COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE
Monday, November 26, 2018
QUESTION NO. 6
QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor
"To ask the Chief Executive to furnish a report on the recent Red Line Book Festival, detailing highlights and confirming if anything emerged from the events which would assist planning for the 2019 Festival and will he make a statement?"
REPLY:
"The Red Line Book Festival 2018 hosted the most expansive and ambitious festival programme to date and was a great success – attracting an attendance of 3,495 people - increase of 16% attendance from previous year.
- 57 events over 7 days in 14 venues across South Dublin County
- 38 free events
- 19 paid events
- attendance rate at each event averaged 75%
The Red Line Book Festival is a vital part of the action plan of the Council Tourism Strategy and is an opportunity to highlight the cultural richness of South Dublin as well as its history and heritage. With some 57 events, the festival celebrated local, national and international writers.
This year’s highlights strongly featured some of the most striking and talented women writers in Ireland and beyond to mark one hundred years of women’s suffrage in Ireland. Three such events involved Alison Spittle, who hosted Internet Famous, a panel event with Tara Flynn, Aoife Dooley, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen in which the contributors discussed transforming Internet fame into publishing success. Angela Nagle discussed her controversial book Kill All Normies: The Online Culture Wars from Tumblr and 4chan to the Alt-Right and Trump and Emilie Pine discussed her book Notes to Self which exploded onto the literary scene this year.
The festival incorporated the annual Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition and ITT Short Story Competition. These competitions attracted entries from all around the world. We also launched the chapbook anthology Red Lines – a selection of poems from the first five years of the competition. We also hosted a number of writing workshops.
Clondalkin’s new status as a Líonra Gaeilge was celebrated with an evening of song, dance, poetry and music in the Round Tower Centre, Clondalkin.
A major aspect of the festival is always our extensive Schools and Children’s programme which boasted 11 shows translating to 23 individual shows.
The week ended on a high note with a live recording of RTÉ Radio’s Sunday Miscellany.
Looking forward to 2019, it is hoped to grow the Red Line Book Festival, to collaborate further with Rua Red and the Civic Theatre, to continue to attract popular authors and entertainers, to encourage reading and literacy for all and to attract tourists and locals alike to spend time in our libraries and wonderful historical venues in the South Dublin County."