Matt Damon to appear at the Dalkey Book Festival alongside Michael D. Higgins, Professor Brian Cox

Matt Damon has been announced as a guest speaker at this year's Dalkey Book Festival.

The Jason Bourne actor will make his virtual to the Dalkey to talk to David McWilliams about his lockdown in what he described as a "fairytale village".

The actor was spotted regularly during the first lockdown grabbing coffee in the local café, visiting book shops and even taking a dip in the Vico Baths - where we was pictured holding a Supervalu bag.

“I was with the kids, we were taking a dip in water there, and so we had towels to dry off with, so I think we just grabbed one of our SuperValu bags and stuffed it. We were just improvising,” the actor told Spin1038 last year of the photo, which circulated widely online.

The Saving Private Ryan star was in Ireland filming his forthcoming film, The Last Duel, when the pandemic struck last year. He stayed in the former home of Formula One star Eddie Irvine before he went back to his home in the US in May 2020.

Speaking about his time in Dublin last year, Damon said "It's incredible. This is one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been."

"Even in the lockdown, they’re like, 'you got to stay within two kilometres of your house’. Two kilometres here, there’s trees and forests and woods and ocean and I can’t think of any place you’d rather want to be in a two-kilometre radius of."

The Good Will Hunting star will be amongst a impressive lineup at this year's Dalkey Book Festival, with President Michael D. Higgins, international best-selling author Isabel Allende, Professor Brian Cox and exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and others set to speak at the festival.

The full programme of 23 events will be streamed from the Martello Tower from the 18th-20th of June. Tickets are available at www.dalkeybookfestival.org.

March 2020 was quite a month, not only globally, but locally… as it was when actor #MattDamon arrived in Dalkey. This year Matt will join our line-up of guests + talk to @davidmcw about lockdown in fairy-tale Dalkey, and his love of Ireland. #DalkeyBookFestival pic.twitter.com/nrFzexUIcY

— Dalkey Book Festival (@dalkeybookfest) May 31, 2021