The Ennis Book Club Festival is a unique literary and social gathering for readers and writers. The annual celebration of reading offers discussions, workshops, drama, exhibitions and walking tours in a variety of town-centre venues.
Following the demise of the annual Ennis October Arts Festival there was a gap in the cultural calendar of the town. When the idea of a book festival was mooted Clare County Library saw a perfect opportunity for a partnership between the library and the community and the inaugural festival took place in March 2007.
Today, it is managed by a voluntary committee of 6, along with 1 library staff member. The committee has a range of complementary skills and experience in management, media, literature, communication and finance.
The festival aims to encourage reading and promote the value of literature in a non-elitist way; to promote and highlight the role of the Library in the community; to involve local artists, writers and young people; to provide a space for readers to share their love of books; to contribute to the cultural life, tourism and economy of the Ennis region; to provide a platform for writers to showcase their work and interact with readers.
Focusing on reading, Festival Chair Ciana Campbell said, “People who join Book Clubs read and discuss books – simple as that – and people who love books love the Ennis Book Club Festival. This is our sixth year working in association with Clare Co Library and I’m glad to report that we are growing from strength to strength.”
There are many book clubs organised through local libraries, but setting up a book club is often a very informal and spontaneous decision among friends and therefore it is difficult to be precise about the exact number of clubs in the country. With the success of the Ryan Turbidy Book Club, there may be many thousands – a huge group of people for whom the festival directly caters for.
Authors who have participated include Lionel Shriver, Edna O’Brien, Joseph O’Connor, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Nuala O’Faolain, Brian Keenan and many more of international repute. Book clubs, Librarians and readers travel from all over Ireland, as well as small numbers from Northern Ireland, the UK and the USA. Many attend annually and this repeat business is a good indication of the success of the festival. This year, speakers include Patrick Gale Sheila O’Flanagan Kevin Barry Lynne Reid BanksMaureen Gaffney Fergus Finlay Catriona Crowe and Christine Dwyer Hickey
The Ennis Book Club Festival runs annually on the first weekend in March in one of Ireland’s oldest and most beautiful towns. They have a centralised booking system which can take credit card bookings, hosted by Glór Theatre Box Office. Tickets for all events in all venues will go on sale in mid January 2012 at Glór Theatre Box Office. Tel. 065 6843103 or boxoffice@glor.ie for bookings. You can see the full programme at the Book Festival website.
Frances O’Gorman of Ennis Library told writing.ie, “Personally I’m really looking forward to Patrick Gale’s reading on Friday 2nd. His books are very popular with book clubs (he featured in Richard and Judy’s book club in 2008) and always make for great discussion so it’ll be interesting to meet him in person. We’re also delighted that his new book ‘A Perfectly Good Man’ will be launched at the Ennis Festival.”
(c) Frances O’Gorman/Vanessa O’Loughlin January 2012
For more information on festivals and literary events in your area, check out our Events section
