This year’s alumni event (formerly known as the Summer Soirée), which was integrated into the festival, featured film screening of the acclaimed Irish buddy drama, Adam & Paul. The movie’s award-winning director, Lenny Abrahamson, joined a panel discussion afterwards with Dr Sarah Arnold and Dr Denis Condon from the Department of Media Studies.

Other events at the festival included a traditional Irish concert with ZoDoMo (Zoë Conway, Dónal Lunny and Máirtín O’Connor), and Thomas Kennedy; Irish National Opera in concert; and chat and discussion with novelists Louise O’Neill and Louise Kennedy. An Fhéile Beag, an Irish-language programme of arts events which incorporated sean-nós singing, dancing, and painting.

Arts and Minds was supported by Kildare County Council and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media’s Local Live Performance Programming Scheme, and Maynooth University.