Our 2025 Programme

Check out the innovative programme for the West Cork Literary Festival 2025!
Download our 2025 brochure

11 – 18 July 2025

Our friendly and inclusive literary festival, thriving for over 25 years, features renowned & emerging Irish and international writers, imaginative workshops, and free fringe events for all ages in amazing West Cork spaces.

Listen to readings on the loggia at Bantry House, improve your travel writing on a West Cork Island, or immerse yourself in the festival swim as part of a uniquely Irish literary festival that charms writers and readers alike!

Did you know, you can become a festival friend to get the benefit of priority booking, as well as many other benefits?

Letter Café

11 July 2025
Forest & Flock
Free. Every day except Tuesday
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Seeds of Change: A Glucksman Art Library project for WCLF

11 July 2025
Free. All week
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Come Sit Awhile: Dementia-friendly Stories and Memories

11 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Doire Press: Claire Hennessy & Jennifer Horgan

11 July 20253:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€12
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Spot the Translation with Katy Derbyshire

11 July 20253:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€12
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Opening Reception: West Cork Literary Festival

11 July 20255:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free. All Welcome
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Salena Godden: With Love, Grief and Fury

11 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Alan Hollinghurst: Our Evenings

11 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€20
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Pop Up Gaeltacht

11 July 20259:00 pm
Ma Murphy’s
Free – Saor in aisce – All welcome
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Dani Robertson: All Through the Night

12 July 202510:00 am
Marino Church, Bantry
€15
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Cauvery Madhavan: The Inheritance

12 July 202511:30 am
Bantry Bookshop
Free
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Paul Delaney: Jenny Peckles Lays Eggs With Speckles

12 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed: Age 4+
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Heather Clark: The Scrapbook

12 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Wake of the Whale: Alice Kinsella, Daniel Wade & Patrick Dexter

12 July 20252:15 pm
Whiddy Island
€25 including return ferry
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Bantry Historical Walking Tour

12 July 20252:30 pm
This WCLF tour is fully booked but Bantry Tourist Office hosts free tours every Tues & Thurs 11am during the summer
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Zainab Boladale: Braids Take A Day

12 July 20253:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Age 13+
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Society of Young Publishers Ireland Information Session

12 July 20254:30 pm
Ma Murphy’s
Free. All welcome
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Stories from Sweden: Lina Scheynius and Saskia Vogel

12 July 20255:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Ferdia Lennon & Colin Walsh

12 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Richard E. Grant: A Pocketful of Happiness

12 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€35
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Open Mic: Saturday

12 July 202510:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free
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Yoga on the Lawn

13 July 20259:00 am
Bantry House
€15 – pay the teacher on the day (cash only)
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Maria Barnas & Keith Payne

13 July 202510:00 am
Bantry House – Loggia
€12
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Irish Writers Centre: An Island of Many Nations

13 July 202512:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free but ticketed
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Leona Forde: The Wonderful World of Milly McCarthy

13 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages 7+
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John Creedon: This Boy’s Heart

13 July 20251:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€18
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W/w: A Performance by Sarah Long

13 July 20251:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€10
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Children’s Books Ireland: The Craft of Writing for Children and Teenagers

13 July 20253:00 pm
Work Shop Bantry
€20 (read more for info on financial support)
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Somerville and Ross: Claire Connolly

13 July 20253:00 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€18
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Gallery Goes to WCLF: Tom French, Vona Groarke & Aifric Mac Aodha

13 July 20255:00 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Children’s Authors and Illustrators Meet-Up hosted by Sarah Webb

13 July 20255:30 pm
Ma Murphy’s
Free. All Welcome
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Mona Arshi & Oluwaseun Olayiwola

13 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Caoilinn Hughes & Claire Kilroy

13 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€20
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Open Mic: Sunday

13 July 202510:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free
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CANCELLED – Katie Goh: Foreign Fruit, A Personal History of the Orange

14 July 202510:00 am
Bantry House – Loggia
€12
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Kel Menton: A Fix of Light

14 July 202511:30 am
Bantry Bookshop
Free. YA (and also loved by adults)
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Workshop: Nature Writing For Times Like These with Polly Atkin

14 July 202511:30 am
The Maritime Hotel
€230
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Patricia Forde: Letters to a Monster

14 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages 5-8
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Irish Writers Centre: Zine Workshop with Annie Mar

14 July 20251:00 pm
Work Shop Bantry
€5 (Ages 18+)
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Writer in Residence: Library Writing Groups 

14 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Lore Zine workshop with Rainbow Library

14 July 20252:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages: 12-17
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Stories from Sweden: Balsam Karam & Saskia Vogel: The Singularity

14 July 20252:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€18
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Performance Is A Verb: Performance Techniques for Writers and Beyond with Alice Barry

14 July 20253:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€15
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Rainbow Library: ‘Lore’ anthology launch

14 July 20253:30 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free. YA
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Seán Farrell & Quynh Tran

14 July 20255:00 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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grapevvine

14 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€15
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Neil Jordan: Amnesiac

14 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€25
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Open Mic: Monday

14 July 202510:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free
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Weekend Marking: XX Vickie Maye: 13/02/25  Acclaimed comic book artist and Marvel animator Will Sliney pictured holding a figurine based on his new short as the orchestra at the Cork school of music records the live soundtrack for the animation in the background. picture Chani Anderson

Will Sliney

15 July 202510:00 am
Bantry House – Loggia
€12
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Anna Fitzgerald: Girl in the Making

15 July 202511:30 am
Bantry Bookshop
Free
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The Doomsday Club: Kevin Moran

15 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages 9-12+
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New Dutch Writing: Valentijn Hoogenkamp & Michele Hutchison

15 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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The Lived Experience of Ireland’s Coast: Perspectives From The Coastal Atlas of Ireland – CUP at 100

15 July 20252:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€18
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Irish Writers Centre: Creative Writing Seminar with Sarah Moore Fitzgerald 

15 July 20253:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€7
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Irish Writers Centre: The Word on the Street

15 July 20255:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Open Mic Matinee

15 July 20256:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free. All welcome
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Sarah Maria Griffin & Rose Keating

15 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Carol Drinkwater: One Summer in Provence

15 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€20
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Open Mic: Tuesday

15 July 202510:00 pm
Ma Murphy’s
Free
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Workshop: Novel Writing with Paul McVeigh

16 July 20259:30 am
St Finbarr’s Boys National School
€230
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Workshop: Poetry with Ruth Padel

16 July 20259:30 am
St Finbarr’s Boys National School
€230
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Workshop: The Short Story with Ross Raisin

16 July 20259:30 am
St Finbarr’s Boys National School
€230
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Workshop: Travel Writing: The Sea with Helen Scales

16 July 20259:30 am
Whiddy Island
€245
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Workshop: Writing Places with Sarah Moss

16 July 20259:30 am
St Finbarr’s Boys National School
€230
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Katherine May: Enchantment

16 July 202510:00 am
Bantry House – Loggia
€12
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Chloe Michelle Howarth: Sunburn

16 July 202511:30 am
Bantry Bookshop
Free
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Story Detectives with E.R. Murray

16 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages 8-12
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Small Country, Big Continent: Translating Gaël Faye’s Burundi and Rwanda​

16 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Maurice J Casey & Michel Krielaars: Moscow in the Time of Stalin

16 July 20252:30 pm
Bantry House
€18
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Irish Writers Centre: Out on the Page

16 July 20253:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free but ticketed
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Helen Scales: What The Wild Sea Can Be

16 July 20255:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Launch of the 2025 Fish Anthology

16 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
Free
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Portrait of author Eimear McBride for Faber & Faber. By Kat Green. 2024.

Eimear McBride: The City Changes Its Face

16 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€20
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Open Mic: Wednesday

16 July 202510:00 pm
Ma Murphy’s
Free
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Arts For Health: West Cork with E.R. Murray

17 July 2025
Private Event
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Festival Swim

17 July 20259:00 am
The Abbey Strand
Free. All welcome
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Polly Atkin: The Company of Owls

17 July 202510:00 am
Bantry House – Loggia
€12
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Annette Skade: Holdfast

17 July 202511:30 am
Bantry Bookshop
Free
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Tiffany Murray: My Family and Other Rock Stars

17 July 202511:30 am
Future Forests
€18
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The World Between the Rain with Susan Cahill 

17 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages 9+
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Flip Through Flanders: Angelo Tijssens: The Edges

17 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Seán Ronayne: Nature Boy

17 July 20252:30 pm
National Learning Network (NLN)
€20
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Paul McVeigh & Ross Raisin

17 July 20255:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Picador Presents: Louise Hegarty, Sarah Moss & Gráinne O’Hare

17 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O’Connor Means to Us

17 July 20258:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€20
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Open Mic: Thursday

17 July 202510:00 pm
Ma Murphy’s
Free
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Barbara Leahy: Rembrandt’s Promise

18 July 202510:00 am
Bantry House – Loggia
€12
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Patrick Holloway: The Language of Remembering

18 July 202511:30 am
Bantry Bookshop
Free
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The President Book Series: Peter Donnelly

18 July 202512:00 pm
St. Brendan’s Hall
Free but ticketed. Ages 4-7
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James Harpur: The Gospel of Gargoyle

18 July 20251:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Wendy Erskine & Lisa Harding

18 July 20252:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€18
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The Engine of Story: Readings from UCC’s MA in Creative Writing

18 July 20253:00 pm
The Maritime Hotel
Free
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From the Well

18 July 20255:00 pm
Bantry Library
Free
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Thomas McCarthy & Ruth Padel

18 July 20256:30 pm
Marino Church, Bantry
€16
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Graham Norton

18 July 20258:30 pm
The Maritime Hotel
€35
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Programme

Arts Council - funding literature
Fáilte Ireland
Wild Atlantic Way
CCC Library & Arts Service
Cork County Council
Pure Cork
Creative Places West Cork Islands
Irish Examiner
Maritime Hotel