Rush Festival of Writing

03/05/2026

Its not often a literay heavy weight arrives in our town. But last night at The Millbank Theatre in Rush, County Dublin, John Banville held a captive audience in the palm his hands. Now at the age of 80, Banville spans the last of Irish literature from t

03/05/2026

The inaugural Rush Festival of Writing was a huge success with the event selling out within weeks of being announced. Some of the one-day festival’s

27/04/2026

What a day Saturday was!

Our inaugural festival couldn't have gone any better - from discussions on writing to children's workshops, crime fiction to literary icons and everything in-between, the first RUSH FESTIVAL OF WRITING was a hit 🌊 📚

Here's a selection of photos - more to follow!

24/04/2026

23/04/2026

Just two days to go until the first RUSH FESTIVAL OF WRITING! Who's excited? ✋

Ahead of this Saturday's festival, we wanted to share detail of our venues.

🌊 Our festival HQ will be at Rush Community Centre on Main Street, where bookseller Antonia's Bookstore will also be selling an array of books by our authors (who will be around to sign books on the day!)

📚 The main room at Rush Community Centre will also host Sinéad Gleeson and Anna Carey, who will be speaking about the craft of writing as well as their own work at 1.30pm;

🌊 Rush Library will host events by Niamh Sharkey (10am), Alan Nolan (11.30am) and Belinda McKeon (2.45pm);

📚 The Strand Bar & Restaurant will host the inimitable Eamon Carr in conversation with Pat Carty at 3pm;

Finally, our evening events at are:

- & in conversation with at 5pm

- John Banville in conversation with at 8pm.

See you there! 🌊 📚

Fingal County Council
Explore Fingal
Creative Ireland
Fingal Libraries
Rush Tourism
Rush Community Council
Imbibe Coffee Roasters
.ie
Progressive Credit Union Ltd
Noisette Artisan Bakery
The Strand Bar

21/04/2026

**COMPETITION TIME!**

Head over to our Instagram to be in with a chance of winning a Rush Festival of Writing bundle!

16/04/2026

Our official festival programme is here! Ain’t she beautiful? 😍

Inside it you’ll find details of all of our events at the first Rush Festival of Writing next weekend (April 25th) - including our headline event at The Millbank Theatre with John Banville, as well as the workshops, talks and conversations happening around the town with some of the best writers in the country.

If you’re a visitor to Rush, you’ll also find a map of the venues, and of course, our festival partners: the organisations and businesses who have made Rush Festival of Writing 2026 possible.

Keep an eye out for programmes around Rush in the coming days.

We can’t wait to welcome you all to RFOW next weekend! 🌊📚

*Both our programme and our logo were designed by the extremely talented Chris Hanna - www.chris-hanna.com

Fingal County Council
Fingal Libraries
CreativeIrl
Progressive Credit Union Ltd
Imbibe Coffee Roasters
Rush Tourism
Rush Community Council
ScanClinic.ie
Noisette Artisan Bakery
Antonia's Bookstore
The Strand Bar

14/04/2026

Rush Festival of Writing are seeking volunteers from Rush and the surrounding area with good knowledge of the local community to help ensure the smooth running of the Rush Festival of Writing.

Volunteers are needed at the following locations:

1. Rush Community Centre 2. Rush Library 3. The Strand Bar & Restaurant 4. The Millbank Theatre

If you are available we would love to hear from you.

You can contact us at [email protected] / 01 899 1921
or simply register for the volunteer role on ivol.ie and we will pass your details onto the event organisers.

09/04/2026

With just over two weeks (!) to go to the first Rush Festival of Writing, we want to acknowledge the support of our festival partners who have helped us get the event off the ground.

Just a few months ago, RFoW was a pipe dream; an idea that we weren’t sure was ever going to come to fruition. Now, thanks to the generous support of our partners, we’ve been able to bring some of the best writers in Ireland to Rush on April 25th for our SOLD OUT inaugural festival! 🌊📚

We simply would not have been able to do it without the following, so a huge thanks to:

Fingal County Council
Fingal Libraries
CreativeIrl
.ie
Rush Community Council
Imbibe Coffee Roasters
Progressive Credit Union Ltd
Noisette Artisan Bakery
Rush Tourism
The Millbank Theatre
The Strand Bar
Antonia's Bookstore

07/04/2026

It’s a beautiful day here in Rush… and we are especially happy about the fact that the first Rush Festival of Writing is now fully SOLD OUT 🎉

The final tickets for the wonderful Mr. Eamon Carr in conversation with journalist Pat Carty at The Strand Bar have now been allocated.

We are incredibly grateful for both the support and enthusiasm for Rush Festival of Writing since we announced it less than a month ago - so if you’ve bought or booked a ticket to any of our events, a big THANK YOU!

A huge thank you also to our venues, sponsors and supporters (which will we be sharing in more detail in the coming days.)

Less than three weeks to go - see you in beautiful Rush on April 25th! 🌊📚

Rush Tourism
Fingal County Council
Explore Fingal
.ie
CreativeIrl
Imbibe Coffee Roasters
Progressive Credit Union Ltd
Noisette Artisan Bakery
Rush Community Council
Antonia's Bookstore
The Millbank Theatre