Kells · 6 October 2026
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Kells gave the world the most famous book in Ireland. Every June, Kells runs a literature festival. The festival is called Hinterland.
Its full title is the Hinterland Festival of Literature & Arts. There is no "Kells" in it and no "Book". The 2026 edition, the 14th, ran from 25 to 28 June with more than 70 events, and the 2027 dates are already up: 24 to 27 June. Fourteen years in, the two words that put this town on the map are still kept off the masthead.
This is not modesty. Kells is lending its name to everyone except itself.
They had Kells, and they took it off
The festival's own history says it "began life as the Hay/Kells Festival in 2013" with the Hay Festival in Wales, and that "in 2017 it evolved into Hinterland." From 2013 to 2016, Kells was on the poster. In 2017 the name came off. Nobody took it from them.
They knew exactly what they were taking off. In a 2016 interview, organiser Ger Gaughran said the Chamber of Commerce "felt that we needed to play to our strengths – one of which was our association with the Book of Kells." In 2015 the programme director, historian Myles Dungan, told TheJournal.ie: "Any time anybody mentions Kells, the first thing people think of is the Book of Kells, so the bookish association is there."
They named the Book as their strongest card. Two years later they put out a festival name that mentions neither the Book nor the town.
The explanation offered at the 2017 relaunch was that "Hinterland" is "suggestive of something beyond the pale, mysterious, imaginative, challenging and, perhaps, just a little provocative." Beyond the pale is the right phrase, because a hinterland is the land behind somewhere more important. Kells is not behind anywhere. It is the address on the cover of the Book. The one provocative thing a Kells festival could do is say "Kells", and Hinterland won't.
The Book is only in the small print
The Book does show up, but only where it is safe. The About page calls Kells "the spiritual home of the Book of Kells." The tagline is "...illuminating words & ideas", which hints at the Book without naming it. The box office is the BOOK MARKet Café. The company behind the festival is Kells Literary & Cultural Festival Company Ltd. So "Kells" is on the paperwork and kept out of the festival's public name.
We searched the text of the 2026 programme for "Book of Kells". It isn't there. Trinity College Dublin is, in the thank-you list.
A festival in Kells thanks Trinity in its programme and has no line for the Book of Kells.
"Spiritual home" is the phrase you use for a place the thing used to be. Kells is not the Book's spiritual home. It is its home. We hold that the Book was written and created here.
"Sure where would they park?"
Raise bringing the Book home with the people who run things in this town and you get the answer before you finish the sentence. Where would they park? Sure we couldn't afford a building like that. Trinity has the security, leave it where it is.
Nobody has put a name to that shrug in public, and we won't either. It is not a plan. It is a reason to do nothing.
That argument already got its answer. In September 2011 Roger Stalley, the former Trinity professor of the history of art, wrote to The Irish Times asking why Kells had "no special parking area for visitors" at its monuments. His argument was that the town should make more of its high crosses, not that the Book should stay in Dublin. Eight days later Denis McCarthy of Rockfield Road, Kells, replied: "there are five car parks and on-street parking is available within the town centre. Trinity has no such parking arrangements."
A Kells man answered the car-park objection in 2011. Fifteen years later it is still being used as an excuse.
Trinity is the obstacle
The obstacle has never been tarmac. It is Trinity. In 2011, according to Trinity News, the college said that "since the year 2000, it has been the policy of the Board of Trinity College on the grounds of security, environmental and preservation concerns to decline such requests." That is a policy on loans, and we are not asking for a loan. We want the Book home permanently, in a building that meets conservation standards. The building is part of the demand. No return has been agreed, and none will be while the town's own festival won't raise it.
A conservation-grade building is real work, and Kells is able to do it. Nobody ever got a building by saying in advance that they couldn't afford it.
Say the words
This is our demand to Hinterland, and to everyone in Kells with a stage or a microphone:
- Put "Kells" back in the festival name.
- Give the Book of Kells a named session in the programme every year.
- Put the question to Trinity on your own stage, out loud: when is the Book coming home?
Kells gave the Book its name. The least its own festival can do is use it.
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