The idyllic setting of St Paul’s Church in Ardmore will soon be the setting for some of Ireland’s most interesting characters. “An Audience with …” Ireland’s best-selling authors and well-known personalities is set to be one of Ardmore Pattern Festival’s most anticipated events to date.
Among this year’s guests is former professional racing cyclist and sports journalist Paul Kimmage, best known by most for his best-selling book ‘Rough Ride’. Well-known RTÉ personalities Miriam O’Callaghan and daughter of jockey Lester Piggott, Tracy Piggott feature in this exciting line up as well as Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs who will share her story of spending time in prison wrongly convicted of murder on death row.
Waterford native Tosh Lavery will share his experiences of 30 years’ service in the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit. Completing the 2015 line up of speakers is Galway born author Mary Costello whose first collection of short stories The China Factory was Guardian First Book Award and the Irish Books Award.
Restructured in 1838, St Paul’s Church provides the perfect backdrop of raw stone & natural sunlight to reflect the candid way in which this wonderful selection of authors and personalities will share their life stories and experiences.
An Audience with Mary Costello – Saturday 25th July, 12.30pm
Mary Costello grew up in Galway and now lives in Dublin. Her collection of stories, The China Factory, was nominated for the 2012 Guardian First Book Award, and shortlisted for the Irish Books Awards. Her first novel, Academy Street, won the Eason’s Novel of the Year Award and was named overall Irish Book of the Year 2014. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Costa First Novel Prize, and featured on BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime.
An Audience with Tracy Piggott – Saturday 25th July, 2.30pm
Daughter of champion jockey Lester Piggott and former jockey herself, Tracy is best known in recent times for her RTÉ horse racing commentary. In 2013 she took part in Celebrity MasterChef and has openly shared her battles with depression.
An Audience with Paul Kimmage – Saturday 25th July, 4.30pm
A talented cyclist, Paul was a double National Road Race Champion and represented Ireland at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. A year later, he finished sixth in the World Road Race Championships in Italy and in 1986 he turned professional and completed his first Tour de France.
His first book, Rough Ride, is widely acknowledged to be the most honest account of life in the professional ranks and won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in 1990. Since then he has penned 3 more books
An Audience with Tosh Lavery – Sunday 26th July, 12.30pm
‘Tosh, Amazing True Story of Life, Death, Danger and Drama’ is the recently released book detailing Tosh’s thirty years in the Garda Sub-Aqua Unit. Revealing his own personal struggles in this autobiography, Tosh also gives a glimpse into the inside world of the Guards.
An Audience with Sunny Jacobs – Sunday 26th July, 2.30pm
Aged 27, Sunny was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for a murder she didn’t commit. Separated from her two children, nine years old and ten months old, she was put in solitary confinement, being the only woman sentenced to death at that time. Sunny’s memoir, “Stolen Time”, was published on 1 May 2007.
An Audience with Miriam O’Callaghan – Sunday 26th July, 4.30pm
Miriam O’Callaghan was born and raised in Dublin. She qualified as a solicitor before beginning her broadcasting career on ITV’s This is your Life. She joined the BBC as a producer in 1987, and went on to become a reporter on BBC2’s Newsnight.
In the early ‘90s Miriam returned to Ireland to present RTÉ’s current affairs flagship programme Prime Time, while continuing to cover the Northern Irish peace process for Newsnight.
In August 2000, Miriam co-founded Mint Productions, an independent production company that specialised in documentary.
Unusually for a current affairs presenter, Miriam was voted Best TV Personality at the Irish Film and Television Awards in 2003. To her surprise, she won the RTÉ Guide Style Award at the 2007 IFTAs following another public vote. In June 2013, her Prime Time interview with Praveen Halappanavar, won the Television News Category of the Justice Media Awards 2013.
Outside of her work on Prime Time, Miriam presents her own chat show during the summer, Saturday Night with Miriam, and a radio programme Sundays with Miriam. She has previously presented Miriam Meets…. which won the PPI Radio Award in 2011 for best Speech Driven Magazine Programme. In 2011 and 2012 she presented RTÉ’s New Year’s Eve show which attracted huge audiences. Miriam also supports a large number of charitable causes throughout the year.
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