Record numbers attend Athlone Literary Festival

Record numbers attended the Athlone Literary Festival in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel last weekend with people coming from far and wide to attend a busy weekend's schedule. Senator Marie Louise O'Donnell's entertaining opening on Friday last paved the way for an event revolving around former Mountjoy governor John Lonergan's book, The Governor. Lonergan spoke briefly about his reasons for writing his book and why he felt compelled to speak out against the Irish prison system. He recalled the tale of a young woman who had reached death's door on several occasions through her addictive marriage to heroin. "Eventually after numerous attempts this particular prisoner became clean. We were thrilled with her progress," he said, "She was released and got a job and all was going well for two years. The woman in question was working in a clothes shop and the prison staff used to go down and congratulate her on her success. However, he explained that all of this progress this unravelled in one day. On this particular day the security guard of the shop was out sick. His replacement spotted the woman and told her to get out. She replied that she worked there and the guard went to the manager of the store and told her that this woman was a thief who had done time. "With that she was fired. I mean what chance do these people have? Would you hire the person who tells you he spent fifteen years in Mountjoy? Probably not," Mr Lonergan said. A lively debate, chaired by Athlone's Ollie Hegarty, followed with psychologist John Donohue of Na Linte book store, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness and Senator O'Donnell. Philomena Lynott and Jackie Hayden's discussion of her new book 'My Boy' on Saturday night was a heart-rending account of being a single mother in 1940's England. Ms Lynott said the new edition of the book includes the fact that she had two other children after Philip both of whom were given up for adoption but who have recently found her. Micheal Harding's readings of his Irish Times column 'Displaced in Mullingar' was the perfect aperitif to lighten the spirits. Howls of laughter reverberated around the room triggered by the expert delivery of a comic genius in a thick Leitrim accent. This year's festival included a number of events for younger people and provided a platform for up and coming writers and artists. The festival also included an exhibition of original political cartoons by Donal Casey which is continuing this week in the Bastion Gallery and the Egg Pyramid Art Exhibition by the Making Space Collective. Druid Theatre Director, Thomas Conway, explained the intricate structural devices used by playwrights in his play writing workshop. Students in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel were put through their paces through role play, story telling and improvisation. On Saturday children between the ages of seven to ten attended two workshops as part of the festival. Siofra Connolly described the creative writing workshop given by 5th year Bower student Sinead Kilgariff as "brilliant". "Sinéad was very inspiring, she gave us very helpful tips on how to write. She had great ways of getting us to know our characters and finding ways to show your characters feelings without actually saying them. We did brilliant warm-up games to get our minds flowing with ideas". Students attending the comic strip workshop given by Aoife Heraghty emerged at the end with their very own cartoon strips. The workshop had record numbers and encouraged students to play around with plot and gave tips on sketching characters. The Big Smoke writing workshop held on Saturday in the Shamrock Lodge assisted aspiring local adult authors with their writing skills. Nicole Rourke of a Dublin-based writing company gave an intense four-hour workshop from which students emerged enlightened. Meanwhile, at Athlone's Sunday Miscellany, Mary O'Rourke gave a brief sample of her much-anticipated memoirs. "When I lost my husband and my two brothers those deaths weighed heavily on me I was under an immeasurable amount of grief. So when I lost my seat I thought it's not the end of the world, no one died … people started sending me cards telling me to enjoy my retirement but retirement was not written all over me, certainly not," she said.