Exciting new Longford Literary Trail Audio Tour now available

Freely available audio features dramatic audio extracts

Press Release: 26 February 2024

A new and exciting 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 at Longford.ie.

It was launched at the wonderful Maria Edgeworth Centre in Edgeworthstown on Wednesday, 21 February.

The audio tour includes interviews with local people as well as dramatic 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 our own Longford-born writers, poets, and playwrights.

Maria Edgeworth was based in Edgeworthstown, and her story is well presented in the Maria Edgeworth Visitor Centre. 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’. 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. Continuing back to Longford Town will take tourists to where the famous Irish poet Padraic Colum was born.

The county-wide Longford Literary story can be explored through this driving trail, with an option of audio in English and Irish. There are QR codes to scan at each of the nine stops to conveniently access the audio. The addition of the audio to this trail enhances the experience, bringing the rich legacy back to life for locals and visitors alike.

In 2022, Longford Tourism also enhanced the Longford Rebel Trail with the addition of QR codes and audio at each stop. The audio for the Longford Rebel Trail is available in English, Irish and French. All these audio tracks are available to listen to on the audio section of Longford.ie.

Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council Cllr Colm Murray warmly welcomed this latest addition to the tourism offering in the county, “County Longford now has three high quality driving trails treating visitors to the best of the literary, historic and natural features of County Longford – a fabulous product and a fascinating experience and I’m delighted to say that work will commence shortly on the enhancement of the Mid-Shannon Trail as well.”

The Longford Literary Trail is 73km long, the Longford Rebel Trail is 71km while the Mid-Shannon Trail includes a distance of 98km making them easily manageable over the course of a visit to County Longford.

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 and follow Longford Tourism on social media to stay up to date on all there is to do in County Longford.