Patricia Forde (born ) is a former director of the Galway Arts Festival and an Irish children's author.
Forde was raised in Market Street, Galway, a fluent Irish speaker. She became a member of An Taibhdhearc at age ten, both acting and directing its plays over the following ten years. She spent ten years as a primary school teacher, and was one of the early members of Macnas. Macnas co-founder, Pádraic Breathnach, encouraged her work on stories for Macnas's street performances. While working with Macnas, she took a year's leave from teaching to write her first book, Tír faoi Thoinn. However, an opportunity to become director of the Galway Arts Festival (proposed by Ollie Jennings in 1990) meant that she never returned to teaching.
She left the arts festival role in 1995, subsequently working in Ros na Rún, Aifric and RTÉ soap Fair City.
Forde's other work has included a creative programme for children at the festival, which developed into the Baboró International Arts Festival for Children.
She is married with two children and lives in Moycullen.
Bibliography
Tír faoi Thoinn/Land Under the Sea, 1990 The King’s Secret, O’Brien Press, 1992 Frogs Do Not Like Dragons, Egmont, March 2010 Hedgehogs Do Not Like Heights, Egmont, 2011 Ceitidh Ceare, 2011 Binji: Madra Ar Strae, 2011 The Wordsmith / The List, Little Island Books, 2014 Witches Do Not Like Bicycles, Egmont, 2015 Bumpfizzle The Best on Planet Earth, Little Island Books, June 2018
References Macnas: Joyful Abandonment, Terry Dineen, The Liffy Press, November 2007. 1905785283
External links
http://www.galwayindependent.com/profiles/profiles/patricia-forde-%11-author/ http://www.obrien.ie/author.cfm?authorID=80 https://web.archive.org/web/20101127115936/http://galwaynews.ie/12205-author-patricias-got-write-stuff http://en.wordpress.com/tag/patricia-forde/