Festival of Writing & Ideas

2024 will be the twelfth edition of Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas, and we are proud to have weathered the last few years to bring you another intimate and invigorating weekend, in a place as beautiful as Borris, Co Carlow.

Our aspiration is simply that ideas captured in writing of all kinds are exchanged. In this era of anger and misinformation, our speakers - celebrated historians, activists, musicians, journalists, environmentalists and literary minds - will help us navigate these uncertain times throughout the day.

And as always at Borris, a convivial atmosphere with good conversation and engaging company is all around you.

SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS CROSS THE WEEKEND

Tom Holland / Elizabeth Strout / Minnie Driver / Ocean Vuong / Adam Clayton / Isabella Tree / Jon Ronson / David Wallace Wells / Nick Broomfield / Es Devlin / Cerys Matthews / Simon Armitage / Ruby Wax / Laurie Anderson / Mary Robinson / Kevin Barry / Lemn Sissay / Peter Francopan / Deborah Levy / Fintan O'Toole / Catherine Heaney / Christopher Reid / Ciarán Hinds / Neil Jordan / Sinead Gleeson / Patrick Freyne / Olive Heffernan / Martin Doyle / Mairia Cahill / Janine di Giovanni / John Vaillant / Emma Dabiri / Afua Hirsch / Katherine Rundell / Kerri ni Dochartaigh / Alex Clarke / Kai Strittmatter / Isabel Hilton / Anne Enright / Orla Guerin / Lyse Doucet / Fergal Keane / Dawn O'Porter / Annie Mac / David O'Doherty / Catherine Cleary / Andrew O’Hagan / Marie Cassidy / OIivia O'Leary / Anthony Horowitz / Liz Nugent / Arun Ghosh / Jane Wellesley / Roy Foster / Antony Sattin / Manchan Magan / Emmet Kirwan / Brian Dillon / Colm Toibin / Misha Glenny / Louise Kennedy / Dylan Moran / Jim Moginie / Fiachna O Braonain / Charlie Burrell / Lorna Siggins / Claire Kilroy / Sarah Gilmartin / Jennifer Cassidy / Sean Ronayne / Justine McCarthy / Stephen Wooley / Len Pennie / Sally Phillips / and performance from Mikel Murfi / Ye Vagabonds / Josh OKeefe and more

Borris Festival have a carbon offset programme to counter air and ground travel, food and beverage consumption, packaging, energy use and waste management, feeding directly back into local resources. For each festival we hold in Borris, we are committed to planting 2000 trees to help offset our footprint.

We have become committed recyclers of everything that makes up your meal. We have a blanket ban on plastic of any kind across the whole festival and we ask you, please, not to bring in plastic bottles or straws. Please bring reuseable bottles and we will provide sources of drinking water. There is no need to ask for your help, you already know it.

2019 Programme

And there’s more

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