#25 Rónán Hession on Why Kindness is King
City of Books
“One of the brilliant things about books is that you can buy a book by the very best writers and if it still costs a tenner – it doesn’t cost any more than bad writing,” says Rónán Hession.
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#24 John Banville Fades To Black
City of Books
John Banville, who has killed off his own Benjamin Black pen name, is disturbed by explicit depictions of violence in popular culture.
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#23 Neil Jordan and the Runaway Slave
City of Books
Oscar-winning filmmaker Neil Jordan runs parallel careers as a director and novelist, and his latest book is his most cinematic.
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#22 Danielle McLaughlin Finding Herself
City of Books
“As someone prone to get lost in the darker currents of my own head I’ve found it healthier to get lost in a book,” says Danielle McLaughlin.
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#21 Louise O'Neill on Why She's a Warrior not a Princess
City of Books
“The number 63 has come up for me time and time again in very strange ways,” says writer Louise O’Neill. “I have put it in each of my books."
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#20 Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's Poetic Licence Earned
City of Books
Poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin talks about a time when books were banned in Ireland.
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#19 Anne Enright on an Altered Ireland
City of Books
“I don’t know if Ireland is the same any more,” says Booker Prize winner and former Laureate for Irish Fiction Anne Enright.
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#18 Many Strings to de Bernières's Mandolin
City of Books
Louis de Bernières is known worldwide as the author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin - but at nineteen, teaching in Colombia, he was known for something else. Dancing like a chicken.
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#17 Haunted By The Ghost
City of Books
In her first podcast interview since winning the An Post Irish Book of the Year award for 2020, Doireann Ní Ghríofa describes how she shares her life with a famous 18th century widow.
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#16 Eoin McNamee's Hidden Histories
City of Books
Eoin McNamee blurs fact and fiction to produce art, whether exploring secret intelligence agencies or speculating on why Princess Diana died in a high speed car accident.
info_outlineMarita Conlon-McKenna is the much-loved author of many books for children and adults. They include her children's classic about Ireland's Great Famine, Under The Hawthorn Tree. She talks here about the magic of storytelling, why famine stories continue to grip us and the powerful use of the child's voice in Tatty - the 2020 Dublin One City One Book choice.
For more about Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/tatty/
For more about Marita Conlon-McKenna and her fiction including her latest novel The Hungry Road https://maritaconlonmckenna.
Produced and presented by Martina Devlin
Music by Daragh Dukes