A highlight of the Maria Edgeworth Literary Festival has always been the incredible special guests who bring their talents to our stage. Over the years, we’ve welcomed celebrated storytellers, inspiring poets, mesmerising singers and musicians, gifted artists, and captivating entertainers.
The 2025 Festival promises to be just as extraordinary! Explore this page to discover the amazing line-up of guests we have planned for this year.
Click on the images below to learn more about our brilliant guests!
We recommend a visit to our Maria Edgeworth Centre to meet the Edgeworths ‘in person’.
The Centre, of course, pays homage to the celebrated 18th century novelist Maria Edgeworth. She was a notable literary pioneer, a feminist and social commentator of her time. But it also lets you get to know other members of this progressive thinking family. Housed in one of the oldest national school buildings in the Country, it also explores where the story of Ireland’s national school system began.
The Maria Edgeworth Visitor Centre in Edgeworthstown, County Longford, is in one of Ireland’s best kept literary secrets, right in the heart of a small rural community in Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands.
Visitors can enhance their experience by taking Edgeworthstown’s Heritage & Literary Walk which is a guided walking tour through the town’s past. Explore the area’s connections with historical figures such as Oliver Goldsmith and Oscar Wilde.
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Please pre-book your visit over Christmas and New Year at least 24h in advance via Email or Online booking.
MondayClosed
Tuesday10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Adult €7.50
Children 10 to 16 €3
2 Adults & 2 Children €15
Adult is 16 years+
Family Ticket is 4 family members together
Children under ten are free but must be accompanied by an Adult
The Maria Edgeworth Centre is operated under the direction of the Edgeworthstown District Development Association (EDDA) – a Not for Profit Voluntary Community based registered charity Reg:223373. Registered Charity Number 20101916
© 2023 Maria Edgeworth Centre – All Rights Reserved
Tríona Walsh is a best-selling author of Irish-set crime novels, all of which have been translated internationally. She is also an award-winning short story writer, having won the Molly Keane and Jonathan Swift competitions with The White Mulberry and Perhaps the Flames. Her shortlisted story Salt was broadcast on RTÉ Radio One as part of the Francis MacManus competition series.
Growing up, she loved the works of Agatha Christie and John Grisham, and now devours anything by Jane Casey, Kate Atkinson, and Ruth Ware. Despite her love for these authors, Tríona longed for crime novels set not in faraway America or the UK, but here at home in Ireland. Her three crime novels are set in real Irish locations—among the ancient ruins of Inis Mór, deep in the forests of a reimagined Moore Hall in Co. Mayo, and by the wild, windswept Fanad Lighthouse in Co. Donegal.
Her short stories explore the complexity of human relationships and the lengths we will go to for love and connection.
Lani O’ Hanlon is a writer and somatic movement therapist living in West Waterford. Her writing is published internationally in various journals including Southword, Poetry, Portland Review, Poetry Ireland and the Irish Times and broadcast on RTE’s Sunday Miscellany. Winner of the Poetry Ireland Trocaire Award in 2022 and with director Fiona Aryan – The Bloomsday Award for Poetry Film in 2024, other prizes include: Dromineer, Bridport, Poetry on the Lake and shortlisted for the Hennessy Literary Award / Emerging Fiction. Her poetry collection Landscape of the Body (2023) is published by The Dedalus Press.
Lani is a highly experienced facilitator/voice-over/reader/performer with an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University, she works as a poet in palliative care, mental health and well-being with Waterford Healing Arts and facilitates creative writing, well-being and somatic movement retreats in the South East. She is the author of Dancing the Rainbow, Holistic Well-Being through Movement, Mercier Press and is a member of the Laban Guild for Dance and Drama.
Andrea Mara is a Number One Sunday Times, Irish Times, and Kindle bestselling author, who has been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the An Post Book Awards for four of her books. Her most recent novel, Someone In The Attic was published in June 2024 and went straight to number 2 on the Irish bestseller list. It was published in the US in August 2024, her US debut. The New York Times said: “[Mara] lays out the pieces of the puzzle with diabolical wit, some good suspense and an unexpected note of sentimentality.”
Her previous novel, No One Saw A Thing, was a Number One bestseller in the UK, in Ireland and on Kindle, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, and has sold over quarter of a million copies. In Ireland, No One Saw A Thing spent five months in the Original Fiction Top Ten followed by seven months in the Paperback Top Ten. Her novel All Her Fault was Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, a top ten bestseller in the UK and Ireland, and a Kindle Top 5 bestseller. It has been optioned for TV and commissioned to go into production by US streamer Peacock, starring Sarah Snook, in her first TV role since Succession.
She lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband and three children.
Steve Lally is an international storyteller and best selling author. He takes his stories far and wide and is passionate about breathing life into this vital and significant art form. Lally’s repertoire of tales ranges from ancient Celtic epics of Ireland and beyond, to stories of adventure and romance. He has written three books on Irish Folklore and his work is also a part of a major Anthology of Irish Folk Tales. His faith and love of folklore expresses itself through humorous anecdotes, quirky comic tales and haunting ghost stories. He has also co-written with his wife Paula, a unique anthology of Fairy Stories from the 32 counties of Ireland entitled ‘Irish Gothic’. Be prepared to be taken on a magical journey through the ethereal wall that separates our world from theirs…
Niamh Coughlan, originally a Derry Girl, now living in wee Donegal and married to a Corkman! Niamh works as a tour guide specialising in historical walking tours of Donegal Town and I also work part time in the Donegal Railway Heritage Museum.
I have always loved Halloween as it falls around my birthday. For my 40th birthday I decided to make the dress of my dreams – an 18th century Marie Antoinette confection.
My interest in historical costuming really took off in Covid times, when I had a lot of time on my hands. I began to look at using recycled fabrics such as curtains and duvet covers to keep costs down and be more eco friendly. I occasionally conduct walking tours in costume, any excuse to play dress up! I first met Melissa when I attended a presentation she was doing in Letterkenny, Co Donegal and Melissa was doing a talk on Regency fashion, and I attended in full 18th century regalia.
Vitor Vicente is a Portuguese author of 12 published books with the theme of travelling running through all his work. He has been living in Ireland for more than 8 years. Some of his stuff has been translated to Spanish, Polish, English and Hungarian.
His latest title is the poetry collection “Harry Kernoff’s Guest”, which also contains reproductions of the paintings that inspired the writing.
He hosts the podcast TheWittyVitor.
Dr Melissa Shiels is a recent doctoral candidate, awarded her PhD from UCC in 16th-century Irish history, focusing on gift exchange and material culture. She has been making historical clothing since 2002, recreating clothing from the Viking, Medieval, Tudor/Elizabethan, Georgian, Regency, and Victorian periods. Melissa gives costumed talks for a wide range of audiences, both academic and non-academic, speaking in museums, libraries, schools, literary festivals, as well as university lectures.