The Allingham Festival

14/09/2026

Everybody knows Donegal's famous names. Seán Beattie is more interested in the ones you don't.

In his latest publication, 'Famous Folk of County Donegal', Seán provides profiles of people from the county's past who either never got the attention they were due, or who have been forgotten with the passage of time.

A few of these lesser-known folk from County Donegal will be the focus of Seán's talk on Saturday afternoon at the Allingham Arts Festival.

Seán is well-known as a historian in the county, having edited the 'Donegal Annual' for the Donegal Historical Society for 25 years, and co-edited 'The Atlas of County Donegal'. Other titles by Seán include 'Donegal In Transition' on the impact of the Congest Disctricts Board, and 'Donegal in Old Photographs', amongst others. He has contributed to many TV and radio programmes, including Sunday Miscellany and Edgewise, and publishes his own blog, www.historyofdonegal.com.

Guaranteed to be an interesting event for the history buffs.

🗓 Saturday 7th November, 1.30pm
📍 Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon
🎟 €10 + booking fee

More info: https://allinghamfestival.com/events/sean-beattie-famous-folk-of-donegal/

Join Seán Beattie in the Abbey Arts Centre as he talks about his latest book 'Famous Folk of County Donegal', featuring profiles of 'famous folk' from the past.

10/09/2026

"The novels are the work, the poetry is kind of the fun."

Elaine Feeney has been near the top of the bestseller lists since 'As You Were' in 2020. 'How to Build a Boat' was longlisted for the Booker. 'Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way' won her Author of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. If that wasn't enough, there were four poetry collections alongside all of that!

Elaine will be joining us on the Saturday at the Allingham Arts Festival, for a conversation with Sinéad Crowley, former Arts and Media Correspondent at RTÉ, and long-time friend of the festival.

🗓 Saturday 7 November, 4pm
📍 Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon
🎟 €15

https://allinghamfestival.com/events/elaine-feeney-with-sinead-crowley-2/

08/09/2026

Michael Harding's 'Midwinter' in November - could there be a more apt booking for the Allingham Arts Festival in Ballyshannon?

Michael's book came out last October. Meditations on ageing and the turn of the year, written through the dark months at home by the fire. The Irish Times called it beguiling.

Fans of his podcasts, 'On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist', will know the tone. He can carry a philosophy for a page, then undercut it with a line about the weather, or the cat...and rest assured, it's a great deal funnier than any description of it sounds.

An hour in his company on a Sunday afternoon in Donegal, with the light going outside and the winter still ahead of us.

🗓 Sunday 8 November, 3.00 pm
📍 Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon
🎟 €20

https://allinghamfestival.ticketsolve.com/shows/1173675633/events

04/09/2026

Denise Blake to Judge 2026 Allingham Poetry Competition

The Allingham Festival Committee is pleased to announce that poet, author and creative writing tutor Denise Blake will judge the entries in the 2026 Allingham Poetry Competition. She replaces poet and publisher Kate Newmann, who will be unable to attend the Awards Ceremony on November the 7th at the Allingham Festival.

The 2026 Poetry & Flash Fiction Competitions are open for entries until September 27th.

Competition rules and entry forms are found online at
https://allinghamfestival.com/competitions/fiction-poetry-competitions/

If you haven't entered yet, what's keeping you???

The Allingham Festival 2026 Poetry & Flash Fiction Competitions are now open! Find out more about how to enter here.

27/08/2026

✦ NEW WEBSITE ✦ NEW PROGRAMME ✦ TICKETS ON SALE ✦ 🍂

"Autumn's the mellow time..."
But November is Allingham time!

And now is the perfect time to start planning your trip to Ballyshannon for 5 days and nights of words, music and craic at the 2026 Allingham Arts Festival!

We've got a newly designed website to help you explore the full programme, learn more about the festival and the area, and most importantly – book your tickets!

Once again, we have a programme packed full of writers, poets, music, film, history, and much more!

📖 Michael Harding
🎻 Ár Seisiún Mór with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Friends
✍️ Elaine Feeney
📚 Paul Howard
🎙 Róisín & Ann Ingle
🎤 Jack L.
🎸 Johnny Gallagher
🎭 Ballyshannon Drama present 'The Wonder Wheel'
🎬 Garry Keane's 'A Quiet Love'
🍂 Plus local films, book launches, poetry, history and much more besides

Visit the website for more info: www.allinghamfestival.com
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Every event is on sale now. Have a look through and pick your nights.

🗓 4th–8th November 2026
📍 Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal
🎟 www.allinghamfestival.com

Tickets are also available via the Abbey Arts Centre website and box office:
www.abbeycentre.ie
Tel: (071) 9851375

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Many thanks to the fantastic design team at Hello Humans for all the work over the last few months redesigning and developing our new website in very short timeframe! We hope you'll agree they did a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of the festival in their design.

Big shout out as well to Niall McKee Imagery who produced the video sequence on the front page! The short version is up at the minute but we might share Niall's full 1 min piece in the future.

Once again, we look forward to meeting you all this November in Ballyshannon, 'the kindly spot, the friendly town.'

Go Visit DonegalFáilte IrelandDonegal County CouncilAbbey Arts Centre Aoife FestivalEventsPoetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music FestivalBallyshannon Drama SocietyDonegal DailyJack Lukeman

23/08/2026

Don't miss the opportunity to hear Paul Howard in conversation with Róisin Ingle at the Allingham Festival in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal on Saturday November 7th!

As a child in Dublin the the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly author was ‘heavily incentivised’ to lose his English accent

22/08/2026

Writers & Poets, the weekend rolls by quickly! Now is the perfect time to submit your entry for the 2026 Allingham Arts Festival Poetry and Flash Fiction Competition.

Just head on over to the Online Entry page on our website to enter.

Or if you prefer the traditional method, download and print off the entry form and pop it in a postbox today.

The Allingham Festival 2026 Poetry & Flash Fiction Competitions are now open! Find out more about how to enter here.

03/08/2026

Writers & Poets!

If you are having difficulty accessing the Online Entry Form on the website, please use this link to access it directly - click on the link, or copy and paste it into your browser.

https://pci.jotform.com/form/242114641884355

We will have the link running on the website correctly as soon as we can exterminate the gremlins that have taken over!