Manchán Magan for a The Word in March at Sligo Central Library.

Sligo Central Library will be hosting The Word on Wednesday 27th of March in Sligo Central Library, Stephen Street from 6:30pm.

Manchán Magan, writer and documentary-maker, will be joining us in Sligo Central Library to discuss his work.

In Conversation with – Tim Hannigan

Music with – Aoife Hammond

He writes occasionally for The Irish Times on culture & travel, presents the RTÉ podcast The Almanac of Ireland, and is author of the award-winning, best-selling Thirty-Two Words for Field (Gill, 2000), and Listen to the Land Speak (Gill, 2022). His illustrated books include  Tree Dogs, Banshees Fingers and other Irish Words for Nature. (Gill, 2021) and Wolf-men and Water Hounds (Gill, 2023).

He has made dozens of documentaries on issues of world culture for TG4, RTÉ  & Travel Channel. He lives in an oak wood, with bees and hens, in a grass-roofed house near Lough Lene, Co Westmeath.

Tim Hannigan was born in Penzance in Cornwall. He started his working life as a chef in busy Cornish restaurant kitchens, but later escaped to Southeast Asia to become a journalist and guidebook writer. He is the author of several narrative history books, including the award-winning Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, as well as The Travel Writing Tribe and The Granite Kingdom, which was shortlisted for the 2024 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year Award. He also studies travel writing as an academic. He has a PhD from the University of Leicester and he teaches on the Writing & Literature programme at ATU Sligo.

Aoife Hammond is a singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Leitrim. Since 2020 Aoife has been working as a solo artist composing original electronic and acoustic scores using synths, bouzouki, guitars, mandolin and vocals, in response to folk stories, traditional song and experimental video. Recent solo concerts include performances at The Dock, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival & Hunters Moon Swan Moon and a recent commission by VISUAL Carlow, Centre for Contemporary Art to create a year-long collaborative project with artist Niamh Moriarty that focused on the traditions and festivals of the calendar year in Ireland.

Aoife has recently appeared on Nyahh records ‘An album of songs in the traditional and sean-nós style’ singing an unaccompanied sean-nós song. The album has received critical success and was reviewed one of ‘The Guardians’ folk album of the Year 2023
In 2023 Aoife was awarded ‘Leitrim Artist of the year’ for their work as a musician and curator and their contribution to arts and culture in County Leitrim.