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festivals · Thursday 1 October 2026 · 10:30am 
Padraic Colum Gathering
At Granard Library · Granard, Co. Longford
At Granard Library · Granard, Co. Longford
Granard Library’s annual tribute to Padraic Colum, one of County Longford’s best-known literary figures, is listed on the county’s tourism calendar for October 2026. Colum, born near Longford in 1881, was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival alongside Yeats and Synge, writing poetry, plays and children’s stories that are still read today. The gathering, now a fixture of the library’s autumn calendar, has run every October in recent years, bringing historians, writers and local schoolchildren together to mark his legacy.
In previous years the gathering has run from around 10:30am to 3pm at Granard Library, opening with talks from historians and academics on Colum’s life and work, followed by a poetry reading and a performance by pupils from a local national school based on one of his plays. The 2024 edition, for example, featured historian Gearoid O’Brien and UCD’s Professor Margaret Kelleher, with a poetry reading led by poet Noel Monahan and a performance by children from Sacred Heart National School based on Colum’s play Thomas Muskerry. The event is organised by Longford County Library, Archives, Arts and Heritage Services, often with support from the Creative Ireland programme, and has previously included prize-giving for an associated Padraic Colum writing competition open to schools across the county.
Granard Library is in Granard town, in north Longford on the N55, about 25 minutes from Longford town by car. Bus Eireann services connect Granard to Longford and on to Cavan.
Granard is a good base for exploring north Longford, with its Norman motte overlooking the town and its links to the Granard Booktown Festival held each spring. There is more to see in Granard and across Co. Longford.
Heading to Granard Library in Granard? Longford has plenty more to see. Read the Granard area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.
In town for Granard Library? These Dublin tours book out in summer.