With the Jane Austen Evening in Castle Grove Country House already sold out and with many participants travelling from different parts of the country, Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter’s Literary Festival 2026 is already off to a flying start. Year-on-year the festival has grown and this year is no exception with almost twenty events lined up in an action-packed programme set to run from Tuesday, October 13 th until Sunday, October 18 th . Organiser Donnan Harvey is delighted that the festival is proving such a success. Working on the programme of events with Festival Director, Mary Turley-McGrath has been a challenging but rewarding experience. They are very pleased with the outcome. It’s a cliché I know, says Donnan but this festival gets bigger and better every year. “The other cliché about great oak trees growing from acorns is appropriate as well. When we started it was a very small event with a confined programme, but now it’s a full-blown literary happening with music, poetry, prose, a bookfair, a talk on AI, a session on songwriting and so much more. We have a full programme for everyone to check out. Almost literally, there’s something for everyone.” Donnan points out that the official opening of the 2026 festival will take place at the Donegal County Museum on Friday, October 16 th when academic and author, Professor Breandán MacSuibhne, a native of Ardara, will perform the honours. This will be followed by readings by author, Frank Shouldice from his book, Beneath the Cedar Tree. However, that is not the first event. The festival gets underway on Tuesday (Oct 13th) with a second level schools event hosted by Sue Divin who is author of two acclaimed novels, Truth be Told and Runaway Road. Sue will discuss the writing process as well as giving writing lesson leads. This will be followed on the Wednesday at the Regional Cultural Centre with a Quills and the Quarter visual presentation entitled Voices from the Cathedral Quarter. Philip O’Kennedy and Wild Atlantic Productions has produced four short films profiling different writers connected with the festival – Jane Buckley, Deirdre Hines, Pat McArt and Brian Walsh. Thursday will see a free event at Donegal Central Library with an evening of music, poetry and prose which a cast including Derry novelist Jeananne Craig, poet Mary Bates, Raphoe. Colmcille Press/Cló Cholmcille is, as ever, delighted to be associated with this event and sends Donnan and the team all the very best with their endeavours. Comghairdeas libh agus ádh mór. The full programme of events can be downloaded here.

It was terrific to see so many people - nurses, academics and book fans - at Derry’s Central Library for the launch of Liz Laird’s Troubled Adventures of a Student Nurse on Saturday September 26. Liz’s memoir of her time as a trainee at the Royal Victoria Hospital from 1979 to 1982 serves as a timely and sobering reminder of the worst of times, and of the trauma that period left on all of us. But the book also reminds us of the best of our humanity – when, despite terrible circumstances and personal dangers, nurses and other good folk stepped up to create and offer a sacred space where they could care for all of us, with compassion, sympathy and love. Key to this book’s lasting appeal is Liz’s unique perspective - a young, non-partisan outsider, Church of Ireland but with a strong Leitrim accent - acclimatising to the battlegrounds of Belfast. It’s a riveting read and there was a great contingent of medical personnel, and former colleagues of Liz from her time as a lecturer in nursing at Magee, at the launch, many buying multiple copies for friends and former colleagues. Colmcille Press would like to thank all those who attended: our most gracious interviewer Felicity McCall; guest speaker, Professor Neal Cook for his wonderful remarks; and Simon Quigg of Derry Central Library, our generous host and MC. Also, the publication could not have happened without the Colmcille Press team - Joe McAllister, Joe Martin, Jacqui Begley, Gerry Doherty, Martin Melarkey, Conal McFeely and all at Ráth Mór; we very much appreciate your great support. Most of all, we would like to thank Liz for entrusting us with this very special book. We have no doubt this is a work that will stand the test of time, as a frontline, eye-witness account of one of the most difficult periods of Ireland’s recent history. Well done to you Liz. This is an important and enduring piece of work. Comhghairdeas mór leat agus go raibh míle maith agat!

Labhraíonn Ciara Nic Gabhann faoi shaothar a saoil a hathar nach maireann mar ghníomhaí ar son na Gaeilge agus mar acadóir agus ceoltóir – agus faoina leabhar amhrán suntasach, Claisceadal cois Baile. Ciara Nic Gabhann talks about her late father's work as an Irish language academic and activist, and musician - and about his landmark songbook, Claisceadal cois Baile. Le tacaíocht ó Ráth Mór/Creggan Enterprises & Foras na Gaeilge.