Women Writers in Ireland Reflect on Ageing – Booked out Celia de Fréine, Catherine Dunne and Áine Ryan in conversation with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne
Join us this International Women’s Day as we celebrate some of Ireland’s brilliant women writers, with a conversation about womanhood, female identity, and the experience of growing older in Ireland.
Well, You Don’t Look It! Women Writers in Ireland Reflect on Ageing (Salmon Poetry), edited by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Michaela Schrage-Früh, is a vibrant collection of essays, stories and poems in which contributors reflect on their experience of ageing. Humorous, wise, critical and celebratory, this wide variety of views, from both established and emerging writers, gives us important and compelling new perspectives on what it means to grow old. Contributors Celia de Fréine, Catherine Dunne and Áine Ryan will be in conversation with editor Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, sharing perspectives, experiences and learnings.
Following the event, audience members are invited on a guided tour of the ‘Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again’ exhibition, an immersive experience that guides visitors through the poet’s life and work.
Presented by DBF in association with the National Library of Ireland.
Event location: Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre, Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2, D02 VR66
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne was born in Dublin in 1954. She was educated at University College Dublin (UCD) studied Pure English for her BA and Irish Folklore for her PhD. Her first short story was published in 1974 and since then she has written several novels in both English and Irish. She is also the author of five short story collections and four children’s books as well as three plays. Currently Éilís is Writer Fellow in UCD, where she teaches MA-level Creative Writing. She is a member of Aosdána.
Celia de Fréine writes in many genres in both Irish and English. Awards for her poetry include the Patrick Kavanagh Award, Gradam Litríochta Chló Iar-Chonnacht and the British Comparative Literature Association Translation Award. Her plays have won numerous Oireachtas awards and her film and television scripts have won awards in Ireland and America. She has been nominated four times in different categories in An Post Irish Book Awards. Her most recent collection of poetry is Focal den Fhírinne : A Grain of Truth (Arlen House, 2024). In 2025 Arlen House reissued her collection Aibítir Aoise : Alphabet of an Age as well as Even Still, her first collection of short stories in English.
© Simon Robinson
Catherine Dunne is the author of twelve novels, several essays and one work of non-fiction. Catherine’s novels have been shortlisted for a number of prizes, including Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and the International Strega Prize.
Áine Ryan is an award winning journalist who has written widely about Clare Island, Co. Mayo. From Dublin originally, she lived on the island for 16 years and returns regularly from her home in Westport. Her articles and essays have appeared in many newspapers over the years and she is a regular contributor to the Irish Times.
