Dublin Festival of History 2018 kicks off on Monday 24th September with thousands expected to attend free walks, talks, tours and exhibitions over the next two weeks. The Dublin City Council festival runs until 7th October and features 140 events in total, including many exploring themes of suffrage and women’s rights.  More than half the speakers on the programme are women, covering topics ranging from Hitler’s Valkyries to Victorian-era sex-workers.  Sports, music, gaming, slavery, the Romanovs...

Join the MURDER ONE team for Serial Thrillers, an evening of criminal conversation and the MURDER ONE festival official launch at Hodges Figgis Bookshop, Dawson Street Thursday 20th September 2018 6.30pm Free event, all welcome (there may be wine!)  Get a first look at the Murder ONE brochure! In 2017, crime fiction overtook general and literary fiction to officially  become the biggest selling genre in the book trade. What is it about serial killings, police investigations and...

Londoners, if you’re at a loose end on Tuesday the 18th, come along to this. Literary activism and art as a space for healing at the London Irish Centre with award-winning and best-selling authors Mia Gallagher, Lisa Harding and Sam Blake. If you’re not at a loose end – clear your schedule! The Broken Spiral In the wake of the #MeToo movement and the Belfast Rape Trial, anger and betrayal rippled through a very large...

 In a UNESCO City of Literature that boasts innumerable festivals all year round, you might think that all bases had been covered, but with the increasing popularity of genre festivals, this is not strictly true.  Crime writers have regularly appeared at the major Dublin literary festivals but crime writing has arguably been under-served thus far.  All this is about to change with the advent of Murder One, a new three-day long weekend crime writing festival...

Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre is delighted to announce that the second ECHOES will run from 5th – 7th October 2018. The full day (10.00am -5.00pm) of talks, discussions, readings and dramatisations will be on Saturday 6th October with ancillary events on the 5th and 7th October. The first half day session will look at the evolution of contemporary Irish women writers – where they are at today and the part that Maeve Binchy’s international...

Dublin Festival of History takes place from 24th September to 7th October and will feature over 140 events across the city, with talks, walks, tours and exhibitions on a wide range of topics, including the historical impact of gaming, former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ time spent in Ireland, a queer history of Kilmainham Gaol, an evening of conversation and music with Christy Dignam, as well as numerous events marking 100 years of Irish women’s...

Literature lovers in South Dublin and beyond are advised to clear their calendars from Oct 8 – 14 2018, as the Red Line Book Festival returns for an exciting eighth edition. A celebration of all things literary, the Red Line Book Festival brings local, national and international authors, alongside talks, workshops, theatrical productions and creative writing competitions, to venues across South Dublin each October Full details of the fantastic programme for this year’s festival are...

Submissions deadline: 17th August 2018 AboutFACE Ireland are very happy to announce they are now accepting submissions of new plays from playwrights based in Ireland, and Irish playwrights around the world, for the 2018 NEWvember New Plays Festival Dublin, to be held over three days November 8th to 10th at The New Theatre in Dublin’s city centre. The closing date for submissions is Friday August 17th 2018. There is no fee for submissions and all...

Kerrie O’Brien writes: Listen Now Again, the new exhibition devoted to the life and work of Seamus Heaney, has officially opened in the new Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre on College Green. The extensive archive of material was donated by Heaney to the National Library of Ireland in 2011 and has been brillantly curated by Professor Geraldine Higgins. On arrival, the first thing that greets you is a specially commissioned sculpture by Maser...

The Booksellers Association and Bookselling Ireland have today announced the winners of this year’s Independent Bookshop Week (IBW) Book Award. As voted for by local independent bookshops and judged by a panel of authors, booksellers and journalists, the three winners are Amor Towles for A Gentleman in Moscow (Windmill) in Adult Category, Geraldine McCaughrean for Where the World Ends (Walker Books) in Children’s, and Nicola Davies and illustrator, Emily Sutton for Lots: The Diversity of...