It is a remote place that suffered depopulation and economic hardship before being transformed after it was named as Scotland’s Book town.
Now a community in rural Ireland is hoping to emulate the success of the internationally renowned Wigtown Book Festival that helped to regenerate the town.
Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway was declared Scotland’s National Book Town in 1998 and now Granard in County Longford has set its sights on becoming Ireland’s first.
Irish writer and producer John Connell said he was “blown” away by the model and how it had helped rejuvenate the town, which has a population of under 1,000.
There are now more than a dozen bookshops and book-related businesses in Wigtown, as well as a literary-themed B&B, and The Open Book – an Airbnb that’s also a bookshop.
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The 10-day festival, which will get underway on September 23, also provides a tourism boost, attracting visitors, authors, celebrities, artists, scientists and contemporary thinkers from across the UK.
Granard hopes to stage its own inaugural book festival next year from April 21-23.
“It has turned Wigtown into a centre of the arts,” said Mr Connell, who is part of Granard’s 800-strong community.
“We don’t have a book town in Ireland and Granard would be ideal.
“It’s a beautiful place with lots of history and character, it’s in easy reach of places like Dublin – and it would really benefit from economic regeneration.”
Mr Connell, who runs the successful Still Voices international short film festival in Ballymahon with Ronan O’Toole, said he had been offered advice by Wigtown Book Festival Director Adrian Turpin.
He said: “Wigtown became a bible for us as we figured out the way ahead.”
Mr O’Toole said it had always been his ambition to establish a book festival.
He said: “The idea of another festival in the county to help rejuvenate a rural town appeals to me massively because I have seen the benefits of what the arts can bring – how it attracts visitors and how engaged rural communities are with the arts when they have access to them. What’s great about it is that it brings benefits that are cultural and economic.”
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Emma Robinson, who oversees Wigtown Book Festival, said the team hoped to develop strong links with Granard.
She added: “The fact that Granard is using us as a model – as have a series of other Book Towns around the world – absolutely underlines how even a small rural community like ours can have an international influence, thanks to the energy and creativity of its people.”
The festival has strong support from Dumfries and Galloway Council and received funding as part of its Major Events Strategy – recognising the economic value of cultural tourism and the benefits to the community in terms of culture, health and wellbeing.
Councillor Willie Scobie, Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Wigtownshire Area Committee, said: “Wigtown is a world-class example of rural regeneration.
“Our partnership with Wigtown has been a huge success.
“The fact that it is being used as a model for Granard is inspiring – showing that a small town in rural Galloway is having an international impact.”
Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan has agreed to become a patron of the Granard event.
He said: “As a child of Longford (Tasmania) to where my Irish forebears were sent as convicts during the Famine, I feel an odd affinity with Longford (Ireland).
“I know the affirmative and sometimes transformative power of small places dreaming themselves anew and so I was delighted to be asked to be patron of the Granard Booktown Festival.
“One word follows another and in this way sentences, novels and new worlds are made and so I hope to with this festival and the town it celebrates.”
To book tickets for the Wigtown Book Festival tickets go to www.wigtownbookfestival.com.
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