Main Programme

The short story, by its nature, captures and explores brief but significant moments or events in its characters’ lives, and so continues to captivate readers far and wide. Jan Carson’s Quickly, While They Still Have Horses (Doubleday) is a sparkling collection of stories encompassing all of life, with suggestions of the other world that will […]

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Join Tyler Anbinder and Tomás Finn in conversation with fellow historian Mary McAuliffe about their richly researched historical works. Anbinder’s Plentiful Country (Eriu), is a gripping narrative of Irish immigrants who transformed America after the Great Hunger, defying hardship to redefine the American dream. Inside Rural Ireland (UCD Press), edited by Tomás Finn and Tony […]

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Dangerous Ambition: The Making of Éamon de Valera (Eastwood) charts Eddie, later to be known as Éamon, de Valera’s rise from an early life of stark rearing and thwarted ambitions to becoming the founder of the most powerful political party in Ireland for much of the past century. Join author Colum Kenny in conversation with […]

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Rough Beast (Apollo) is Máiría Cahill‘s harrowing story, told here for the first time in full detail and with unsparing honesty. It is a story of unimaginable trauma and political corruption, but above all it is the story of one young woman’s defiance of those wielding power to inspire fear and silence, and their influence […]

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Critically acclaimed as satirical masterpieces, the best-selling Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series of books is drawing to a close with Don’t Look Back in Ongar (Sandycove). In this final instalment, the nation’s favourite upper class yob returns home from bonding with goys on the Camino to pandemonium. His father is causing havoc in Áras an Uachtaráin, Sorcha […]

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The Dublin Review asked three brilliant contributors – Sam Bungey, Brenda Romero and Jessica Traynor – to choose an essay they especially love from the journal’s nearly twenty-four years of publishing. In this year’s Dublin Review Conversations event, the three will talk about what they love about these essays, how they relate to their own […]

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Taking us back to a hot Dublin summer in 1866, Juliana Adelman’s The Grateful Water (New Island) is a gripping detective story of secrets and guilt, steeped in the city’s history. Leeanne O’Donnell’s Sparks of Bright Matter (Eriu) is an equally gripping game of cat and mouse through Georgian London’s underworld, in pursuit of an […]

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How do artists capture nature’s limitless beauty for the printed (or electronic) page? What creative tensions arise between accuracy and aesthetics? In this live recording of RTE lyric fm’s Culture File Debate, our panel of nature illustrators and artists reveal the art and science of bringing the natural world to page, screen, and gallery wall.  […]

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Join us for a lively and engaging afternoon of book chat with some of Ireland’s most exciting contemporary authors. Kevin Power will be in conversation with Colin Barrett about his darkly funny and thrilling debut novel Wild Houses (Jonathan Cape), and with Estelle Birdy about her explosively original debut novel Ravelling (The Lilliput Press). Neil […]

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Starting off in the historic surrounds of Dublin Castle, join Pat Liddy or one of his expert guides, on a tour of the old city to learn about some of the most famous writers associated with Dublin, from at least the 18th century to modern times. During this 2-hour tour you will pass by iconic […]

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The Irish Art of Calligraphy (Royal Irish Academy), by historian and calligrapher Tim O’Neill, is a beautiful workbook that provides an introduction to modern calligraphy and creative ways to develop your own unique style of lettering. Join Tim for this unique workshop in the Chester Beatty and try your hand at some of the exercises […]

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Tomorrow with Bayonets: Dublin: July 1921 – July 1922 (Mercier) by Darren Kelly and Derek Molyneux brings the raw intensity of the Irish Civil War to life in this gripping, fast-paced journey through a year of change and conflict; offering a visceral portrayal of a nation grappling with its identity and sovereignty, seen through the […]

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