Come along to the Delvin Book Festival this May Bank Holiday weekend

Delvin Book Festival has been running on the May Bank Holiday Sunday since 2010 and has become well established on the cultural calendar attracting between 2000 and 3000 visitors annually.

The funding raised by the Book Festival is used for the maintenance and development of Delvin Sports and Leisure Centre (DSLC), a local community initiative, which has a multisport playing pitch, a walking track and outdoor gym equipment.

A sensory garden is currently under development.

Since the inception of the Book Festival, we have identified with Brinsley McNamara and ‘The Valley of The Squinting Windows’ given the personal, cultural, and historical links (good and bad) between author John Weldon and Delvin, his birthplace and inspiration.

In 2018 we marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of ‘The Valley of The Squinting Windows’.

More than a century later, this was a unique opportunity to explore the book’s artistic and social legacy, and its relevance in rural Ireland today.

Our committee has been eager to continue commemoration of this, as the saga caused by the book continued until 1923.

In 2018 we liaised with author and playwright Frank Shouldice to explore the possibility of adapting a passage from the novel for a dramatic performance to take place in conjunction with our 2018 Book Festival.

This subsequently went beyond all our expectations, culminating in a play written by Frank called, ‘The Mean Streets of Garradrimna’.

This was not only performed in Delvin once, but three times followed by a sell-out night in both Mullingar Arts Centre and Moate’s Tuar Ard theatre. The play also featured on a documentary on RTE1 by Catriona Crowe called ‘Life After the Rising.’

This has boosted the numbers wanting to become involved in the Book Festival and in doing so has brought new rich ideas on how we can improve the festival and encourage more people to attend this fantastic event.

The Delvin Book Festival went further again and pushed the boundaries beyond the literary fraternity. Artists, Poets, and Musicians were asked to come along to perform and display their talents to the wider public.

As the event grows so to do the crowds, descending from the four corners of Ireland and some coming from abroad, ensuring their vacation is taken around the May bank holiday weekend.

Despite a forced break for two years due to the Covid pandemic, the festival returned and became better and stronger. Loyal patrons who had supported us year in, year out returned in huge numbers.

The organisers moved to create a new format for the festival, and we moved from Delvin Mart, a venue very generously supplied to us free of charge by Thomas Potterton for 10 years, into Delvin village, where events are woven into the village over the May bank holiday weekend.

This year’s festival will kick off on Friday May 3 with an ‘Arts and Crafts fair’ in Delvin Hall from 12-4pm where over 20 artists will display their creativity and craftsmanship.

Later, at 8.30pm in Gaffney’s lounge ‘The Delvin Valley Drama Group’ will perform ‘Bits & Pieces’ a delightful blend of comedy and drama. Meanwhile O’Shaughnessy’s bar will host a night of music with ‘Baltrad’.

On Saturday May 4,  music will be the main feature with ‘The Wailin Cowboys’ in Gaffney’s lounge and’ Night Train’ in O’Shaughnessy’s bar.

Sunday May 5 will see the return of our Monster Book Sale (20,000+books) 12 noon until 5pm in Delvin Hall and multiple outlets throughout the Village.

Soak up the atmosphere as the village will be alive with people, more music and dance on the street and Trad sessions in Gaffney’s Lounge. Later Tom Mc Cormack will be playing in O’Shaughnessy’s.

This promises to be an event not to be missed!

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