The opening event in this year’s Ranelagh Arts Festival will be an evening celebrating the greatly loved and admired journalist Mary Holland. The format of the evening will be an informal discussion among five or six people who knew Mary well, either personally or professionally. Among the guests will be Evelyn Conlon, Eamonn McCann and Danny Morrisson. Andy Pollack will be in the chair and music will be provided by Fintan Valelly.

Mary Holland was an outstanding journalist who covered ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland over three decades, writing for The Irish Times and the Observer, among other publications. Her work was distinguished by its integrity and humanity, and as a result, she had access to and respect from all parties in the conflict. She will also be remembered for her contributions to civil rights and the trade union movement.

The play Under Milk Wood was first broadcast by the BBC on 25 January 1954, three months after its author, Dylan Thomas, died, at the age of 39. Reporter, columnist, scriptwriter, actor, poet and drinker, Thomas spent his last year trying to produce the definitive version of his portrait of a small seaside town in Wales – a work that had begun some ten years earlier in a piece for the BBC called Quite Early One Morning. He worked and re-worked it over the years as The Town was Mad; The Village of the Mad; Llaregubbub, a Piece for Radio Perhaps – all the time getting closer to the final version. Then, in April 1953, he visited New York and in May took part in a public reading with five other actors of the play now called Un der Mil k Woo d by Dylan Thomas A reading by citizens of Ranelagh LITERARY Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices. The audience of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association were initially stunned and finally rapturous. By great good fortune, this performance was recorded by the theatre and later released. Dylan Thomas returned home in June 1953 under pressure from the BBC to complete the work. He supplied the present version of Under Milk Wood, or one very like it, in October before returning to New York, where, after a reading in the City College of New York, he collapsed in the bar of the Chelsea Hotel. He died on 9 November 1953. This performance by 54 readers is our salute to this great and troubled poet, 54 years later, and is facilitated by Brendan Ellis.

Macdara Woods and Elaine Ní Chuilleanain host this year’s Speakeasy in a quiet and comfortable new venue – upstairs in Starbucks on Ranelagh Triangle. All are welcome to attend, especially if they read or recite their own poems or those of a favourite poet. Macdara and Elaine will, of course, be reading from their own works.

David Scott’s book, The Art and Aesthetics of Boxing (2008), is the first to relate boxing to the visual arts, focusing on the 20th century when the emergence of boxing in its modern form coincided with much interest in the sport by artists. A slide presentation will show the way the book brings out the aesthetic potential of boxing. It will show, in particular, the way modern painters, sculptors and installation artists have used boxing to clarify the dynamics at work, both in sport and modern art. A middle-weight amateur boxer and boxing coach, David Scott has had fights in the last few years in Dublin and New York. A professor of French at Trinity College, Dublin, he has also written books on art, literature and travel.

This must be the first time that an arts festival event anywhere in Ireland takes place in a bookmakers and it is fitting that it should occur in racing-mad Ranelagh.

Francis Hyland, uniquely, is both a bookmaker and a distinguished author. One of the greatest historians of the turf in Ireland, his most recent book, History of the Galway Races, is a must-read for anyone who enjoys racing or is interested in the social history of Ireland.

Anthony Cronin (left), who was celebrated at the festival last year, will also participate and speak on a subject that is close to his heart.

In addition, Ranelaghborn actor and director Brendan Ellis will bring to life some memorable horse-racing scenes from Irish literature.