• Jews in Irish Literature – 19 Feb

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    The Irish Literary Society is engaging with writers and academics to reflect on 'Representations of Jews in Irish Literature'. The innovative research project of the same title was developed out of NUI Galway and Ulster University and forms the centre of tonight's event. The main objective of the project is to analyse representations of Jews in Irish literature from the ...

  • 25 Feb – The North, Irish poetry special

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    The ILS is working with The North poetry journal for this event to launch their special Irish issue. Editors and poets Jane Clarke and Nessa O'Mahony lead a rich evening of readings and discussion of contemporary Irish poetry. From an issue bursting with ideas and innovation (120 poems by 107 poets) we are gathering some fascinating poets to illustrate the ...

    £8
  • 25 March – Working Class Irish Literature

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    In the recent years of political and social turbulence in the UK, state of the nation debates have become commonplace and discussion on the representation of working class lives in literature has become a hot topic. A clearer recognition is emerging that publishers must overcome barriers of class and social mobility with the same level of commitment that has developed ...

    £8
  • The Country Girls, a celebration – 18 April

    Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith 5 Black’s Road Hammersmith, United Kingdom

    I wakened quickly and sat up in bed abruptly. It is only when I am anxious that I waken easily and for a minute I did not know why my heart was beating faster than usual. Then I remembered. The old reason. He had not come home... So begins Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls. With the support of the Dublin: ...

    £8
  • 29 April – Ciaran Carson

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    UNFORTUNATELY THIS EVENT IS NOW CANCELLED. NOTICE OF A REPLACEMENT EVENT WILL BE SENT OUT TO SUBSCRIBERS ASAP. TICKET REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED. The poet Ciaran Carson visits the Society to deliver our joint annual Noel O'Connell memorial talk with the Irish Texts Society. Carson's title for this talk 'From There to Here: Some Reflections on Translation' references his retrospective ...

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  • Essaying the Body: Sinéad Gleeson and Emilie Pine – 5 June

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    Sinéad Gleeson and Emilie Pine join the ILS to discuss their recent books of essays. Pine's winning last year's An Post Irish Book of the Year seemed to mark a reemergence of the essay form in Irish literature. Perhaps the flourishing of literary journals in Ireland has encouraged this, perhaps the renewed appreciation of Hubert Butler's work has been an ...

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  • I Wouldn’t Start from Here – 30 Sept

    The Bloomsbury Hotel 16-22 Great Russell St, London, United Kingdom

    The ILS is delighted to start its 2019-20 season with a showcase of second-generation Irish writers in Britain. Not quite British, not quite Irish, through their essays, fiction and poetry about music, family, and history these distinguished writers explore questions of identity and belonging and ask the perennial question: where is home – here or Ireland? When questions of authenticity ...

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  • The Belfast Agreement and Brexit – 28 Oct

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    As we approach yet another Brexit deadline (31 October) the Society has banded-together with the Irish Pages journal to reflect on the Belfast Agreement of 1998 and to consider possible futures for the union, Anglo-Irish relations, power sharing and the border. The current special issue of Irish Pages is given over to reflections on the agreement. The essays and poetry ...

  • Michael Wood, Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen – 20 Nov

    The Embassy of Ireland 17 Grosvenor Pl, London , London

    The Irish Literary Society is delighted to announce that the speaker for this year's Annual Yeats Lecture will be Professor Michael Wood. Drawing on his book Yeats and Violence (2010) Professor Wood reflects on how poetry, seen through the instance of a single poem, seeks to make sense of a turbulent and dangerous world. Poetry must introduce order and shape ...

  • Ciaran Carson celebration – 24 Feb

    The Bloomsbury Hotel The Bloomsbury Hotel, 16-22 Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom

    Irish was his cradle language, and his writing in English always had the verve and zest of a learned language. This was particularly true of his translations – of Merriman’s Cúirt an Mheán Oíche and the Táin, or Dante’s Inferno. As well as from Irish and Italian, he translated short poems from French and Spanish with great style and lucidity. ...

    £10