Biggest book festival returns to Delvin for the 15th year
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Henry Mulligan, James and Kyle Farrelly playing to entertain visitors to Delvin on Sunday.Image 2 of 19
Pauline Gaffney, Marie Coll, Joan Carolyn and Marie Grassick.Image 3 of 19
People queued to get in and look for literary treasures.Image 4 of 19
Festival organiser Michael Murphy and Aoife Murphy.Image 5 of 19
Caoimhe and Ava Gary, and Sarah and Ann-Marie Moore.Image 6 of 19
Maria Kelleghan and Dympna Comiskey.Image 7 of 19
Yvonne Tierney.Image 8 of 19
Tyler Kelleghan and Beatrice Kelleghan with books they found.Image 9 of 19
Anna Clune, Laura McAvoy and Sophie Gaffney selling bracelets at the Book Festival.Image 10 of 19
Ali Masho and Wania Ali.Image 11 of 19
Anna and Kristina Reynolds enjoying the day in Delvin.Image 12 of 19
Amy and Bridget Townley in Delvin on Sunday.Image 13 of 19
John, Fionán, Rian and Carrie Mangan enjoying the book festival on Sunday.Image 14 of 19
Patsy Guirke chatting to Fr Heaney.Image 15 of 19
The various venues were packed with books in the morning, and largely empty later.Image 16 of 19
Michael Leonard and Marie Grassick.Image 17 of 19
James Dylan looking through books.Image 18 of 19
Joan Carolyn, Pauline Gaffney.Image 19 of 19
Layla and Tracie Bernie with piles of reading.Delvin marked 15 years of providing customers with high quality pre-loved books, at €1 each, when the annual festival, now known as Valley of the Books, took place on bank holiday Sunday.
There was a huge variety of books to choose from – an estimated 20,000 plus. This year, the organisers had six venues where visitors browsed for titles to pique their interest, and from noon to 5pm, the buildings were filled with book lovers.
Michael Murphy, one of the organisers of the festival, said: “The event itself is to raise money for our local sports centre, the DSLC, So the money made from the book festival today goes into maintaining that for the community.”
In the middle of the village, there was music, and dancers were performing, as people stopped to enjoy it in the sunshine after buying their books.
Yvonne Tierney, who hosted people in her shop to browse and buy books, said: “I think the book festival is fabulous, I think it’s a brilliant idea and it’s great for the village.”
The book festival went extremely well; St Patrick’s Hall was the main venue for books and there visitors enjoyed interesting reads and friendly interactions throughout the day.
The festival had begun on Friday with an arts and crafts fair and the feelgood factor continued on Saturday with music in various venues around Delvin.