An Audience with William and Helen

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.

Night(s) in November!

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.

Dramatic Colleagues

A brand new element in this year’s Allingham Festival is AllingDram, an innovative joint project between the festival and Ballyshannon Drama Society. Although it’s the first year in this form it can be said to have grown from a previous collaboration between the groups. In 2019, playwright Frank McGuiness offered a new version of his play, The Breadman to the groups and invited them to stage a production. All reports suggested that he was very pleased with what he saw when he attended as a special guest that year.
This year, we’re trying something a little different. Instead of an established playwright, we are working with three emerging writers with strong Donegal connections. They have each supplied us with an excerpt, approximately 20 minutes long, from a work they have in progress. The Drama Society will give these excerpts a ‘Workshop Production’ in the Abbey Arts Centre on Sunday November 10th, as introduction to a work in progress. This will be more than a reading but short of a full production. Lines will be learned, rehearsals completed and some basic props and costumes used. Performances will be followed by a short roundtable discussion involving the writers, directors and audience.
It’s particularly nice to note that, of the cast of 13 in The Breadman (2019), six are involved in these productions. Details of the individual excerpts will follow shortly but here’s a brief introduction to whet your appetite.

• Homegirls is a historical piece by Shaun Byrne set in St Joseph’s, Stranorlar in 1932. It will be directed by Sean McLoone and features Louise Larkin, Ann-Marie Garvey Roisin Lee, Diarmuid McInerney and Sean McLoone
  
• The Evicted by Kieran Kelly also has a historical Donegal setting, this time taking the Derryveagh Evictions as the background. The director is Terence McEneaney and the cast for this segment will be Ronan Drummond, Callum Gallagher and Joanne Cassidy.
  
• Finally, The Priests by Gerry Moriarty has a contemporary setting. Father John Donovan, an Irish priest has retired from a career in the missions to a parish in the English midlands. Mary O’Connor, his widowed housekeeper was also a friend in his teenage years at home in Ireland. They will be played by Mark Kirby and Mary Hoey with Kevin Lily’s direction.
  

  Overall coordination for Ballyshannon Drama Society is by John Travers.

Flash Fiction Competition Judge

Phot of Nuala O'Connor

Entries in the 2024 Allingham Flash Fiction Competition will be judged by Nuala O’Connor, acclaimed author of SEABORNE and editor of the e-journal Splonk. Deadline for entries is 29 September.

NORA by Nuala O’Connor was chosen as Dublin’s One City One Book novel in 2022 and was selected as was a Top 10 historical novel by the New York Times. Her sixth novel SEABORNE about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny has been published in April 2024 by New Island. Nuala O’Connor won Irish Short Story of the Year at the 2022 Irish Book Awards, and she serves as editor of the flash e-journal Splonk. She lives and writes in Galway.

First-, Second- and Third-Place winners of the Poetry and Flash Fiction awards will read their winning entries at the Literary Lunch at noon on Saturday, 9 November during the 2024 Allingham Festival. In addition to the First-Place €300 cash award, winning entries in the 2024 Flash Fiction Competition will also be published in Splonk.

The 2024 Allingham Festival will run from 6-10 November in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. Highlights of the Festival will include a keynote speech on Artificial Intelligence by RTE broadcaster Richard Curran, and a concert by delta-blues prodigy Muireann Bradley. Details of the Festival, including rules and entry forms for the Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions, are available here.

Sorry about that!

Apologies to anyone who recently had difficulty submitting online entries to our writing competitions and sincere thanks to the two who brought the matter to our attention. We hope and believe it's now corrected but if anyone is still having a problem please let us know at allinghamfest@gmail.com.