10 Irish Literary Podcasts We Love Right Now

Looking for some bookish content to accompany your reading this year? Then have a listen to these book-related Irish podcasts that we’ve been enjoying recently.

Inside Books

Hosted by Breda Brown, the Inside Books podcast takes you inside the world of writing, from book news to interviews with authors and publishing professionals. If its backlist of episodes with stellar guests is anything to go by, Inside Books is sure to satisfy your book industry cravings.

Censored Pod

Delving into the heady material of books censored in Ireland, historian and host Aoife Bhreatnach talks all things smut and swearing on Censored Pod. If you like a side of rude bits in books with your book history, then this podcast is for you.

The Irish Itinerary Podcast

This podcast is the work of EFACIS: European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies. Through a combination of live readings and interviews, its Irish Itinerary podcast showcases the work of Irish authors and artists active in Ireland to a European network.

City of Books

Having previously featured in our Good Bookish News post, it would be remiss of us not to include the City of Books podcast here: host Martina Devlin brings you along for conversations with authors and people who believe in the power of a good story. Episodes can be found here.

RTÉ Book Show

Helmed by Rick O’Shea, the RTÉ Book Show brings you podcast playbacks of its radio shows featuring interviews with some of Ireland’s finest authors – episodes can be found here.

Unlaunched Books

The Unlaunched Books podcast was produced as a salve to the woes of 2020, offering a space to celebrate the books of poetry that did not get the launches they deserved under tight restrictions. Its eight episodes are well worth a listen as they allow you to retroactively celebrate the wonderful poetry that was still published despite the hardships of the past year.

Clonmel Library Book Review Podcast

Ireland’s libraries do incredible work for the promotion and support of literature and literacy, and this book review podcast by Clonmel Library in Tipperary is just one example of that. Previous episodes can be found on Soundcloud here.

The Attic Sessions

The Attic Sessions comes in the unique form of a video podcast, and produces content for lovers of Irish poetry and short stories – having taken a break in 2018, we welcomed them back in 2020 for a new series of live sessions.

Sentimental Garbage

Okay, okay, so strictly, Sentimental Garbage is a UK based podcast — but, it is hosted by Irish woman Caroline O’Donoghue and we love it too much to leave it off this list. This podcast gives ‘chick-lit’ or ‘women’s fiction’ the platform and recognition it deserves, exploring why it gets overlooked and celebrating its place in the literary canon.

RTÉ ARENA podcast

Finally, RTÉ ARENA hosted by Seán Rocks is known as Ireland’s authoritative radio show on arts and culture, exploring books as well as music and theatre. Its episodes are also available as podcasts, and can be found here.