“The Light of Home: Ukraine and Ireland”: A celebration of Irish and Ukrainian Culture

In Partnership with Irish Pen

Join us for a special evening of music and readings from Ukrainian and Irish writers and musicians.

Featuring Irish and Ukrainian writers, with musicians Olesya Zdorovetska, Nick Roth, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Catherine Fitzgerald, and writers Celia de Fréine, John O’Donnell and Thérèse Kieran. 

Also part of this evening’s event will be  journalist, cultural manager, Executive Director of PEN Ukraine, and curator Tetyana Teren; poet, essayist, and Professor of Cultural Studies Iryna Starovoyt; and curator of the WOUNDED CULTURE project, cultural analyst and manager at PEN International Olha Mukha.

This evening’s event will begin at 7.30pm with a drinks reception, with the main event happening from 8pm – 9.45pm.

This event is supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, in association with Dublin City Council.

Tickets HERE

Celia de Fréine writes in many genres in Irish and English. Awards for her poetry include Gradam Litríochta Chló Iar-Chonnacht, the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the British Comparative Literature AssociationTranslation Award. Her new and selected poems Aoi ag Bord na Teanga was published by LeabhairCOMHAR IN 2022.

Catherine Fitzgerald is classical pianist from Cork with an interest in a wide range of musical styles including Classical, Jazz, Folk, and Electronic. She has played piano in settings ranging from intimate venues to large music festivals to Concert halls. In addition to live projects, she has collaborating with musicians including Nina Hynes, Natasa Peterson, Kate Ellis, Carol Keogh,  Ed Mc Guinley and has worked within band such as The Winters, and Lo Sun. Catherine has recorded with and toured extensively with Colm Mac Con Iomaire since 2008.

Dublin born, Wexford based Colm Mac Con Iomaire is aviolinist & Multi-instrumentalist Composer. He is a founder member of two well-known Irish bands- The Frames & Kíla. He has released three solo albums since 2008-The Hare’s Corner, And Now the Weather, The River Holds its Breath. “In a crowded field of outstanding Irish fiddle players and interpreters of traditional music
Colm Mac Con Iomaire is unique. His voice is unmistakably his own and his music bears distinctive creative hallmarks which have as much to do with his personality and character as with his impressive technical mastery, musical authority and exquisitely expressive playing”- Nuala O’Connor.

John O’Donnell’s work has been published and broadcast widely in Ireland and abroad. Awards include the Irish National Poetry Prize, the Ireland Funds Poetry Prize and Hennessy Awards for Poetry and Fiction. He has published five poetry collections. His collection of short stories Almost the Same Blue (Doire Press) was nominated in the Irish Times as one of the Best Fiction Debuts of 2020, and one of the Books of the Year in the Sunday Independent. His play Rainbow Baby was recently broadcast on RTE Radio’s Drama On One. He lives in Dublin.

Nick Roth is a saxophonist, composer, producer and educator.He is artistic director of the Yurodny Ensemble, a founding member of the Water Project, co-director of Unreal Cities, and a partner at Diatribe Records, Ireland’s leading independent record label for new music.

Olesya Zdorovetska is a Dublin-based performer, composer and curator, originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. Her work has been described as ‘an emotional and intellectual explosion’ (Dash Arts, UK). She is a founder of the Ukrainian-Irish Cultural Platform and co-curator of Phonica, a platform for experimental music and poetry. She was a 2022 recipient of the Markievicz Award from the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the best-soundscape winner at The 25th Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards.