Historical Letter Writing Workshop

The Maria Edgeworth Centre marks the tail end of summer with a Historical Letter Writing Workshop on Sunday 30 August 2026, drawing on the Centre’s core subject: the Edgeworth family, prolific letter-writers whose correspondence forms one of the most extensive surviving archives of any Irish family of the period. The workshop takes participants back to the pen-and-paper habits of the 18th and 19th centuries.

What to expect

Maria Edgeworth and her family exchanged thousands of letters over several generations, many still held in archives and used by researchers studying the Edgeworths and their circle, including the novelist’s father Richard Lovell Edgeworth and her kinsman Abbé Henry Essex Edgeworth. Richard Lovell Edgeworth was himself a prolific correspondent with fellow inventors and thinkers of the Enlightenment, and the family’s surviving letters have become a valuable resource for historians, offering a window onto rural Irish life, politics and ideas across four generations. This workshop is expected to introduce participants to the conventions, materials and etiquette of historical letter writing, likely including a hands-on element where attendees try the craft themselves. As with the Centre’s other new additions to its 2026 calendar, the full programme, timing and price had not yet been published at the time of writing; the Centre’s events page confirms the date but marks the details as still to follow.

While you’re in Edgeworthstown

A workshop rooted in the Edgeworth family’s own letters is a fitting way to spend an afternoon in the town most closely tied to their story. There is more to see in Edgeworthstown and across Co. Longford.

Good to know

• Date: Sunday 30 August 2026
• Venue: Maria Edgeworth Centre, Ballymahon Road, Edgeworthstown
• Time and price: not yet confirmed by the Centre; check mariaedgeworthcenter.com closer to the date
• Organiser: Maria Edgeworth Centre