Authors appearing at Hinterland Festival 2022

Amy Dunne

Now in her 30’s Amy Dunne is the woman, who at the age of 17 was identified as ‘Miss D’ in a 2007 High Court case. She was pregnant with a child who suffered from anencephaly and who could not survive far beyond childbirth. Amy was making her case to the court to be permitted to travel for a termination. At the time she was in the care of the HSE who, despite the support of her family and the child’s father, refused to permit her to travel.

Andrew Sneddon

Dr Andrew Sneddon is history lecturer at Ulster University, President of the Ulster Society for Irish Historical studies, and a leading expert on the history of witchcraft and magic in Britain and Ireland. He is author of four books and has presented his research all over the world. He was historical consultant on a new six-part TG4 series on Irish witchcraft, 'An Diabhal Inti' (The Devil's In Her'), and is co-writing a video game, a graphic novel and a Virtual Reality Experience based on the last trial for witchcraft in Ireland in 1711.

Anthony Summers

Anthony Summers is the award-winning author of ten critically-acclaimed non-fiction books. In 2012, The Eleventh Day (co-written with his wife Robbyn Swan) was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. He is the only two-time winner of the Crime Writers' Association's top award for non-fiction on crime. Educated at Oxford University, Summers began his career in broadcasting - travelling the world and rising to become Deputy Editor of the BBC's flagship "Panorama" programme. His book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe was used as the basis for the Netflix original documentary, "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes". The film premiered on April 27, 2022.

Audrey Dowling

Audrey Dowling is a French artist and illustrator living in County Kilkenny. She initially pursued a career in the fashion industry in Paris but somehow ended up in the Irish countryside. Her surroundings inspire her work, as well as folklore from all cultures, fairy tales and vintage imagery. Her universe is colourful and narrative, often praised as graceful and poetic.

Catherine Carton

Catherine Carton is the lady behind the award-winning interiors and lifestyle blog daintydressdiaries.com. She is a lover of upcycling, recycling and making the old new again. Dainty Dress Diaries was created in 2014. While brain-dumping potential names with a workmate, Catherine and her pal decided to go with ‘Dainty’ because Catherine is 4’11”, ‘Dress’ because all she wore was cute dresses, and ‘Diaries’ so that the blog could cover a wide range of topics. In the beginning, Catherine mostly blogged about vintage style, fashion and homeware, but over the years she has become known for her warm personality and the unique creative projects she shares with her online community.

daintydressdiaries.com, youtube.com/daintydiaries, instagram.com/daintydressdiaries

Catherine Prasifka

Catherine Prasifka was born in Dublin in 1996. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and has an MLitt in Fantasy from the University of Glasgow. She has competed in both the European Debating Championships and the World Championships. She is obsessed with learning about how stories work and has ruined nearly all of her favourite books and movies by overanalysing them. She works as a creative writing teacher in Dublin. None of This Is Serious is her first novel. @prasifcat

Damien Shiels

Dr. Damien Shiels is a historian and archaeologist. Currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Northumbria University, he previously worked for the National Museum of Ireland and in the private heritage sector. The founder of www.irishamericancivilwar.com, he has published two books on the Irish in the American Civil War. He also established the Landscapes of Revolution Project, which archaeologically examines Ireland’s revolutionary sites - a topic on which he has published and lectured widely.

David McCullagh

Broadcaster and historian Dr David McCullagh is probably best known as the anchor the 6.1 News on RTÉ1 TV, as a past presenter of Prime Time and as former RTÉ Political Correspondent. David is also an accomplished historian and is biographer of former Taoiseach John A. Costello ( The Reluctant Taoiseach, 2010 ) and Eamon de Valera in De Valera: Rise (2017) and De Valera: Rule (2019).

Declan O’Rourke

From his debut album Since Kyabram (2004) the county Galway based artist has been praised by songwriting and media figures such as John Prine (“a great songwriter” and Paul Weller (“he writes the sort of classic songs that people don’t write any more”). For many years his interest in the Great Famine has been generating the songs that led to the 2017 album Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine. Now, with The Pawnbroker’s Reward Declan has written what may turn out to be one of the definitive fictional accounts of one of the great tragedies of European history.

Deirdre Doyle

Deirdre Doyle is a health coach and a mum of three. She has educated thousands of children about food and cooking through her award-winning business, The Cool Food School, since 2018. Her focus is on making food fun for kids.

Deirdre Kinahan

Deirdre Kinahan is a theatre actor, writer and a member of Aosdána, whose prolific output (Bogboy, These Halcyon Days, Spinning, Rise et al) has been produced by the Abbey Theatre, the Royal Court, the Old Vic and the Bush Theatre. She is the founder member of Tall Tales Theatre Company, which she ran for fifteen years. She now writes, in the main, for the Abbey, Landmark Productions and Fishamble Theatre Company. Born in Dublin she had the good sense to move to Meath in 1998, before it was too late. Her last three plays, based on events of the Irish revolutionary era have been collected in a single volume entitled Raging.

Diarmaid Ferriter

Professor Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at University College, Dublin. He is a regular broadcaster on TV and Radio and a weekly columnist with the Irish Times. His books include The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 (2004), Judging Dev (2007)  A Nation Not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913-23 (2015) and Between Two Hells: the Irish Civil War (2021).

Eileen Dunne

RTE Newscaster, Eileen Dunne, is the eldest of the late RTÉ GAA correspondent Mick Dunne’s three daughters. Born and raised in Clontarf, Dublin she studied Irish and French at UCD and after a year in France, came back to do a H.Dip (Masters in Education) and begin work as a radio continuity announcer in RTÉ. Eileen joined the RTÉ Newsroom in 1984 and has been involved in coverage of all the main news stories since. She has also presented programmes on RTÉ Lyric FM and on RTÉ Radio 1. A member of the Association of European Journalists, she served as International President from 2010 to 2014 (the first woman to hold the position). She is also a director of the Kennedy Summer school in New Ross. Eileen is married to the actor Macdara Ó Fátharta and they have one son, Cormac.

Emma Jane Leeson

Emma Jane Leeson is a children’s book author from Kildare best known for her rhyming ‘stories about Johnny Magory’. Each of the stories educates children on Irish heritage and wildlife in a fun way. She is currently writing the TV animation series of Johnny Magory along with her first novel.

Evanna Lynch

Evanna Lynch is an actor, writer and activist from County Louth. As an actor she rose to fame early in life as the character Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter film series, making her debut in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007 and appearing in all subsequent adaptations. Since then she has forged a career in film and on stage. Evanna is a passionate advocate for veganism and animal rights and in 2017 launched a vegan podcast, The ChickPeeps, which is in its 3rd season. In October 2021 she published her first book, The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and Glory of Growing Up, a Memoir, in which she tackles some of the complex issues in her life as a teenager and young adult.

Fintan O’Toole

There is nothing quite like the coolly cerebral, rigorously analytical and abrasively engaged  journalism of Fintan O’Toole. Whether writing for the Irish Times, the Guardian or engaged in one of his many non-fiction tours de force the range and scope of his scholarship is startling. He is critic, historian, controversialist and intellectual. He is as capable of writing a monograph on Edmund Burke or George Bernard Shaw, as he is of eviscerating the corrupt cowboys of the Celtic Tiger. His latest work, We Don’t Know Ourselves was winner of the An Post Irish Book Awards for 2021 and was an Irish Times #1 Bestseller.

Guth Gafa

An inspiring documentary from the filmmakers of School Life, YOUNG PLATO charts the dream of Elvis-loving school headmaster Kevin McArevey – a maverick who is determined to change the fortunes of an inner-city community plagued by urban decay, sectarian aggression, poverty and drugs. The all-boys primary school in post-conflict Belfast, Northern Ireland, becomes a hot house for questioning violence, as the headmaster sends his young wards home each day armed with the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosophers. The boys challenge their parents and neighbors to forsake the prejudice that has kept this low-level civil war on the boil for decades. YOUNG PLATO hums with the confidence of youth, a tribute to the power of the possible.

Hugh O’Connell

Hugh O’Connell is Political Correspondent with Independent News and Media. Previously, he has worked for the Business Post, TheJournal.ie and the BBC. He is co-author with Jack Horgan-Jones of Pandemonium: Power, Politics and Ireland’s Pandemic and co-hosted the Sunday Business Post podcast, ‘Below the Fold’, with Jack Horgan-Jones.

Jack Horgan-Jones

Jack Horgan-Jones is a political reporter at The Irish Times. He has previously covered politics for the Business Post and TheJournal.ie. He is co-author with Hugh O’Connell of Pandemonium: Power, Politics and Ireland’s Pandemic and co-hosted the Sunday Business Post podcast, ‘Below the Fold’, with Hugh O’Connell.

Jan Carson

Jan Carson is the Belfast-based author of two short story collections, three novels and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel, The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland in 2019 and the Kitschies Prize for Speculative Fiction 2020 and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Book Prize 2020. Her third and most recent novel, The Raptures was published in January 2022.

Jane Mitchell

Jane is a Dublin-based writer, the author of numerous award-winning children’s books including When the Stars Stop Spinning, Chalkline, A Dangerous Crossing, and Without Refuge. Her most recent book, Run for Your Life is published by Little Island and is a moving exploration of Ireland Direct Provision system.

Jo Spain

Jo Spain is the author of the bestselling Inspector Tom Reynolds series and several international No. 1 bestselling standalone novels. Her first book, With Our Blessing, was a finalist in the 2015 Richard and Judy ‘Search for a Bestseller’. 
Jo, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, writes TV screenplays full-time. Her first crime series was broadcast on RTE in 2018 and she's currently involved in a number of TV developments including adaptations of her own novels.

John Altman

John Altman is a film composer, music arranger, orchestrator, conductor and saxophonist. He has four Lifetime Achievement Awards and an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Sussex. He has composed the music for over 50 movies

‘I admit it, I like John Altman. Apart from being very good company, he is one of the few musicians, composers and arrangers prepared to work with people on crosses. I’ve rung all the police stations in London, but no-one has a bad word for him.’ Michael Palin

John Borgonovo

Dr John Borgonovo is a Lecturer in the School of History at University College Cork. He is best known for his work on Revolutionary Ireland, which includes numerous books, peer-reviewed articles, and book chapters. He was associate editor of the award-winning Atlas of the Irish Revolution.

John Farrelly

John Farrelly was born and raised in a village just outside Newry, Co. Down. After dropping out of art college because all he wanted to do was write stories and draw pictures, he became a freelance caricature artist. He always did a full day's work - he just spread it over the whole week. Finally, after a three-day siege, where no one was injured and all hostages were dreleased, The O'Brien Press let him write stories and draw pictures.

John McKenna

John McKenna is a short story writer, playwright and novelist. His novels, which include Clare, A Haunted Heart and The Space Between Us, have been critically acclaimed. He has also written three collections of short stories, two volumes of poems and a biography of the Kildare-born explorer Ernest Shackleton. John also writes, directs and acts with Mend and Makedo Theatre Company. He is a winner of an Irish Times Fiction Award and in 2014 was shortlisted for the position of Irish Fiction Laureate.

Kíla

Formed at school in Dublin's late 1980's, Kíla are heralded as one of Ireland’s most innovative and exciting bands. Their unique sound has been ever evolving, rooted in tradition, yet inspired by a myriad of influences and ideas from all around the world. Often defined as contemporary Irish World music, Kíla fuse their own melodies, Irish (Gaeilge) lyrics, Irish folk instruments such as whistles, fiddles, Uilleann pipes and bodhrán with djembe, congas, drums, mandolins, brass and acoustic/electric/ bass guitars. Kíla's eight members come from the differing musical backgrounds of traditional, classical and rock.

“One of the most beautifully euphoric live experiences” BBC World Review
“Softly spoken off stage and complete lunatics on it, Kíla have torn up the
rulebook with their wantonly eclectic mix of styles, Brilliant!” HOTPRESS

Leanne McCormick

Dr. Leanne McCormick is Senior Lecturer in Modern Irish Social History at Ulster University. Specialising in the history of gender and sexuality, she was the co-author of the Mother and baby homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland, 1922-1990 report published in January 2021. Along with Elaine Farrell she is co-investigator on the ‘Bad Bridget’ project looking at criminal Irish women in North America, 1838–19. They co-host the Bad Bridget Podcast and the Bad Bridget Exhibition has opened at the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, Co. Tyrone.

Liam McNiffe

Dr Liam McNiffe is an historian, author, teacher and retired Principal of St. Patrick’s College Cavan. He also lectures in Art History.  In conjunction with Meath County Library Service and Meath Travellers Workshop, and assisted by Frances Tallon, Tom French, Michael and Nell Mc Donagh, he published Traveller Genealogy (2020).

Liz Gillis

Liz Gillis is from the Liberties and is the author of six books about the Irish Revolution. She is Historian in Residence for Dublin South County Council for the Decade of Centenaries and also works as a Researcher for the History Show on RTÉ Radio and lectures at Champlain College Dublin.  She was a Curatorial Assistant in RTÉ, specialising in researching the Easter Rising and a tour guide for many years in Kilmainham Gaol. In 2018 Liz was a recipient of the Lord Mayor’s Award for her contribution to history.

Liz Nugent

Liz Nugent is a bestselling writer of award-winning psychological suspense novels. Her books have been optioned for screen adaptations and have also been translated into 16 languages. She has also written extensively for radio and television in drama and animation.

Luke Harding

Luke Harding is a Guardian journalist and foreign correspondent. From 2007-2011 he was based in Moscow until he was, in effect, expelled by the Putin government, as notable a badge of honour as a Pulitzer Prize or a knighthood. He has written numerous books, including volumes on Wikileaks and Julian Assange, the murder of Alexander Litvinenko and the revelations of Edward Snowden. His two most recent works are Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win (2017) and Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia’s Remaking of the West (2020). In 2022 Luke has been based in Ukraine reporting on the outcome of the facilitation of the Putin regime that he highlighted in both those books.

Martina Devlin

Author and journalist Martina Devlin has written eight novels, two non-fiction books, two short plays and a short story collection. Her latest work is Edith: A Novel about the writer Edith Somerville. Prizes include the Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Prize and a Hennessy Literary Award. She writes a weekly current affairs column for the Irish Independent and has been named National Newspapers of Ireland commentator of the year. Martina hosts the City of Books podcast for Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. She is the first holder of a PhD in literary practice from Trinity College Dublin, where she is an adjunct lecturer in literature.

Marty Morrissey

Marty Morrissey is the voice of the GAA on Irish radio and TV. His childhood in the Bronx and west Clare included adventures as a Gaelic footballer and hurler, schoolteacher, and as coach of schools teams and underage sides for his beloved club, Kilmurry Ibrickane. Then there is the story of his remarkable rise as a broadcaster, from the back of tractors and trailers flatbed trucks to Croke Park on All Ireland finals days - despite having once being told by RTÉ Sport that his voice on an early audition tape was 'too thin, too high-pitched'.

Mary McAuliffe

Dr. Mary McAuliffe is a historian and Director of the Gender Studies Programme at UCD and holds a PhD from the School of History and Humanities, Trinity College Dublin. Her latest publications include as co-editor with Miriam Haughton and Emilie Pine, Legacies of the Magdalen Laundries; Commemoration, Gender, and the Postcolonial Carceral State (Manchester University Press, 2021) and as sole author, Margaret Skinnider; a biography(UCD Press, 2020). Currently, she is working on a major research project on gendered and sexual violence during the Irish revolutionary period, 1919-1923, to be published in 2023.

Matthew Spangler

Matthew Spangler’s highly successful stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner has now toured the known world, with stops on London's West End, the Dubai Opera House, and Gaiety Theatre in Dublin along the way. It will shortly open on Broadway. Matthew has hosted numerous ‘adaptation sessions’ at Hinterland over the years, with authors like Zlata Filipovic (Zlata's Diary), Kevin Barry (Beatlebone), Mary Manning/Sinead O'Brien (Striking Back), and Christy Lefteri (The Beekeeper of Aleppo). The latter two are currently being adapted for stage by Matthew in collaboration with their authors.

Michael Brunnock

Michael Brunnock is an Irish award winning singer/songwriter. Winner of an Italian Oscar, the David Di Donatello Award (2012), for his work with David  Byrne, on the Sean Penn movie This Must Be the Place, Michael possesses an extraordinary voice, his powerful melodies and harmonies are driven by a strong personal vision drawing the listener in with an authentic vision and Irish soul.

Brunnock has since contributed to multiple soundtracks in Italian film, and his solo releases include So I Do

(2007); The Orchard (2012); Live in New York (2015), The Landing (2016); The Ghost of Roger Casement (2016) and the album Live To Love (2018) with singer songwriter Niamh Hyland.

Brunnock has toured extensively in Ireland, Europe and the States.

Michael Harding

At this point in his career as a writer, actor and Irish Times columnist Michael Harding has little option but to succumb to the title ‘National Treasure’, in Irish terms an unofficial peerage or a knighthood at the very least. For a quarter of a century, since his Abbey debut with Strawboys in 1987 he has been a consummate playwright but more recently his focus has switched to more personal prose and memoir works such as Hanging With the Elephant and On Tuesdays I’m a Buddhist. As well as all that, in a nation of storytellers he is primus inter pares among raconteurs. (He did Latin and French at school).

Myles Dungan

Dr. Myles Dungan is a proud Kells resident. He is a writer and broadcaster, presents The History Show on RTÉ Radio 1 and is the author of a number of Irish and American history books. The most recent of these is Four Killings, which looks at the bloody legacy of his extended family in the Irish War of Independence. He holds a PhD in history from Trinity College, Dublin, is Dean of Humanities at City Colleges, Dublin and is an adjunct lecturer in history at University College, Dublin.

Neil Belton

Previously an Editor at Faber, Jonathan Cape and Granta, Neil is now Editorial Director at Head of Zeus.  He is the author of The Good Listener: Helen Bamber, a Life Against Cruelty, which was awarded the 1999 Irish Times Literature Prize for Irish Non-fiction (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).  His novel A Game With Sharpened Knives, based on the life of Erwin Schrodinger, was published to critical acclaim by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2005.  Born in Ireland and educated at University College Dublin, he now lives in London.

Niall Kinsella

Pianist Niall Kinsella has fast established himself as one of Ireland’s most exciting and sought-after accompanists and art-song specialists. He has been described as “a meticulous collaborator” (BBC Music Magazine) and “a first-class calling card as a knowledgeable and profound song accompanist” (Merker-Austria). He has performed extensively across Europe, in Austria, France, Spain, Hungary, Czech-Republic, Italy and United Kingdom, in venues such as Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozarthaus Wien, The Liszt Academy, Budapest, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Nick Sheridan

Nick Sheridan is an award-winning journalist and television presenter, with a decade of experience working in broadcast media. He spent two years reporting and presenting RTE news2day, the young person's news programme for Ireland's national broadcaster, before moving to the main newsroom where he worked on the foreign affairs desk. He then relocated to BBC News Scotland as the Consumer Affairs Correspondent and continues to work for the BBC, presenting the news review show Seven Days. He's also a regular presenter of Drivetime at BBC Radio Scotland.

Noah Griffin Jr.

Noah Griffin Jr. has had many careers. He has been a historian, writer, newspaper columnist, radio and television talk show host, law editor, press secretary, campaign manager, lyricist, and vocalist. Griffin was born in San Francisco, California, on January 31, 1946. By the time he was twelve, Griffin had shared the stage with Paul Robeson, Leontyne Price, Johnny Ray, Nat “King” Cole, and performed in Carmen, Turandot, and Boris Godunov. Since those heady days he has changed gear and worked with San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein before becoming the first full-time black talk show host on KGO Radio in San Francisco and the first black op-ed columnist for the San Francisco Examiner.

Orla O’Donnell

Orla O’Donnell is legal affairs correspondent with RTÉ. Born in Dalkey she began her broadcasting career as a reporter with TG4 in 1996. She became Dublin correspondent for RTÉ News in 2003 and has been legal affairs correspondent since 2006. Since 2018 Orla has also presented the TG4 series Finné focusing on Irish news stories in the headlines over the last half century. She is co-author with Amy Dunne on the newly published I Am Amy Dunne.

Owen Gilhooly-Miles

Baritone Owen Gilhooly-Miles is a graduate of the Royal College of Music and the National Opera studio. In 2007 he represented Ireland at the Cardiff ‘Singer of the World’ competition. Among his many performances are appearances for Opera Theatre Company in The Magic Flute, the Barber of Seville, La Bohème and Fidelio and Through His Teeth and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has also worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms and the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra.  Owen is a professor of singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc

Dr. Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc is a native of Meelick, Co. Clare but now lives in North Cork. He has a PhD from the University of Limerick and has published half a dozen books on the Irish Revolution of 1913 - 1923. His last book Truce - Murder, Myth and the Last Days of the Irish War of Independence published in 2016 was based on his PHD thesis. He is a regular contributor to History Ireland Magazine and RTÉ Radio.

Richie Sadlier

Richie Sadlier is a psychotherapist and former professional footballer who also works as a TV soccer pundit for RTÉ. He is also a regular contributor to RTÉ radio and the Second Captain’s podcast, presenting The Players Chair. His memoir Recovering, which dealt with his own struggles with alcohol and mental health issues was a non-fiction bestseller in 2019.

Rosita Boland

Rosita Boland is Senior Features Writer with the Irish Times, specialising in human interest stories. She was a 2009 Nieman Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. She was named NewsBrands Ireland Journalist of the Year for 2018. She is the author of Elsewhere (documenting nine journeys from nine different moments in her life) and Comrades, both published by Penguin books.

Stephen Morris

From 1976 to 1980 Stephen Morris was drummer with the legendary Salford post-punk band Joy Division. After the tragic death of Ian Curtis in 1980 he joined his fellow band members in forming New Order who have recorded a number of multi-million selling albums, such as Power, Corruption and Lies (1983) and Technique (1989). New Order’s 1983 hit ‘Blue Monday’ is the biggest selling 12” single of all time. Stephen is married to New Order keyboard player Gillian Gilbert. He is also the author of two memoirs, Record Play Pause: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist: the Joy Division Years, Volume 1 and Fast Forward: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist, Volume II

Tom Dunne

Tom Dunne has been front man with the Irish rock band, Something Happens (‘the band that forgot to break up’) for the better part of three decades now. He has also been a radio presenter for the last two decades - probably still best known for his seminal ‘Pet Sounds’ programme on Today FM. He’s only been coming to Hinterland to enthuse audiences about classic rock albums since 2017, but in 2027 we have no doubt that he’ll have been doing that for a decade as well.

Tony Bucher

Tony Bucher grew up in one of the few places that mattered in the 1970s, Berkeley, California. He regularly attends the Hinterland Festival and organises a few talks each year as President of the San Francisco Irish Literary and Historical Society. He is also the founder of our sister festival in San Francisco, Hinterland:West (which will take place this year from 30 September to 2 October)

 

Turtle Bunbury

Turtle Bunbury is a historian, podcaster and bestselling author. His podcast series include Turtle Bunbury’s Global Irish, Waterways Through Time and Vanishing Ireland. He has published over twenty books, including the best-selling Vanishing Ireland series, Ireland’s Forgotten Past and The Irish Diaspora, described as ‘fascinating’ and ‘impeccably researched’ by BBC History Magazine. Turtle has also installed 50 history panels in railway stations across Ireland, bringing intriguing historical tales to commuters as they await their trains. www.turtlebunbury.com

Ultan Courtney

Ultan Courtney is a local Meath historian who has written extensively on the War of Independence in Meath. He lives in Lusk Co. Dublin. Both of his parents were from Meath and his father was involved in the War of Independence. He is a management consultant and Chairman of the Low Pay Commission and former Chairman of Dublin Bus. He is a Graduate of Trinity College, UCD, DIT and the Law Society School of Education.

Val McDermid

Val McDermid has sold over 17 million books to date across the globe and has been translated into more than 40 languages. She is perhaps best known for her ‘Wire in the Blood’ series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for television starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris. Her most recent TV series, Traces, has had two successful series in BBC primetime slots over the past eighteen months and  ITV’s adaptation of Karen Pirie based on Val’s cold case detective of the same name. is in production. Her latest novel, 1979, launches a new series, continuing with 1989 this coming August.