Listowel Writers' Week looks to turn the page on funding controversy
The chairman of the board of Listowel Writers' Week, former senator Ned O’Sullivan, with arts minister Patrick O'Donovan, during Listowel Literary Festival last year. File picture: Domnick Walsh
The sun was shining, the mood was buoyant, and Listowel was once more in the centre of another successful literary festival on its streets.
Synonymous with poetry, plays, and literary events, the north Kerry town was basking in the success of a new festival over the June bank holiday weekend last year. The event had its roots in the long-revered legacy of Ireland’s oldest literary festival, Listowel Writers’ Week.
A visit by culture minister Patrick O’Donovan to the inaugural Listowel Literary Festival brought with it extra cheer in the form of a €25,000 cash injection for the event.
On a high from the success, the chairman of the board of Listowel Writers’ Week, former senator Ned O’Sullivan, was interviewed for a Facebook video about the rapturous weekend for the north Kerry town, coming as it did after a tumultuous number of years for the event.
In 2022, the voluntary committee which ran the festival was dismissed by the festival board following a decision to replace them with a single professional curator as recommended after a consultant’s report funded by the Arts Council.
Almost three years later, the difficult times were over and there was a joie de vivre to be felt in the literary town.
However, the celebratory tone in the Facebook interview was the last straw for some in literary circles in Kerry.
There was already discontent among these circles about funding granted earlier in 2025 to the Listowel event, through a new pilot grant scheme from Kerry County Council and funded by the Arts Council. Aimed specifically at literary events in the Listowel municipal district, an application by Kerry Writers’ Museum, in partnership with St John’s Theatre and Listowel Writers’ Week, secured €44,520 of the €60,000 funding pot for the new event — Listowel Literary Festival.
It was one of just two applicants for the funding, issued through the Literature in Listowel pilot fund.
The second applicant was Tarbert Bridewell Visitors Centre for an inaugural Thomas MacGreevy Festival.
The latter event was granted €15,480 but the allocated money was not drawn down and the event did not go ahead, with a decision made in August that it would not take place.
News that the new Listowel Literary Festival had benefited from further Arts Council funding through a €25,000 grant personally announced by Mr O’Donovan while attending the festival raised the ire of literary locals in Kerry, particularly when they heard Mr O’Sullivan’s explanations of how nearly €70,000 in Arts Council funding had been secured.
Mr O’Sullivan told interviewer John Prendergast on the What Matters Facebook page in June: “We had a very big financial burden which came to a difficult year in 2022/3 and it was overwhelming. There was a very fair possibility that we wouldn’t have a Writers’ Week here as recently as January but we said we would have a go.”
He continued: “By February or March, we knew we were going to be able to put a programme together and then an interesting thing happened.
“Because Writers’ Week had been in the doldrums, we were delinquent in regulatory matters. We weren’t kosher with the CRO [Companies Registration Office], we were in default with the Charities Regulator, we had problems with the Revenue, you name it.
“Because of that, it was impossible for our normal sponsor, the Arts Council, to allocate us a grant this year [2025].”
Describing the introduction of the Arts Council-funded Literature in Listowel grant pilot scheme from Kerry County Council as “pretty creative”, Mr O’Sullivan said the €60,000 fund available through the scheme was the sum that Listowel Writers’ Week would usually have received from the Arts Council.
He said: “They [the Arts Council] allocated it to Kerry County Council to administer it for the promotion of literature in Listowel. You could say there are lots of ways to skinning a cat.”
Mr O’Sullivan paid tribute to Kerry Writers’ Museum for submitting the application for the Literature in Listowel grant and said: “Then we had to title it [the festival] to cover ourselves, Listowel Literary Festival, which is a nice title but we found during the week a lot of people were saying, ‘We can’t lose the brand’.
Mr O’Sullivan also said that the funding, along with the €25,000 announced at the festival by Mr O’Donovan, means that the festival is now out of its financial difficulties, explaining: “We had a six-figure debt after the 2023 festival. We are going to be able to start our 55th anniversary in the black.”
While the Listowel festival committee was in celebratory mood, literary figures across Kerry were disgruntled, with one source who was not willing to be identified saying: “The unfairness is very, very palpable.”
And poet and writer Eadbhard McGowan said: “The amount of funding only for one area, for the literary festival, is too high.
“I would say that there are a lot of different cultural events to be supported and funded in Kerry. Kerry is a very good place for writers and poets and it is marvellous when I go back to Germany, I tell that we have very serious writers here in Kerry.
“I think the funding should be spread more across Kerry because there are groups in Sneem, there are writers’ groups in Killorglin, we had a writers’ group in Killarney, in Tralee there is a writers’ group which meets on Zoom and incorporate writers from the United States. I would say have it a bit more open to other areas. That is my opinion.”
For writer John W Sexton, the funding had a more immediate effect. He had been invited in March to conduct a keynote address for the Thomas MacGreevy Festival to be held in October in Tarbert.
He was told by the organisers that an application for funding was being made through the Literature in Listowel grant pilot scheme, which was successful to the tune of €15,480.
However, he said he was contacted in August by one of the organisers “to say that due to complicated local circumstances, that the committee would not now be taking receipt of the grant”.
A source said: “Everyone got cold feet and felt it would be an affront to Listowel.”
A spokesman for Kerry County Council said: “The grant was advertised, via open competition. Funds awarded and availed of were paid out. Funds awarded and not availed of were not drawn down, as is standard procedure.”
He also said that “the pilot was successful and Kerry County Council awaits further engagement with the Arts Council in that regard”.
A statement from the Arts Council said: “The Arts Council provides funding to Kerry County Council, and all local authorities, to ensure there is a breadth of support for artists and arts audiences throughout the country.
“The pilot scheme that you refer to was managed by Kerry County Council, so queries related to the scheme should be directed to the county council’s arts office.”
Meanwhile, the allocation of €25,000 by Mr O’Donovan came on the radar of Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, a member of the Oireachtas arts committee, who sought answers on how the funding was secured.
In June 2025, he lodged a parliamentary question seeking information on whether the funding stream had been advertised, “if this funding opportunity was advertised and available to other arts festivals throughout the State; and if he will outline the application process and how funding allocations were decided”.
Not content with a response received from Mr O’Donovan, Mr Ó Snodaigh again raised the issue in October and subsequently lodged a Freedom of Information request seeking clarity on how the funding was allocated.
In one of his replies, Mr O’Donovan explained: “Complementing the annual support scheme for the operational costs of community-based festivals and summer schools provided from my department’s vote, my department can also be approached on an exceptional basis to assist with developmental needs. Assessment of proposals will have regard to national or regional profile, past performance, availability, and effective use of resources, and the anticipated progress and sustainability of the initiative.
“It was within this framework that special support of €25,000 was allocated towards the regeneration and development of the Listowel Writers Festival.”
Queries and Freedom of Information requests submitted by the to the Arts Council and the Department of Culture relating to the fund have established that other events and festivals also received funding under the same stream as the €25,000.
A statement from the department said: “There were a number of festivals that could not avail of the Arts Council festival funding for a number of reasons, including a refused application, missed the Arts Council scheme cut-off, but were deemed suitable for funding under the strategic objectives of the department regarding increasing access to the arts.
This included South Wind Blows for the Other Voices Dingle event, Philip Barry Murphy Weekend [and] Éigse Michael Hartnett.
“The funds were allocated from regional museums, galleries, and cultural centres subhead.”
A spokeswoman for Listowel Writers’ Week said that “an integral part of our democratic system is the ability of members of Dáil Éireann to raise questions relating to public expenditure”.
In relation to the questions submitted by Mr Ó Snodaigh, the spokeswoman said: “Listowel Writers’ Week views such queries from deputies or other interested parties as an important element of transparency and accountability. We note that the relevant department has addressed these matters through formal parliamentary responses.”
She added: “A new board was appointed in March 2025 to oversee the governance and delivery of the festival and the festival company.
“Upon appointment, the board prioritised addressing operational and administrative matters to ensure the successful delivery of the 2025 festival. The board committed to operating in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and good governance standards.
"As is common practice in the arts and cultural sector, the festival was delivered in collaboration with a number of local cultural organisations and national partners. In recognition of this collaborative approach, the 2025 programme was presented under the title Listowel Literary Festival.”
She continued: “The board of Listowel Writers’ Week has established transparent and robust governance procedures and confirms that the organisation is compliant with its statutory obligations at this time, including its responsibilities to the Charities Regulator, Revenue, and public and private funders. The board is satisfied that no organisation or individual was placed at risk in the delivery or funding of the 2025 programme.”
She also said: “Like many long-established cultural organisations, Listowel Writers’ Week periodically reviews and strengthens its governance and administrative arrangements.
“Any matters that arose historically have been actively addressed, and the organisation continues to engage constructively with regulatory bodies and funders to ensure ongoing compliance and best practice.”
Plans are now under way for the 55th anniversary festival organised by Listowel Writers Week, from May 27 to 31 this year.
“Programme development is currently under way under the theme Sing, and Louder Sing, and further details will be announced in due course,” said the spokeswoman.
- Visit the festival website at WritersWeek.ie
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