One of the country's leading literature festivals gets under way this afternoon, with all events being streamed online.
The Cúirt International Festival in Galway has been curtailed as a result of coronavirus restrictions.
Instead of a week-long series of public readings, interviews and workshops, the programme has been adapted so that audiences can view live video streams.
The festival runs until Saturday with free access to all events.
Despite the changed environment, the festival boasts an impressive line up, with Kevin Barry, Sara Baume, Anne Enright and Eimear McBride among the writers taking part.
Cúirt director Sasha de Buyl said the festival was lucky to be able to adapt to the public health emergency in such a manner.
As well as live streams involving a range of authors and poets, additional material will be presented on podcasts and on social media.
Audiences will be able to support the festival through donations if they wish and all events will be available to watch again after the live streaming ends.
An online booking system, where people can register their interest in particular events, has attracted interest locally, nationally and internationally.
Most of those making a virtual booking to 'attend' an event have also made a donation and overall numbers are running ahead of what would usually be the case for the annual festival.
Organisers hope that they will be able to reschedule some events from the initial programme later in the year.
In the meantime, they are encouraging literature lovers in Ireland and around the world to take part in the online version of Cúirt.
