The Arts Council Podcast

Section 6 of the 'Artists with Disabilities at the Intersection of Work and Welfare' Report: Literature Review. VO Artist: Dorothy Grace Laity

Section 5 of the 'Artists with Disabilities at the Intersection of Work and Welfare' Report: Policy Context. VO Artist: Dorothy Grace Laity

Section 4 of the 'Artists with Disabilities at the Intersection of Work and Welfare' Report: Recommendations. VO Artist: Dorothy Grace Laity

Section 3 of the 'Artists with Disabilities at the Intersection of Work and Welfare' Report: Findings. VO Artist: Dorothy Grace Laity

Section 2 of the 'Artists with Disabilities at the intersection of Work and Welfare' Report: Background, Rationale and Methodology. VO Artist: Dorothy Grace Laity

Introduction to the 'Artists with Disabilities at the Intersection of Work and Welfare' report 2025. VO Artist: Dorothy Grace Laity

Patricia Forde, Laureate na nÓg 2023 - 2026, delivered her inaugural laureate lecture at Baboró 2024, inspired by the theme she has chosen for her laureate, “Making It Up As We Go Along”. Patricia discussed the importance of reading in a child's creative development and the importance of immersive play in fostering the skills required to read and write creatively.

The December Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Elaine Feeney about his book 'How to Build a Boat'. “Elaine Feeney's second novel, set in a small, fictional Irish town on the west coast, tells the story of Jamie, a boy who seeks to connect with his dead mother. ‘Feeney's prose,' The New York Times has written, ‘is both careful and relaxed — detailed in its description of place and character and of the effortful human urge to find order in the natural world.'” — Colm Tóibín Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/wwwartscouncilie/Content/Arts_in_Ireland/Literature/Laureate_for_Irish_Fiction/Art%20of%20Reading%20Book%20Club%202024.pdf

The November Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Michael Magee about his book 'Close to Home'. “Michael Magee's first novel deals with the Troubles as both legacy and aftermath. At its centre is Sean who has returned to Belfast. The book has been described by The Guardian as ‘a staggeringly humane and tender evocation of class, violence and the challenge of belonging in a world that seems designed to keep you watching from the sidelines.'” — Colm Tóibín Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The October Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Caoilinn Hughes about her novel ‘The Alternatives'. “Caoilinn Hughes's novel deals with the lives of four brilliant sisters, lives that have been deeply scarred by the death of their parents. As Hernan Diaz has written, this is ‘a tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species… in a prose full of gorgeous surprises…glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty.'” — Colm Tóibín Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

“Paul Lynch's novel, winner of the 2023 Booker Prize, is set in the near future in a real Dublin in which a totalitarian regime has come to power. ‘If there was ever a crucial book for our current times,' The Guardian has written, ‘it's Paul Lynch's Prophet Song.'” Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The August Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Dermot Bolger about his novel 'The Lonely Sea and Sky' “The novel tells the story of the rescue by a small Irish boat of 168 German sailors during World War II. The narrator is Jack Roche, a 14-year-old Wexford lad whose father has been killed at sea. Part historical fiction, part coming-ofage narrative, this is a perceptive and exciting novel about life at sea as a way of dramatizing human relations at their most intense.” — Colm Tóibín Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

“Set in 1994, The Coast Road tells the story of two women— Izzy and Colette. Colette has left her husband and sons for a married man in Dublin. When she returns to her home in County Donegal, her husband, Shaun, a successful businessman, denies her access to her children. ‘The last great book I read,' the actress Gillian Anderson has said. ‘It will no doubt be a bestseller.'" Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The June Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Belind McKeon about her novel 'Solace' "In her compelling debut novel, Solace,' Anna Fogarty wrote in The Irish Times in 2011, ‘Belinda McKeon succeeds in subtly reconfiguring and updating the archetypal story of a son's quarrel with his father. In her hands, it becomes a profound and exacting conjuration with the pyscho-social shifts taking place in contemporary Ireland.” Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The May Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Megan Nolan about her novel 'Ordinary Human Failings'. "Megan Nolan's novel tells the story of the Green family who move from Ireland to London in the early 1990s. 'Where Nolan really excels is in the delineation of complex, sometimes contradictory interior states, the water we all swim in and call "reality",' writes The Financial Times." - Colm Tóibín Megan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in London. Her essays and reviews have been published by The New York Times, White Review, The Guardian and Frieze amongst others. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021 and was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, was published in 2023 and is shortlisted for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, for fiction and longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. Learn more about the Art of Reading Book Club and the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 27: ‘Molly Fox's Birthday' by Deirdre Madden by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 26 'The Bee Sting' by Paul Murray by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 25: ‘Youth' by Kevin Curran by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The Art of Reading Laureate Book Club - Episode 16: Soldier Sailor - Claire Kilroy by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The December Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Mike McCormack about his novel 'The Plague of Souls'. Mike McCormack comes from the west of Ireland and is the author of two collections of short stories Getting it in the Head and Forensic Songs, and three novels Crowe's Requiem, Notes from a Coma and Solar Bones. In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature and Getting it in the Head was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In 2006 Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award. In 2016 Solar Bones was awarded the Goldsmiths Prize and the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year and Book of the Year; it was also long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. In 2018 it was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a member of Aosdána.

On 3 November at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace Bellaghy, Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín delivered his second annual lecture entitled A Dream on Wings: Poetry and the Underworld. It featured poetry readings by Cathy Belton and musical performance by Martin Hayes. Colm Tóibín's lecture charts poetry written about the underworld and traces a line going from Ovid through to contemporary poets including Seamus Heaney and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Colm Tóibín is the third Laureate for Irish Fiction and was awarded the honour by the Arts Council in early 2022. The Laureate for Irish Fiction promotes Irish literature nationally and internationally and encourages the public to engage with high quality Irish Fiction. The Laureate for Irish Fiction is an initiative of the Arts Council. More details about Colm Tóibín's public programme as Laureate can be found here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 19 The Amusements with Aingela Flannery by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

The October Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Joseph O'Connor about his novel 'My Father's House'.

The September Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Wendy Erskine about her short story collection 'Dance Move'. The Guardian writes of Wendy Erskine's collection of stories: ‘She identifies what is most fruitful about her characters' predicaments – the emotional core, the most resonant ironies – and traces with rapt and infectious attention their doomed if valiant attempts to shimmy away from the real.' The stories, the Dublin Review of Books writes, ‘are gloriously offbeat tales of people who live on the flip side and are out of step with those around them.' Wendy Erskine's two prize-winning short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move, are published by The Stinging Fly Press and Picador. Other fiction has been published by, among others, Rough Trade Book and The Tangerine Press. She recently edited Well I Just Kind of Like It, an anthology about the home and art, produced by Paper Visual Art. In 2022 she was a Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen's University. She is a full-time secondary school teacher.

“Ben, the protagonist of White City, is, John Self writes in the Guardian, the ‘son of a disgraced Dublin banker, languishing in rehab and writing an account of his wrong turns as therapy.' As Ben gets involved in a dodgy property deal in Serbia, Power creates a world of Irish people on the make with the hapless Ben at its centre. Ben, the Irish Times writes, ‘is Power's unforgettable creation.” — Colm Tóibín

The Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Tóibín | Episode 18: 'Nothing Special' by Nicole Flattery by The Arts Council | An Chomhairle Ealaíon

“In this brilliant and dreamy novel, John Banville gives life to the many characters who have peopled his fiction over fifty years. He allows them to meet each other, revisit old scenes not as ghosts or as revenants but as fictional protagonists with their own precise memories, their own pressing desires. There are some resonant evocations of place but all is bathed in a sense of pure aftermath.” — Colm Tóibín John Banville is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright and book reviewer. He worked in journalism for many years, and was literary editor at The Irish Times from 1988 to 2000. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, and other journals

June Art of Reading which is ‘Iron Annie' by Luke Cassidy recorded with a live audience in Letterkenny library

Join Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with Emma Donoghue on her fourteenth novel Haven “Haven, Emma Donoghue's fourteenth novel, is set on Skellig Michael in the year 600 when three Irishmen decide to establish a monastery on this extraordinary piece of bare rock. The Chicago Review of Books has written: ‘In classic Donoghue narrative style, it all unfolds in a confined space under cramped conditions ... convincingly conveyed by Donoghue's raw descriptions and her exceptional skill with emotionally authentic dialogue.” — Colm Tóibín Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an award-winning writer living in Canada. Her latest novel Haven, is about the monks who landed on Skellig Michael in the seventh century. She was nominated for an Academy Award and a Bafta for her adaptation of her Booker-shortlisted international bestseller Room, and her theatrical adaptation with songs by Cora Bissett and Kathryn Joseph (which premiered at the Abbey) will open on Broadway this April. She co-wrote the 2022 film of her novel The Wonder, Netflix UK's first feature shot in Ireland. Some of her other novels are The Pull of the Stars, Akin, Frog Music, The Sealed Letter, Life Mask and Slammerkin, as well as The Lotterys Plus One and The Lotterys More or Less for younger readers.

The March Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Philip Ó Ceallaigh about his book 'Trouble'. “Philip Ó Ceallaigh is a brilliant, uncompromising and ambitious writer who has long been resident in Bucharest. Of his collection of stories ‘Trouble', the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote: ‘Ó Ceallaigh writes with such immediacy, such confessional intensity, that when the narrator leans in close and says, “Look — there lies trouble,” it is impossible to look away.” - Colm Tóibín Philip Ó Ceallaigh has published over fifty short stories, most of them gathered in his three collections. The most recent is Trouble, from the Stinging Fly Press. He has been described by John Banville as “a master” of the short story form and named by Rob Doyle as his “favourite living writer of short stories”. His work has appeared in Granta, The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Irish Times and has been translated into over a dozen languages. He was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for his first book, Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse. He is also an essayist and critic with a particular interest in Jewish-European history, and his translation of Mihail Sebastian's interwar novel For Two Thousand Years was published by Penguin Classics. He lives in Bucharest, Romania. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The February Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Louise Kennedy about her book 'Trespasses'. The unforgettable protagonist of Louise Kennedy's ‘Trespasses' is 24-year-old Cushla Lavery, a Catholic schoolteacher living in 1975 in a small town outside Belfast. The novel narrates the story of her love affair with an older, married, Protestant barrister with the same wit and eye for detail as are on display in her book of stories ‘The End of the World is a Cul de Sac.' - Colm Tóibín Louise Kennedy grew up in Holywood, Co. Down. Her short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac (Bloomsbury 2021) won the John McGahern Prize. Her debut novel, Trespasses (Bloomsbury 2022) won Eason's Novel of the Year at An Post Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. Before she started writing, she spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She lives in Sligo. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The January Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Eimear McBride about her book A Girl is a Half-formed Thing. In describing his idea for the Art of Reading Book Club series Colm Tóibín said: “Our experience of reading became more intense and more essential during the lockdown. Although reading is mainly done in silence and when alone, it includes a sense of community, an idea of sharing. Readers want to talk about the books they like, to think about the internal workings of a novel or a story, and exchange ideas on books, all to enrich the experience of reading. Reading, as much as writing, is an art. It requires a creative response to the text. No books matters unless someone is reading it. The purpose of the Art of Reading Book Club is to deepen the idea of a community of readers and to recognize the vitality and excitement in the act of reading and thinking about books.” Eimear McBride is the author of three novels: ‘Strange Hotel', ‘The Lesser Bohemians' and ‘A Girl is a Half-formed Thing'. She held the inaugural Creative Fellowship at the Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading which resulted in the performance work ‘Mouthpieces' - later broadcast by RTE Radio. Her first full length non-fiction work ‘Something Out of Place: Women & Disgust' was published in 2021, while her first foray into film writing and direction ‘A Very Short Film About Longing,' produced by DMC and BBC Film, has recently been completed. She is the recipient of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Goldsmiths Prize, James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Desmond Eliot Prize and the Kerry Prize. She grew up in the west of Ireland and now lives in London. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The December Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Bernard MacLaverty about his book, Blank Pages and Other Stories. The Laureate says “MacLaverty offers a masterclass in how to create character, how to build scenes by accretion of detail, how to work with implication and suggestion, how to write indirectly and manages to create more energy and more expression by working in muted colours and plain textures.” Bernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast (14.9.42) and lived there until 1975 when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children. He has been a Medical Laboratory Technician, a mature student, a teacher of English and occasionally a Writer-in-Residence (Universities of Aberdeen, Augsburg, Liverpool John Moore's and Iowa State). After living for a time in Edinburgh and the Isle of Islay he now lives in Glasgow. He is a member of Aosdána. He has published five novels and six collections of short stories most of which are gathered into Collected Stories (2013). He has written versions of his fiction for other media – radio plays, television plays, screenplays, libretti. Blank Pages, published in August 2021, is his sixth collection of short stories. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín delivered his first annual lecture on 6th November 2022 in Town Hall Theatre Galway. For those unable to join us at the event, we are delighted to be able to share a recording of this extraordinary evening.

The November Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with writer Tom McCarthy about Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Last September. The Laureate says “This is another novel set during the Irish War of Independence. Just as Martina Devlin's book is about solitude and introspection, this centres on a house party, scenes filled with chatter and strange silences, things unmentioned and unmentionable. And in the background are the insurgents, the sense of impending doom.” Thomas McCarthy was born in Co. Waterford in 1954 and educated at the local Convent of Mercy and at University College Cork. He was a Fellow of the International Writing Programme at the University of Iowa in 1978/79. He worked for many years at Cork City Libraries, mainly working in the Lending Section of Cork Central Library before he withdrew to write fulltime in 2014. He has won many awards for his poetry, including The Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize, the O'Shaughnessy Prize and the American-Ireland Funds Annual Literary Award. His tenth collection of poems, Prophecy,was published by Carcanet Press in 2019. A former Editor of Poetry Ireland Review and The Cork Review,his latest book, Memory, Poetry and the Party: Journals 1974-2014, is published by The Gallery Press, Ireland. Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin in 1899. An only child of Anglo-Irish descent, she was educated in England and spent her summers at Bowen's Court in County Cork. She was a short-story writer, novelist and essayist. Her first book, a collection of stories entitled Encounters, was published in 1923 with the help of Rose Macaulay of the Bloomsbury Group. The Hotel (1927) was her first novel. Her most highly regarded and well-known novels, The Death of the Heart (1938) and The Heat of the Day (1948), were set in London between the World Wars and during the Blitz. Her novel The Last September (1929) recounts the history of Bowen's Court and is set during the events that preceded Irish independence. She was awarded the CBE in 1948 and received an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin in 1948 and from Oxford University in 1956. The Royal Society of Literature made her a Companion of Literature in 1965. She died in 1973.

Warning: This episode contains mild swearing. The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council's 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins. In each episode, you'll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other's work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art. In our final episode of the series, Maeve is joined by three writers from three different generations: poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin, playwright Rosaleen McDonagh and poet, translator, and critic Michael O'Loughlin as they explore the themes that have shaped each others artistic work and lives. Annemarie, Rosaleen and Michael speak to Maeve about insider/outsider perspectives in their artistic practice and about stepping into their own creative power, as well as the limitations and liberations of language and whether the personal is political in art. This thought-provoking conversation also addresses the wider issues of class and diversity within the arts world and fittingly brings this series of curiosity and exploration to a close. Links: For more on Anne Marie Ní Churreáin's work: http://studiotwentyfive.com/ For more on Rosaleen McDonagh's work: https://skeinpress.com/writer/rosaleen-mcdonagh/ Michael O' Loughlin, Liberty Hall, (2021, New Island): https://www.newisland.ie/poetry-drama/liberty-hall Michael O'Loughlin biography: http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/members/oloughlin/

The October Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with writer Martina Devlin about her book Edith. The Laureate says “Edith is an engrossing and sensitive portrait of the writer Edith Somerville during the War of Independence when her writing partner Violet Ross is dead and her own career as a writer not flourishing. It is a portrait of a sensitive, solitary figure in a time of turmoil, of a woman striking out as an artist in a time when there were many barriers”. Martina Devlin has written 11 books, including the novels About Sisterland and The House Where It Happened, and the short story collection Truth & Dare. Her latest book Edith: A Novel – about the writer Edith Somerville – will be published by the Lilliput Press in May. Prizes include the Royal Society of Literature's V.S. Pritchett Prize and a Hennessy Literary Award. She writes a weekly current affairs column for the Irish Independent and has been named National Newspapers of Ireland commentator of the year. Martina is the first holder of a PhD in literary practice from Trinity College Dublin, where she is currently an adjunct lecturer in Irish literature. She presents the City of Books podcast, sponsored by the Arts Council and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the Museum of Literature Ireland. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council's 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins. In each episode, you'll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other's work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art. In the penultimate episode of The Curiosity Series, Maeve Higgins speaks with writer Brian Leyden and composer John McLachlan about the writer Leland Bardwell (1922-2016) and the centenary celebrations of her birth taking place this year. John and Brian speak to Maeve about uncovering new manuscripts and organising Leland's incredible creative output in a new website dedicated to her work, as well as preparing for new and upcoming publications in 2022, including My Name Suspended in the Air: Leland Bardwell at 100 edited by Libby Hart (Lepus Print, 2022). Together they delve into Leland's work as a writer in the context of her fascinating and somewhat unconventional life, exploring themes of feminism and the role of the outsider in her writing. They also speak about their own respective relationships with Leland as a mother and a friend. An artist who was well and truly ahead of her time, this episode examines the personal and professional connections brought together in Leland's art. Production: Milestone Inventive and bigO Audio engineering: Scimitar Sound Title music: ‘Ag Oscailt' by Gareth Quinn Redmond Links to Leland Bardwell's work and centenary activities: Leland Bardwell website: lelandbardwell.ie A Single Rose Festival (11th-13th Nov): A celebration of Leland Bardwell in poetry, prose, art, music and film at The Model, Sligo: https://bit.ly/3Eld91B Lepus Print website: www.lepusprint.com Lepus Print Twitter: www.twitter.com/LepusPrint Music and poetry heard in this episode: John McLachlan, A fine example of how not to live: https://soundcloud.com/user-800191557/a-fine-example-of-how-not-to-live John McLachlan, Dog Ear: https://soundcloud.com/john-mclachlan-composer/dog-ear-excerpt Leland Bardwell, The Act of Poetry Is A Rebel Act: https://soundcloud.com/leland-bardwell/the-act-of-poetry-is-a-rebel-act

The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council's 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins. In each episode, you'll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other's work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art. In episode four, composer Jane O'Leary and painter Gwen O'Dowd join Maeve to delve deeper into the inspirations and motivations behind their art. Both Jane and Gwen have found artistic inspiration in the power and beauty of the sea, and in this episode they speak to Maeve about how that inspiration has taken shape in their work and how it has brought them together for artistic collaborations at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast. In a lively and perceptive conversation, Jane and Gwen discuss how colour and movement informs their artistic work, the role of the audience when making art and how they access and express emotion in the creative process. A fascinating conversation which highlights how even though the mediums are different, artists often speak the same language when creating artistic work. Production: Milestone Inventive and bigO Audio engineering: Scimitar Sound Title music: ‘Ag Oscailt' by Gareth Quinn Redmond Music heard in this episode: Jane O'Leary, Palette of Preludes: https://soundcloud.com/janeoleary/palette-of-preludes Jane O'Leary, beneath the dark blue waves: https://diatriberecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-terrible-beauty Jane O'Leary, From Sea-Grey Shores: https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6334/ Links : Jane O'Leary website: https://janesoleary.com Jane O'Leary, Contemporary Music Centre profile: https://www.cmc.ie/composers/jane-oleary Gwen O'Dowd website: http://gwenodowd.website Gwen O'Dowd, Graphic Studio Dublin profile page: https://graphicstudiodublin.com/artist/odowd-gwen/ Gwen O'Dowd exhibition, Hillsboro Fine Art Gallery Dublin running from 22 Sept–22 Oct 2022: https://hillsborofineart.com/art/gwen-odowd-from-the-studio/?portfolioCats=38 Tickets for world premiere of unfolding soundscapes by Jane O'Leary, performed by Finghin Collins and the NSO in Galway, October 6th 2022: https://musicforgalway.ie/event/national-symphony-orchestra-and-finghin-collins/ Tickets for unfolding soundscapes by Jane O'Leary, performed by Finghin Collins and the NSO at the National Concert Hall: https://bit.ly/3BG4TYd

The September Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with writer Una Mannion about The Ante-Room by Kate O'Brien. The Laureate says “This novel is written with great intensity, being set over a time period of three days in which the focus is on the entire life of a single family, all the secrets and treacheries coming into the open. Time and character are dealt with in this book with sharp insight, masterful precision.” Kate O'Brien was born in 1897 in Limerick. A graduate of UCD, she was an internationally acclaimed fiction writer. In her early career she worked as a journalist and found initial literary success as a playwright. She also wrote short fiction, literary essay, literary criticism and travel writing. Her first novel, Without My Cloak (1931), won the Hawthornden and the James Tait Black Memorial prizes. She wrote nine novels in total, including Mary Lavelle (1936) and The Land of Spices (1941), both of which were banned in Ireland. Her novels were very popular and widely read in her time, both in Ireland and abroad and her most successful novel, That Lady (1946), was made into a Hollywood film. She died in 1974. Una Mannion is a writer and teacher living in County Sligo. In 2021, her debut novel, A Crooked Tree, was published by Faber in the UK and Ireland, and Harper Books in the USA. It won the Kate O'Brien Prize and was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards in the Newcomer of the Year category. She is programme chair of Writing + Literature at Atlantic Technological University and edits The Cormorant, a broadsheet of poetry and prose. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/

The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council's 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins. In each episode, you'll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other's work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art. Episode three sees Maeve Higgins follow the musical journeys of composers and friends Roger Doyle and Trevor Knight. Roger and Trevor came to their artistic practice through different routes in the 1980s: Trevor learning his craft with pop music group Auto Da Fé while Roger trained as a composer at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and later at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht. Since then they have worked together on various music projects over the years, which have encompassed their shared artistic interests despite their very different paths to careers in music, from their early love of jazz and working in theatre to their shared interest in music improvisation. Along the way, they look back on the changing music scenes in Ireland in the 80s and 90s, reflect on the changing landscape for musicians starting out in today's world, as well as highlighting the role and responsibility of the Aosdána to support artists working in different forms of music. Looking back on successful artistic careers that have seen them cross genres and engage with many different artists and art forms, Roger and Trevor paint a vivid picture of their musical lives, sharing anecdotes and stories that illuminate the artistic richness and occasionally the madness of being a composer and musician in Ireland. Production: Milestone Inventive and bigO Audio engineering: Scimitar Sound Title music: ‘Ag Oscailt' by Gareth Quinn Redmond Music heard in this episode: Auto Da Fé, ‘When The Curtain Goes Bang': https://trevorknight.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-curtain-goes-bang-an-anthology Roger Doyle, Thalia: https://rogerdoyle1.bandcamp.com/album/thalia Roger Doyle, ‘Mansard' from Babel - Temple Music: https://rogerdoyle1.bandcamp.com/album/babel-temple-music Catalpa (play by Donal O'Kelly with music by Trevor Knight): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYsw5M_twAo Links Roger Doyle website: https://rogerdoyle.com Trevor Knight Contemporary Music Centre biography: https://www.cmc.ie/composers/trevor-knight Trevor Knight Bandcamp: https://trevorknight.bandcamp.com

The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council's 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins. In each episode, you'll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other's work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art. In episode two of The Curiosity Series, host Maeve Higgins speaks to writer Mia Gallagher and dance artist Cindy Cummings about the nature of artistic collaboration. Both Mia and Cindy are committed to working collaboratively with other artists across disciplines in their own respective artistic practices and have done so for the past number of years. They delve into changes in collaborative practice in Ireland, the challenge of facing failure and mistakes when making art, and how to navigate fear and vulnerability in the creative process. In a lively and entertaining conversation Mia and Cindy tackle important shared themes surrounding their very different artistic practices with ease while also telling Maeve more about what they're currently ‘tipping away at'. Production: Milestone Inventive and bigO Audio engineering: Scimitar Sound Title music: ‘Ag Oscailt' by Gareth Quinn Redmond Links: Cindy Cummings website: https://www.cindycummings.net Cindy Cummings, work in progress Olga (mentioned at 24.50): https://watergatetheatre.ie/cindy-cummings/ Mia Gallagher, essay 'On Rejection' for The Stinging Fly, Summer 2022 (mentioned at 9.27) https://stingingfly.org/2022/07/28/on-rejection/ Mia Gallagher, ‘Dubliners' (bilingual, transdisciplinary book): https://linktr.ee/dublinersgallaghersughi https://marinonibooks.com/dubliners/ Mia Gallagher, ‘The Double Life of Dublin', The New European, Summer 2022: https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-double-life-of-dublin/

The August Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with Professor Frank Shovlin about The Barracks by John McGahern. “This bleak, unrelenting novel portrays a woman in the Irish midlands who has married a policeman and become a surrogate mother to his children in the time after his first wife's death. Elizabeth, too, is facing her own death. Her character is drawn with great sympathy. The most intimate moments are handled with piercing sensitivity and truthfulness.” Colm Tóibín John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and raised in Leitrim and Roscommon. A graduate of UCD, he worked as a primary school teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. He is the author of six novels and four collections of short stories. His novels included The Barracks (1963); The Dark (1965); The Leavetaking (1975), The Pornographer (1980), Amongst Women (1990) and That They May Face the Rising Sun (2001). He published his much acclaimed Memoir in 2005. His short story collections were Nightlines (1970); and High Ground (1985) which were published as The Collected Stories (1992). He also wrote plays for radio, television and theatre. He received many awards, including the Æ Award (1962); the Macaulay Fellowship (1964); Chevalier d'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1989); The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literary Award (1990); the GPA Award (1992); and the Prix Étranger Ecureuil (1994). He was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1990 for Amongst Women. His work has been translated into many languages. On his death in 2006, he was acclaimed as ‘the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett' by The Guardian. Frank Shovlin was born and raised in the West of Ireland, and was educated at University College Galway and at the University of Oxford. He has taught at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies since 2000 and is the author of several books, articles and chapters on various aspects of Irish literature since 1900. His most recent book was an edited volume of John McGahern's letters, released by Faber to critical acclaim in 2021. He is currently writing McGahern's authorized biography under contract at Faber. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The Curiosity Series is an Arts Council podcast commissioned as part of the Council's 70th anniversary celebrations hosted by writer, comedian and podcaster Maeve Higgins. In each episode, you'll hear artists involved in music, dance, poetry, literature, visual arts and theatre in conversation with Maeve as they get curious about each other's work, explore the integral role that creativity has played in their lives, and discuss the broader issues and themes that connect their art. In episode one of The Curiosity Series, host Maeve Higgins is joined by visual artist and printmaker Geraldine O'Reilly and writer Mary O'Donnell. They talk about Unlegendary Heroes, a work by Geraldine O'Reilly based on a collection of poetry of the same name by Mary O'Donnell, currently being exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition. Geraldine and Mary speak to Maeve about the elusive nature of creative inspiration, about working together on Unlegendary Heroes and about the themes of womanhood that permeate this work. You'll also hear some of the poems that form part of the exhibition, as well as more about current and forthcoming work from both artists, including Mary's latest novel, Mother, Dear Vampire. Geraldine and Mary discuss their lives as artists with honesty and humour, offering insight into their respective creative processes as well as the themes and issues that matter to them in their art. Production: Milestone Inventive and bigO Audio engineering: Scimitar Sound Title music: ‘Ag Oscailt' by Gareth Quinn Redmond Links: Information on Unlegendary Heroes at the RHA: https://rhagallery.viewingrooms.com/artworks/951-geraldine-o-reilly-unlegendary-heroes/ Geraldine O'Reilly's website: http://www.geraldineoreilly.net/home The Family Album project, Geraldine O'Reilly: https://www.creativeireland.gov.ie/en/event/the-family-album-project-for-parish-of-killu can/ Mary O'Donnell's website: http://www.maryodonnell.com

The July Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Naoise Dolan about her novel Exciting Times. “This novel is a tour-de-force work about exile and the world of expats in Hong Kong. Seeking accommodation, looking for love, teaching English as a foreign language, dealing with foreigners, being Irish, calling home, are all dramatized with wit and emotional accuracy and a refusal to settle for easy narrative solutions.” Colm Tóibín, Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The June Art of Reading book club features Laureate for Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín in conversation with writer Sinéad Gleeson and writer and granddaughter of Mary Lavin, Alice Ryan, to discuss Lavin's short story, In the Middle of the Fields, from the collection of the same name. Read more about the Laureate for Irish Fiction programme here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction-2022-2024/

The May Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with Colin Barrett on his short story collection 'Homesickness'

This is an ingeniously told story, narrated by an actual book, a novel by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth, offering an account of its picaresque travels to America and back to Europe, while in the background we learn of the life of Joseph Roth himself and the dark times he lived in.” Colm Tóibín, Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024

The March Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with Adrian Frazier about the novel Esther Waters by George Moore. ‘In this novel, Moore works like a nineteenth century French painter in drawing a portrait of a spirited young women of reduced circumstances facing her destiny in an unforgiving world.' Colm Tóibín

Welcome to The Art of Reading, a monthly book club hosted by Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction, and shared on the last Thursday of every month. The first Art of Reading book club features Colm in conversation with Claire Keegan about her latest work ‘Small Things Like These'. Each month our Laureate will discuss a novel by an Irish writer, highlighting outstanding Irish writing and celebrating the reader and book clubs. The selected titles will include new work by contemporary Irish writers as well as novels from the past that the Laureate wishes to bring to a new generation of readers. To see the list of Colm's selected books for 2022 and to read ahead, download the Art of Reading book club pamphlet from the webpage here: https://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Laureate-for-Irish-Fiction/The-Art-of-Reading-Book-Club/ Readers, book lovers and book clubs everywhere are invited to join in the Art of Reading with the Laureate, to read these outstanding books and to engage in reading in a deep and focused way.

Sebastian Barry gives his final lecture as Laureate for Irish Fiction. Introduction by Arts Council Chair, Kevin Rafter.