February at The National Library of Ireland
Dublin 2

Writing Workshops

Beginning Saturday 4 February for ten weeks from 10.00am to 12.00pm

€240

Yvonne Cullen is now taking bookings for her next series of Saturday Writing Workshops, starting in February. These will provide developing writers with support, feedback and guidance. Bookings should be made directly with Yvonne Cullen. Email: writingtrain@gmail.com or call 086 170 1418.

‘Start to Write Mondays’

Beginning Monday 6 February for eight weeks from 3.00pm to 5.00pm

€175

Café Joly at the National Library of Ireland is the venue for Yvonne Cullen’s new “literary café”-style creative writing classes and workshops. She is offering an energising ‘Start to Write’course at a specially reduced rate, commencing on Monday 6 February. Bookings should be made directly with Yvonne Cullen. Email: writingtrain@gmail.com or call 086 170 1418. 

Second Friday FREE

Second Friday of each month, beginning Friday, 10 February from 7.00pm to 10.00pm

Café Joly hosts an evening of informal talks, new writers showcasing excerpts of their work, music and poetry readings, complemented with good food and wine. All welcome. No booking required.

Small Lives Lecture Series FREE

Wednesday, 15 February at 7.00pm

'It's not the past that matters, it's the way you see it': Childhood, Ireland, and Children's Fiction.

Dr Pádraic Whyte, Assistant Professor of English, TCD. All welcome. No booking required.

Mid-term Family Workshop FREE

Thursday, 16 February at 2.00pm

Join us for an afternoon of story-telling and artwork. All ages welcome. No booking required.

Adult Learners’ Festival 2012 FREE

Monday, 20 February – Friday, 24 February at 11.00am

Ever wondered how to use the NLI? Join us every day this week on this free workshop where we will show you how to get a Reader’s Ticket, how to search the catalogues, how to order materials and much more. All welcome. No booking required.

Particles of the Past Lecture Series FREE

George Petrie: Artist and Antiquarian

Wednesday, 29 February at 7.00pm

Peter Murray, Director of the Crawford Gallery will lecture on the antiquarian George Petrie known as ‘the father of Irish archaeology’. All welcome. No booking required.

For more information on any of the above events go to www.nli.ie

February in the Irish Writers Centre
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1.00pm      10.02.12      Lunchtime Readings at The Irish Writers' Centre - Paul Murray

 Paul Murray will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

7.00pm       16.01.12      Evening of Estonian and Irish Contemporary Music and Poetry

 Poetry by: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Doris Kareva, FS, Triin Soomets
Music by: Helena Tulve, Tatjana Kozlova, Tõnu Kõrvits Andrus Kallastu and others

Ensemble Resonabilis (Estonia):
Iris Oja (voice)
Kristi Mühling (kannel)
Tarmo Johannes (flute)
Aare Tammesalu (violoncello)

1.00pm     17.02.12        Lunchtime Readings at The Irish Writers' Centre - Paul Grattan

Paul Grattan will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

7.30pm     21.02.12       Opening Night of the Peregrine Reading Series with Ulick O' Connor, Geraldine Mills, Ferdia MacAnna

Ulick O' Connor, Geraldine Mills, Ferdia MacAnna will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, kicking off our series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to the County Library and Boyle Library in Roscommon.

1.00pm     24.02.12      Lunchtime Readings at The Irish Writers' Centre - Shane Connaughton

Shane Connaughton will be reading as part of the Lunchtime Reading series at the Irish Writers' Centre on Friday 10th February. The Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre and are organised in association with Poetry Ireland. The readings will be alternating between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

7.30pm    28.02.12       Peregrine Reading Series with Christine Dwyer Hickey, Chris Binchy, Ed O' Loughlin

Christine Dwyer Hickey, Chris Binchy, Ed O' Loughlin will read at the Irish Writers’ Centre, as part of a series of prose readings, Peregrine Readings. The readings will commence in the Centre and be taken afterwards to Sligo Yeats Memorial Building and Ballymahon Library, Co. Longford

For more details go to www.writerscentre.ie or tel: 01 1 872 1302

Ennis Book Club Festival
Ennis, Co. Clare

 The Ennis Book Club Festival is a wonderful social and literary gathering bringing together book club members and readers from all over Ireland and beyond. Supported by Clare County Library, the festival includes author readings, discussions, workshops and walking tours through the narrow streets and lanes of Ennis. They offer sessions on running book clubs, advice on reading lists, poetry, events as Gaeilge, and an opportunity to compare notes and meet with other Book Club members.

For full programme and booking details please go to http://www.ennisbookclubfestival.com

Seachtain na Gaeilge
Nationwide

Seachtain na Gaeilge is the annual international festival organised by Conradh na Gaeilge to promote and celebrate Irish language and culture, culminating in the St Patrick's Day Celebrations.

For more details go to www.snag.ie

St. Patrick's Festival 2012
Nationwide

The principal aim of St. Patrick’s Festival, since its inauguration, is to develop a major annual international festival around the national holiday over which the ‘owners’ of the festival, the Irish people, would stand proud. It sets out to reflect the talents and achievements of Irish people on many national and world stages, and it acts as an exciting showcase for the manifold skills of the people of Ireland, of every age and social background.

For full details of the events takin place over the weekend go to www.stpatricksfestival.ie

Dublin: One City One Book 2012
Dublin

A month long festival, Dublin One City One Book Festival takes place in April every year. Organised by Dublin City Libraries in association with libraries, galleries, churches, cafes and theatres in the city, this festival encourages citizens and visitors to engage with activities which celebrate a book which is connected with the city.

James Joyce's Dubliners has been chosen for this year's festival. Details of events will be posted to this website and to www.dublinonecityonebook.ie

Strokestown International Poetry Festival
Co. Roscommon

Strokestown International Poetry Festival, a literature festival with readings by poets, both internationally renowned and emerging, takes place every year in the exquisite and otherworldly Strokestown Park House and the Percy French Hotel. Competitions, witty verse, workshops - and all events are FREE.

BookCrossing Convention
Dublin 2

The annual BookCrossing Convention 2012 will take place from the 13th to the 15th April in the Camden Court Hotel. To purchase a ticket for the event log on to www.bcdublin2012.com

Franco-Irish Literary Festival
Dublin

The Franco Irish Literary Festival for April 2012 has just been announced and this year the festival will take place from Friday 20th April until Sunday 22nd April inclusive.

As always there is a fantastic line up of events, all events are free of charge and will take place at either the Coach House, Dublin Castle or the Alliance Francaise.

This Book Festival's aim is to widen and enhance the long-standing friendship that exists between Ireland, France and other French-speaking countries. A literature festival which welcomes writers in both the English and Irish languages, together with writers of the wider francophone world and other European literatures. In doing so it provides an opportunity to showcase a wide selection of Irish and French writers before the Irish public.

For full details please go to www.francoirishliteraryfestival.com or click on the following link Frano-Irish Literary Festival Programme

Bealtaine
Nationwide

Bealtaine is a chance for people to make new and challenging work, a chance to communicate traditions between the generations. It is a chance for the novice to discover a talent until then unseen and a chance for a long-dormant skill to find a new outlet. Each year, Age & Opportunity invites local authorities, arts centres, libraries, Active Retirement groups, care settings, community groups and clubs, associations from every part of the country to run Bealtaine events that celebrate creativity in older age.

For more details go to http://www.bealtaine.com

Listowel Writers' Week
Co. Kerry

Since it's inception in 1970 Listowel Writers' Week has been recognised as a major cultural event in Ireland's literature festival calendar. North Kerry is the birthplace of many of Ireland's most prominent writers past and present including Dr. John B Keane, Dr Bryan Mac Mahon, Professor Brendan Kennelly, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, George Fitzmaurice, Maurice Walsh and Robert Leslie Boland. Writers' Week Festival was established to celebrate those writers and to provide an opportunity for emerging Irish writers to develop their talents and meet new audiences.

Dublin Writers Festival
Dublin

Dublin Writers Festival offers the city a chance to draw strength and inspiration from the best of the nation's contemporary writers. A literature festival with playwrights, poets, fiction and non-fiction writers, as well songwriters and composers giving voice to a living heritage that marks Ireland as the richest of nations

Bram Stoker Centenary Conference
Trinity College Dublin

The main aim of the conference will be to try to read Stoker in the round, expanding the critical focus away from an exclusive obsession with Dracula and taking account of the full extent of Stoker’s writing, from his other Gothic novels, The Lair of the White Worm and The Snake’s Pass, to his short stories and journalism. It will also consider Stoker’s relationship to late nineteenth-century Ireland and especially Dublin, and address his status as an ‘Irish’ writer of substance. The conference will be held in a year of activities to mark the centenary of Stoker’s death.

For more details click on the following link http://www.tcd.ie/English/news-events/Stoker%20Conference%202012.php