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© RTÉ 2023
Description
Presenting new or previously broadcast commissioned lectures on timely subjects from Ireland's finest scholars, thinkers and artists. The inspiration for the podcast is the iconic RTÉ THOMAS DAVIS lectures which for over half a century since 1953 featured newly written radio talks on a host of subjects.
33 Episodes
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In 'Kate O'Brien: Legend in Her Own Time' activist and feminist Smyth covers themes and characters in O'Brien's books - including their bid to be free of conventions and how men are incidental from the 1997 'Kate O'Brien: The Woman and the Writer' birth-centenary series.
From the 'Kate O'Brien: The Woman and the Writer' birth-centenary of O'Brien 1997 series and whose insights into the lives of women, so far from suburban Dublin where she and her husband entertained O'Brien in the 1970s, Boland appreciates more fully since then.
From the 'Kate O'Brien: The Woman and the Writer' birth-centenary of O'Brien 1997 series is an intriguing account of her longtime friend, and relates too why after years of obscurity O'Brien's writing in print again attracts much scholarship and new readers.
Educationalist John Coolahan on the precarious relationship which existed between the Irish state and its libraries for much of the 20th century in his talk 'UnRealised Potential: Ireland's Public Libraries and Our Schools' from the 2002 series marking 100 years of Carnegie Libraries in Ireland.
Historian Diarmuid Ferriter in his talk 'The Post-War Public Library Service in Ireland: Bring Books to the Remotest Hamlets and Hills' from the 2002 series marking 100 years of Carnegie Libraries in Ireland, refers to a 1947 speech made by future president of Ireland, Erskine Childers on his vision for public libraries.
Fintan O'Toole, writer, critic and journalist on the private pleasures of reading and how our first library card gives us an entry into the public community of readers in his talk 'Reading, Writing and Rebelling: Growing Up with Public Libraries' from the 2002 series marking 100 years of Carnegie Libraries in Ireland.
James Joyce by Maurice Craig, author of the landmark book 'Dublin 1660-1860: an Architectural and Social History', who in the 1982 Thomas Davis Lectures Joyce Centenary series says Joyce showed little interest in buildings, however magnificent and though he alludes to things seen, experience primarily reached Joyce through the ear.
James Joyce's Letters by Richard Ellmann, his biographer, who says hints and declarations in them reveal Joyce a little as he saw himself, describing the letters in the 1982 Thomas Davis Lectures Joyce Centenary series as among the most interesting and insinuating ever written.
Poet Eavan Boland on James Joyce: The Young Romantic, from the 1982 Thomas Davis Lectures, the centenary of the birth of Joyce, when she considers his poetry collection Chamber Music, A Little Cloud from his short story collection Dubliners and passages from A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man.
Marsh's Library, Ireland's first public library, and its rare books figure in James Joyce's Stephen Hero, Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. Dr Muriel McCarthy, then its keeper, recounts its intriguing history from 1707, in 'The University of the People' 2002 series, the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Libraries in Ireland.
Poet Brendan Kennelly on Myles na gCopaleen, pseudonym of Brian O'Nolan. His 1941 darkly comic novel An Béal Bocht, translated as The Poor Mouth by Flann O'Brien, is equally a satire on the Irish as it is about the universal awfulness of being poor. From the 1975/76 'Pleasure of Gaelic Literature' series.
Declan Kiberd on how writers Catherine Cookson, Thomas McCarthy and Frank O'Connor began their love of books in their local libraries and the once stultifying moral censorship of the Irish library system - from 'The University of the People' 2002 series marking the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Libraries in Ireland.
Poet Pearse Hutchinson celebrates Micí Mac Gabhann whose Rotha Mór an tSaoil (1959), recounts his life story of endurance and adventures from Donegal to the Canadian Yukon Gold Rush. From 'The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature' 1975/76 series which featured writers on a writer in Irish to which they were drawn.
Journalist and author Ó hEithir catches the thrill and impact of Ó Cadhain's novel Cré na Cille. Set in a graveyard, its occupants, tormented by the slowness of time, are starved of gossip and action from life above ground. 'The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature' 1975/76 series featured writers on a writer in the Irish to which they were drawn.
'The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature' 1975 series featured writers on a writer in the Irish language to which they were drawn. Sean O'Faolain (1900-1984) chose Liam O'Flaherty. O'Faolain claims that whether writing in Irish or in English, O'Flatherty wrote in his own unique language.
1Poet Eavan Boland contributed to the 1993 series 'Irish Poetry Since Kavanagh' which looked at aspects of contemporary poetry written in Irish and English from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Her lecture 'Born in the 1950s: Irish Poets of the Global Village' considers the generation of poets who followed her own.
'The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature' 1975 series featured writers on a writer in the Irish language to which they were drawn. Annraoi Ó Liatháin chose Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin. His diary of 19th century Callan, Co Kilkenny captures a whole world through food, fair days, hurling, cricket and his passion for nature.
Poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi contributed to the 1975 series 'The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature' featuring writers on a writer in the Irish language to which they are drawn. Her choice was Ó Criomhthain and his 1929 modern classic of life on the Great Blasket Island.
Professor Des Gilmore of Trinity College, Dublin contributed to the 2002 series 'Engaging Spaces' on the nature of space in our lives. His lecture 'The County: Designation, Identity and Loyalty' assess the allegiance to county of people in Ireland.
Dr Yvonne Whelan of the Irish Academy for Cultural Studies, Derry, contributed to the 2002 series 'Engaging Spaces' on the nature of space in our lives. Regarding Dublin's Spire to statutes of royalty and rebels she demonstrates how urban spaces can be contested and highly political.
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