Q. What about accommodation?
A. You arrange and pay for your own accommodation locally. There are two fine hotels and excellent B&Bs close by, but you must book early. See Accommodation. You can get also list of B&Bs from Killaloe's own website: www.killaloe.ie. List also available from Shannon Tourist Office--telephone: (061)47 16 64 Fax: (061)47 16 61. E-mail: hollingdrake@Shannon-dev.ie

Q. Is a weekend long enough?
A. You would be amazed what can be achieved in two days. We ourselves are still amazed. The secret is a careful cocktail of utterly clear and simple instruction, plus immediate practice of what has just been explained. This brings out what is already in you, and gives you the confidence to make your writing happen. People leave knowing precisely what they want to write, and that they can do it. Often they have already made a start on the writing by the time they leave us.

Q. Why is it called a 'hedge-school'?
A. Schooling was outlawed in the time of the 18th-century persecutions and penal laws, with a view to keeping the Irish ignorant and therefore controllable. So our ancestors hid schools in attics and barns, in fields and sometimes even behind hedges, and succeeded in maintaining the education of the Irish. And as history shows, they were not exactly controllable. One of the most respected of these hedge-schools was in Killaloe and the Killaloe Hedge-School of Writing takes its name from it.

Q. Do you offer any other workshops?
A. We ca\n also put together special week-long courses, and weekend courses, for groups or individuals from all over the world. Just contact us for details.

Q. Do you offer workshops for corporate clients?
A. We also arrange special refresher workshops and courses for corporate clients, one-to-one or groups. One-to-one training can be confidential. Our specialities - grammar & writing style; getting clarity in buiness writing; writing effective press releases; principles of layout and design; newsletter editing & layout.
For details, see Killaloe Communications.