West Cork island to host new literary festival in mid-August
The Office of Public Works (OPW) & The Good Room present ‘Crosstown Drift Goes To Garinish’.
One of the country’s most interesting islands, Garinish Island will play host to a literary event later this summer, with appearances from a number of renowned Irish writers.
‘Crosstown Drift Goes To Garinish’ will celebrate the 70th anniversary of Garnish Island coming into the care of the Irish state. The event has been created by the OPW and Cork cultural organisation, the Good Room.
Crosstown Drift has taken place in Cork city since 2016 as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival in different unique locations around the city, bringing some of the country’s finest writers, poets and musicians together.
Now making its way to West Cork, the literary event will combine fiction, literature and conversation to form two events that will take place in August on Garnish Island.
Saturday, August 12 will feature Irish writers Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Conal Creedon, Catherine Kirwan, Danny Denton and Lisa Mcinerney. Each writer will read in a few of the unique locations around the island. Podcaster and Journalist Eoghan O’Sullivan will also host the event and chat to some of the writers about their work.
This event will be ticketed while Sunday, August 13 will be a free day of events from 12pm to 4.30pm. The day will include conversations, talks and insights on sports, food, rewilding on the Bere peninsula and much more with writers such as Eoghan Daltún, Patrick Smiddy and Mark Shorten, Eimear Ryan, Ciarán Murphy and Denis Cotter.
Located in the sheltered harbour of Glengarriff in Bantry Bay, Garinish is a small island known as a garden of rare beauty. The island has a number of interesting garden buildings such as the Grecian Temple, The Casita, The Clock Tower and an original Martello Tower.
- Tickets for the ‘Crosstown Drift Goes To Garinish’ evening event on Saturday, August 12o on sale on Friday at 10am from eventbrite.ie. To attend the free days of events on Sunday, August 13, you can purchase your ferry tickets from harbourqueenferry.com and Blue Pool Ferries in Glengarriff.
