A new audio tour to guide visitors along Longford’s 73km Literary Trail has been launched. The audio tour, which celebrates Longford’s rich literary history at nine points along the trail, is now freely accessible to visitors online here.
The audio tour includes interviews with local people and excerpts of actors from Longford’s Backstage Theatre, covering the strong and rich history of literature around county Longford. Longford’s notable literary connections are many and include links to figures as well-known as Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde as well as to Longford-born writers, poets, and playwrights.
Longford’s rich literary history
Maria Edgeworth was based in Edgeworthstown, and her story is well presented in the Maria Edgeworth Visitor Centre. It is an inspiring interpretive centre that is home to original exhibits dating back to the 18th century. See the Visitor Centre here. Oliver Goldsmith was born in Longford and educated in Edgeworthstown. You can visit his birthplace and many of the locations included in his poems and plays. Ardagh Village is the location of his famous romantic play ‘She Stoops to Conquer’.
Ballymahon to Longford Town
Visitors who continue along the trail into Ballymahon can see where Goldsmith lived for many years and through the audio, travel back in time to the rural Irish town. Leo Casey, the Irish Rebel poet and song writer was also closely connected with Ballymahon and Shrule Bridge in particular where the Rebel song “At the Rising of the Moon” is based. Follow Leo’s trail through all the schools and places associated with Casey and back to Longford Town where the famous Irish poet Padraic Colum was born and died.
Jane Austen connection
Carrigglas Manor is a four minutes drive from Longford Town. It is the ancestral home of Thomas Langlois Lefroy. In 1796, Lefroy began a flirtation with English novelist Jane Austen. Jane Austen wrote two letters to her sister Cassandra mentioning “Tom Lefroy”, and some have suggested that it may have been he whom Austen had in mind when she invented the character of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, as the courtship between Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen took place over the year or so that Pride and Prejudice was written.
How to access the audio
The Longford Literary Trail is 73km long and can be listenened to here, the Longford Rebel Trail is 71km and the Mid-Shannon Trail includes a distance of 98km. Listen to the Longford Rebel Trail with the addition of QR codes and audio at each stop. There are 10 stops starting in Longford Town, Drumlish, Ballinamuck, Moyne, Aughnacliffe, Dring, Granard, Clonfin, Ballinalee and back to Longford Town.
Chief Executive Paddy Mahon said, “The work by Inhand Guides on this audio production is a wonderful asset to our Literary Trail and could not have been done without the valuable input of the local interviewees and actors, and the employees of The Maria Edgeworth Centre. It’s a fine example of another great initiative by Longford County Council with the right expertise supported by community cooperation.”
For further information, including the monthly local events guide, check out Longford.ie
