Shauna Mullin and Alan Colfer (with Mark Langan)

We are delighted to have the wonderful Shauna Mullin in concert. Shauna is one of the foremost singers on the Irish folk music scene and her repertoire ranges from the Ulster Song Cycle to the work of Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell with a dash of sean nos thrown in. She comes from a family steeped in music and always delights audiences wherever she performs.
Accompanying Shauna will be the virtuoso guitar player Alan Colfer. A highly regarded exponent of fingerstyle guitar Alan has played extensively around Europe and he draws influence from music the world over. He teaches at The Irish World Academy of Music in Limerick . As a taster for this concert we're excited to share this video specially recorded for Allingham. Your old Simon and Garfunkel albums will never sound the same!

Opening for Shauna we have Mark Langan. Anyone who has heard guitarist Mark play will be well aware of the musical treat that is in store for us tonight as we introduce his latest album Spellbound is Mark’s second album and, in his own words, has been in the making for the past 20 years. Tonight we will have a specially shot film to go with the wonderful music on the album.

This will surely whet the appetite for the live launch which will take place in the near future.

This is a must see gig. Friday, November, 7th, 8.00pm, Abbey Arts Centre, Theatre 1 Admission €15

Lady Morgan and Lola Montez.

Lady Morgan and Lola Montez. An imagined conversation.
Written by the hugely talented Maura Logue and performed by Marianne Fahy and Maura Logue, Dark Daughter Productions bring us this compelling piece of theatre which gives us a glimpse into the lives of two wild Irish girls of the North West. They followed their dreams and achieved fame and fortune against all the odds in the male dominated world of the early 1800s. This highly entertaining imagined conversation has them meeting up later in life and recalling their many escapades and romantic conquests.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7th 7.00 pm Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon Theatre 3. €10

Bookings:

Congratulations, Monica

For those of you who have been following our updates on the Carousel Aware Prize for Independent Authors, we have been remiss in not passing on the exciting news of the final result. We are delighted to announce that our good friend, Monica Corish, not only took the prize for best Fiction novel, but also received the overall Golden CAP Award for the best independently published book. Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch announced the Golden CAP award in a short video

LeafLight Moon evokes the story of the fateful encounter between the First Farmers and the hunter-gatherers who had lived in Ireland for thousands of years.

Copies are readily available from A Novel Idea, Ballyshannon; Liber Books, Sligo; Four Masters Bookstore, Donegal Town; and Chapters Bookstore and Books Upstairs, Dublin. On-line sources include The Lulu Bookstore and Amazon.ie for paperback and Kindle versions.

Monica will read from LeafLight Moon on Saturday, 1 November in the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton. She will also launch the novel in conversation with another old friend of the festival, memoirist Olive Travers at the 2025 Allingham Festival on Sunday 9 Nov at 1:30 pm in the Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon.

New Atlas for a Very Old Town

Is Ballyshannon the “Oldest Town in Ireland”?

Don’t ask us but come along to this year’s Hedge School for a genuinely learned discussion.

History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham will be talking to Angela Byrne, author of the recently published Ballyshannon edition of the Royal Irish Academy Irish Historic Towns Atlas Series. Pauric Travers will join them for a fascinating conversation carrying us all back to the earliest days of “The kindly spot, the friendly town.”

Thursday, November 6, Abbey Arts Centre admission free.

Excitement Mounting

As the clock ticks down to the Grand Opening of Allingham 2025 you can expect a flurry of reminders of wonderful elements in this year's program.

Where better to start than Opening night, Wednesday November, 5th? Ballyshannon Samba band will kick things off in style as they have done for several years, outside the Abbey Arts Centre before Donegal Arts Officer, Traolach Ó Fionnáin performs the official opening.

This will be followed by the much-anticipated Allingham Lecture, Age of Chaos: The New World Order. This will see the return to Ballyshannon of Nelofer Pazira, the Afghan-Canadian author, journalist and filmmaker who last year lit up the Abbey as guest of the Fifth Court podcast. Those who were present will need no reminding of her eloquent insights into the history and current state of affairs in the Middle East. Much has happened in the interim but how much has changed? This will be an enthralling evening. If your appetite needs to be further whetted, check out this column by Nelofer, recently published in the Sunday Independent discussing October 7th, two years on.