Athlone Literary Festival

Athlone Literary Festival 2008 Participants

Speaker's

	Eliza Pakenham
	Eliza Pakenham is the author of "Soldier, Sailor: An Intimate Portrait of an Irish Family". Her father is the historian Thomas Pakenham, and her grandmother was the biographer Elizabeth Longford.

	Paul Kilduff
	Paul Kilduff has written four financial thrillers "Square Mile", "The Dealer", "The Frontrunner" & "The Headhunter". Paul's first work of non-fiction "Ruinair", a tale of epic human endurance travelling around Europe on Ireland's favourite low fares airline, was Ireland's No. 1 non-fiction bestseller for 8 weeks.

	Manchan Magan
	Manchan Magan writer, traveler and television maker has made over 30 documentaries for TG4. No Bearla, his series about travelling around Ireland speaking only Irish sparked much debate. He writes a travel column for the Irish Times and has written two travel books. His latest, "Truck Fever," will be published in October.

	Michael Harding
	Michael Harding's plays have been performed by The Abbey Theatre. He is the author of two books "Priest 1986" and "The Trouble with Sarah Gullion". He has a weekly column in The Irish Times, - "Displaced in Mullingar" His latest novel "Bird in the Snow" has just been released.

	JP Donleavy
	JP Donleavy, born in 1926, both parents having emigrated from Ireland. Donleavy was first a painter but it was his writing that made him famous. His first novel "The Ginger Man" took years to complete and years more to get published. His works include; "Fairy Tales of New York", "A Singular Man", "The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B", "The Onion Eaters", and over 14 other novels and plays.

	Fintan O'Toole
	Fintan O'Toole is a columnist, assistant editor and drama critic for The Irish Times since 1988. He was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001. O'Toole is a literary critic, historical writer and political commentator. He has written over 12 books and works of criticism, including: "Black Hole", "Green Card: The Disappearance of Ireland", "Traitors Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan", "White Savage: William Johnson" and the Invention of America 2007".

Debater's

	Desmond Egan
	Desmond Egan was born in Athlone. His new book“September Dandelion “ was launched in Athlone recently, the first Chinese/English poetry book published by an Irish Author. Desmond is Artistic Director of The Gerard Manley Hopkins Summer School. He founded the Goldsmith Press in 1972 and edited Era, the literary magazine. Egan is the author of 17 books of poetry; one book of prose; two translations of Greek plays and 18 collections of translated poetry.

	Kate Thompson
	Kate Thompson has published one collection of poetry in 1992 There is Something, and three adult novels, Down Among the Gods (1997); Thin Air (1999); and An Act of Worship (2000). She has published a number of children's novels, including Switchers, Midnight's Choice The Alchemist's Apprentice, The New Policeman ; The Fourth Horseman and The Last of the High Kings. The New Policeman was Winner of The Guardian Children's Book Prize, the Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Dublin Airport Authority Children's Book of the Year Award for 2005 and the CBI Bisto Book of the Year 2006.

	Suzanne Kelly
	Suzanne Kelly is a BCL.Barrister-at-Law, and a Fellow of the Irish Taxation Institute Called to the bar at twenty-one years of age, she currently works as a lawyer specialising in tax. Suzanne has lectured and broadcast extensively on all tax matters over 30 years in practice. She served as a director of the VHI for a decade. She was the first woman President of the Irish Taxation Institute. She chairs the committee on Child Centred Research on Early School Leaving as a board member of the Athlone Community Task Force. She has recently been reappointed to the board of the Abbey Theatre, Amharclann Na Mainistreach, where she chairs the Audit Committee. Her hobbies include an interest in politics and pilates. She is married to a local Westmeath man, Dr. John Keane with whom she has a daughter, Monique, where all reside at Garden Vale, Athlone.

	Brian Arkins
	Professor Brian Arkins has established a solid reputation in Ireland and abroad. He is an unusual scholar by virtue of his acknowledged expertise in both Classics and Anglo-Irish literature. Brian Arkins clearly writes from the perspective of someone deeply versed in all aspects of literary enterprise, ancient and modern Brian Arkins was educated at Clongowes Wood College and at University College, Dublin, where he obtained an M.A. in Classics and a Ph.D. in Latin. His research interests include Latin poetry, the Classical Tradition in the modern era, and Irish literature. Prof. Arkins was the Honorary President of the Classical Association of Ireland in 2005.

	Oliver Hegarty
	Oliver Hegarty lives in the Athlone area and is a lecturer in Psychology in Athlone Institute of Technology. He is an experienced facilitator and has performed the role of chairperson and facilitator for a variety of professional, voluntary and community organisations during the last 20 years. Oliver is actively involved, both as an actor and director, in the local drama circuit.