Saturday 22nd July – A full day of events, film, talks, and walks.
All are welcome!
9.30 a.m. Film: Arthur and Charlotte, A Victorian Romance
Written by James Scully and performed by the Martello Players. The performance was filmed in December 2019 by Maebh O’Regan and features John Kennedy, Brendan Dolan, Michael and Angela Flannery, Michelle Flannery all of Banagherand Tullamore musician Val Hughes.
10.30 a.m. Talk: Travelling with the Brontës by Joanne Wilcock
Joanne is a very keen Brontë fan and has studied the travels of the Brontë sisters and observed that they were much more widely travelled than is generally known.
Joanne lives in Affetside in Lancashire, just an hour from Haworth and this is her second visit to Banagher.
11.20 a.m. Coffee break
11.45 a.m. Talk: Frances Browner will speak on her possible relationship with the Bell family and Arthur Bell Nicholls in particular. She will also relate her appreciation of the Brontë sisters and read from her poetry which celebrates their lives.
Frances Browner grew up in Dublin, now resides in Wicklow, and is proud of her Offaly roots. She has contributed articles to the Tullamore Annual, and the Birr, and Banagher Reviews. She was also a speaker at That Beats Banagher 2016 and was a regular contributor to Readings from the Palette in Corrigan’s Corner House. Her fiction, memoirs, and poems have won awards, appeared in magazines, literary journals, and short story anthologies, and been broadcast on radio. A creative writing tutor with Dun Laoghaire ETB and Greystones Cancer Support, Frances launched a short story/memoir collection, You Could’ve Been Someone in 2015, and a poetry collection Roots & Wings in 2019.
12.30 p.m. Questions and discussion
12.45 p.m. Lunch
2.30 p.m. Walk: In the footsteps of Arthur & Charlotte
A gentle walk up the hill of Banagher with Michael O’Dowd, author of Charlotte Brontë: An Irish Odyssey, Heart is Knit to Him, The Honeymoon, (Pardus Media, 2021). Frances Browner will also accompany the walkers. The walk will include visits to the well-appointed guest house Charlotte’s Way (formerly Hill House), and Saint Paul’s Church.
