Navigation
Where Would You Like The Bullet: a film about Aidan Higgins followed by Christmas drinks. The Irish Literary Society is banding together with the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith to host a free screening of the UK premiere of a documentary on the Irish writer Aidan Higgins. Come along and be introduced to the Society and other London-Irish organisations on 11 ...
As we approach St Brigid's Day we are delighted to welcome an all-female panel to an event considering the continuing popularity of Irish crime writing, so-called "Emerald Noir". Our guests will read from their work, reflect on their portrayal of female detectives and as all three are UK-based we'll consider their London and Dublin settings. In Maeve Kerrigan (Casey), Bridie ...
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO CONCERNS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS. THE EVENT WILL RUN IN OUR 2020-21 SEASON. The scholar Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail visits the Society to deliver our joint annual Noel O'Connell memorial talk with the Irish Texts Society. Her subject is Thomas O’Connor (alias Tomás Ó Conchubhair, b. 1798), originally from the civil parish of Templemolaga, Co. ...
Professor Richard Kirkland joins in conversation with Roy Foster, the Society's Vice President, on Kirkland’s new book Irish London: A Cultural History 1850–1916 (London: Bloomsbury, 2021). In the years following the Irish Famine (1845–52), London became one of the cities of Ireland. The number of Irish in London swelled to over 100,000 and from this mass migration emerged a distinctive ...
The scholar Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail visits the Society to deliver our joint annual Noel O'Connell memorial talk with the Irish Texts Society. Her subject is Thomas O’Connor (alias Tomás Ó Conchubhair, b. 1798), originally from the civil parish of Templemolaga, Co. Cork, he emigrated to London in 1820 where he worked as a tailor until his death around 1870. The ...
Joining us at the start of the ILS 2022-23 season are the poet James Conor Patterson and writer Darran Anderson to launch Patterson's book bandit country. bandit country is the much-anticipated debut collection from James Conor Patterson, who will be familiar to ILS regulars from our event last year launching his anthology of essays on the Irish border: The New ...
The Annual Noel O'Connell Memorial Lecture, a joint venture of the Irish Literary Society and Irish Texts Society will be delivered by Dr. Mary MacDiarmada on 'Art O'Brien and Irish Nationalism in London, 1900-25'. London-born and reared, Art O’Brien’s journey from wealthy electrical engineer to leader of Irish militant nationalism in London was, by any measure, quite extraordinary. In her ...
Last year we engaged with Poetry Ireland and the Poetry as Commemoration project in UCD to develop workshops which used poetry as a means to deepen our collective understanding of Ireland’s past and to explore a challenging period of history relating to the War of Independence and Civil War. The three workshops were delivered by Roisin Tierney and Ian Duhig ...
We are delighted to kick off 2024 with a collaboration with our friends at the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith, home to many of our events over recent years. Martin Doyle will be joining us not in his more familiar capacity as the Literary Editor of the Irish Times but as an author in his own right. His Dirty Linen – ...
Join us on Friday 24 Jan for our first event of 2025. We are delighted to welcome back Professor Declan Kiberd to the Society to discuss the life and poetry of Aogán Ó Rathaille (c.1670–1729) and to launch a book by long time ILS member Brian O'Connor of a selection of the poems. Conveying Ó Rathaille's intricate rhythms and rhyme ...
