The Dingle Lit Podcast

Life on Skellig Michael with Catherine Merrigan & Robert L. Harris, chaired by Deanna O’Connor An Saol ar Sceilg Mhichíl – Catherine Merrigan agus Robert L. Harris, faoi chathaoirleacht Deanna O’Connor   Every year, guides are employed to live on the island during the summer season, to welcome tourists and show them around this UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s a tough but rewarding job. Dingle Peninsula resident Catherine Merrigan has been travelling to work Skellig Michael for the last 20 years, spending every summer, except for during the pandemic in 2020, on the spectacular rocky island off the Iveragh Peninsula. When the island was closed to visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, she gathered years of diaries and photographs and took advantage of time to reflect and write about the unique experiences of her summers. Last year Catherine Merrigan released Living Among the Puffins on Skellig Michael, a memoir recounting her life on the island, along with beautiful original photography.   This year, another warden of the Skellig, Robert L. Harris, has brought out a book detailing his experiences on the mystical isle off the Kerry Coast, entitled, Returning Light: 30 Years of Life on Skellig Michael. Dingle Lit is delighted to bring together these two people who have shared the extraordinary experience of living parts of their lives on the Skellig, to compare their perspectives and thoughts on the solitude, spirituality and ecology of this very special place.   Deanna O’Connor is a founding member of the organising committee of the Dingle Literary Festival. She is an award-winning magazine editor who now freelances for corporate clients, working from the inspiring office space at Dingle Creativity and Innovation Hub. She also writes regularly for the Sunday Business Post. She is the founder of The Speak Up Club, a social enterprise working to empower women as leaders in business and the community.   For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie/ Catch us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA Twitter: https://twitter.com/DingleLit

An bhliain seo chugainn, den chéad uair riamh, tabharfar aitheantas do leabhar Gaeilge mar chuid de Lá Domhanda na Leabhar 2022 - an t-úrscéal iontach Madame Lazare. Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin a scríobh, agus Barzaz, inphrionta nua de chuid Futa Fata, comhlacht a bhunaigh sé i 2005, a d’fhoilsigh. Ainnníodh Madame Lazare ag Gradaim Fhoilsitheoireachta Oireachtas na Gaeilge 2021 agus bhuaigh sé Leabhar na Bliana ag Gradaim An Post 2021. Labhróidh Tadhg le Cathal Póirtéir faoin scéal agus faoin bpróiseas ag an ócáid speisialta seo.        Sa bpodchraoladh seo labhraíonn Tadhg leis an gcraoltóir Cathal Póirtéir (RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta,Tuairisc.ie) mar gheall ar aistear an leabhair speisialta seo.   Ceannaigh an Leabhar: https://www.siopaleabhar.com/tairge/madame-lazare/ 

Declan O’Rourke, interviewed by Deanna O’Connor, talking about  his literary debut The Pawnbroker’s Reward  Declan O’Rourke’s award-winning album, Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine, was released to critical acclaim in 2017. It illuminated an extraordinary series of eye-witness accounts, including the story of Pádraig and Cáit ua Buachalla. Four years on, in Declan’s meticulously researched literary debut, The Pawnbroker’s Reward, the story of the ua Buachalla family is woven into a powerful, multilayered work showing us the famine as it happened through the lens of a single town—Macroom, Co. Cork—and its environs. Local pawnbroker Cornelius Creed is at the juncture between the classes. Sensitive and empathetic, he is a voice on behalf of the poor, and his story is entwined with that of Pádraig ua Buachalla. Through these characters – utilising local history and documentary evidence – Declan creates a kaleidoscopic view of this defining moment in Ireland’s history.   Since the release of his double-platinum selling debut album Since Kyabram in 2004, Declan O’Rourke has been one of Ireland’s favourite musicians. Declan O’Rourke’s artistry has been described as ‘proffering reassurance in the face of inevitable sorrow’ by Jon Pareles, chief music critic of the New York Times. Paul Weller, who produced Declan O’Rourke’s latest album, Arrivals, said the 2004 release Galileo was the song he most wished he’d written from the past 30 years. Other notable fans of O’Rourke are the Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, Imelda May, Pete Townshend and Eddi Reader, who described Declan as ‘one of the finest songwriters on the planet’. Deanna O’Connor is a founding member of the organising committee of the Dingle Literary Festival. She is an award-winning magazine editor who now freelances for corporate clients, working from the inspiring office space at Dingle Creativity and Innovation Hub. She also writes regularly for the Sunday Business Post. She is the founder of The Speak Up Club, a social enterprise working to empower women as leaders in business and the community.  For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie/ Catch us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA Twitter: https://twitter.com/DingleLit

‘Ní minic a tharlaíonn sé ach is iontach éachtach go dtarlaíonn sé go fóill, agus ar chor ar bith, cnuasach gearrscéalta a bhaineann an anáil díot as feabhas na scéalaíochta agus as úire an mhachnaimh’ - Pól Ó Muirí   Bígí linn agus glac páirt sa chomhrá seo idir an iriseoir agus craoltóir Sinéad Ní Uallacháin (RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, Beo Ar Éigean ar RTÉ 1, agus TG4), ó Bhaile an Éanaigh, agus an scríbhneoir iomráiteach Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde faoina thríú cnuasach gearrscéalta Cnámh, a bhuaigh gradam An Post Leabhar Gaeilge na Bliana 2020. 

Colm Tóibín talks about the life of Thomas Mann with David Butler. Colm Tóibín ag plé shaol Thomas Mann in éineacht le David Butler Colm Tóibín’s latest novel, The Magician, tells the story of a century through one life. Its central character Thomas Mann lives a life filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism. He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He would write some of the greatest works of European literature, and win the Nobel Prize, but would never return to the country that inspired his creativity. The Guardian review said, “This is an enormously ambitious book, one in which the intimate and the momentous are exquisitely balanced. It is the story of a man who spent almost all of his adult life behind a desk or going for sedate little post-prandial walks with his wife. From this sedentary existence, Tóibín has fashioned an epic.”   One of Ireland’s greatest writers, Colm Tóibín began his career as a journalist before publishing his first books in 1990. Since his first novel, The South (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and winner of the Irish Times/ Aer Lingus First Fiction Award) he has published novels, collections of journalism, and short stories and been nominated for and awarded scores of literary awards. Tóibín is currently  Chancellor of Liverpool University, Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of books and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books. David Butler is a multi-award-winning novelist, poet, short-story writer, and playwright. The most recent of his three published novels, City of Dis (New Island) was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. His poetry collections All the Barbaric Glass (2017) and Liffey Sequence (2021) are published by, and available from, Doire Press. His 11 poem cycle ‘Blackrock Sequence’, a percent Literary Arts Commission illustrated by his brother Jim, won the World Illustrators Award 2018 (books, professional section). Arlen House is to bring out his second short story collection, Fugitive, in 2021. Literary prizes include the Maria Edgeworth (twice), ITT/Red Line and Fish International Award for the short story; the Scottish Community Drama, Cork Arts Theatre and British Theatre Challenge awards; and the Féile Filíochta, Ted McNulty, Brendan Kennelly, and Poetry Ireland/Trocaire awards for poetry. His radio play ‘Vigil’ was shortlisted for a ZeBBie 2018. David tutors regularly at the Irish Writers Centre. Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com Event audio: Max Gay Produced & presented by: Deanna O'Connor For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie/ Catch us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA Twitter: https://twitter.com/DingleLit

Between Two Hells with Diarmaid Ferriter Idir Dhá Thine Bhealtaine le Diarmaid Ferriter This episode was recorded live in an Diseart at the Dingle Literary Festival 2021.   Diarmaid Ferriter is a graduate of UCD, BA (1991), PhD (1996).  He was Appointed Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD in 2008. Previously, Lecturer in Modern Irish History at UCD 1996-1998. Researcher and writer with Dictionary of Irish Biography 1998-1999. Senior lecturer in Irish History at St Patrick’s College, DCU, 1999-2008.  Visiting Burns Library Scholar at Boston College 2008-2009. Main research interests: the social, political and cultural history of twentieth century Ireland. Diarmaid Ferriter is one of Ireland’s best-known historians and is Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD. In his new book, Between Two Hells; The Irish Civil War, he draws on completely new sources to show how the history of the war, beginning in 1922, shaped the Irish political landscape across the twentieth century and up to the present day, and how important it is to understanding life and politics in Ireland, North and South, today. His other books include The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000 (2004), Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the life and legacy of Eamon de Valera (2007), Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland (2009), Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s (2012) and A Nation and not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913-23 (2015). He is a regular broadcaster on television and radio and a weekly columnist with the Irish Times. In 2010 he presented a three-part history of twentieth century Ireland, The Limits of Liberty, on RTÉ television. “The mighty mind this book comes from…rightly renowned for his voracious learning.” ― The Sunday Times on Diarmaid Ferriter.   Buy Between Two Hells from the Dingle Book Shop or from your local bookshop.  For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie/. Catch us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA Twitter: https://twitter.com/DingleLit

Comhrá, as Gaeilge, faoin tionchar atá ag áit, teanga, agus daoine ar a chéile. Sa chomhrá seo idir Ísiltíreach (Alex Hijmans), Rúiseach (Victor Bayda) agus Éireannach (Cathal Poirtéir) féachfar go h-oscailte, tarrainteach ar an slí ina ndéanann siad go léir dianscrúdú ar an mbaint a bhíonn idir an duine agus an áit, ar thionchar áite ar an duine agus ar thionchar an duine ar áit. Léireoidh siad conas a stiúraigh a dturas pearsanta chun cur chun cinn na Gaeilge iad, Victor tríd an teagasc, pleanáil teanga agus obair sa phobal, Alex tríd an iriseoireacht, an chraoltóireacht agus an litríocht.

Carlo Gébler and Sara Baume discuss the life and pre-life of Oedipus Rex, as written by his daughter Antigone Carlo Gébler agus Sara Baume ag plé scéal shaol agus réamhshaol Oedipus Rex, mar a scríobh a iníon Antigone é Episode 5: Live from Dingle Literary Festival 2021 Last year Carlo Gébler, Adjunct Professor in Creative Writing at the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre, interviewed his former student Sara Baume, upon the release of her non-fiction musings in Handiwork. The theme of the book was especially relevant during lockdown when, stuck at home, many turned to craft projects. This year, in a role-reversal, Baume has agreed to come to Dingle and interview Gébler about his new work, I, Antigone. As the eldest son of one of Ireland’s finest writers, Edna O’Brien, Gébler’s literary stock is impeccable, and his many talents extend to film and documentary-making. Alongside working as a writer, Carlo Gébler has also worked as a director and writer of films for television and as a prison teacher. His various awards and honours include a Major Individual Award (2006) from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Margaret Frazer Bursary (2007) from Queen’s University Belfast.  He was elected to Aosdána in 1990. His latest book is a new retelling of the life of Oedipus Rex, as written by his daughter Antigone. It’s a fascinating look at the complexities of blame, punishment and justice, problems which resonate as much today as they did in the times of myth. Gébler says, “In her biography, Antigone tells her father’s story as she believes it to have been. However, she is no hagiographer: she doesn’t deny his wrongs yet she also wants us to know – and this is her thesis – that though we might like to think actions are self-generated and self-directed, when the facts are excavated it isn’t nearly so straight-forward. Yes, choices might be made by malefactors like Oedipus but sometimes their choices are made for reasons outside their control…”   “Fresh and vital…a wonderful achievement.” – Roddy Doyle on “I, Antigone” by Carlo Gébler. “She more or less breaks every rule you could think of for writing a novel, in a very special way, because you can only do that if you are a person of genius, which I think is what she is.” – Sebastian Barry on Sara Baume.  Sarah Baume is the author of two novels, Spill Simmer Falter Wither which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Warwick Prize for Writing and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and A Line Made By  Walking, as well as Handiwork, a contemplation on crafting and making.   For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie Catch us on: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/Facebook Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/DingleLit Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA      

Look! It’s a Woman Writer with Éilís Ní Dhuihbne and Evelyn Conlon chaired by Mia Colleran as they reflect on women writing in Ireland since the 1950’s Féach! Scríbhneoir mná atá ann – Éilís Ní Dhuihbne agus Evelyn Conlon, faoi chathaoirleacht Mia Colleran, agus iad ag machnamh ar scríbhneoirí mná in Éirinn ó na 1950idí i leith It's Episode 3 of The Dingle Lit Podcast and the first broadcast of our Live events. Irish novelist and short story writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne asked 21 writers who were born in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, North and South, to write about their literary lives. These women— Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, Catherine Dunne, Lia Mills, Medbh McGuckian, Evelyn Conlon, Mary O’Malley, Liz McManus, Mary O?Donnell, Moya Cannon, Celia de Freine, Mary Dorcey, Anne Devlin, Mary Rose Callaghan, Mary Morrissy, Aine Ni Ghlinn, Sophia Hillan, Ruth Carr, Cherry Smyth, Mairide Woods, Ivy Bannister, Phyl Herbert—began their writing careers in a puritanical and deeply sexist environment. They tell it like it really was, and is. Collectively, these vivid, original essays provide us with a fascinating picture of Ireland’s literary landscape from multiple female points of view. Poets, fiction writers, playwrights, impresarios, writers in Irish and English, have written accounts which are funny, tragic, philosophical, angry, but all are lively, stunningly-honest testimonies of the writing life during a pivotal period in the history of Irish literature. These writers came of age when legislation for gender equality was beginning to be enacted. They are growing older on an island where a great deal has changed, for the better, as far as women are concerned. They have participated in, and created, new and more egalitarian literary scenes through their activism, but above all with their writing. They were movers and shakers when it really mattered. They are literary survivors.   Éilis Ní Dhuibhne’s first collection of stories, Blood and Water, was published in 1988 and since then she has written 25 books, including novels, collections of short stories, several books for children, plays and non-fiction works. She writes in both Irish and English. She was elected to Aosdána, the academy of Irish writers and artists, in 2004. She is a current ambassador for the Irish Writers’ Centre, and President of the Folklore of Ireland Society (An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann).   Evelyn Conlon is an Irish novelist and short story writer. She is an elected member of Aosdána, the Irish association which honours distinguished artistic work. She has been writer-in-residence in colleges in many countries, at University College Dublin and is currently Adjunct Professor and Mentor with Carlow University Pittsburgh MFA. Mia Colleran is an assistant editor at 4th Estate. She is an award-winning bookseller and writer, has worked at numerous book festivals and previously she reviewed books for The Irish Times, Guardian and Irish Independent among others. Mia is a fluent Irish speaker.   For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie Catch us on: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/Facebook Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/DingleLit Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA

At this year’s Dingle Lit book festival Carol Drinkwater connected with audiences from her home in the South of France to discuss her fourth novel, An Act of Love, a sweeping and evocative love story about bravery and courage following a young woman forced to flee war-ravaged Poland during World War II, taking refuge in the French Alps. As the Nazis advance and the family are in peril, romance blossoms and difficult choices have to be made. Author Kate Mosse called the book, “A lovely novel. A moving story of love and friendship with a wonderful sense of place.”   Carol Drinkwater is a multi-award-winning actress who is best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small. While working in Australia, Drinkwater wrote her first book, a children’s book called The Haunted School. She has since written further children’s books and seen The Haunted School produced as a television mini-series and later bought by Disney and edited into a film which won the Chicago International Film Festival Gold Award for Children’s Films. It was through this that she met her husband, French filmmaker Michel Noll, and relocated to Provence. Her quartet of memoirs set on her olive farm in the south of France have sold over a million copies worldwide and her solo journey round the Mediterranean in search of the olive tree’s mythical secrets inspired a five-part documentary film series, The Olive Route. She is also the author of novels The Forgotten Summer, The Lost Girl and The House on the Edge of the Cliff.   Paula Shields is a writer, researcher, and interviewer. An arts journalist since the 1990s, she has worked in London, Galway and Dublin in print, TV and now radio – on Arena, RTÉ’s flagship arts show. Find out more about An Act of Love on caroldrinkwater.com For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie/   Catch us on: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/Facebook  Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/DingleLit Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA        

Caitriona Lally, author of Wunderland, discusses her writing with Paula Shields. Caitriona Lally, údar Wunderland, ag labhairt faoina cuid scríbhneoireachta le Paula Shields.   Dublin writer Caitriona Lally’s first novel, Eggshells, was published in the US by Melville House (2017) and in the UK by Borough Press (2018). Eggshells, was shortlisted for the Newcomer of the Year Award at the 2015 Irish Book Awards and the Kate O’Brien Debut Novel Award. She is the 2018 winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the 2019 recipient of the Lannan Fiction Fellowship. Much media attention has been directed at the fact that Lally worked as on the housekeeping team in Trinity College, where she also studied English and returned to accept the prestigious Rooney Prize. However, with the lead character in her new novel working as a cleaner, it has clearly been a source of inspiration too.   Wunderland her second novel tells the story of Roy, exiled from Ireland under dubious circumstances, and now working as a cleaner at the Wunderland miniature exhibition in Hamburg. Struggling to connect with those around him, he commits secret acts of violence against the tiny scenes and figurines on display. Then, to Roy’s palpable annoyance, his sister Gert visits, determined to uncover what really prompted his sudden move abroad and carrying a threadbare hope that she might finally figure him out.   But Gert is fighting her own demons, having checked out of her exhausting family life where she is fading amidst her husband’s deepening depression. All the while, unbeknownst to her, Roy is planning something huge in this miniature world, a statement, an act of great destruction that might just be the best thing that ever happens to them.   Paula Shields is a writer, researcher, and interviewer. An arts journalist since the 1990s, she has worked in London, Galway and Dublin in print, TV and now radio – on Arena, RTÉ’s flagship arts show. Other professional highlights include originating and researching the IFTA award-winning RTÉ TV documentary, Fairytale of New York, in 2017, and judging the 2017 and 2018 Irish Times Theatre Awards.   Buy Wunderland from the Dingle Book Shop or from your local bookshop  For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie/.   Catch us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA Twitter: https://twitter.com/DingleLit    

In the second episode of The Dingle Lit Podcast, Paul Muldoon in conversation with Nicholas McLachlan discussing the places that informed his life and poetry Paul Muldoon i gcomhrá le Nicholas McLachlan, iad ag plé na n-áiteanna a chuir bonn eolais faoina shaol agus faoina chuid filíochta   Kerry is a special place to Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon. During the summer, while he holidayed in the Kingdom, he spoke with local poet Nicholas McLachlan, an interview which took a rambling journey around the places that informed his life and poetry, from his love of Kerry to growing up on the border of Armagh and Tyrone in Northern Ireland—with so many poems to read and so much to talk about, the fascinating conversation never quite made it back to his adopted home of the United States, where Muldoon has lived for over 30 years. Paul Muldoon has been described by The Times Literary Supplement as “the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War”. After reading English at Queen’s University, Belfast, Paul Muldoon published his first collection of poems, “New Weather”, in 1973, at the age of 21. He is the author of 14 full-length collections of poetry, including Moy Sand and Gravel (2002), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Horse Latitudes (2006). HIs latest book of poems is published this November. He is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark Professor in the Humanities and Founding Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1987. He was also Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1999 to 2004, and poetry editor of the New Yorker from 2007 to 2017. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Paul Muldoon was given an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in 1996. Other recent awards include the 1994 T. S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, and the 2003 Griffin Prize. Learn more about Paul Muldoon here: https://www.paulmuldoonpoetry.com/ “One of the great poets of the past hundred years, who can be everything in his poems—word-playful, lyrical, hilarious, melancholy. And angry. Only Yeats before him could write with such measured fury.” — Roger Rosenblatt on Paul Muldoon in The New York Times.   Nicholas McLachlan is a founding member of the Dingle Literary Festival committee and a key leader of programme of Writers’ Workshops. Nicholas is a writer and teacher of poetry and fiction. His first collection of poetry, The Rain Barrel, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2015. His second collection is due in 2022. He received the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship for 2016. He mentors individual writers and teaches creative writing, poetry and fiction to university, school and community groups.   For more information on Dingle Literary Festival find us online at https://dinglelit.ie Catch us on: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Dingleliteraryfestival/Facebook Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dingle.lit/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/DingleLit Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-kGxZDfo9wjkTVC5sI2WA