Former President Mary McAleese tells of her life and times at Rostrevor Literary Festival
The eighth annual Rostrevor Literary Festival recently drew a capacity audience and heard former Irish President Mary McAleese give a fascinating account of her life and times.
The festival brought together a diverse range of writers and poets from north and south.
Mary McAleese was in conversation with journalist William Graham and talked about her favourite poet the late Seamus Heaney, and growing up in Belfast, experiencing the Troubles, and moving to live in Rostrevor for a period, before being elected President of Ireland.
She spoke about the theme of her presidency – ‘building bridges’ – and reconciliation.
Writers and poets at this year’s Festival included Eanna Ni Lamhna, Martina Devlin, Denis Bradley. John McCavitt, Francis Devine and Florence Gillan. Plus the audience heard songs from Rostrevor singer and musician Matthew McGrath.
Lead organiser William Graham said: “This was one of our most successful festival events and was a complete sell out with a capacity audience at An Cuan.
“I want to pay a tribute to the organising committee - Jane Kelly, Csilla Toldy and Carrie Alexander for the huge amount of work that was put into this highly successful event.”
He said the Saturday event was remarkable and also on Sunday there was a well attended special open mic event at the Rostrevor Inn which was chaired by Matthew McGrath.