Date: Saturday 30th May 2026

Venue: Listowel Arms Hotel Main Room

Time: 8:30PM

The History of Money – Author, journalist, economist and podcast host David McWilliams  breaks down the mysteries of money, from how it’s created to why it’s such a powerful force in society. In his recent book, The History of Money, McWilliams takes us across the world, from the birthplace of money in ancient Babylon to the beginning of trade along the Silk Road, from Marrakech markets to Wall Street. Along the way, we meet a host of innovators, emperors, frauds, and speculators, who have disrupted society and transformed the way we live.

Whether you’re an economics novice or a seasoned expert, this event will leave you with a deeper

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Venue: Kilmorna Collection

Time: 6 PM

The raw bone: spoken word with Siobhán De Paor

An chnámh amh: filíocht ó béal le Siobhán De Paor
An ode to the mundane and the mystical in this spoken word performance.
There are invocations to the ancient archetypes and exposés of our contemporary capitalist story.
Siobhán’s pieces are bardic, epic and witty.
She speaks to the contradiction of the human experience in a call to spiritual activism and cultural reclamation.

Filíocht ó béal: Tá ómós go dtí an saoltach agus an naofacht sa léiriú seo.
Tá gairm chuig na haircitíop ársa agus nochtú ar an scéal chaipitleachais comhaimsirthe.
Filíocht na mbard atå i gceist atá éachtach agus tráthúil leis.
Déannann sí trácht ar codarsnacht an taithí dhaonna i glaoch ar gníomhaíocht spiorodálta agus athbheochan a dhéanamh ar ár gcultúr.

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Date: Saturday 30th May 2026

Venue: St John’s Theatre & Arts Centre

Time: 5.30 PM

Imagining Worlds and Inventing Realities

We are delighted to welcome back to Listowel, twice winner of our Kerry Irish Novel of the Year for Shade and Mistaken, author Neil Jordan. He will discuss his latest novel. The Library of Traumatic Memory, the first literary science fiction novel from the visionary director of. The Crying Game, Michael Collins and The Butcher Boy. Set in 2084, Christian Cartwright, a quiet librarian at the Huxley Institute archives traumatic memories and, after the mysterious death of his lover Isolde, risks everything by resurrecting her as a digital consciousness to uncover a deeper conspiracy.

Novelist and short story writer, Keith Ridgway is regarded as one of Ireland’s most distinctive literary voices .His debut novel The Long Falling won the prestigious Prix Femina Étranger and Standard Time which won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Today, he presents Dooneen, his dreamlike and inventive novel of dislocation, alternate Dublin realities, and insurgent possibilities.

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Date: Saturday 30th May 2026

Venue: Plaza Hall

Time: 5 PM

An Evening with Liz Nugent & Claire Coughlan

Join two of Ireland’s most compelling crime writers for a gripping evening of conversation exploring their latest novels—stories of secrets, consequences, and the dark undercurrents of seemingly ordinary lives.

Liz Nugent’s sixth novel, The Truth About Ruby Cooper is centred around the repercussions of a rape. Set between Boston and Dublin, this haunting novel traces the devastating after math that ripples across decades, shaping—and shattering—lives. Liz Nugent’s previous novels have each been Number One bestsellers and she has won five Irish Book Awards, as well as the James Joyce Medal for Literature. She lives in Dublin.

The new atmospheric mystery from Claire Coughlan, Among the Ruins is a beautifully written tale about one woman’s need to find the truth, whatever the cost. In Dublin, 1970, journalist Nicoletta Sarto balances career and motherhood while investigating the mysterious death of Helen Leonard and the vanished nurse who inherited everything. Claire Coughlan’s debut novel, Where They Lie, was published in 2024 and shortlisted for the An Post Irish Crime Novel of the Year award.

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Date: Saturday 30th May 2026

Venue: Listowel Arms Hotel Main Room

Time: 3.30 PM

This Is Also a Love Story

From the Orwell Prize-winning author, This Is Also a Love Story chronicles both the astonishing acts of bravery that love inspires, as well as the touchingly ordinary connections people make in extraordinary times. Her book is a powerful account of human resilience in an era defined by crisis—war, displacement, climate collapse and inequality—drawing on Hayden’s reporting from some of the darkest moments of our time.

Sally Hayden is an award-winning journalist, photographer, author and an international correspondent for the Irish Times. Her first book, My Fourth Time, We Drowned won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award, the Michel Déon Prize and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.                                   

Sally will be in conversation with Senior International Journalist from the Guardian Julian Borger.

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