Writing a new chapter in Mullingar’s literary tradition

The sleepy Yorkshire town of Howarth would probably have remained an obscure little hamlet if not for the Brontë sisters.

Speaking of hamlets, or even Hamlet singular, where would Stratford-upon-Avon be without Shakespeare? Bearing that in mind, it could be argued that Mullingar’s plethora of literary connections beats everywhere, hands down.

People know about Joyce and Mullingar, but there’s also Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, JP Donleavy, Maria Edgeworth, Evelyn Waugh, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, Brinsley MacNamara (both of them) and that’s not an exhaustive list.

Even now, acclaimed novelists and poets based in and around Mullingar are tripping over each other; Patricia Gibney, Anne Griffin, Manchán Magan, Lorraine Murphy, Michael Harding, Nicole Flattery, John Connell and others have close associations with the town and many of them were present at the town’s inaugural Literary Festival last weekend.

One wonders why it took so long to get this off the ground, given the town’s remarkable literary tradition, but no matter – it’s here now, thanks to a small and dedicated team of writers and bookworms and admirers of the arts it looks like it’s here to stay.

On Friday evening, journalist and author Victoria Mary Clarke topped the bill and spoke exuberantly to Literary Festival PRO Don Mortell in the Greville Arms Hotel about her writing, the proliferation of angels in her life and, of course, about life before, with and after her great love, Shane McGowan. Her joie-de-vivre was infectious.

Prior to that there was Cork’s coolest spoken word storyteller, the hip-hop artist Olympio, and The Poetry Kiln Collective brought their own brand of words and rhythm to Caffrey’s bar. Music on the night was provided by the multi-talented indie rockers, Cronin.

On Saturday, the kids were welcome to doodle away in Mullingar library under the guidance of children’s author Dolores Keaveney in a fun, family-friendly event. Also in the library, novelist Lorraine Murphy hosted The Big Community Haiku to a packed house, where she taught her ‘class’ about the structure of the haiku. The resulting haikus were displayed afterwards in Caffrey’s bar, the hub of activities and events for the remainder of the weekend.

Later on Saturday, Brinsley MacNamara (the second one!) spoke about his book Weird Ireland, based on his social media channel of the same name. Mullingar Toastmasters hosted a hilarious homegrown episode of Whose Line is it Anyway?

Afterwards, multi award-winning novelist and short story writer Nicole Flattery spoke to novelist Anne Griffin, another multi award-winner, about her writing life and the writers who have influenced her work, including John McGahern, Marina Carr, Anne Enright, Kevin Barry and the great American writer Lori Moore. She also casually mentioned that she’s sold the film rights for her novel Nothing Special. And there’s more on the way from this major talent. Something special, no doubt.

Lorraine Murphy, author of three psychological thrillers, flash fiction prize-winner and creative writing tutor, spoke about the inspiration for her novels. Lorraine moved to Mullingar from Dublin over two decades ago and it’s since she settled here that her writing career took off. It might be something in the water.

Later in the evening, bestselling author Patricia Gibney, who has sold a staggering 2.5 million books, spoke about Detective Inspector Lottie Parker, the heroine of her crime novels, and of how she locates her novels firmly in the town.

The streets of the fictional Ragmullin (an anagram) are Lottie’s beat, and although some local places' names are changed, they’re easily spotted by the natives! She spoke of beginning to write as therapy after the loss of her husband in 2009.

Now on her sixteenth Lottie Parker novel, she was a charming guest, funny, practical and thoroughly engaging. Saturday night was rounded off with music from Jack Gaudet, one of the town’s rising musical stars who no doubt we’ll be hearing more from.

One of the highlights on Sunday’s schedule was John Connell, best known as author of The Cow Book though he’s written several other books that have achieved literary acclaim. He spoke to Anne Griffin about his days in Australia as a documentary maker and journalist and about how he found his way back to his home place in Longford, eventually returning to farming.

O’Connell is now an organic farmer as well as a writer and was profuse and eloquent about the things that matter to him most; his family, his love of the land and nature, his animals (including the Twelve Sheep he wrote a book about) and his community.

Anne Griffin, author of When All is Said, Listening Still and The Island of Longing – all hugely successful novels – spoke candidly about her recent bout of writer’s block and her efforts to alleviate it. She feels she has now turned a corner but admitted that until very recently, her fourth novel has been ‘just not right’. She also spoke about rejections from publishers.

When All is Said suffered more than thirty rejections and she reminded the audience of how rejection is simply part of a writer’s life. John Boyne is a good friend, and she spoke about how encouraging he has been from the start.

It's not possible to cover every event in this luminous festival but it made for a very special weekend. There was no admission charge in most cases, the staff in Caffreys Bar were exemplary and gracious hosts, and the big guests of the festival were not cordoned off into some VIP area, they alternated between being part of the audience or part of what was happening onstage.

Festival chairman Laurence Meehan and PRO Don Mortell, along with their committee, must be delighted. They’ve unleashed an energy in the town that’s palpable among its legion of writers, poets, artists, musicians, culture vultures and bookworms. There’s only one thing left to say; roll on Mullingar Literary Festival 2026.