Billy Keane is a journalist, broadcaster, and barman. Billy wrote a column for the Irish Independent for the 21 years. His travels with Munster defined the glory years and were full of mischief and fun. Keane has appeared on most television shows ranging from the Late Late Show on several occasions, Primetime which was screened live from his pub, to 3 seasons of the Today Show with Daithi and Maura. He is equally at home on the radio. Billy has written two novels. His latest The Ballad of Mo and G was described by Donal Ryan as “heartbreak and comedy, tenderness and savagery meld into a beautiful, mad narrative delivered in a voice that’s completely real. I could not put it down.”
Billy has two collections of newspaper pieces and two sportsbooks with Billy Morgan and Moss Keane.
He was awarded the United States IBAM award for literature alongside his late father John B Keane in 2019.
Billy takes a humorous view of life but his prose is often poignant and searingly honest.
His latest novel The Woman Who Hasn’t Had Sex in 39 years will be published in February 2023.
Twitter: @billykeane15
Details of this year’s festival programme can be found elsewhere on this website.
Ralph Riegel is the southern correspondent for Independent Newspapers, Ireland’s biggest newspaper group, covering the region for the ‘Irish Independent’, ‘Sunday Independent,’ ‘Evening Herald’ and independent.ie. A graduate of DIT-Rathmines and DIT-Aungier Street, his work has also featured in ‘The (London) Independent’, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘The Belfast Telegraph’, and ‘The Cork Examiner’ while he is a regular contributor to RTE, Virgin Media, BBC, Channel 4 and Newstalk.
Charlie Piggott, was one of the founding members of De Dannan, with whom he toured extensively in Europe, Canada, and the US and has recorded several albums. He also lectures and has a wide knowledge of traditional music and musicians. He is a co-author, with Fintan Valtey and photographer Nutan Jacques Prapez, of Blooming Meadows: The World of Irish Traditional Musicians. Recently, Charlie re-released The New Road (with Gerry Harrington).
Thom Breathnach is an award-winning travel writer from Cork specialising in the areas of sustainable travel, slow tourism, and wildlife. A language graduate with a grá for galavanting, he began travel writing while working for a non-profit in South Africa and have been on the road since. For the last ten years, Thom has been living and travelling across the world working as a travel contributor for titles such as The Boston Globe, Men’s Journal, Men’s Health, The Irish Independent, Cara magazine and he is the current Travel Editor The Irish Examiner. He also regularly features as a contributor to Virgin Media’s Ireland Am as well as RTÉ’s Today Show.
Michael Smith is a best-selling author whose book, An Unsung Hero, the biography of explorer Tom Crean, opened a new chapter in Irish history and stimulated widespread interest in Ireland’s role in Polar exploration. An Unsung Hero has been translated into the languages of China, Germany, Italy and Korea and has encouraged a number of spin-offs, including a successful stage play and songs. Crean’s story has since been popularised for children through the successful adaptation, Tom Crean – Iceman and Fear San Oighear, the Irish language edition for younger readers. Tom Crean’s story has since been adopted onto the national curriculum in Irish schools.
Des Ekin is a journalist and the author of five books. The Stolen Village, his bestselling account of the 1631 pirate slave raid on Baltimore, County Cork, was shortlisted for the Argosy Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year Award and also nominated for Book of the Decade in the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. For his latest book, Ireland’s Pirate Trail, he travelled around the Irish coast by land and sea to collect more than 30 true-life pirate stories. His third history book, Hell or Some Worst Place, a vivid account of the Spanish invasion at Kinsale in 1601, was shortlisted for Nonfiction Book of the Year. He is also the author of two crime novels. Born in County Down, Des began his career as a reporter and rose to become Deputy Editor of the Belfast Sunday News before moving to his current home in Dublin, where he worked as a columnist and political correspondent for the Sunday World until 2012. He is married with a son and two daughters.
Turtle Bunbury is a best-selling author and historian. His recent books include The Irish Diaspora and Ireland’s Forgotten Past, described by BBC History Magazine as ‘impeccably researched.’ Turtle also presents history podcasts including Turtle Bunbury’s Global Irish and Waterways Through Time.
