The Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas promises a weekend of stimulating dialogue and discourse, gathering together intriguing international minds from all over the world and inviting them to Borris Village for a few days. Prize-winning novelists, poet laureates, genre-changing musicians, mind-expanding academics, journalists from far reaches of the globe, but also artists, film-makers, political commentators, musicians, architects - and regular people who have experienced the extraordinary - grace the stages across the weekend.
Curiosity might lead a festival-goer from the Middle Eastern front-lines, to first-hand accounts behind the lyrics and music of Florence and the Machine or Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, to the latest research in neuroscience, to a forgotten novel penned 50 years ago, or to a local uileann piper’s call.

The Festival of Writing & Ideas has become known for its casual, friendly atmosphere, and for its extraordinary line-up of speakers, carefully curated by a small team led by Vivienne Guinness and Hugo Jellett. It takes place each year in the magnificent surroundings of Borris House, the seat of the High Kings of Leinster, situated at the foot of the Blackstairs Mountains with the River Barrow meandering by. Spilling out into the pubs and halls of this idyllic village, the festival is a place that the curious find inspiring.

John + Bernie Gallagher
Kathy Gilfillan + Paul McGuinness
Mareta + Conor Doyle
Moya + Paul Coulson
Ciara Hunt Francis + Richard Francis
Bill and Denise Whelan
Alex McGuinness
Max McGuinness + Maya Kulukundris
Michael and Gianni Alen Buckley
Marcelle Speller
Tom Quick + MIchael Donnell
Brian Kingham
Denis and Susie Tinsley
Catriona Wilson
Joey Casey
Ali + Donal Deeny
Sarah Abell
Tom and Meav Clinch
Philip Greader and Jo Lambert Smith
Clare Worthington and Charlie Bingham
Christopher and Bella Bielenberg
Caroline Younger