Write By The Sea Literary Festival Closes in Kilmore Quay with Neil Jordan and Pat McCabe in Conversation
The Write By The Sea Literary Festival has concluded its three-day run in the picturesque fishing village of Kilmore Quay, County Wexford, with a featured event bringing together filmmaker and novelist Neil Jordan and author Pat McCabe at St Peter's Church — a pairing that drew one of the largest audiences of the festival's history and provided a fitting conclusion to an event that has established itself as one of the most intimate and distinctive literary gatherings in the Irish calendar.
Background
The Write By The Sea Literary Festival was established to bring literary culture to the south Wexford coast, a region better known for its beaches and fishing heritage than for its literary associations. The festival, which takes place annually in late September, has grown steadily since its founding and now attracts writers and readers from across Ireland and beyond. The choice of Kilmore Quay as the venue — a small fishing village with a working harbour, thatched cottages, and a strong sense of community — gives the festival a distinctive character that sets it apart from the larger urban literary events that dominate the Irish calendar.
The festival's programming philosophy emphasises conversation and intimacy over spectacle. Events are held in venues that allow audiences to engage closely with writers — St Peter's Church, the local community hall, and the harbour area have all served as festival venues — and the programme is designed to create genuine dialogue between writers and readers rather than simply presenting authors to passive audiences. This approach has attracted a loyal following of readers who value the opportunity to engage with writers in a setting that feels genuinely personal.
Neil Jordan and Pat McCabe are two of the most significant figures in Irish literary and cultural life. Jordan, who was born in Sligo and grew up in Dublin, is best known internationally as the director of films including The Crying Game, Michael Collins, and Interview with the Vampire, but he is also a distinguished novelist whose fiction — including The Past, Sunrise with Sea Monster, and Carnivalesque — has been widely praised for its lyrical intensity and its exploration of Irish identity and history. McCabe, who was born in Clones, County Monaghan, is the author of The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto, and a series of other novels that have established him as one of the most distinctive and challenging voices in contemporary Irish fiction.
Key Developments
The conversation between Jordan and McCabe at St Peter's Church on Sunday afternoon drew a capacity audience, with many attendees having travelled from Dublin, Cork, and further afield specifically for the event. The two writers, who have known each other for decades and share a deep engagement with the darker currents of Irish life and culture, ranged across topics including the relationship between fiction and film, the influence of place on their work, the experience of growing up in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, and the challenge of writing about violence and trauma without sensationalising it.
Jordan spoke about his ongoing engagement with fiction alongside his film work, describing the novel as a form that allows him to explore interior states and psychological complexity in ways that cinema cannot easily accommodate. McCabe discussed the influence of his Monaghan upbringing on his fiction, describing the border landscape of his childhood as a place of ambiguity and uncertainty that has shaped his sense of narrative and character. Both writers expressed admiration for each other's work and for the tradition of Irish literary fiction that they see themselves as part of.
The festival's three-day programme also included events with a range of other Irish and international writers, readings, workshops, and a children's programme that introduced younger audiences to the pleasures of literature. The Kavanagh Weekend in Inniskeen, County Monaghan — celebrating the legacy of poet Patrick Kavanagh — also concluded this weekend, providing a further opportunity for literary audiences to engage with the Irish literary tradition.
Why It Matters
The Write By The Sea Literary Festival matters because it demonstrates that literary culture can thrive outside the major urban centres and that readers in rural and coastal communities are as hungry for engagement with literature as their counterparts in Dublin or Cork. The festival's success in attracting major writers to Kilmore Quay — a village of a few hundred people — reflects both the quality of its programming and the genuine appetite for literary events that exists across Ireland. The pairing of Jordan and McCabe for the closing event was a particular coup, bringing together two writers whose work has shaped Irish cultural life over the past four decades and whose conversation provided a rich and stimulating conclusion to the festival.
Local Impact
The Write By The Sea Literary Festival has a significant positive impact on Kilmore Quay and the surrounding south Wexford area. The festival brings hundreds of visitors to the village over its three-day run, filling the local pub, the harbour café, and the bed-and-breakfasts that serve the area. Local businesses report that the festival weekend is one of the busiest of the year, and the economic benefit to the community is substantial relative to the size of the village. The festival also raises the profile of Kilmore Quay as a cultural destination, attracting visitors who might not otherwise have considered the area and who often return for subsequent visits. For the local community, the festival is a source of pride and a demonstration that their village has something distinctive to offer to the wider world.
What's Next
The Write By The Sea Literary Festival team will now begin planning for the 2027 edition, with the programme expected to be announced in the spring. The festival is expected to continue its tradition of bringing major Irish and international writers to Kilmore Quay, with the closing event pairing likely to be one of the most eagerly anticipated announcements of the literary calendar. Neil Jordan is expected to publish a new novel in 2027, and Pat McCabe has indicated that he is working on a new project that he hopes to complete in the coming year. Both writers expressed enthusiasm for returning to Kilmore Quay in future years, describing the festival as one of the most enjoyable events in their literary calendar.
