Gallery Goes to Clifden Arts Festival: Molly Twomey and Kevin Graham
4.00pm
Sunday 21 September 2025
Omey Suite, Station House Hotel
Tickets: €10.00
Kevin Graham works in environmental risk, specialising in environmental liability. He holds a BSc in Applied Computational Linguistics from Dublin City University. His debut collection, The Lookout Post (2023), received widespread acclaim, was shortlisted for both the Pollard Prize and the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award, and won the Southword Debut Poetry Collection Award. His second collection, Time’s Guest (2025) has just been published by The Gallery Press.
Molly Twomey is a poet from Lismore, County Waterford. She earned an MA in Creative Writing from University College Cork in 2019. Her debut collection, Raised Among Vultures (2022), won the Southword Debut Poetry Collection Award and was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for Best First Collection and the Farmgate National Poetry Award. Her eagerly awaited second collection, Chic to be Sad, was published in 2025.
Kevin and Molly represent a vibrant new generation of Irish poets – bringing fresh voices, keen observation and emotional resonance to contemporary poetry.
Aifric McAodha and Noelle Lynskey
5.00pm
Wednesday 24 September 2025
Omey Suite, Station House Hotel
Tickets: €10.00
Aifric Mac Aodha is the Irish-language poetry editor of Poetry Ireland Review. Her first collection, Gabháil Syrinx (2010), was published by An Sagart. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish and Czech. She has received several Arts Council bursaries. Her latest collection, Old Friends (2024), with translations by David Wheatley, was published by The Gallery Press. Aifric lives in Dublin and works for the Irish- language publisher An Gúm.
Noelle Lynskey completed her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick in 2022 and was Strokestown’s Poet Laureate in 2021. Widely published in anthologies, journals, online and on radio, her debut poetry collection, Featherlight (Arlen House), was launched this year. She is artistic adviser to Portumna’s Shorelines Arts Festival, facilitates the Portumna Pen Pushers and will participate in a collaborative residency at Interface Inagh later this year.
Reading with Marina Carr and Mary O Malley
3.00pm
Thursday 25 September 2025
Station House Theatre
Tickets: €10.00
Marina Carr is a leading Irish playwright whose works include By the Bog of Cats (1998), Woman and Scarecrow (2006), Gilgamesh (2023) and iGirl. Her plays have been produced by major theatres worldwide and translated into many languages. She has received numerous awards including the Windham-Campbell Prize (2017) and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Marina has taught at Trinity College Dublin, Villanova, and Princeton, and is currently Associate Professor at Dublin City University. She is published by The Gallery Press, Nick Hern Books, and Faber & Faber.
Mary O’Malley was born in Connemara and educated at University College Galway. She has taught creative writing and Irish studies at universities including NUI Galway, Villanova, and the University of Limerick. An accomplished poet, she has published nine collections, most recently The Shark Nursery (Carcanet, 2024). Her work often explores the sea and bogland, reflecting her long-standing interest in environmental education. Mary has held residencies internationally and in Ireland, is a member of Aosdána, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Galway University in 2020.
