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DEIRDRE PURCELL
In her varied career, Deirdre Purcell has been
a civil servant, worked for Aer Lingus, been
an actor at the Abbey, and broken new ground
as the first female presenter on RTE's flagship
9 o'clock news. She has written the novels A
Place of Stones, That Childhood Country, Falling
for a Dancer, Francey, Sky and Love Like Hate
Adore, which was shortlisted for the 1998 Orange
Prize. In that year also, Falling For a Dancer,
scripted by the author, was broadcast as a major
BBC drama. She lives in Dublin.
PATRICIA SCANLAN
Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she
still lives. While working as a librarian she
started to write, and now has a full-time career
as a bestselling author. Among her many
best sellers are Apartment 3B, City Girl, City
Woman, Francesca's Party and Two for Joy
CLAUDIA CARROLL
Claudia Carroll is as well known for her acting
as her writing. She currently stars in Ireland's
top soap, Fair City, as Nicola Prendergast,
one of the most popular characters. Among her
best selling novels are Cherish the Dream and
He Loves Me Not...He Loves Me. She lives in
Dublin.
MYLES DUNGAN
Best known as presenter of RTE’s art show
Rattlebag, he was previously presenter of RTE’s
Five Seven Live. But he is also the author of
several books, including The Stealing of the
Irish Crown Jewels, and They Shall Not Grow
Old, recalling the part played by the hundreds
of thousands of Irishmen in World War I.
AIDAN MATHEWS
Aidan Mathews was born in Dublin in 1956. He
was educated at Gonzaga College and then at
U.C.D., Trinity College Dublin and Stanford
University in California. Since 1984, he has
been
a Radio Drama Producer at RTE. He has written
two collections of poetry, two short story collections
and a number of plays. He was awarded Best Drama
for 'Walking Out Together' at the National Radio
Awards (PPI) 2004.
NERYS WILLIAMS
Welsh-born author, critic and lecturer at UCD,
specialising in Modern and Contemporary American
Poetry and Poetics; relationship between poetic
practice and theory; and recent
Anglo-Welsh Poetry. She has also worked outside
of academia in fields ranging from psychiatric
nursing to media archiving.
BRIAN LEYDEN
Born in Roscommon and living in Leitrim, Brian
Leyden is the author of the best selling memoir,
The Home Place. Previous publications include
the short story collection Departures and the
novel, Death & Plenty. His work for radio
includes the documentaries No Meadows in Manhattan,
which won a Jacobs Award, Even the Walls were
Sweatin'‚ a return to the era of the dancehalls,
and, more recently, The Closing of the Gaiety
Cinema in Carrickon- Shannon.
GABRIEL FITZMAURICE
Gabriel Fitzmaurice is from Moyvane, Co. Kerry,
and teaches in the local primary school. Former
Chairman of Listowel Writers' Week, he has published
more than twenty books, including poetry in
Irish and English, children's poetry, translations,
essays, and collections of songs and ballads.
He is also a musician and singer. He was editor
of the Kerry Anthology and of the Listowel Literary
Phenomenon: North Kerry Writers - A Critical
Introduction.
FRED JOHNSTON
Fred Johnston was born in Belfast and now lives
in Galway. In 1972 he received a Hennessy Award
for prose and in 1988 he received an Irish Arts
Council literary bursary and was
appointed writer-in-residence to Galway City
and County Libraries. In 1986 he founded Cuirt,
Galway's annual poetry (now poetry and literature)
festival. He has published one novel and five
volumes of poetry.
MARY CLOAKE
Mary Cloake who is from County Wexford, joined
the Arts Council in 1993 as Regional Development
Officer and was appointed Development Director
in 1997, before becoming Arts Council Director
in June 2004. She is a member of RTÉ’s
Audience Council and was appointed to the Bloomsday
100 Committee by the Minister for Arts, Sport
and Tourism. She holds an M.A. from Dublin City
University and a B.A. (Mod) from Trinity College,
Dublin.
PATRICK MURRAY
Dr Patrick Murray was born in Athlone and has
doctorates in English from the NUI and in Modern
History from Trinity College Dublin. He was
lecturer in English at St Patrick’s College
Maynooth, and among subjects of his many works
are Milton, Shakespeare, Beckett and Synge’s
Playboy of the Western World. For many years
synonymous with St Aloysius College in
Athlone, he is an acknowledged authority on
history, both local and national.
HARMAN MURTAGH
Dr Harman Murtagh, a native of Athlone, is senior
lecturer in law and Irish studies at AIT. A
noted historian, he has written in many scholarly
publications, especially on military history,
biography and settlement studies. He edited
the Irish Sword for 25 years, and contributed
the ‘Athlone’ fascicle to volume
one of the Royal Irish Academy’s Irish
Historic Towns Atlas. He is a
past-President of the Old Athlone Society.
GEAROID O’BRIEN
Gearoid O’Brien is a native of Athlone
and a past-President of the Old Athlone Society.
He is a well known broadcaster and writer, and
has contributed the popular Athlone Miscellany
column to the Westmeath Independent for over
15 years. He is the Executive Librarian at the
new Aidan Heavey Public Library, and is a past-chairman
of the Athlone Literary Festival.
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