Snapshots of Irish Writers

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Claire Keegan: ‘I think something needs to be as long as it needs to be’

Sharon Horgan reads from 'Small Things Like' These by Claire Keegan | The Booker Prize

Maeve Binchy: Philosophy of Life

Circle Of Friends Trailer 1994

A Guest at the Feast (and the seagulls in Dublin)

Colm Tóibín on Finding the Right Way to Write About his Testicular Cancer | Ireland AM

Colm Tóibín's favourite scene is the one he didn't write | TIFF 2017

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Snapshots of Irish Writers by English Matters

Dublin, Ireland 1882 James Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin, on 2 February 1882. His father invested unwisely, and the family's fortunes declined steadily. Joyce graduated from University College Dublin (UCD), in 1902. He briefly studied medicine in Paris but his mother's impending death from cancer brought him back to Dublin. In 1904, Joyce began "Stephen Hero", which he later re-worked as "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". He also met Nora Barnacle, a chambermaid, and on 16 June 1904 they went walking at Ringsend, at the Liffey's mouth; Joyce later chose that date for the events recorded in Ulysses, his most famous novel. A timeline of his greatest works could be organised by way of ‘making sense’ and ‘not making sense at all’. Joyce was a Modernist writer and writes with intention and choses not to be ‘normal’ in his writing. From Dubliners to Finnegans Wake we can see how Joyce’s way of experimenting with language and stream of consciousness intensifies. 	A fan once asked Joyce if he could "shake the hand that wrote Ulysses." Joyce refused, saying "It's done other things as well.". 	What’s known today as Penneys on Mary Street – an institution in itself – was once the home of the first Irish cinema – The Volta Picture Theatre – set up by none other than James Joyce in 1909. 	The character of Leopold Bloom was based on Alfred H Hunter, a friend of Joyce's father who had once helped him recover after an alcohol fueled fight. 	James Joyce was an accomplished tenor (singer), and won the bronze medal in the 1904 Feis Ceoil.

Translations | What is Brian Friel's Translations about?

Dublin, Ireland 1667 - 1745 Jonathan Swift, pseudonyms Isaac Bickerstaff and MD Drapier, was an Anglo-Irish author, who was a prose satirist in the English language. Besides the celebrated novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726), he wrote such shorter works as A Tale of a Tub (1704) and “A Modest Proposal” (1729). His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian". Swift was ordained a priest in January 1695. He served as Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral from 1713 until his death. He is buried in the cathedral. He fought hard against social injustice and what he felt were unjust impositions on Irish people. His novel Gulliver’s Travels was a huge bestseller in its day. Swift’s most famous book, its full title was Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. He died on the 19th October 1745, aged 78 years Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Divinity and Dean of this Cathedral, Where savage indignation can no longer lacerate his heart; Go traveller and imitate if you can, this dedicated and earnest champion of liberty

Mayo, Ireland 1991- Sally Rooney is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published three novels: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021). The former two were adapted into the television miniseries Normal People (2020) and Conversations with Friends (2022). Rooney's work has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success, and she is regarded as one of the foremost millennial writers. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. Rooney was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, in 1991, where she also grew up and lives today, after studying in Dublin and a stint in New York City. She studied English at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where she was elected a scholar in 2011. She started (but did not complete) a master's degree in politics there, completing a degree in American literature instead, and graduated with an MA in 2013. While attending Trinity College Dublin, Rooney was a university debater and eventually became the top debater at the European Universities Debating Championships in 2013, later writing of the experience. Before becoming a writer, she worked for a restaurant in an administrative role.

The Downfall of Oscar Wilde

The downfall of Oscar Wilde

An interview with Sally Rooney

Lenny Abrahamson on Trinity College

‘Conversations with Friends’ author Sally Rooney answers your questions

Normal People and Trinity College Dublin – a Q&A

A Modest Proposal (a version not for the faint-hearted!)

Satire in "A Modest Proposal"

A Modest Proposal 2013 (Short Film)

Booker Prize winner Anne Enright: 'The Irish are dark but friendly…'

An interview with Anne Enright

Dublin, Ireland 1940 - 2012 Maeve Binchy was a writer, known for Echoes (1988), Circle of Friends (1995) and How About You... (2007). She died on July 30, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland. After graduating from University College Dublin, Binchy worked as a teacher before becoming a journalist, columnist and editor at the Irish Times. She later moved to England, where she assumed the post of the newspaper's London editor in the early 1970s. • Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982 and went on to become a bestseller. • She wrote 16 novels, four collections of short stories, a play and a novella. Her work landed her on the New York Times' bestseller list and in Oprah's Book Club. • Her novels have sold over 40 Million worldwide in over 40 languages. • Her daily writing regime was a target of 2,000 written words per day. • Maeve had an odd food enemy – she didn’t like lettuce! • Although the world-famous author lived in Dublin’s picturesque Dalkey, her favourite place to travel was Australia

Dublin, Ireland 1958 Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. In his early life, Doyle studied at the University College Dublin, graduating with a Bachelors of Arts degree. In 1980 he went on to teach English and Geography at Greendale Community School, where he stayed for almost fifteen years. In one of his recent novels, Smile, he tackles the subject of institutional abuse in Ireland during the 60s and 70s. Based on personal events, he describes the writing process of Smile as “pushing open a door I had never opened before and going in a bit, seeing if I could stay there”.

Roddy Doyle: The Waterstones Interview

Wicklow, Ireland 1968 Claire Keegan was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022 for her novel Small Things like These. She is a novelist and short story writer, whose work has won numerous awards and been translated into 30 languages. She was brought up on a farm in Ireland. At the age of 17, she travelled to New Orleans, where she studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992, and her highly acclaimed first volume of short stories - Antarctica - was published in 1999. Her stories are translated into 30 languages and have won numerous accolades. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize, awarded to the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award and was last year chosen by The Times as one of the top 50 works of fiction to be published in the 21st century. Her novella Foster was adapted for the screenplay An Cailín Ciuín (The Quiet Girl) nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards in 2023.

LITERATURE - James Joyce

Why should you read James Joyce's "Ulysses"? - Sam Slote

Ulysses to go (James Joyce in 18 minutes, English version)

Dublin, 1962 Anne Enright studied English and Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. She is a former RTE television producer and has written many short stories, many of which were published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. In 2007 she won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Gathering. Enright is now regarded as part of a great tradition of Irish writers who explore Irish family life in acute and often harrowing detail. Yet, though her depictions of family relationships, love, sex, repression and Catholicism are delivered with savage honesty, this is almost always combined with a dry and subtle humour, and a rich and sometimes surreal prose style. In all her novels, short stories, and even her non-fiction, Enright’s words are skilfully crafted, evocative and sensual, often combining darkness and humour. She focuses intensely on bodily sensations and pays minute attention to detail, both in terms of physical descriptions and raw emotional honesty. Veronica’s grief in The Gathering is a particularly acute example of this:

'I am a trembling mess from hip to knee. There is a terrible heat, a looseness in my innards that makes me want to dig my fists between my thighs. It is a confusing feeling - somewhere between diarrhoea and sex - this grief that is almost genital. '&nbsp;

Wexford, 1955 He began writing poetry and stories at the age of 12, soon after the death of his father. In boarding school, he became a voracious reader, and he went on to graduate from University College Dublin. Immediately after college, he moved to Barcelona and taught English for three years before returning to Ireland to begin a career in journalism. His grandfather was actively involved in resistance to British rule in Ireland, took part in the Easter Rising of 1916, and later became a political prisoner for the Cause. His father was a member of Fianna Fáil, historically the dominant political party in Ireland, founded by Eamon de Valera. These apparently incidental details seem, however, to be profoundly important in shaping the work of this writer. His works of fiction often recount experiences that seem to build in unexpected ways from the author’s own. In The South, his first novel, published in 1990, an Irish protestant woman deserts her family and child and moves to Barcelona at the height of Franco’s rule, eventually settling with a new lover in the Pyrenees. Brooklyn focuses on a young Irish émigré to New York in the 1950s. After a repressive introduction to life and work in America, she falls in love with an Italian, whom she marries. However, when her sister dies in Ireland, she must go back to pay her respects. After returning from her new homeland, she falls immediately back into the routines of a familiar life – an experience much unlike the one she had faced after initially arriving in America. Many of his characters have split identities, are distanced from all they think of as home but also know why they left in the first place. By belonging in two places they also belong nowhere. The past haunts them but they cannot escape either into it or from it.

Dublin, Ireland 1971 John Boyne is one of the most successful and admired novelists of his generation. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has published 14 novels for adults, 6 novels for younger readers, and a short story collection. His most famous book, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was a New York Times No.1 Bestseller, and adapted for a feature film, a play, a ballet, and an opera, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide. It is published on classics lists around the world and is used in schools around the world to introduce young readers to their study of the Holocaust. It is the biggest selling novel (and most translated) by an Irish writer since records began. It has not come without criticism however, accused of ‘perpetuating a number of inaccuracies and fallacies’ and eliciting misplaced sympathy for Nazis. In 2022 he published its sequel In All The Broken Places. Among his many international bestsellers are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky, and My Brother’s Name is Jessica, which is considered a primary text in fiction about transgender teenagers, and has won international awards for its compassionate treatment of an often contentious subject.

Is humour a way of surviving for the Dubs? Roddy Doyle on The Tommy Tiernan Show

Roddy Doyle - The Spire

Interview - Humour and the Dubs

Dublin, 1969 Emma is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and playwright who lives in Canada with her family. Her novel Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes and has sold almost three million copies. It was adapted in to a feature film, Room, directed by Lenny Abrahamson and was nominated for four Academy Awards. The Wonder is about a fasting girl in 19th-century Ireland and the English nurse sent to watch her. Claiming to have not eaten in four months and subsisting on “manna from heaven”, the English nurse represents science in a faith-bound household. Described in the New York Times Book Review (by Stephen King) as a “fine, fact-based historical novel” it tell the story of one of many young women from the past who starve themselves and are heralded as mystics and praised for their faith, not unlike those claiming to be marked with stigmata. “Fasting girls” like The Wonder’s Anna, who claimed to live without eating, became a subject of popular concern in the nineteenth century. Some attracted curious and devoted visitors, and some were exposed as fakes. In some cases, these girls died, including one whose parents were convicted of manslaughter.

Banville vs Benjamin Black

Cillian Murphy on John Banville

Flip Clip: Cillian Murphy discusses John Banville

John Banville on Benjamin Black

Emma Donoghue - Room

Florence Pugh Reads To You | The Wonder | ASMR | Netflix

Dublin, 1854 - 1900 Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years hard labour after being convicted of "gross indecency" with other men. After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry. He never returned to Ireland or Britain and died in poverty at the age of 46 from meningitis. Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, which presently belongs to Trinity College Dublin. Today, Oscar Wilde’s birthplace is now the Oscar Wilde Centre of Trinity College, which houses the Irish writing and creative writing departments for the School of English. Aphorism - a pithy observation which contains a general truth

Wexford, Ireland 1945- John Banville, pseudonym Benjamin Black, is an Irish novelist and journalist whose fiction is known for being referential, paradoxical, and complex. Banville has gained recognition for his literary works and has received numerous awards for his contributions to literature. He has written both under his own name and using the pseudonym Benjamin Black for his crime fiction novels. He has published numerous novels, including "The Sea," which won the Man Booker Prize in 2005, and "The Book of Evidence," which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989. His writing style is often characterized by its lyrical prose, meticulous attention to detail, and exploration of themes such as identity, memory, and loss. His works are known for their intellectual depth and complex narratives. Under the name Benjamin Black, Banville has written a series of crime novels featuring a Dublin-based pathologist named Quirke. The Quirke series includes books such as "Christine Falls," "The Silver Swan," "Elegy for April," and several others. These novels are set in 1950s Dublin and explore themes of crime, corruption, and morality. The Benjamin Black novels differ in style and tone from Banville's literary fiction, showcasing a more plot-driven and atmospheric approach to storytelling allowing him to explore a different genre while maintaining his reputation as a literary author.

'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' Author on the Book's Criticism & His Upcoming Sequel | Ireland AM

John Boyne on Cancel Culture | The Late Late Show | RTÉ One

Tyrone, Northern Ireland 1929 - 2015 Brian Friel was playwright who explored social and political life in Ireland and Northern Ireland as he delved into family ties, communication and mythmaking as human needs, and the tangled relationships between narrative, history, and nationality. Friel was educated at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth (B.A., 1948), and St. Mary’s Training College in Belfast, and he worked as a teacher in Londonderry (Derry) for 10 years. After The New Yorker began regular publication of his stories, he turned to writing full-time in 1960, issuing short stories and radio and stage plays. After a six-month tutelage at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., in 1963, he wrote his first dramatic success, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, produced first at the Dublin Theatre Festival (1964) and subsequently appearing in New York City and London to critical and popular acclaim, receiving a Tony Award nomination for best play in 1966. It told of a young Irishman’s mood changes in contemplating emigrating from Ireland to America. Soon, Friel himself was settled in County Donegal, Ireland. This where the story of Translations (1980) is set, in Baile Beag. Said to be a play “about language and only about language”, it deals with a wide range of issues by focusing on the process of translation Irish placenames to English in the 1830s.