Delvin Book Festival – arts and crafts; trad music; monster book sale
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St Patrick’s Hall in Delvin was busy throughout Sunday afternoon – left, people queueing.Image 2 of 12
Jim Monks, author of Tales of Gaels and Bales, with Helen Dunne.Image 3 of 12
Michaela Leech, Irene McGowan, Helena Leech and Callum Leech in Delvin with their bags of books on Sunday.Image 4 of 12
Anne , Rosie, Lucy and Cllr Frank McDermott on Sunday afternoon.Image 5 of 12
Aoife and Eoin O’Connor in the children’s section.Image 6 of 12
Michael Leonard, Norman Dolan and Marika Coll from the festival committee.Image 7 of 12
Sarah Gallagher from Killucan browsing through the books.Image 8 of 12
Best friends from Mullingar, Iona Duffy and Fiadh Geoghegan, on Sunday.Image 9 of 12
Elsie and Paul Rogan in the Youthreach Centre.Image 10 of 12
Jean O’Neill, Myles O’Neill and Jake Brady at the Aontú office, which was used for selling books.Image 11 of 12
Lorenzo Hynes and Joe Gavin from Mullingar played the uilleann pipes in Mary Gaffney’s.Image 12 of 12
The organising team at the Delvin Book Festival are delighted with how their expanded event went over the bank holiday weekend.
The well established book fair is now a three-day festival, and remains a fundraiser for the Delvin Sports and Leisure Centre (DSLC), which Norman Dolan, chairperson of that and also of the festival, described as “a community group providing facilities for the community”.
The crowds over the weekend, and on Sunday for the book fair in particular (there were queues to get in to some of the venues), were up on their usual numbers, and the organisers estimate that they sold 13,000 books. They made more than €7000, which will be divided between a fund for a sensory garden at the DSLC and general running costs for the centre.
Norman and fellow committee member Pat Murphy thanked all the business owners in the village “who provided so much help in running the festival”.
In particular, they expressed their gratitude to Delvin Youthreach, who collected books in the weeks ahead of the event and offered the use of their premises at the weekend; the Aontú office; Mary Fox, hairdressing; Mary Gaffney of Gaffney’s bar and lounge, who offered part of their premises for selling books; and Barry’s Pharmacy, who offered their car park. Many others helped as well, by providing car parking and space for selling books.
The pubs of Delvin hosted music on Saturday and Sunday nights, and Norman says the traditional theme was a warmup for the Fleadh Cheoil in Mullingar, and next year it will be a warmup for Wexford!
A newly added arts and crafts show on Friday attracted many more people than the team had expected. The local schools attended to view the works and learn new skills. Pat Murphy and Hazel Revington were the individuals who drove that project to success.
As they plan to expand the festival, they have had offers from more business owners to make their premises available for selling books. There were some self-published authors present selling their books on Sunday, and the team encourage more of those to attend and enjoy the festival.
Last October, they held a book sale, and they will hold another one in October this year, the purpose of which is to keep books in circulation.
Norman said the event ran so smoothly that by Sunday evening the committee had only one hour of work to do between them to wrap up the weekend’s duties.