City of Books

Martina Devlin talks books with people who believe stories matter. And that you can never have too many books.

#30 Paul Perry's Eden Gone Wrong 07/22/2021

#30 Paul Perry's Eden Gone Wrong 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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/19901720

#29 In Praise of Difficult Women 06/24/2021

#29 In Praise of Difficult Women Violet Gibson, an Irishwoman who attempted to shoot Mussolini, is a character in Evelyn Conlon’s short story collection, Moving About The Place. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/19598750

#28 Lisa McInerney's Riotous Revelations 05/27/2021

#28 Lisa McInerney's Riotous Revelations From social change to gender change - all bases are covered in this wide-ranging conversation with one of Ireland's most sparkling writers. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/19259618

#27 Look! It's A Woman Writer! 05/13/2021

#27 Look! It's A Woman Writer! 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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/19098533

#26 Nora Barnacle - Joyce's Muse 04/28/2021

#26 Nora Barnacle - Joyce's Muse At the age of 20, Nora Barnacle left everything she knew behind to share the adventure of a lifetime with James Joyce. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/18901004

#25 Rónán Hession on Why Kindness is King 04/15/2021

#25 Rónán Hession on Why Kindness is King “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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/18742517

#24 John Banville Fades To Black 03/25/2021

#24 John Banville Fades To Black John Banville, who has killed off his own Benjamin Black pen name, is disturbed by explicit depictions of violence in popular culture. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/18472133

#23 Neil Jordan and the Runaway Slave 03/11/2021

#23 Neil Jordan and the Runaway Slave Oscar-winning filmmaker Neil Jordan runs parallel careers as a director and novelist, and his latest book is his most cinematic. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/18289292

#22 Danielle McLaughlin Finding Herself 02/25/2021

#22 Danielle McLaughlin Finding Herself “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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/18097685

#21 Louise O'Neill on Why She's a Warrior not a Princess 02/11/2021

#21 Louise O'Neill on Why She's a Warrior not a Princess “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." /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/17919506

#20 Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's Poetic Licence Earned 01/28/2021

#20 Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's Poetic Licence Earned Poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin talks about a time when books were banned in Ireland. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/17731295

#19 Anne Enright on an Altered Ireland 01/14/2021

#19 Anne Enright on an Altered Ireland “I don’t know if Ireland is the same any more,” says Booker Prize winner and former Laureate for Irish Fiction Anne Enright. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/17553458

#18 Many Strings to de Bernières's Mandolin 12/28/2020

#18 Many Strings to de Bernières's Mandolin 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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/17351627

#17 Haunted By The Ghost 12/11/2020

#17 Haunted By The Ghost 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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/17154434

#16 Eoin McNamee's Hidden Histories 11/26/2020

#16 Eoin McNamee's Hidden Histories 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. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/16959671

#15 How Emma Donoghue Won an Oscar 10/30/2020

#15 How Emma Donoghue Won an Oscar Writer Emma Donoghue us how she wrote an Oscar-nominated script working with director Lenny Abrahamson on 'Room'. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/16606274

#14 The Diplomatic Arts 09/18/2020

#14 The Diplomatic Arts Ireland's man in Washington, Ambassador Daniel Mulhall, talks us through the rhyme and reason of poetry - and how literature can act as a cultural bridge. He practises what he preaches by tweeting daily poems. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/16054589

#13 Lemn Sissay and the Story of Why 08/28/2020

#13 Lemn Sissay and the Story of Why Lemn Sissay shoots from the hip and speaks from the heart in this interview about mother and baby homes, the Black Lives Matter campaign and his experience in the British care system. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/15781292

#12 Richard Ford on Flouncing and Failure 07/10/2020

#12 Richard Ford on Flouncing and Failure Richard Ford is listing his failures. He wanted to be a lawyer in the US Marines. Didn’t work out. He wanted to be “a lawyer, period”. Didn’t work out. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/15148979

#11 Liz Nugent's Dark Materials 06/19/2020

#11 Liz Nugent's Dark Materials Doyenne of domestic noir Liz Nugent’s work has an army of fans including Graham Norton, who describes her latest hit Our Little Cruelties as part rollercoaster, part maze. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/14880599

#10 Colum McCann on Motorbikes and the Middle East 06/04/2020

#10 Colum McCann on Motorbikes and the Middle East Writer Colum McCann talks about his hope that his book, Apeirogon, may contribute to peace. It fictionalises the true story of two fathers, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who each lose a child in the conflict. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/14702561

#9 The Maamtrasna Murders 05/22/2020

#9 The Maamtrasna Murders Five murders, three executions, one moving speech from the gallows... The Maamtrasna murders were sparked by a blood feud in 19th century Ireland. The trial caused an international sensation /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/14517881

#8 Joanna Trollope on Fiction, Family and Feminism 05/08/2020

#8 Joanna Trollope on Fiction, Family and Feminism Three Fs have been a consistent part of international bestseller Joanna Trollope's life: /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/14328851

#7 The Child's Eye from Marita Conlon-McKenna 04/23/2020

#7 The Child's Eye from Marita Conlon-McKenna 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. All this and more from Marita Conlon-McKenna, much-loved author of Under The Hawthorn Tree. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/14121206

#6 South Dublin Noir Meets White Knuckle Crime 04/16/2020

#6 South Dublin Noir Meets White Knuckle Crime RTÉ Arts and Media Correspondent Sinéad Crowley, also a crime novelist, talks about books, her love of running, her passion for ghost stories and 'Tatty' - the 2020 Dublin One City One Book choice. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/14021018

#5 Why Prison Teaching Is My University - Carlo Gébler 04/08/2020

#5 Why Prison Teaching Is My University - Carlo Gébler Writer Carlo Gébler, son of Edna O'Brien, talks about One City One Book choices in the second of four weekly City of Books podcast extras. On his mother's classic trilogy, The Country Girls, he says it stands the test of time because it “talks about the truth of human experience”. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/13908785

#4 Sinéad Gleeson's Reading Choices 04/03/2020

#4 Sinéad Gleeson's Reading Choices Writer and editor Sinéad Gleeson talks Tatty – and more – in the first of four City of Books podcast extras. Weekly to coincide with Dublin’s One City One Book programme featuring the novel by Christine Dwyer Hickey. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/13818857

#3 Finance Minister and Christine Dwyer Hickey 03/27/2020

#3 Finance Minister and Christine Dwyer Hickey We snoop along Paschal Donohoe’s bookshelves, in episode three. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/13709570

#2: Life Lessons with Marian Keyes 02/14/2020

#2: Life Lessons with Marian Keyes In this episode, the international bestseller talks about everything from why she believes in supporting other women, to why bulimia is possibly the cruellest addiction. Marian also talks about her latest novel Grown Ups. /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/13126664

#1 Robert Ballagh on Beckett, Paisley and Prince Philip 01/21/2020

#1 Robert Ballagh on Beckett, Paisley and Prince Philip In this episode, artist Robert Ballagh discusses his autobiography A Reluctant Memoir, published by Head of Zeus /episode/index/show/cityofbooks/id/12809459

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