In The Irish Times tomorrow, Michael Longley reflects with Freya McClements on his long and distinguished career as a poet and Ash Keys, his new selected poems. Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-winning author of Autocracy Inc, tells Mark Paul about the differences between Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping. Historian John O’Beirne Ranelagh interviewed 100 former members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the 1970s. Much of the material has been unused - until now. He talks to Mark Hennessy. And there is a Q&A with Conn Iggulden, co-author of The Dangerous Book for Boys, about his latest historical epic, Nero.
Reviews are Brendan O’Leary on Ireland out of England by John Wilson Foster; Conor Brady on Irish First Ladies and First Gentlemen 1919-2011 by Bernadette Whelan; Helen Cullen on Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors; Catherine Taylor on the best new translations; John Walshe on Identity by John Sweetman; Sean Sheehan on Look at the USA by Peter van Agtmael; Neil Hegarty on Mother Naked by Glen James Brown; Adrienne Murphy on Going Home by Tom Lamont; Edel Coffey on Birding by Rose Ruane; Doug Battersby on Eley Williams’s Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good; Eilis Ni Dhuibhne on The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylvainen; Miriam Balanescu on Hannah Regel’s The Last Sane Woman; David Rose on The Night-Soil Men by David Broady; and Sarah Gilmartin on The Coin by Yasmin Zaher.
This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is Kala, the award-winning debut novel by Colin Walsh, just €5.99, a €5 saving.
Vona Groake and Martina Evans, both poetry reviewers for The Irish Times, have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature.
New fellows get to sign the register with a famous writer’s pen. Evans signed with the pens of both Charles Dickens and George Eliot but Groarke was unable to attend in person as she was speaking at a Yeats Society event in Sligo. The RSL Roll Book dates back to 1825, five years after the founding of the charity in 1820, and features the signature of Fellows and Honorary Fellows elected in the past 200 years.
They join a select group of Irish writers including Edna O’Brien, Michael Longley, Nick Laird, Bernard O’Donoghue, Eimear McBride, Paul Muldoon and Anne Enright.
Kennys.ie, the website of Kennys Bookshop and Art Gallery in Galway, is celebrating 30 years online. Set up in mid-1994, it was Ireland’s first e-commerce website and among the first retail websites in the world.
The idea to put the family business online came at a time when e-commerce was largely unheard of. However, Barry Flanagan, founder of Ireland On-Line, saw Kennys as a business he could showcase. It sold a product that was easy to transport, had a database behind it and an also had an existing international customer base. Six months later, Ireland’s first retail website was born.
Now the oldest online bookshop in the world, Kennys.ie went live in the summer of 1994, just after the website of a bookshop in California, which has since closed. Amazon went online a year later. Over their last three decades selling online, Kennys have shipped millions of books to over 150 countries worldwide and their online trade has become the busiest and largest part of their business, which also includes a retail bookshop, an art gallery and a Libraries & Special Collections division.
Run from their Galway city premises, Kennys ship hundreds of book parcels daily with An Post. While specialising in material of Irish interest, they sell everything from new and secondhand books to rare books and archives on all subject areas. With a free delivery service in Ireland and low shipping rates to countries worldwide, they have always provided a competitive and independent alternative to multinationals.
Dedicated promoters of Irish writing, Kennys have welcomed authors to their shop since the beginning and have used their online presence since day one to further promote Irish writing, at home and abroad. They are currently selling Limited Editions of new novels by Colm Tóibín, Kevin Barry, Sally Rooney and Donal Ryan to name a small few, and reaching customers in all continents with these works.
Kennys Bookshop was first opened in High Street, Galway in 1940 by Des and Maureen Kenny. The business fully moved to their current premises in Liosbán Retail Park in Galway in 2009 to concentrate on their online business, a move welcomed by Maureen Kenny who always said, ‘You have to move with the times.’
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Poetry, drama, children’s literature, and historical fiction all feature in this year’s Dublin Festival of History which runs from September 27th to October 13th.
Now in its 12th year, the Dublin City Council initiative is run by Dublin City Libraries in partnership with the Dublin City Council Culture Company.
This year, over 220 free events are being held in libraries and other venues across the city.
On September 28th, Roger Casement biographer Roland Philipps will discuss his book Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement at the Main Hall, Dublin Castle. The talk is scheduled to begin at 2pm.
Historical novelist Kate Mosse, who’ll be discussing Map of Bones, the fourth and final novel in her Joubert Family Chronicles, and Sam Leith whose new book, The Haunted Wood, is a monumental study of children’s literature, are also speaking at the festival.
Poet Paula Meehan will be in conversation and there’ll be talks about famed Irish writers from the past including Seamus Heaney, Frank O’Connor, and AE (George Russell).
Events in historical venues include Irish Theatre’s From Mountjoy to the Somme – Writing 19th Century Dublin in Fiction at the award-winning museum, 14 Henrietta Street, and Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan in The Chester Beatty Library.
The Festival begins with the Big Weekend at Dublin Castle, September 27-29. Full details are available on dublinfestivalofhistory.ie.
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Amazon has announced the 37 non-profit literary organisations that will be receiving grants through the Amazon Literary Partnership in 2024 including, for the first time, the Republic of Ireland, where the Graffiti Theatre Company and Fighting Words are set to benefit.
Speaking on how the funding will help support and expand their work with young people across Dublin and Limerick, a spokesperson from Fighting Words said: “At our Dublin Centre, Write Club currently runs weekly in-person and bi-monthly online, while Word Warriors provides a regular space to explore creative writing with our team of volunteer writing mentors. With the new support from the Amazon Literary Partnership, we plan to establish a Write Club in Limerick as well as a space for members to read, share and perform their work, which will give them the opportunity to build audiences for their writing. We will also establish new Word Warriors clubs in Limerick and Dublin’s south inner city and Tallaght areas, to help more children develop not only their writing skills but also their confidence and resilience.”
The team is also set to launch a new Story Slam open mic night at their Dublin centre for Write Club members and other young people who want to share their stories.
This Sunday, July 21st, from noon, Dublin will host Children’s Books Day, dedicated to Ukrainian children. The event will take place at the Ukrainian Action Ireland Community Centre in Rathmines, featuring engaging activities and reading sessions with two celebrated authors from Ukraine and the US.
Michael Sampson and Olena Kharchenko will read from their book, Story of Ukraine: an Anthem of Glory and Freedom, followed by reading and activities with Halyna Budilova. The writer and cofounder of Little Beetle Press will take children on a magical journey with characters from her new series on environmental protection. She will read from her newly translated book, Eco-Tales of Giants, which premiered at Listowel Writers’ Week last month. Halyna will also present new activity books focused on environmental stewardship, featuring the Nature Giants of Ukraine, Ireland, and Canada.
All children will receive books for free thanks to the support of Red Cross. This event is a wonderful opportunity for Ukrainian children to explore the joy of being part of the community, reading and learn about the importance of protecting our planet.
