Poet and publisher Kate Newmann will judge the entries to the 2024 Allingham Festival Poetry Competition. The winner of the Competition will also be declared the winner of the annual Francis Harvey Award.
Kate Newmann was Poetry Ireland Poet Laureate for Ballycastle, County Antrim. She is Co-Director of Summer Palace Press, which has published 56 collections of poetry since 1999. She read English at King's College Cambridge, and has served as Director of the Belmullet Writers' Festival. She has judged many poetry competitions, including Northwest Words and Concern Worldwide. She is the author of five collections of poetry, and her next collection will be published in 2025.
The Francis Harvey Poetry Award, first awarded in 2023, was created in memory of the Donegal poet whose writings have been compared to those of Norman MacCaig, RS Thomas, and the Japanese haiku master Basho. The name of the 2024 winner will be inscribed on a glass sculpture that symbolises the Francis Harvey poem “Heron” which won the World Wildlife Fund poetry competition.
The 2024 Allingham Poetry Competition is currently open for entries, with a deadline of 29 September. In addition to the Francis Harvey Poetry Award, the winning poet will win a €300 prize. The First-, Second- and Third-Place winners will read their work at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 9 November, along with the winners of the Allingham Flash Fiction Competition. Full details and entry forms for the competitions are posted on-line here
We are honoured to be in a position to bring you this critically acclaimed documentary from the makers of GAZA (2019). In the Shadow of Beirut penetrates deep below the surface of a still beautiful, yet deeply troubled city on the brink of financial collapse. The film weaves together the stories of four characters living in the districts of Sabra and Shatila struggling to survive with dignity and decency amidst unimaginable hardship. Sadly, this wonderfully intimate character-driven study from the Middle East is as timely as it is timeless.
The film is brought to us by Ballyshannon man Garry Keane who is one of the best documentary makers in the business. It is co-produced by Hilary and Chelsea Clinton.
Award Nominations:
George Morrison Feature Documentary Award in 2024 Irish Film and Television Awards
Best Feature Documentary in 2024 Cinema for Peace Awards
Best Documentary in 2023 Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards
Download the poster.
In the Shadow of Beirut will be shown in the Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon on Thursday, November, 7th at 8.00 pm Tickets: €10
Broadcaster and author Richard Curran will deliver the Keynote Address at the 2024 Allingham Festival on Wednesday evening, 6 Nov, speaking on the promise and perils of Artificial Intelligence.
Richard Curran is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author. He presents The Business show on RTE Radio One, and his columns appear in the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent. Host of eight series of Dragon’s Den on RTE, he has also co-written two books and made television documentaries. He serves as a qualified mediator.
Allingham Festival audiences of the last few years have regularly enjoyed interviews conducted by Sinead Crowley. We are delighted that Sinead has kindly agreed to host a number of events again this year. One of these will be a little different to anything she experienced in her former life as Media Correspondent of RTE.
It seems that somehow William and Helen Allingham will contrive to return to Ballyshannon for one night only to mark this very special Bicentenary Festival. They will talk to Sinead about William’s early days in Ballyshannon and his love of music, Helen’s significant achievements as a watercolourist and the many famous people they mixed with from Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens to Alfred Lord Tennyson, Hans Christian Andersen and the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. They may even be persuaded to say a word or two about how Ballyshannon has changed since they were last here.
Most of what will be said will be their own words from diaries, letters and other writings. The chat show format will be enhanced with a slideshow (or Magic Lantern in their words) and there will be a couple of musical interludes involving pieces associated with William. It may be that in some Allingham festival of the distant future a similar event will be organised using artificial intelligence and avatars in the style of those used for Abba in a current London production. For now, William and Helen will be played by local actors Michael McMullin and Patricia Keane.
The event will take place in the Abbey Arts Centre on Saturday, November 9 at 6 PM and will be finished in plenty of time for those going on to the Muireann Bradley concert in St Anne’s at 8.
Two years ago the Allingham Festival was delighted to welcome the actor Ian McElhinney for a conversation with Sinead Crowley. This year the focus moves to his wife, playwright Marie Jones and her wonderful one man play, A Night in November.
The play deals with one man's struggle with national identity during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. What he witnesses during the World Cup qualifying game between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 1994 leads him on a journey of self discovery.
At once funny, sad and very profound this drama has a real relevance in today's world considering the political situation on this island including the possibility of a referendum on the future of both North and South.
Paddy Campbell will bring “A Night in November” to this year’s festival. A familiar figure on local stages, Paddy moved to Donegal from Co Down 25 years ago and almost immediately joined a local Drama Society. His first acting role was in "The Patrick Pearse Motel" which led to parts in "Thy Will be Done”, "The Year of the Hiker", "I Do Not Like Thee Dr. Fell" and "Big Maggie".
He first performed “A Night in November” back in 2009 and he will reprise the role in the Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon on Saturday November 9th at 8.00pm. Adm. €12.