Mountains to Sea is not just a literary entertainment for the denizens of Dun Laoghaire -Rathdown; it also aspires to become a world-class book festival, one that will attract visitors from all over Ireland, the UK and beyond.
Several things encourage us in the view that such an ambition is far from unrealistic. First, DLR already runs two world-class festivals—Poetry Now and The Festival of World Cultures – which attract huge crowds to Dun Laoghaire annually. Second, the literary heritage of the area is unrivalled with luminaries such as Beckett, Joyce, Flann O’Brien, and O’Faolain all having strong connections with DLR. And finally, we are uniquely fortunate to have so many fine contemporary writers living among us (fall over on the East Pier on your Sunday walk and there’s a fair chance you will land on a writer.) So why wouldn’t we invite others to share in our literary heritage and in the sheer beauty of our surroundings. As Martina Devlin has said “All of it pleases me - from the Forty Foot’s goosebumps parade to the Moorish plumage of Monkstown Church.” We natives take it for granted but DLR is a beautiful place and if we build it, they will come.
The authors included in our first festival programme offer something to cater for all tastes: great international figures such as Paul Auster, Sebastian Faulks and Douglas Kennedy; local writers such as Hugo Hamilton, Anne Enright and Maeve Binchy; fine Irish actors in Eamonn Morrissey, Barry McGovern, Bosco Hogan and Tom Hickey; and children’s writers like Derek Landy, Sarah Webb and Marita Conlon-McKenna.
So to all of you book-lovers out there, do please support us in our first year. We look forward to seeing you in September.
Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday August 4th. The festival brochure will be available online and in local bookstores, libraries and other locations by August 13th.
