If America sneezes, does Ireland catch a cold? Elaina Ryan, Sarah Carey, Kim A. Snyder, Audrey Wilson-Youngblood and Ruth Hegarty

In Partnership with National Library of Ireland

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion about changing laws and attitudes around book censorship in the USA and its chilling influence across Irish culture. With first-hand perspectives from both sides of the pond, panellists include Elaina Ryan (CEO of Children’s Books Ireland), Sarah Carey (Journalist), Kim A. Snyder (Director of ‘The Librarians’) and librarian Audrey Wilson-Youngblood, who is featured in the film. The event will be moderated by Ruth Hegarty (Royal Irish Academy) with Q&A. 

This event will follow the previous night’s screening in the Royal Irish Academy of the Emmy-nominated documentary ‘The Librarians’. See programme for more details. 

Sarah Carey is a columnist with the Irish Independent, where she writes about politics, economics and society. She is a regular contributor to Irish and international broadcast media, has anchored television and radio programmes for Virgin Media and Newstalk, and has previously written for the Sunday Independent and the Irish Times.

Elaina Ryan is CEO of Children’s Books Ireland, an all-island charity which aims to inspire and enable children and young people in Ireland to become readers for life Children’s Books Ireland supports authors and illustrators and informs families, teachers, booksellers, librarians, publishers and other adults who influence children and young people’s reading. Elaina is co-chair of the European reading promotion network EURead.

Kim A. Snyder is an Academy Award nominee & Peabody Award-winning Director/Producer. Her latest feature documentary, The Librarians, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and has been nominated for a 2026 Primetime Emmy®. The Librarians has won 30 festival awards, was released theatrically in over 200 cities internationally, and broadcast on PBS/Independent Lens. Her most recent short documentary, Death by Numbers, was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award®. Snyder’s other acclaimed films include Us Kids (Sundance 2020), Lessons from a School Shooting (Best Short Doc Tribeca 2018, Netflix Original), Newtown (Sundance 2016, Peabody Award, PBS/Independent Lens). She associate produced the Academy Award®-winning short Trevor, which inspired The Trevor Project, a leading national nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention. Kim earned a master’s degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and resides in New York City.

Audrey Wilson-Youngblood is an educator with over two decades of experience in K-12  and higher education. Throughout her career as a teacher, librarian, and leader, she’s been an advocate for student writers and readers, promoting literacy and the free and open exchange of ideas in library spaces.  With experience in both school and academic libraries,  Audrey is pursuing her PhD in Information Science with the goal of becoming a library educator to prepare and mentor the next generation of librarians.

Please note we may be capturing imagery at this event for use on our social media and website.

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