In The Irish Times this Saturday, Elaine Feeney tells Laura Slattery about her latest novel, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way. Stephen O’Neill reflects on the 50th anniversary of Seamus Heaney’s landmark collection, North, in advance of a big conference in Queen’s University Belfast. Hazel Gaynor, author of Before Dorothy, her imagining of the backstory of Aunt Em in The Wizard of Oz, reflects on the importance of aunts. And there is a Q&A with Ciara Geraghty about her career and her first book for children.
Reviews are Adrienne Murphy on Esotericism in Western Culture: Counter-Normativity and Rejected Knowledge by Wouter J Hanegraaff, The Witch Studies Reader edited by Soma Chaudhuri and Jane Ward, and Shamanism by Manvir Singh; Peter Murphy on Sam Tallent’s Running the Light; Adam Wyeth on The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey; Declan Ryan on the best new poetry; Éilís Ní Dhuibhne on Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney; Ruby Eastwood on Sister Europe by Nell Zink; Gladys Ganiel on Tom Inglis’s Unbecoming Catholic: Being Religious in Contemporary Ireland; Malachi O’Doherty on Kincora: Britain’s Shame by Chris Moore; Pat Carty on Air by John Boyne; Rabeea Saleem on The Names by Florence Knapp; Pat Nugent on Never Flinch by Stephen King; John Walshe on Deadly Silence: A Sister’s Battle to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of Clodagh and Her Sons by Alan Hawe by Jacqueline Connolly; Ray Burke on For Valerie by David French; and Diarmuid Hester on Katie Goh’s Foreign Fruit.
This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is The Coast Road by Alan Murrin, just €5.99, a €6 saving.
Tana French has been shortlisted for the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger award for her latest thriller, The Hunter. Also shortlisted are D V Bishop for A Divine Fury; R J Ellory for The Bell Tower; Attica Locke for Guide Me Home; Anna Mazzola for Book of Secrets; and Bonnie Burke-Patel for I Died at Fallow Hall.
Stuart Neville has been shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for Blood Like Mine; Also shortlisted are: Lou Berney for Dark Ride; M W Craven for Nobody’s Hero; Garry Disher for Sanctuary; Abir Mukherjee for Hunted; and Don Winslow for City in Ruins.
Frank Wynne’s translation of Pierre Lemaitre’s Going to the Dogs is shortlisted for the crime fiction in translation prize along with Hervé Le Corre’s Dogs and Wolves, tr. Howard Curtis; Akira Otani’s The Night of Baby Yaga, tr. Sam Bett; Satu Rämö’s The Clues in the Fjord, tr. Kristian London; Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, tr. Polly Barton; and Alia Trabucco Zerán’s Clean, tr. Sophie Hughes
Andrew Hughes has been shortlisted for the Twisted Dagger award for Emma, Disappeared. Also shortlisted are Amanda Jennings for Beautiful People; John Marrs for The Stranger In Her House; CS Robertson for The Trials Of Marjorie Crowe; Tracy Sierra for Nightwatching; and Catherine Steadman for Look In The Mirror.
The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on July 3rd.
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The UCD Festival returns on Saturday, June 7th, with over 100 free events taking place across the Belfield campus. Broadcaster Rick O’Shea curates the literary strand with an eclectic mix of established and emerging authors.
Belfast writer Jan Carson and poet and novelist Paul Perry will provide some reading inspiration with Shelf Analysis, sharing the books they love.
UCD’s writer in residence, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, and poet Moya Cannon will explore the Poetry of Folklore. Author Roisín O’Donnell, crime writer Claire Coughlan and soon-to-be debut novelist Sylvia Leatham will discuss new fiction writing.
Writer and disability advocate Sinead Burke will be in conversation with journalist and UCD alumna Roe McDermott, exploring the power of representation, and Reeling in the Queers author Páraic Kerrigan will be in conversation with Chandrika Naryanan-Mohan about the fight for LGBTQ rights.
Saturday, 7 June, UCD Belfield. Free, with some booking required. See festival.ucd.ie.
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Timothy O’Grady will be in conversation with journalist Dorothy Allen at the official London launch of his latest novel, Monaghan, in the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith, on Thursday, June 12th, at 7.30pm. Entry is £8.
A dual launch of Monaghan and Goldengrove by Patrick McCabe takes place at Whelan’s, Wexford Street, Dublin, on June 25th at 7pm with readings by the authors and actor Stephen Rea plus songs from Cathy Jordan. Admission is free.
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On July 9th, the West Cork History Festival will host a discussion on the history and current context of Irish neutrality at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.
For many, neutrality is a fundamental pillar of Irish foreign policy and central to an idea of how Ireland presents itself in the world; yet, in the context of new threats and the retreat by the US, a fundamental reordering is under way in Europe. What does this mean for Ireland’s defence, security and co-operation with our neighbours?
Prof Eunan O’Halpin will provide an overview of the history of Irish neutrality. Journalist Misha Glenny will offer a contemporary perspective from central and eastern Europe. This will be followed by a panel discussion in which Eunan and Misha will be joined by Catherine Connolly TD, Vice Admiral Mark Mellett, and Prof Patrick Keatinge. Tickets and more information are available here 2025 Festival – West Cork History Festival
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In Leadership: Nobody Ever Made a Difference by Being Like Everyone Else, Deloitte tax partner and author Tom Maguire engages with prominent Irish leaders, including former President Mary McAleese, to explore the essence of effective leadership. Through candid conversations, the book delves into themes such as integrity, resilience and the balance between professional and personal life. Highlighting the shared value of integrity among diverse leaders, it offers insights applicable from the boardroom to the community. All royalties from the book are being donated to Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross, continuing Maguire’s tradition of supporting meaningful causes through his publications.
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The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast is marking the 50th anniversary of Seamus Heaney’s landmark collection North – which saw the Nobel Prize-winning poet directly address the Troubles for the first time.
A three-day conference from June 5th-7th, in partnership with Trinity College Dublin, will bring together Heaney experts from across the world to the beautiful new Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s – celebrating its first anniversary also in June.
Paul Muldoon and Prof Edna Longley will gather to hear distinguished authors, academics and poets discuss the significance of North 50 years on.
There will also be a family-friendly traditional music session and a screening of the documentary Heaney in Limboland, made for TV in 1970 and featuring Heaney’s views on the rapidly deteriorating political situation in Northern Ireland.
North is still considered a controversial volume. Upon publication in 1975, the American poet Robert Lowell said it represented “a new kind of political poetry by the best Irish poet since WB Yeats” and the anthology went on to win awards including the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize and the WH Smith Memorial Prize.
Heaney himself admitted the collection took a “hammering” from other quarters, closer to home, for its representation of violence and gender politics.
Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre, Prof Glenn Patterson said: “Whichever way you come at it, in admiration, in awe or in search of an argument, there is no understanding poetry from these islands in the past half century, without North.
“There are not many books, of any kind, that merit an ‘at 50’ conference, but North seems only to grow in significance with every year that passes, and with every year that passes to attract new readers, and new critical thinking.”
The poet’s daughter Catherine Heaney, who is hoping to attend the conference, said on behalf of the Estate of Seamus Heaney: “We are proud and honoured that the 50th anniversary of North is being marked with this conference, alongside Faber’s reissue of the volume in its original jacket.
“The publication of North was such a seminal moment in my father’s life and career and it is testament to its staying power that, five decades on, it continues to resonate with readers and inspire scholarly debate.”
Lead organiser of the conference and Queen’s graduate, Dr Stephen O’Neill from Trinity College Dublin said: “Written under the strain of what Seamus Heaney called ‘a very high pressure’, North was a landmark in his writing career. It was and is also a landmark in criticism, as a subject for many of the leading critics of Irish literature then and now.
“Organised to coincide with Faber’s anniversary republication of the volume, the conference is a chance to reflect upon the impact of Heaney’s fourth collection and reassess its reception.”
All events will take place at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, 38-40 University Road, Belfast (unless otherwise stated). The full conference programme is available here. Attendance is free, but registration is essential.
