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Heart in Winter – A Festival of Irish Writing
October 4 @ 7:00pm
For Immediate ReleaseAnnouncing the first annual Heart in Winter – Festival of Irish Writing
Hosted by Dear Butte
Executive Director : Christy Pickett
dearbutte.org
christy@dearbutte.org
406-422-6472
October 3rd and 4th 2025
Information and RSVP found at dearbutte.org
Events Include:
The Heart in Winter Clark Chateau Book Club: September 11, 6 p.m., Clark Chateau, 321 West Broadway
Butte Cemetery Tour: Oct., 3 10 a.m., Saint Patrick Cemetery, 2725 Montana Street
BSB Public Archives Brown Bag: Oct. 3, noon, Kevin Barry & Olivia Smith discuss
Ireland’s Arts Annual Anthology, “Winter Papers,” and the state of contemporary Irish arts and writing. The Archives, 17 West Quartz Street
John Conlan Irish Literary History of Butte Happy Hour: Oct. 3, 5 p.m., The Cavalier Lounge, 100 East Broadway.
Kevin Barry Keynote address: Oct. 4, 7 p.m., Montana Tech Ballroom, 1300 West Park Street.
Working with partners including the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, Montana Tech,
The Chamber of Commerce and University of Montana’s Department of Irish Studies, Dear Butte will bring Irish writers, songwriters and musicians to our city each fall for public events that support literacy and celebrate Montana’s oldest and richest literary history.
The first iteration of this program, Dear Butte Irish Writing Festival, will bring renowned Irish novelist Kevin Barry with writer and editor Olivia Smith to Butte Oct. 3 & 4 for a series of public events. Barry’s latest novel, The Heart in Winter, is set in 1890s Butte and draws from his extensive research here 25 years ago. Described as an Irish Western, the novel tells the story of letter writer and degenerate Tom Rourke, a young
opiate addict who runs away with a mine captain’s wife, Polly Gillespie. The mine captain hires a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen to track the lovers through Butte’s underworld and into the surrounding wilderness.
