Join us for the London launch of a fascinating new work by Dr Ellen McWilliams. Resting Places: On Wounds, War and the Irish Revolution could be read as a memoir or a collection of personal essays, but it is neither – literary scholar Lucy McDiarmid describes it as 'the creation of a new literary form'. Resting Places offers up an ...
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 – ...
This event brings together the poets Thomas McCarthy and Virginia Keane Brownlow in conversation with Dorothy Allen to reflect on the life and writing of Molly Keane. Molly Keane was born Molly Skrine in Co Kildare in 1904, part of what she herself described as "a rather serious hunting, fishing church going family". Her mother, Moira O'Neill was a well ...
The Society welcomes back Rónán Hession for the London launch of his latest novel. The author will be discussing Ghost Mountain with the author and TLS critic David Collard. There will be an audience Q&A followed by a book signing, a glass of wine is included in the ticket price. Ghost Mountain is a mountain that appears suddenly, changing the ...
In the year of the centenary of the inaugural production of Juno and the Paycock we welcome Shivaun O'Casey, daughter of playwright Sean O'Casey and actress Eileen Carey, to speak at the Society to give insight into growing up in the O'Casey household, her father's work and her own work as a theatre director:"My parents never encouraged me to go ...
Charlotte Brontë, who dazzled the world with some of literature’s most vital and richly-drawn characters, spent her brief but extraordinary life in search of love. She eventually found it with Arthur Bell, a reserved yet passionate Irishman. After marrying, the pair honeymooned in Ireland – a glimmer of happiness in a life shadowed by tragedy. We're delighted to welcome Martina ...
Neil Jordan is unique in his success both as a fiction writer and a movie maker. In his new memoir Amnesiac he looks back over his twin careers with a certain amused wonderment - how did he manage all that? The result is a fascinating record of private loves and losses, of public triumphs and lessons learned, in a narrative ...
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 ...
The Annual Noel O'Connell Memorial Lecture, a joint venture of the Irish Literary Society and Irish Texts Society will be delivered by Phyllis Gaffney on her recent book Foreign Tongues Victorian Language Learning and the Shaping of Modern Ireland which is the first historical overview of the study of languages in Ireland. How history shifts languages and languages in turn ...
We are sorry to report that we will not be joined tonight by Nuala O'Connor as planned. Our apologies, this is due to unforeseen circumstances preventing her travel. We have more than a dozen poets reading their poems and reflecting on the work of the press. We're delighted to welcome back to the Society Nuala O'Connor and Alan Hayes representing ...
