We were thrilled to have prize-winning BBC Correspondent and Broadcaster, Fergal Keane, OBE as a special guest at this year’s Pattern Festival. Fergal, who has been a regular visitor to Ardmore since early childhood, gave not one, but two talks at this year’s Festival to the delight of the many hundreds who heard him.

St. Paul’s Church was full to overflowing on Saturday at midday, with more than 100 people treated to a talk from Fergal on his latest book: ‘Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944 -The Epic Story of the Last Great Stand of Empire’. Fergal recounted harrowing tales from the book, which depicts a bloody conflict on the Indo-Chinese border during World War II. Afterwards, he kindly signed copies of the book and spoke to the many fans who attended the free event. This event, which included a cheese and wine reception, was kindly sponsored by Pat Whyte of Eason, Dungarvan and Pat and his staff were on hand to sell copies of 'Road of Bones' and another of Fergal’s works, 'All of These People'.

Later that same day, Fergal also spoke at the annual St. Declan’s Mass at 7.30pm. Each year, our local parish priest, Fr. Guiry, invites someone to give the homily in honour of the occasion, and this year Fergal was the special guest (Fr. Guiry is pictured with Fergal at the book signing in St. Pauls). Fergal spoke movingly of his personal experiences in war zones around the world and once again held the packed St. Declan’s church audience enraptured with his wonderful narrative.

We are deeply indebted to Fergal for giving of his time to attend this year’s Festival and for adding so wonderfully to our programme of events. Click here for a review of  ‘Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944'.