#32 Myth-Making Michael Collins
City of Books
Michael Collins is the the Irish Civil War's most famous casualty but there is a lot of “what-if-ery”about him, says Ireland’s best-known historian Diarmaid Ferriter.
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#31 The Road Less Travelled
City of Books
Playwright Rosaleen McDonagh talks about her activism, disability campaigning, journey through adult education which led to a Phd, and weaving together Traveller and settled culture, forging an identity from them.
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#30 Paul Perry's Eden Gone Wrong
City of Books
A delicate, rare bloom which is “like the blood diamonds of the flower world” and fetches millions of euro is the subject of poet Paul Perry’s first solo novel.
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#29 In Praise of Difficult Women
City of Books
Violet Gibson, an Irishwoman who attempted to shoot Mussolini, is a character in Evelyn Conlon’s short story collection, Moving About The Place.
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#28 Lisa McInerney's Riotous Revelations
City of Books
From social change to gender change - all bases are covered in this wide-ranging conversation with one of Ireland's most sparkling writers.
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#27 Look! It's A Woman Writer!
City of Books
A new collection of essays which reflect on the perils and compulsions of authorship, the vagaries of success and failure - and what counts as either.
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#26 Nora Barnacle - Joyce's Muse
City of Books
At the age of 20, Nora Barnacle left everything she knew behind to share the adventure of a lifetime with James Joyce.
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#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.
info_outlineWriter Eoin McNamee blurs fact and fiction to produce art, whether exploring the activities of secret intelligence agencies or speculating on why Princess Diana died in a high speed car accident.
His 17 novels are gritty and poetic – beautifully written noir – and have earned him a Booker nomination. But they sometimes attract criticism for being near the knuckle, although he sees that as their function, he tells podcast host Martina Devlin.
He also writes episodes for Valhalla, the Vikings spinoff for Netflix.
His most recent novel, The Vogue, is set in Northern Ireland where a corpse is dug up, and other secrets uncovered along with it. “Writing should be transgressive," he says.
The Vogue is published by Faber. More info here:
City of Books is funded by the Arts Council and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the Museum of Literature Ireland