ve been trying to get both of them for a few years, they’re on the Saturday night.”
Abysmal government has been a huge factor in the Irish collapse and on Sunday Roisín Shortall, Mary O’Rourke, Dr Elaine Byrne and Professor Brian Lucey will debate ‘Power and Corruption’ at Glór in an event chaired by Caimin Jones.
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Education Department will be at the Temple Gate on Saturday morning and she said that they will be going into Clare schools also.
“Obviously getting the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Education Department is quite a coup and was lovely. There was funding because of the EU Presidency this year, for artistic events that are linked to other EU countries. They’re actually doing a whole load of events with schools as well.”
As well as being a former editor of the Irish Times, Conor Brady is now also an author and he will be speaking on Saturday evening with Tipperary native Donal Ryan.
Ryan’s first book, The Spinning Heart, has been critically acclaimed and Ciana said she enjoyed it hugely.
“I’ve just finished it and it’s unbelievably good. He won an award for being newcomer of the year last year and then he also won the award for book of the year.”
Michael Harding is also speaking on the Saturday following and Ciana also recommends his work.
“Michael Harding is coming as well and he’s getting a fantastic reaction to his memoir which I’m half way through at the moment. He’s hauntingly honest about his depression but at the same time it’s so beautifully written. He’ll be fantastic as well because he’s an actor and when he reads he brings it to right.”
She says that younger readers will be well catered for.
“There’s a lovely event for teenagers or younger than that, on polar exploration. The chap that wrote The Unsung Hero, Michael Smith is a UK author and that’ll be a beautiful illustrated talk. He was the one who uncovered all the information about Tom Crean and that. The subject matter is on the primary curriculum and it’ll be a lovely, different, type of event.”
“In some respects it’s harder to run a festival now, compared to when the first one was held, but its profile has been raised significantly over the last seven years.
“Finance can be tighter but we’re beginning to get a bit more known which helps when you knock on a door and now people are beginning to knock on our door. Publishers and authors are beginning to make contact with us.
“People have had a good experience here so they feel it’s a place they can trust they will enjoy the events. We pack a lot into the weekend because when people come they want to hit the ground running. People from around 20 different Irish counties come, having the airport and the rail network all helps enormously.”
She says the festival offers people a chance to enjoy new cultural experiences.
“I suppose I’d encourage to always try to encourage people to try something they wouldn’t normally try. Maybe go to a poetry reading, Tony Curtis is doing one which will be lovely and he’ll also be playing music as well, that’s in the Old Ground.
“Go to something you wouldn’t normally go to, try a workshop or go and see an author you wouldn’t normally be interested in. Try something different because this is your chance, there are world-class authors on your doorstep and they give the best while they are here. It’ll be over before you know it so get in there and savour it.
“There are local people like the Clare Three Legged Stool Poets will be reading, its important to make sure we support our own as well. There are local artists like the Ennis Art School exhibiting down in the Rowan Tree. Those kind of things are important.”