On Wednesday 6th June in The Workman's Club IMRAM and the Dublin Writers Festival are hosting The Night Town Project - A Celebration Of Dublin In Darkness. 

The NIGHT TOWN PROJECT is a special bi-lingual multi-media project that celebrates the landscapes of Dublin at night. Four poets will read new work responding to images from photographers Jim Berkeley and Mark Granier; the resulting fusion will be transformed into beautiful on- screen projections by designer Margaret Lonergan, and performed to new music by acclaimed composer and musician Seán Mac Erlaine.

The poets:

Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh’s poetry has been described by Livia Brennan as ‘reveling in urban life in all its crowded energy and cacophony’. 

Colm Keegan was the 2011 All-Ireland Poetry Slam Champion; a potent new voice, his first collection Don’t Go There has just been published. 

Peter Sirr’s poetry explores how the contemporary and the historical meld in Dublin, and how ‘the buried city shows itself’. 

Gabriel Rosenstock is one of Ireland’s foremost poets, whose work Gwyneth Lewis has praised for its ‘beauty, humour and precision’.

Time: 8.30pm

Ticket Prices: €10/€8 and are available from www.dublinwritersfestival.com

As part of the Bealtaine Festival programme at Dublin City Libraries local playwright, novelist and screenwriter, Miriam Gallagher will read from her fiction and drama at Rathmines Library. Miriam is an award winning playwright whose work is produced worldwide. She has published four books of plays, a novel, a collection of short stories and non-fiction. She has worked in professional, prison & community theatre. Recently Nasturtiums & Cherry Buns premiered in Chicago, and Green Rain at Enniskillen Arts Festival. Lessons with Chopin premiered at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a performance of A Wasteland Harvest as a Staged Reading took place in New York. A new book Green Rain - Irish Composers on Stage was recently published. For more information on the author visit www.miriamgallagher.ie.

Date and Time: Wednesday 30th May at 3pm

Admission to this event is free, booking is advised. To book email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or tel: 01 4973539

Northside Community Radio Station Near FM have produced a five part radio series to highlight and celebrate north Dublin’s contribution to UNESCO’s endorsement of Dublin as one of five World Cities of Literature. These programmes feature interviews with local authors from the north side of the city discussing their life and work. Each programme also features panel discussions on one featured work from the author. This series focuses and highlights the unique contribution of north Dublin authors to Dublins status of a UNECSO city of Literature.

Programme one features the work of Paula Meehan. Go to http://nearpodcast.org/pcast/?p=6555 to listen to the podcast.

The National Gallery of Ireland are hosting a series of reading events in May and June

15 May Tuesday 10.30am

Bram Stoker author of Dracula

Paul Murray, author of From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker 

29 May Tuesday 10.30am George Bernard Shaw and the National Gallery of Ireland

Dr. Marie Bourke, National Gallery of Ireland

13 June 1.00pm Wednesday Celebrating W.B. Yeats

Professor Morris Harmon and Kathleen Watkins

In association with Poetry Ireland

For full details go to www.nationalgallery.ie

Dublin City Public Libraries wishes to extend its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Barney McKenna of The Dubliners folk group.

At the moment Celebrating Dubliners that is scheduled for Friday 13th in the National Concert Hall is still proceeding. Please refer back to this website for up to date news.

The 20th annual SHARP conference

The Battle for Books

26-29 June 2012

Trinity College Dublin

Registration for the much-anticipated conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) has now opened at http://sharp2012.org/. This international conference will bring leading practitioners in the field from across the world to Ireland. The conference is limited to an absolute maximum of 400 delegates. Please do register early in order to avoid disappointment. 

 The Theme: In a city like Dublin, which has been home to Swift, Wilde and Joyce one naturally thinks of ‘The Battle for Books’ in terms of censorship, constraint and restraint. While these will be significant topics at the conference, scholars have been invited to examine the theme as broadly as possible.There is plenty of scope to develop ‘The Battle for Books’ in a historical context, but speakers will also examine the future for books, the book-trade and the printing industry in the context of current and future technological innovations.
 
Registration is now open at http://sharp2012.org/  The full conference programme will be available next week.

Congratulations to Aifric Campbell, Emma Donoghue and Anne Enright on being included in the long list for the Orange Prize for Fiction. The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Now in its seventeenth year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing throughout the world. The announcement coincides with International Women's Day 2012.

Aifric Campbell was nominated for her novel On the Floor , Emma Donoghue was nominated for novel The Sealed Letter and Anne Enright was nominated for her novel The Forgotten Waltz.

The Short List will be announced on the 17th April.

is a joyous surreal satire that lifts the lid on Ireland’s beloved neutrality and cuts to the heart of the tempestuous affair with its nearest neighbour – Britain!

Winner of three Irish Times Theatre Awards including Best Production and Best Director Arthur Riordan’s “linguistically dazzling” (Time Out) comedy follows the exploits of a young British crossword enthusiast sent to Dublin to investigate suspicious radio messages. Improbable encounters with English poet John Betjeman, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, satirist Myles naGopaleen, the mysterious Agent Green and the innocent (or is she?) Philomena O’Shea, lead to plot twists, double crossings and, inevitably, to the Palace Bar.

This is a must-see for all book lovers and literature enthusiasts

Improbable Frequency - Gaiety Theatre 13 -24 March

For tickets go to http://www.gaietytheatre.ie/   or tel: 0818 719388
Ticket Prices: €15 - €49.50

Ticket Deals:

Previews (13 and 14 March): all tickets €25
Bank Holiday Monday 19 March: all tickets €30

A celebration of music and words in aid of the Irish Penal Reform Trust will take place in the Abbey Theatre on Sunday 26th February at 8pm. Artists taking part on the night include Shaz Oye, Tony Curtis, Noel Shine, Mary Greene, Ellie Shine, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Eddie Cahill artist and Brian Maguire, Karan Casey and Niall Vallely, Peter Sheridan, Leanne O'Sullivan, Christy Moore, Jimmy Kelly, Tom Crean and Brian McCarthy. The event is hosted by Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan. This event is supported by Poetry Ireland.

Tickets cost €20 and are available from the Abbey Theatre Box Office on 01 8787 222 or www.abbeytheatre.ie

After a hugely popular debut at the Abbey Theatre in 2010, Bernard Farrell’s hit play Bookworms is back. Set in a book club this is a ‘brilliant, fun, entertaining comedy’ - (ARENA - RTÉ Radio 1) that lovers of literature are sure to enjoy.

Tonight is Ann’s debut as host of her book club and she is determined to deliver a perfect evening of literary classics in her model home. But her best laid plans come undone as the usually all-female group has invited their husbands to join the club. Soon the nibbles and small talk give way to accusations and revelations to rival the most outrageous fiction.

- Competition to find Ireland’s best book club -

To celebrate the return of Bookworms, The Abbey Theatre are on the hunt for Ireland’s best book club. Earn some brownie points with your club by winning them a fabulous night out at Ireland’s national theatre to see the play. To enter the competition - Tell them in 200 words or less why your book club deserves the title of Ireland’s best.

Email your entry to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Post your entry to: Book Club Competition, Abbey Theatre, 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.

The closing date is Friday 24 February, 5pm.

Best of luck and we look forward to welcoming you to the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre soon.

Tickets for Celebrating Dubliners in the National Concert Hall on the 13th April are now on sale. Join us for a magical evening celebrating James Joyce's Dubliners, the choice for Dublin: One City, One Book April 2012. Delight in the music of Dubliners and be inspired as well know personalities The Dubliners folk group, Peter Sheridan, Noel O'Grady, David McSavage, Shannon Colleens and many more, bring this iconic collection of short stories to life.

Booking Essential. Tickets €25 and €20 (Conc. available). Tel: 01 4170000 or go to www.nch.ie

Mitchelstown Literary Society is pleased to announce the launch of the second William Trevor / Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition. 

FIRST PRIZE: €3,000 (SPONSORED BY WILLIAM TREVOR)  2nd prize: €500    5 runners up prizes of €200 each

Details of rules, official entry form(s), payment methods etc. obtained by tel: 025 84969, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or visiting www.mitchelstownlit.com

There is an entry fee of €20 per entry and the Closing Date for receipt of entries is last post on Friday, 30th March 2012.

The winner and runners up will be notified personally as well as results being posted to the competition website as they become available.

 Entries, by post only, to:

Trevor/Bowen International Short Story Competition,         

37 Upper Cork Street,

Mitchelstown,

Co. Cork,

Ireland.

A series of lunchtime talks will take place each Thursday in March at 1pm in the Central Library, ILAC Centre. The series addresses questions around the Irish Economy.  Contributors include noted economists, journalists and historians.

For full details on this talks go to http://bit.ly/Aoelkz

Admission is free. Booking is Essential

To Book Tel: 01 873 4333 or email:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Today, Thursday, 2nd February, is the 130th anniversary of the birth of James Joyce!

Arguably Ireland’s greatest literary genius and a leading proponent of modernism in fiction, James Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square to John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary Jane Murray, and spent his earliest years there and in Castlewood Avenue. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College and at Belvedere College before going on to University College Dublin (on St Stephen’s Green), where he studied modern languages.

Joyce left Ireland with Nora Barnacle in 1904, and was to spend the rest of his life in Italy and France, paying his last visit to Ireland in 1912. Joyce died in Zurich on the 13th January, 1941, and is buried in Zurich's Fluntern Cemetery.

Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners, and the choice for Dublin: One City, One Book 2012, was first published in 1914 by Grant Richards Ltd., London.

RANELAGHFEST, in association with Sandford Park School  presents 'I Know that I have broken every heart' Decoding the Secret Messages of Finnegans Wake.  

Diarmuid is a teacher at Sandford Park School and a scholar of literature in several languages. He has chosen to disclose his discoveries of the secret messages of  Finnegans Wake  at this very special event in Ranelagh.

Date: Thursday 9th February 2012 at 8pm

Venue: Sandford Park School

Tickets: €8/€5 available at the door

For more information go to www.ranelaghfest.com

Joanna Trollope In Conversation with Sinead Gleeson
 
Joanna Trollope is one of the most popular and successful authors in the world and DLR Libraries are delighted to welcome her to Dun Laoghaire for the first time. She is the author of sixteen bestselling novels, the latest of which, The Soldier’s Wife, deals with the difficulties facing a military wife awaiting her husband’s return from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.   Sinead Gleeson is a wonderfully perceptive interviewer and this promises to be a great night.

Tuesday February 7th at 8.00pm in Pavilion Theatre

Tickets €10 & €8 concessions. Call (01) 231 2929

or online at www.paviliontheatre.ie

 Also look out for readings by Irvine Welsh, Peter Carey and Paul Durcan in April

The National Wax Museum Plus will mark the 71^st anniversary of the celebrated writer’s death this weekend
 
The Museum will come alive from this Friday 13^th of January and continue all weekend with Joycean Character on hand to entertain and inform visitors of the life and works of the legendary James Joyce. Take a tour of the National Wax Museum Plus this weekend and you never know what characters from another time you will come face to face with they may be real or they may be Wax. This weekend it will be the characters from Joyces Ulysses and Finnegan’s wake that will lurk in the corners of the attraction as well as Joyce himself in the flesh and in wax.  

Adults :   €10
Children: €7
Family: €30 2 Adults 2 Children under 12
Further discounts for groups apply , School Tours €6.50 per pupil, plus teachers go free

Winners of the International Playwriting Competition 2010 organised by  the International Playwrights´ Forum, a committee of the International Theatre Institute ITI / UNESCO were announced:
1st prize: „The Diamond Stars“ by Maya van den Heuvel-Arad (Netherlands)
2nd prize: “Maxine” by Philip St John (IDublin)
3rd prize: “Unravelling Myths” by Kathleen Desmond (Dublin)

For more information, visit http://www.playwrightsforum.com/

Author and broadcaster Joseph O’Connor is to receive the 2012 Irish PEN Award for outstanding contribution to Irish Literature. The award will be presented at a dinner on Friday, 10 February, 2012, at the Royal St George Yacht Club, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. Members of the public are welcome to attend. Booking in advance is essential, and patrons are advised to book early to avoid disappointment. Dinner tickets cost €60 and can be purchased online here: www.irishpendinner.eventbrite.com

Winners of Irish Book Awards 2011 were announced last night, some highlights include:

• Irish Novel of the Year : Mistaken by Neil Jordan (John Murray)
• Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year : All For You by Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline)
• Irish Sports Book of the Year: Inside the Peloton by Nicolas Roche (Transworld Ireland)
• Best Irish Newcomer of the Year: Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)
• Best Irish Published Book of the Year: Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom by Tim Robinson (Penguin Ireland)
• Irish Children’s Book of the Year: Junior: The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge (Andersen Press)

                                                                        Senior: The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey (O’Brien)

For more information, visit http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1118/1224307765902.html

For €40 (€45 overseas) you can introduce a friend to The Stinging Fly.  The  intro pack contains two back issues of The Stinging Fly, two Stinging Fly Press books, and the latest issue of the magazine.  You can hand pick the titles or just let Stinging Fly choose – either way, it’s a lovely gift for fans of new writing. More information on http://www.stingingfly.org/

Wood Quay Venue

***Booked Out*** Thursday 24^th November at 6pm - ***Booked Out ***

Hear from some of Ireland’s most memorable radio interviews including Michael O Leary, Nuala O’Faolain, Seán FitzPatrick and Roy Keane. To book This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 01 674 4862/4873. Admission free.

Journalist Gene Kerrigan, Winner of The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2010 talks about his work to RTE’s John Murray and how the crime novel is one of the best mirrors on contemporary society on Thursday 10th November at 8.00pm at National Library of Ireland. Tickets €5. Log onto www.nli.ie to book.

Claire Tomalin will be talking about her new Charles Dickens biography - Dickens: A Life - on Tuesday 25th October, at 7pm in the Synge Theatre, Trinity College Dublin.

 Admission is free. Booking is essential. Please contact the Penguin Ireland office: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 01 661 7695 to reserve a seat.

Rathmines Public Library will be officially re-opened today. The library has been fully refurbished and many new features have been added. The library will offer access to a collection of 50,000 items including books, audio and MP3 books, large print, DVDs and reference material for all ages. While books continue to be at the heart of services offered at Rathmines Library, as is befitting of a 21st century library service clients can avail of free Internet access (including wi-fi), computers, study and research facilities. The library has on display the many writers and playwrights connected to the area. To find out more about these inspiring people, visit the library's blog here http://www.dublincitypubliclibraries.com/literary-heritage-rathmines-and-environs

Dublin City Council invites tenders from suitably qualified individuals for Contract for Services for Dublin Writers Festival 2012 – Programme Director.

Tender documents and further information are available from

http://www.etenders.gov.ie/

Closing date for receipt of tenders is 12noon on Thursday 20^th October 2011.

Congratulations to Tom Duddy on being shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for Poetry for his recently published debut poetry collection, The Hiding Place.

Tom Duddy is the only Irish author to make the shortlist this year.The Prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best first collection published in the UK or Ireland in the preceding year.

Dublin UNESCO City of Literature is pleased to announce funding for an online author development project. Please download the following documents and email your proposal to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Closing date 14th October 2011. Download Project Criteria Document. Download Project Application Form.

To download the Irish version of these forms please click on the following links Critéir Tionscadal ar Line Foirm Iarratais ar Mhaoiniú Tionscadail.

Dublin writer John Curran has won the Macavity Award for Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction and the Anthony award for Best Critical/Non-Fiction for his book Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks.

John Curran’s painstaking detective work in deciphering Agatha Christie’s 73 notebooks, which span the early 1900s to the 1970s, bore fruit when he was commissioned by HarperCollins and the Agatha Christie Archive Trust to write a book about Christie’s notes and how they shine new light on her creative process. Published in the UK in 2009 and the US in 2010, the book is now regarded as a seminal work by Christie aficionados. Its commercial and critical success has led to the publication of a second book by Curran, Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Making, which was published by HarperCollins on 1 September this year in time for the Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay.

 In May this year, John Curran won the non-fiction Agatha, another major independent crime-writing award. However, the announcement that John has also won both the Anthony and the Macavity makes it a hat-trick of three of the world’s most famous crime-writing awards.

Balloonatics Theatre Company presentsThe Flann O’Brien Ink Quest at the Dublin Writers Museum, 18 Parnell Square North, Dublin 1 on Wednesday, October 5th 2011 at 1 o’clock. To mark the occassion of Flann O’Brien’s centenary birthday, Paul O’Hanrahan, an experienced Joyce interpreter and performer, presents a lunchtime reading which goes in search of the elusive essence of Flann O’Brien (1911-1966). Based on a series of excerpts from the author’s novels and journalism, this entertaining midday interlude celebrates O’Brien’s whimsical imagination and captivating sense of humour. Admission Fee: €4 per person

Venue: Twisted Pepper Cafe, Middle Abbey Street, D1. T: 0872798361 seventowers.ie

This course will explore the work of some of Ireland’s best known authors in the surroundings of the National Library of Ireland. To book a place on the course, please contact UCD Adult Education Centre: www.ucd.ie/adulted 

Eight Tuesdays: 27 Sept/4 Oct/11 Oct/25 Oct/1 Nov/8 Nov/15 Nov/22 Nov 10.00am to 12.30pm €175

The Irish Cancer Society and Let's Try Writing want you to help write a book! The initial chapters of four books have been uploaded to http://www.letstrywriting.com/ , you can submit the next chapter and the chapters will be uploaded for public vote. Good luck!

Did you know that James Joyce had an extreme fear of dogs (cynophobia) or that Marilyn Monroe  kept a copy of “Ulysses” in her car, read it frequently and “loved the sounds of it”? Or that the youngest contributor to the (now defunct) Irish Press was Brendan Behan, with a poem entitled  “Reply of Young Boy to Pro English verses”? Or that George Bernard Shaw wrote more plays than Shakespeare? These and many more golden nuggets of literary anecdote can be mined from a special exhibition launching next Monday 22^nd August, 7.30pm in the Nicholas of Myra Parish Centre, Francis Street/Carmans Hall in the heart of the Liberties. The exhibition, entitled “Dublin Writers, born here, lived here, wished we were here” is the work of the Liberties Heritage Association (LHA) and represents their contribution to Dublin as UNESCO City of Literature. The exhibition is on from 22/08/2011 - 17/09/2011 9am to 5pm, Mon - Fri at Nicholas of Myra Parish Centre, Fancis/Carmens Hall, Dublin 8

Search National Print Musuem's catalogue http://www.librarything.com/catalog/NationalPrintMuseum . The National Print Museum collects, documents, preserves, exhibits, interprets and makes accessible the material evidence of printing craft and fosters associated skills of the craft in Ireland. 

Penguin Ireland, Transworld, O’Brien Press, Lilliput Press, Hachette Books, Liberties Press, Little Island and Arlen House will be on hand at the inaugural Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair for first-time novelists on March 10th 2012. The fair will introduce emerging novelists to those in the publishing world and help them place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents.Literary agents Marianne Gunn O’Connor, Yvonne Kinsella, Emma Walsh, Ger Nichol and Paul Feldstein will be present. Entry to the fair is based on competition, manuscripts submitted will be presented to a judging panel who will select a shortlist of writers. There’s no limit on style, genre, or target market, but the writer must not have published a novel before. The deadline for submissions is November 11th. See writerscentre.ie/novelfair.html

Booking for creative writing workshops at Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival will close on 12th August. More information, www.mountainstosea.ie

A graduate conference entitled Samuel Beckett and the 'State' of Ireland will take place at UCD on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th July. There will be a keynote address from Professor Seán Kennedy and Dr Mark Nixon along with an illustrated talk from Professor Eoin O'Brien on his highly influential book 'The Beckett Country'.

There is no prior booking needed and the conference is free of charge.

For more details go to http://beckettucd2011.wordpress.com

A cultural evening of music, theatre, poetry and stand up performance supported by leading Irish talent including Pat Boran, Mary Coughlan, John Lonergan, Paula Meehan, Kevin McAleer, Colm Ó Snodaigh (Kila), Silver Stars (Brokentalkers Production).  The evening will be presented by Theo Dorgan and Caitriona Crowe.This unique event promises to be entertaining, poignant and thought provoking.  It will be held in the intimate surroundings of the Pepper Canister, Mount St Crescent, Dublin 2 (off Merrion Square) from 8pm-10pm on Sunday evening June 26^th 2011.Tickets are €25 each.  For more information, please check http://www.oneinfour.ie/help-us/raise-money/

Glasnevin Museum is hosting a range of Bloomsday celebrations for 2011, starting at 11.30am on June 16th with an interpretation of the Hades chapter of Ulysses on the cemetery grounds, followed by a lunchtime concert in the Tower Cafe by Joyce inspired music by Michael Holohan and Brian Dunning. In the afternoon at 2.30pm, there will be a Literary tour of Glasnevin Cemetery. This tour costs €6, or coupled with a visit to Glasnevin Museum, €10. For those who have to work on Bloomsday, this tour will be repeated on June 19th at 3.30pm.

National Library of Ireland will give a free tour on its architecture and history on Saturday 4 June at 2.30pm. Further information can be obtained from  01 6030200 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

**Reader in Residence Vacancy***

Dublin City Libraries and the Home School Community Liaison Scheme wish to appoint a Reader-in -Residence.

The reader-in-residence will deliver a programme of activities designed to instil in young children an appreciation of reading and, at the same time, to give their parents/guardians an awareness of the positive value of literacy in their children’s development. The programme will include opportunities for parents and children to explore and enjoy reading and other literacy activities together.

The successful applicant will be based in two defined areas of Dublin inner city. They will have excellent interpersonal skills, experience of working with children and families and an ability to think creatively. A clear appreciation of the role books and reading play in the development of children and the enrichment of families in our society is also desirable. A flexible commitment of a minimum of 20 hours a week is required.

Further details are available on request from: Alastair Smeaton, Dublin City Libraries, 138 -144 Pearse St., Dublin 2 or by email from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

CVs should be submitted to the above address, not later than 5.00 pm on Friday 3^rd June 2011. Shortlisting will apply.

This initiative is funded by the Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Office.

Congratulations to Bisto Book Award 2011 winners:

• The Bisto Book of the Year Award - Chris Haughton for A Bit Lost
• The Eilís Dillon Award - Chris Haughton for A Bit Lost
• The Honour Award for Fiction - Sheena Wilkinson for Taking Flight
• The Honour Award for Illustration - Caitríona Hastings and Andrew Whitson for Mac Rí Éireann
• The Special Judges Award - Oliver Jeffers for Heart and the Bottle

The Bisto Children's Book of the Year Awards are the leading annual children's book awards in Ireland which is now in its 21st year.

Irish playwright Miriam Gallagher premieres her play Lessons with Chopin at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For more information on Edinburgh Fringe Festival, visit http://www.edfringe.com/

Everyone is welcome to Dr Brena Flanagan's, prize winning American author, free creative writng master class "When Spirits Inspire Fiction" on Friday May 6th at 2:30pm. To book a place please call 01 872 1302 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Dr. Flanagan will read from a selection of her works on Friday May 6th at 6pm. Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square North, Dublin 1

Each Tuesday 2.30pm FREE

Discover Your National Library

Free public tour 2/3 Kildare St: Tuesdays at 2.30pm starting 3 May.

Each Thursday in May 2.30pm FREE

Bealtaine at the NLI

Guided tour of the Yeats exhibition.

Saturday 7 May 2.30pm FREE

Tour of the National Library of Ireland

Learn about NLI’s history and architecture on this guided tour.

Tuesday 10 May 2pm FREE

Bealtaine at the NLI

Memories into memoir

Learn how to creatively translate your life experience into memoir at this interactive lecture and discussion with Irene Graham. Places are free but must be booked in advance. To book, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Wednesday 11 May 11am FREE

Bealtaine at the NLI

Introduction to the National Library of Ireland

Want to know how to use NLI? Join us for this information session and learn how to get a Reader’s Ticket, how to search the catalogues, how to order materials and much more.

Wednesday 11 May 7pm FREE

NLI Society Lecture

Sean Keating in context

Dr Eimear O’Connor – TCD

Wednesday 18 May 11am FREE

Bealtaine at the NLI

Introduction to the National Library of Ireland

Want to know how to use NLI? Join us for this information session and learn how to get a Reader’s Ticket, how to search the catalogues, how to order materials and much more.

Thursday 19 May 11am-12.30pm FREE

Caring for your personal collection

Join a member of the Library’s Conservation team for this workshop. Learn how we care for our collections and pick up some tips for looking after your own. Places are limited and must be booked in advance. To book, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Tuesday 31 May 8pm FREE

Bealtaine at the NLI

The Wild Bees’ Nest Concert

Led by artists Michael Fortune and Aileen Lambert, this event is the culmination of a research project involving a group of traditional singers from all over Ireland. To book, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 For more information, please contact 01 6030200 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Larkin Hedge School has an exciting line up of events in venues citywide including:

Writers in Song - May 5th 8:30-11:30pm

The Flowing Tide, Abbey Street, Dublin 1

Barry Gleeson sings Dublin songs to celebrate Dublin's designation as a City of Literature.

City of Words - May 6th 7:30-9:30pm

Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1

Poet Gerard Smyth focuses on the peotry inspired by his native city.

An Góilín Singers Club - May 6th 10pm

Songs from Niamh Parson at Góilín Singers Club

May Days - May 7th 11am-12:45pm

Liberty Hall Centre for The Performing Arts, Eden Quay, Dublin 1

A musical celebration of the origins of May Day, including performances by Nóra Geraghty and Tony Murphy.

The Power of Song - May 7th 1:45-3:30pm

Liberty Hall Centre for The Performing Arts, Eden Quay, Dublin 1

Bard, Tommy Sands leads an informal singing session.

The Music of Pádraig Ó Caoimh - May 7th 3:45-5:30pm

Liberty Hall Centre for The Performing Arts, Eden Quay, Dublin 1

Broadcaster and piper, Peter Browne brings the life of Pádraig Ó Caoimh to life with recordings and anecdotes.

A Toast to May - May 7th 7:15

Liberty Hall Centre for The Performing Arts, Eden Quay, Dublin 1

Wine reception followed by Song for the Green Crow, an evening of  music and drama commemorating Sean O'Casey.

The Liberty Session - May 7th 9:15pm

Liberty Hall Centre for The Performing Arts, Eden Quay, Dublin 1

Closing concert featuring The People's College Choir and Cathal McConnell.

Tonight, listen to Dr P. J. Mathews who invites us into the poetic world of John Millington Synge. To book a place, call 01 674 4806/4873 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   The lecture takes place on 4/04/2011 at 6pm at Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

Nobel prize winner, Seamus Heaney has won the Irish Times Poetry Now Award for Human Chain,his 12th collection of poems.

Heaney also won the award for District and Circle , his previous collection, published in 2006. Other past winners include Sinead Morrissey for Through the Square Window, Derek Mahon, twice, for Life on Earth and for Harbour Lights , Harry Clifton for Secular Eden: Paris Notebooks 1994-2004, and Dorothy Molloy, who won posthumously in the first year of the prize for her debut collection Hare Soup. 

All are invited to the launch of the book, Anne Enright, edited by Claire Bracken and Susan Cahill at Irish Academic Press, The Oak Room (side entrance), Mansion House, Dawson St., Dublin 2 on 24th March at 6pm. Anne Enright will be reading from her new book The Forgotten Waltz.  Guest speaker Moynagh Sullivan, NUI Maynooth will also attend. For information,  01 2989937, F: 01 2982783, E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Seven Towers Agency and DIT Kevin Street Library have an exciting and packed programme for Library Ireland week in Off The Street

The highlight of the week is an exhibition combining the visual art of Colm Desmond and the literary art of Oran Ryan. The exhibition will be launched on Monday 7th March at 6pm with a reading from Oran Ryan, and will run all week as a backdrop to:

Tuesday 8th March 6:30pm

A reading and open mic evening with Ross Hattaway, Eamonn Lynskey,  Karl Parkinson and Raven

Wednesday 9th March 6pm

A reading by veteran broadcaster and writer Steve Conway

Thursday 10th March 6:30pm

A reading by bilingual poet and winner of the Oireachtas medal for poetry in Irish, Greagir O Duill

Friday 11th March 6pm

A reading from Oran Ryan and a chance to discuss the exhibited work with Colm Desmond

For further information please go to www.seventowers.ie

All are welcome to a debate on Children's Literature, Classics and the City. The day will include a keynote lecture on Re-Editing the Children's Classics: Engaging Modern Children and Modern Adults's by Professor Peter Hunt. The debate will take place on Saturday 26th February at the Long Room Hub, Trinity College.  For a full programme and for registration details please visit www.isscl.com

Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Writers' Forum

 The UNESCO City of Literature Office is hosting a Writers’ Forum in order to engage with you, hear your opinions and to inform the strategic direction for the promotion and development of our “City of Literature”.

Dublin’s designation as one of only four UNESCO Cities of Literature in the world is an honour for the city and its writers. As a permanent designation, it offers huge opportunities for writers in Ireland, at all stages of their careers, writing in every language. Equally, the designation provides significant potential for bookshops, publishers, publications, libraries, universities and others to further engage with writers, readers and visitors. The designation is a recognition of the energy, vitality and influence that Irish writing and writers have brought, and continue to bring, to the world.

The Forum will take the format of informal engagement through a World Café style event, to capture your views on a range of issues. Your input into this conversation will assist us in ensuring that we maximise the opportunities presented by our City of Literature designation.

We will be hosting two identical sessions, one on each of the two dates listed below. Please express your interest in attendance at one session only:

Monday 21 February, 6.30pm - 8.30pm National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Wednesday 23rd February  6.30pm - 8.30pm National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Places are limited so please indicate your interest in taking part by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or tel: (01) 6744873 before Monday 7th February.

This year the Dublin Book Festival will take place from Wednesday 2nd March to Sunday 6th March.

The festival will take place in a variety of venues throughout Dublin City including the National Library of Ireland, The Gutter Bookshop, The Project Arts Theatre, Dublin City Libraries and Dublin's City Hall.

The Dublin Book Festival promises a great line-up with a relaxed and fun environment with something for everyone.

The 2011 programme will be released in the upcoming weeks. For more details go to http://www.dublinbookfestival.com/

The National Library of Ireland has a packed schedule of events for February 2011. All events and exhibitions are free of charge and should you require any further information you can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone 01 6030200 and ask for the Education  & Outreach Department.

 Monday 21st February 2:30pm - Free of Charge

Curator Tour

Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival

Join curator Dr Catherine Morris on a guided tour of the Alice Milligan exhibition in Discover Your National Library at 2/3 Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Monday 21st February

Adult Learner's Week

The Library will host two introductory sessions on using the Library during Adult Learner's Week. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tuesday 22nd February 7pm - Free of Charge

The Irish Country House Garden

Patrick Bowe - architectural and garden historian, and author of Gardens of Central Europe will discuss Irish country house gardens.

Held in conjunction with the National Photographic Archive's Power & Privilege: Photographs of the Big Houses in Ireland 1858-1922 exhibition in Temple Bar

Dublin Book Festival ( 2nd - 6th March  2011) are running a writing competition for young adults aged 12-14 years. The closing date for entries is Friday 11 February and more details can be found on www.dublinbookfestival.com.  Good luck everyone!

NEWS ALERT!!!

Tickets are now on sale for DublinSwell!

Following the designation of Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature join us for this once in a lifetime event, where writers, musicians, singers and actors will make the city come alive in an evening of imagination and inspiration.

Book now to avoid disappointment!

Tickets are on sale from http://www.tickets.ie/dublinswell

Dublin City Public Libraries and Ireland Literature Exchange presented a series of talks and readings, 'In Other Words . . .Irish Literature in Translation in Your Library' in the Central Library in November 2010. Featured writers included Hugo Hamilton, Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and John Boyne. Their talks are available on http://www.dublincitypubliclibraries.com/in-other-words . Contemporary Irish Fiction which have been translated into 33 different languages are available at The Central Library, Dublin 1 and via inter library loan on www.borrowbooks.ie

Seven Dublin writers won awards at The Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards 2010. President Mary McAleese presented Maeve Binchy The Lifetime Achievement Award, other winners included:

John Giles - Energise Sports Book of the Year

Ryan Tubridy - Newcomer of the Year

Gene Kerrigan - Ireland AM Crime Fiction of the Year

Emma Donoghue - Hughes & Hughes Novel of the Year

Neil Richardson -Argosy Non-Fiction Book of the Year

Niamh Sharkey - DAA Junior Children's Book of the Year

Derek Landy - DDA Senior Children's Book of the Year

Congratulations to all!  

It's official, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature has got the X Factor!  In its profile on Dublin, the 2010 X Factor Annual acknowledges Dublins' great writers and its status as a cultural and literary destination.

Four Irish writers Colm Toibín, Colum McCann, William Trevor and Peter Murphy have been nominated to the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Longlist.  The shortlist will be announced on 12 April 2011 and the winner will be announced on 15 June 2011, good luck to all nominees, further information can be found on http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/index.htm