Balor images – 2026 Launch eventbrite

The closing night of The Frances Browne Literary Festival brings a brand new theatre piece and an unmissable musical soiree to the stage.

As I Lay Dreaming by Shaun Byrne

A memory play centred on Donegal woman Annie McGinley, reflecting on the news of American artist Rockwell Kent’s death. It weaves between 1971, Kent’s 1958 return and the summer of 1926 when he first arrived in the remote, roadless valley of Glenlough. Living in a converted cowshed he dubbed the Walforf-Astoria, Kent eventually persuades a twenty-year-old Annie to sit for a portrait. The painting sparks a clash between his modern artistic philosophy and the community’s traditional values.

Emile Conway with Graeme Bourke

Award-winning Dublin-based vocal jazz artist, lyricist and composer Emile Conway reflects on her own creative journey as an artist with a visual impairment in this unmissable musical soiree. Neither straight jazz concert nor lecture, Emile responds in song and spoken word to Frances Browne’s life and work.

Emile is joined by Graeme Bourke, originally from Sligo and hailed as one to watch among Ireland’s up and coming jazz pianists.