Dublin Book Festival's 'Departures' series visits Mayo

DUBLIN Book Festival has announced a special summer series of conversation and music, with Departures Volume II filmed in Mayo.

Filmed in locations around Westport and Louisburgh, the episode will celebrate the importance of our surroundings and their endless inspiration with some of our most talented contemporary artists, including Mike McCormack, Alice Kinsella and music from Cormac MacDiarmada (of Lankum) and Ruth Clinton (Landless).

This free event will stream online on Tuesday, July 13, but you must register at https://dublinbookfestival.com/.

Since 2006 the Dublin Book Festival has been a mainstay of the Irish writing and publishing scene and a highlight of the literary year. With its special focus on Irish-published authors, the 2021 festival continues that tradition of promoting and supporting Irish literary voices, both established and emerging.

This year the festival is creating a specially curated once-off digital summer series. Departures will be a vibrant series of conversation and music set amidst some of the most beautiful scenery around Ireland.

The Irish ever-changing landscape is a constant that has long been a source of inspiration and interwoven in artists’ work, whether it be through stories and literature or poems and songwriting. These recent times, trying though they have been, have seen us reconnect with each other and with the land in ways many have forgotten, and this series reflects on the deep connection between landscape and place in all art forms.

Presenter Manchán Magan travels to Westport to speak with novelist Mike McCormack and poet Alice Kinsella. On the shores of Clew Bay, Mike and Alice discuss the power and resonant beauty of the Irish landscape in their art as actor Paul O'Brien reads some of their works inspired by the scenery.

There will be musical interludes throughout from the Town Hall Theatre in Westport from Cormac MacDiarmada from RTÉ Folk Award and Choice Music Prizing winning band Lankum and Ruth Clinton from Landless as they combine forces to perform their own songs from the landscape.

The Dublin Book Festival is supported by Arts Council of Ireland, Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, Dublin City Council, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.

Venue partners include Brooklodge Hotel, Westport Town Hall Theatre, Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh and Spike Island Tours.

Departures is made possible by funding from The Arts Council of Ireland

* View the trailer here: the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-36aAG62l5A.