Banagher - Culture - Literature and The Arts

Literature and The Arts

Banagher has a thriving poetry scene and an annual poetry festival called Readings from the Pallet takes place in local bars. The town was one of the settings for the series Pure Mule, as featured on RTÉ television. The mini-series was an RTÉ production and shot in 2005 in Banagher, Birr and Tullamore. The series was favourably received by the critics, although some locals maintain that it portrays midlanders in a bad light. The series won four IFTA awards in 2005.

In the past Banagher was noted for a number of crafts, including pottery and a popular pottery company, called Crannóg Pottery, was established at the West End by Valerie Landon in the early 1950s. It closed down in the 1980s.

Johnny McEvoy is from Banagher and is a popular singer of Country and Irish genre. The internationally renowned folk-singer Roger Whittaker took up residence in Banagher for about 10 years until 2006. During the time he purchased and renovated Lairakeen House. The town has also had a number of well-known writers staying for varying periods of time.

Mark Boylan is a singer/songwriter from Banagher. He was born in 1997 and first came to prominence when he wrote the theme song for the 2011 Cheltenham horse racing festival in England. The song is entitled The Festival and it received over 40,000 views on YouTube. Boylan has since written a song for one of the biggest horse races in the world, The Breeders' Cup. He performed the song at the event which took place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on 4 November 2011. The proceeds of the song went to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) and the song has been made available through the iTunes medium.