27 - 30 June 2024

Lit Crawl Sunday 25 June 2023

6.30–8.30pm in Venues around Kells

ALL LIT CRAWL EVENTS ARE FREE, WITH ENTRY ON A ‘FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED’ BASIS. The programme for Lit Crawl is subject to changes and additions so please check back here for details.

Lit Crawl was first organised as part of the huge Litquake Literary Festival in San Francisco in 2004. Since then it has spread to a number of other cities in the USA and Europe, including New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Helsinki and London. Over the past few years, Lit Crawl has firmly established itself as a most special way of closing our Hinterland weekend.

Supported by Creative Ireland
Creative Ireland
#L1 Myles Dungan

#L1 Myles Dungan

An idiot's guide to democracy - from feudalism to Trump (i.e. All the way back for Feudalism)

6.30pm Courthouse

With tongue firmly embedded in cheek the RTÉ Radio 1 History Show presenter, Myles Dungan traces the growth of a delicate flower named 'Democracy' and the rise of the nutjobs who want to dig it up and throw it on the compost.

#L2 Christopher McCormack

#L2 Christopher McCormack

6.30pm Kells Library

This talk celebrates the work of the Revd Edward Adderley Stopford, Rector of Kells and his nephew, William Graham Brooke, in promoting the admission of women to university as part of the Church of Ireland process of Disestablishment (1869 - 71) of which all on the island of Ireland were the beneficiaries.

#L3 Frank Cogan

#L3 Frank Cogan

'Falling in and falling out' - the Civil War and its aftermath in Meath.

7.30pm Courthouse

In Meath, while the majority of IRA volunteers supported the Treaty and the Provisional government, there were clear signs of tension from early 1922 between the adherents of the two sides. The main anti- Treaty elements were concentrated around Navan and the northern and western extremes of the county. Small breakaway groups defied the authority of their Brigade commander Sean Boylan and staged raids on Provisional Govt / Free State patrols. Their effort fizzled out in the early weeks of 1923.

#L4 Donncha MacGabhann

#L4 Donncha MacGabhann

The Book of Kells

7.30pm Kells Library

A stroll through Kells' oldest book with ground-breaking scholar and author Dr Donncha MacGabhann - an interactive event using manuscript facsimiles and other visual material.

#L5 Donal Coghlan

#L5 Donal Coghlan

7.30pm O'Rorkes Bar

Donal is a singer-songwriter in the true sense of the word and his songs reflect the everyday life and changing issues that visit us all. Donal will be accompanied by Michael Curran.

#L6 Chris Murphy

#L6 Chris Murphy

Kells: The product of 10,000 years of climate change, conflict, disease and migration

8.30pm Courthouse

With an eye on current global issues and their localised impacts, local historian Chris Murphy takes a journey through the many major turning points in the development of Kells, and the surrounding hinterlands of the Blackwater Valley over the last ten millennia. In just the last few decades, more has been learned about Ireland’s history than all we knew before; and, using the most up to date scientific evidence and surprisingly accurate ancient Irish texts, he examines who we really are, how we got here, and why we’re still here.

#L7 Liam McNiffe

#L7 Liam McNiffe

8.30pm Kells Library

Bulldog, short story by Liam McNiffe that proves Oscar Wilde's adage, with age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone. You will certainly laugh, most of the time at Liam's expense.

#L8 Rus Bradburd

#L8 Rus Bradburd

8.30pm O'Rorkes Bar

Rus has had an extraordinarily varied career in sport and is an author of four books. For many years he was a basketball coach at university and professional level. He is also known as a fiddle player, for which he describes himself as being exceptionally average! We beg to differ. Join Rus and us for a session of ceol agus craic.