What can you make with a clothes peg, some fabric and your imagination?

Frances Browne filled Granny’s Wonderful Chair with characters who have stayed with readers for more than a century and a half. In this hands-on family workshop, children make characters of their own.

Craftmaker Breda Bradley leads an hour of peg doll making at Alexanders of Ballybofey. Peg dolls are one of the oldest and simplest toys there is, made from a wooden clothes peg, a few scraps of fabric and a bit of imagination, and generations of children in Donegal grew up making them. Every doll turns out different.

All materials are provided, and everyone takes their finished doll home.

This is a drop in,  family workshop. No booking required.

Every child must be accompanied by an adult for the duration, and adults take part alongside them rather than dropping off and collecting.

Sponsors

Festival sponsors: Donegal County Council and the Finn Valley Voice.

About the Frances Browne Literary Festival

The Frances Browne Literary Festival celebrates the life and legacy of Frances Browne (1816 to 1879), the "Blind Poetess of Ulster". Rooted in her hometown of Ballybofey-Stranorlar, Co. Donegal, the festival brings together poets, writers, musicians and communities from Ireland and beyond to share in her spirit of creativity, inclusion and multilingual expression.

Frances Browne is the most important writer to emerge from Donegal’s Finn Valley. Her masterpiece, the children’s storybook Granny’s Wonderful Chair, was a bestseller all over the world, but she also deserves to be remembered for her unswerving opposition to slavery and all sorts of injustice. The festival works to bring Frances’s writing and astonishing life story to new generations, and to celebrate contemporary writers who continue in her tradition.

Full programme and festival information: www.francesbrowneliteraryfestival.com