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There was a stunning and varied array of talent on hand, in more than 50 events over three days, to support the town's rebranding. Three of the biggest hitters – Germaine Greer, Jeanette Winterson and John Banville – attracted capacity (or close to) audiences from around Ireland and beyond.

Greer, on spiky and hugely entertaining form, wore her learning lightly as she played it for laughs, but left no one in any doubt of her mastery of her subject or her delight in Shakespeare.

In Shakespeare's Lovers, she built on themes developed in her controversial 2003 book The Beautiful Boy, a study of boys in art. It was written, she has said, "to advance women's reclamation of their capacity for and right to visual pleasure".

In a roll call of beautiful boys taken from Elizabethan life and literature and the present day, she dismissed Romeo (a "dork" and a "failed seducer"), Justin Bieber ("It's all over for him"), while lauding the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare's "toy boy lover", according to some but definitely not Greer) and Harry Styles of One Direction ("gorgeous" and "the 21st century version of the Elizabethan boy lover").

For much of history, Western art has idealised the beautiful boy rather than the female form (a modern development), Prof Greer insisted. The sonnets are a celebration of the beauty of young men and, she argued, that Shakespeare himself fell into the beautiful boy category, as a teenager wooing and winning the older woman, Anne Hathaway, who despite his treatment of her subsequently, remained the "still centre" of his life.

For these youthful lovers of the Elizabethan era, "foreplay was the fun"; coitus (and its messy consequences) was a less attractive option when the pleasures of seduction rather than marriage were the intent. This had undoubted benefits for the woman in lovemaking. "Then we all put ourselves on the Pill and a great deal less effort [by men] went into things", said Greer to much raucous (female) applause.

Reading Jeanette Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal is simultaneously funny, moving and uplifting. To hear the author herself deliver passages from the acclaimed memoir is another experience altogether. Her adoptive mother Mrs Winterson ("a monster but my monster") made her first appearance more than a quarter of a century ago in Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. She is one of the great tragi-comic figures of modern literature, with her Pentecostal beliefs showcasing malevolence and provoking mirth like no other. An account of her preparations for the Apocalypse – an event she longed for, said Winterson – were hilarious: her burning of the young Jeanette's secret stash of paperbacks an act of shocking cruelty.

There are "three endings" in literature and none of them happy, Winterson concluded: revenge and tragedy (which tend to go hand in hand), and forgiveness. The latter is the only ending that offers a way forward. She derided a society that deals with unhappiness and trauma by talking about closure, moving on, new beginnings. "We all carry wounds", she said. "It is how we heal them [that counts]." While she acknowledged that she and Mrs Winterson never quite made their peace, it seems she has forgiven her.

^{John Banville signs copies of his book at Hay Festival Kells (Finn Beales)}

The audience at John Banville's sparky interview with Irish broadcaster RTE's Joe Duffy were treated to exclusive clips from the forthcoming film of The Sea, his 2005 Booker prize winning novel, for which he wrote the script. It stars a succession of "beautiful people", he said, including Natasha McElhone, Rufus Sewell, Charlotte Rampling and Sinéad Cusack, and is a ''work of art''.

Asked why he keeps writing, his answer was simple: ''What keeps me going is the notion that this could be superb….''

Long may he continue.

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Brilliant, provocative and shocking – it must be Beckett

In one of the undoubted highlights of the Hay Festival Kells, actress Lisa Dwan gave a mesmerising rendition of Samuel Beckett's short, intense monologue Not I. The limitations of the venue (a church hall) were brilliantly overcome by Dwan's two man team working with the local manager to stage a production that would not have been out of place at London's Royal Court where, 40 years ago, the British premier starring Billie Whitehall, took place.

The audience was perhaps a little less restrained than a West End one – whooping and hollering their appreciation of a homegrown actress (Dwan hails from Athlone) in a role – that of Mouth – she is making her own.

Some had known what to expect, most didn't. Mouth – Dwan's bright red lips, teeth and tongue are all that are visible, lit by a single harsh light and apparently floating around eight foot above the stage – was the first shock. The second was the fierce passion of the words that spewed forth at frantic pace.

^{Lisa Dwan in Samuel Beckett's Not I (Finn Beales)}

Later, Dwan described her "OCD" preparation to the audience: running through the monologue three times a day before a performance, strapping herself between the bannisters at home to simulate the almost unbearable discomfort on stage. She records herself and will start again at the slightest mistake or deviation from the notoriously difficult-to-learn text or the instructions passed on to her from Whitelaw, who was given them by Beckett.

Whitelaw described performing Not I as like "falling into hell backwards", while Dwan spoke of the panic that proceeds every performance. The two women have bonded over their involvement "like two shell-shocked war veterans", according to Dwan.

No review of Not I is without a reference to the speed of delivery. The American actress Jessica Tandy, who played Mouth in the world premier in New York, took 22 minutes and was berated by Beckett for ruining it. Billie Whitelaw delivered it in 14 minutes ('"miraculous" said Beckett). Dwan delivers it in just under 10. She insisted she was not "in competition with the girls". What Beckett wanted was his words delivered at the speed of thought – and her version was just that.

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The Kells man on a mission

Throughout this weekend, Ronnie McGrane, 64, has been a ubiquitous presence. Dressed as a monk – he calls himself the Abbott of Kells – he stands outside the two main venues, the Eirgrid and the Breslin stages and wherever else crowds are gathered in town. In one hand he has a placard: "Sign our Petition. Return the Book of Kells to Kells." In the other he has a clipboard where he is slowly amassing signatures.

As any fule kno, the Book of Kells, the ninth century exquisitely illuminated copy in Latin of the four gospels, has, since 166,1 been in the "safe-keeping" of Trinity College Library Dublin (Cromwell is to blame, apparently).

Ronnie – and the people of Kells – want it back, not least so the town can benefit from the tourism and heritage potential. ("We've no public lavatories in Kells, and we've got Heritage office that's shut.") The Irish government has been debating it back and forth since 1922. Now, the row has intensified after Ronnie registered the website ourbookofkells.com. He's seriously upset Trinity and who knows what will happen next. But Mr McGrane, a businessman and former member of the Chamber of Commerce here, has a detailed plan in place for where the Book will be displayed in Kells and how a "theme park" type experience can be funded. He's found hundreds more supporters and at least a 1000 new signatures among Festival goers this weekend.

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Meet the Rooneys (or not)

Somewhere here in Kells is a place of pilgrimage for Everton and Man U fans: the resting place of Wayne Rooney's ancestors. One of my assignments this weekend was to pay a visit. But, as a Scouser born and bred and occasional LFC supporter (European matches played away only), I'm afraid that I can't quite bring myself to do it. For this journalistic dereliction of duty, I apologise. Please enjoy the photograph instead.

Maybe I'll visit next year when, all being well, Hay – and possibly the Book – returns to Kells.

^{The resting place of Wayne Rooney's ancestors (Finn Beales)}

The Gathering is a year-long series of festivals and events taking place across Ireland in 2013. For more information or to plan your visit, go to Ireland.com

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