On today’s show we go to Hodges Figgis in Dublin’s Dawson Street to talk to Elizabeth Wassell Montague about her new novel At the Villa Celeste which she launched at the bookshop recently. The novel is a haunting story of ‎longing, memory, and the fragile architecture of identity. When Clementine Dove begins to ‎fall apart  under the weight of familial love and unspoken trauma, she finds herself turning to France for a kind of salvation. In Paris and along the  Côte d'Azur, ‎past and present collide as two generations of women navigate desire, restraint and the hunger to ‎be truly seen. The launch was introduced by novelist and friend of Books for Breakfast Christine Dwyer Hickey so you’ll hear introduction first, followed by our interview with Elizabeth. 

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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Most poets write under their given names – Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Denise Riley, Elizabeth Bishop. Some on the other hand use pseudonyms; there is no such person as Biddy Jenkinson, except in her poems; Pablo Neruda was born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in order not to offend his family. And of course there is Fernando Pessoa who wrote under a series of heteronymns – Alvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro the keeper of sheep, the artistocratic monarchist Ricardo Reis, and so on. Billy Ramsell’s new book Render from Banshee Press follows in this tradition, plunging us into Barcelona in the middle of the 20th century. The book purports to be the selected poems off one Alberto Cenas, lonely scion of a wealthy Catalan family

My verses stretch and hesitate,
scale their rickety trellises.
My fruit comes rust-red, grudging.

Billy came to Books Upstairs in Dublin earlier this summer to read from his work and talk to poet and critic Adam Wyeth about his complex portrait of a strange and sympathetic figure, a sort of Irish export to the poetry industry of Catalonia ….  

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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This year marks the 45th anniversary of Salmon Poetry now based in The Salmon Bookshop and Literary Centre, in Ennistymon, County Clare. We invited poet and critic Ciarán O’Rourke, whose own new collection, Prophetstown, is published by Irish Pages in August, to review four new poetry books from Salmon Poetry. And we talk to US poet Tess Barry, a  native of Western Pennsylvania who lives in Pittsburgh, about her debut collection The Marvelous Real, a published by Meadowlark Press. So, accompanied by a  good strong mug of coffee or pot tea, sit back and enjoy a feast of new poetry. 

The four Salmon books reviewed are  All the Tattered Stars: Selected and New Poems by Richard W. Halperin;  Sky Sailing by Tony Kitt; Dodder Daughter by Nessa O'Mahony and Throat Full of Feathers by Lorna Shaughnessy.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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Epistolary novels used to be all the rage Think Clarissa, think Dracula, think the more recent We need to talk about Kevin. Last year saw another smash hit epistolary novel, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, published to wide acclaim and stellar sales, and shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Fiction prize . Three times a week, 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp sits down at her desk in her Maryland home to write her letters. Her correspondence has been, as she puts it, "the mainstay of my life". Virginia was in Dublin this June  for the Carlow University Pittsburgh's MFA in Creative Writing Program residency at Trinity College, Dublin and we’re thankful to poet and program director Tess Barry for allowing us to feature this interview on Books for Breakfast. The interviewer is noted writer Carlo Gebler who was also Virginia’s mentor during the year she spent on the creative writing MPhil in Trinity. So grab a coffee and sit back and listen to Carlo Gebler and Virginia Evans. 

'A warm, funny gem of a novel'
LAURA HACKETT, THE TIMES

'Masterful . . . I was delighted and moved'
NEW YORK TIMES 

'Immensely enjoyable'
GUARDIAN

'The year's breakout novel no one saw coming'
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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On today's show we travel down the road to Carlow University Pittsburgh's MFA in Creative Writing Program during its annual June residency at Trinity College, Dublin where we have been invited to interview novelist Caitriona Lally about her latest book, the memoir Home Economics. So grab that flat white, latte, tea and rasher sandwich and have a listen to Caitriona's fascinating account of balancing life as a cleaner in the housekeeping department of Trinity College with the life of a successful writer.

Bold and thought-provoking, self-deprecating and soaked in Caitríona Lally's singular voice, her first memoir quietly but forcefully puzzles over personal/home economics, creativity and the true impact of 'success' and 'failure' on a writer's life.

'Since I've had my first book published, I've earned more from cleaning than from writing. The home economics don't add up.'

Between 2015 and 2021, Caitríona Lally published her first two novels, Eggshells and Wunderland. To buy her time to write during those years, she returned to the housekeeping department at Trinity College Dublin, a job she once held as a student. This begins a negotiation between the practical and creative demands of her life, further complicated when she becomes pregnant and almost impossible when the pandemic hits.

Reviews for Home Economics

"This is absolutely one to read about the reality of 'making it' as an artist, and how to live, make money and create."
– AOIFE BARRY, THE JOURNAL

"Hilarious, audacious, and deeply felt. An idiosyncratic hymn to the drudgery of life!"
– SARA BAUME

"I thought I'd be interested in Home Economics because I too work a manual job that pays a pittance, yet still provides more income than writing books. And yes, Lally is wonderfully insightful about the difficulties and advantages of such a life. But in the end it was her wit, her ever-curious and amused outlook on the daily trials and joys of life, that had me hooked. This book has that delicate quality of seeming simple while containing all the complexity of trying not simply to make a living, but to live."
– LUCY SWEENEY BYRNE

"A remarkable piece of writing ... As a fellow writer, I read the book with a profound sense of respect for what Caitríona has achieved, particularly given the difficult circumstances under which much of this work has been produced. Her account of sustaining a writing life alongside paid labour and motherhood is both unsparing and generous, and it resonated deeply with me ... There is something quietly bracing in encountering such a lucid account of a writing life, one that refuses myth-making while still allowing space for ambition, desire and joy ... This is a generous, intelligent and finely wrought book."
– PATRICK HOLLOWAY

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Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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On today's episode we visit 11 Parnell Square in Dublin for the launch of Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann's restored headquarters. We hear about the new performance spaces, education resources and Seamus Heaney Library and talk to director Claire Power about her vision for the building and the organisation. We also talk to Poet in Residence Sean Borodale about his poetry and his plans for the residency. Sean's widely acclaimed books include Notes for an Atlas, Asylum, Bee Journal, Human Work: A Poet's Cookbook and Inmates.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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On today’s show we talk to Joseph Woods, director of the Strokestown Poetry Festival about what this year's programme will offer poetry lovers this May Bank Holiday weekend in Strokestown House. Ands we welcome back to the breakfast table poet and Irish Times reviewer Adam Wyeth to talk with us about recent poetry publications that have grabbed his attention. Adam is himself an award-winning and critically acclaimed poet, playwright and essayist with five books published with Salmon Poetry and we are delighted to have him with us this morning.

He will be talking about Rita Ann Higgins, Jiving with Wasps: New and Selected Poems; Gerard Smyth, The Turn for Ithaca; Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Hymn for the Restless Girls; Billy Ramsell, Render; Paddy Bushe, Uncertain Passage; Jamie O'Halloran, Ballast; Colm Scully, Neanderthal Boy. 

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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This morning we talk to Mary Costello about her new novel A Beautiful Loan. 

My name is Anna, and for some time now, I have been trying to account for certain events in my life – my adult life, that is – which, from this vantage point of forty-five years, I often find baffling …

In 1985 Dublin, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Anna is introverted and naïve, and Peter’s experience, wide circle of friends and thirst for adventure captivate her. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal.
As Anna’s life becomes less predictable, she uncovers deeper layers of herself. Her journey gives an intimate portrait of a woman embracing herself as she is, claiming the life she yearns for.

“Costello is one of Ireland’s greatest writers … Her prose is precise and focused and, like a stiletto blade, sinks deep … This is a big book in a small package, about one woman’s growth”
JOHN SELF
Financial Times

”A Beautiful Loan is a beautiful novel; Mary Costello guides her reader through a cloud of emotional turmoil in fine, controlled sentences. We must hope it delivers her the belated recognition she so richly deserves”
LUCY THYNNE
Times Literary Supplement

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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In this episode we go to one of our favourite places in Dublin, Hodges Figgis bookshop in Dawson Street, to interview Cathy Galvin on the occasion of the launch of her collection of poems from Bloodaxe, Ethnology, A Love Song for Connemara. We also meet and hear poet John F. Deane, who spoke about Cathy’s book and read some of his own recently published Carcanet collection, Jonah and Me, a Poetry Society Recommendation.

from Bloodaxe:

Ethnology draws on the mystical cry for the dead of Cathy Galvin's Irish-speaking ancestors. Within an epic narrative she reclaims place, people and language, creating a bridge between our own times and a Connemara community on the margins of Europe.
Drawing on classic forms within literary and oral traditions, Ethnology becomes a love song for Connemara, witness to vivid encounters: between the living and the dead and between the poets, folklorists and ethnologists who have written about the West of Ireland for their own agendas.
In her first full-length book of poetry, fragility and strength are finely balanced, focused on the ruins of an island cottage built by her great-grandfather. Here, Cathy Galvin locates humour and joy as well as mourning. The poems give a vivid, original voice to the tradition of keening, of honouring the loss of those we love.

from Carcanet

John F. Deane's new book follows the publication of his career-spanning  New and Selected Poems, which was published on the occasion of his eightieth birthday in 2023 and shows no relaxation in his descriptive and lyric powers.
Ireland's foremost living religious poet, the new book includes a sequence, 'Of Human Flesh', which takes Easter's rituals as its occasion, and dwells on its continuing purchase and meaning as the poet remembers others and walks a landscape where, sometimes, as he puts it, the spiritual and material worlds come together:

'all here fits 
together, oxbow and pillow-stone, holon and fractal, 
stunning, admonishing, this morphogenic field.'

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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We’re back for the first episode of 2026. This week we’re back in Books Upstairs in Dublin to interview Hugo Hamilton about his latest novel, Conversation with the Sea.

Fleeing his failed marriage in Berlin, Lukas Dorn revisits the West of Ireland, the place of his honeymoon two decades earlier. While his former wife is being cancelled at work and his daughter is arrested at a street protest, he tries to make sense of his broken life with a journal as his sole companion. 
 
His inherited memory of the Nazi Holocaust comes face to face with the present when he meets a refugee from a recent warzone. As Lukas communes with the elements in this wild coastal place, he is forced into a confrontation with the past that will carry him to the edge of existence. 
 
Conversation with the Sea speaks with heart-rending tenderness to the present moment, as it explores truth, illusion and the deadly silencing of war in a captivating tale of love in a time of displacement. 

Truly a book for our time' PAUL LYNCH
 
FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF 'THE SPECKLED PEOPLE'
   
'Told with Hamilton's signature purity of tone, an epic story about how love and history intersect.' ANNE ENRIGHT

'I don't think I've ever read a book as wise, or as moving. I will treasure it forever.' DONAL RYAN

'Hypnotic, passionate, urgent … Hamilton cuts a clean line to the truth of our mindless moment.' PAUL LYNCH

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, 'Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. 

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Mince pie and Christmas cracker laden, today’s breakfast table is very festive indeed as we celebrate the best of books and cultural events in 2025. To help us celebrate we’ve gathered at our table four writers who have each been asked to choose just one book, either fiction or non fiction that they’ve especially admired this year and one cultural event –  film, exhibition, music or anything else –  that they have enjoyed over the last twelve months. The four writers are Sarah Gilmartin, Neil Hegarty, Caitriona Lally and Philip Davison.

Books recommended: Anne Enright: Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World
Gerbrand Bakker: The Hairdresser’s Son; Ben Macintyre: The Spy and the Traitor ;
Sarah Moss: Ghost Wall; Helen Garner: Collected Diaries 1978-1998: How to end a story and Tim MacGabhann: The Black Pool: A Memoir of Forgetting.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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This morning we welcome poet and critic Ciarán O’Rourke to our breakfast table here in Dublin 8. Ciarán has published two collections of poems with Irish Pages Press, The Buried Breath in 2018  and Phantom Gang in 2022, and he also runs the poetry website ragpickerpoetry.net. Ciarán talk about five recent books of poetry: Eiléan Ní Cuilleanáin, New Selected Poems; Catherine Ann Cullen, Storm Damages; Keith Payne, Savage Acres; Patrick Cotter, Quality Control at the Miracle Factory; Kevin Graham, Time's Guest.

Mark Granier is an award-winning Irish poet and photographer whose work has been widely published and admired for its sharp imagery, lyric precision, and subtle wit. Over the past two decades, he has brought out several acclaimed collections, including Airborne, Haunt, Fade Street,  as well as Ghostlight, New and Selected Poems. His latest book, Everything You Always Wanted To Know, is perhaps his most personal and revealing to date, weaving together memory, intimacy, and the everyday with a striking visual clarity. 

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On today’s episode we travel to IMMA and the Dublin Book Festival to meet and talk with İlhan Sami Çomak, a Kurdish Turkish poet who has spent almost  thirty years imprisoned in Turkey. He was arrested in 1994 and charged with membership of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Part. In jail, Çomak released eight books of poetry and became one of Turkey's longest serving political prisoners. He is here in Dublin to mark the Day of the imprisoned Writer at the invitation of Irish PEN which followed an extensive international campaign for his release. Ilhan is accompanied by his interpreter Ipak Özel.

Also in this episode writer, filmmaker and  lecturer  Ferdia MacAnna joins us the breakfast table to talk to us about  Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn, the widely acclaimed collection of short stories published by the Stinging Fly Press, and now by Granta as well. 

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On this morning's episode we talk to Ger Reidy about his latest poetry collection, Clay;  Liam Carson tells us about the latest edition of IMRAM, the Irish language festival and the increasing visibility of Irish, and I chat to Enda Wyley about her book, Sudden Light and about winning the Lawrence O' Shaughnessy Award for poetry.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On today’s episode poet and critic Adam Wyeth reviews nine new poetry collections. Under the microscope are Infinity Pool by Vona Groarke; Belfast Twilight by Liam Carson; Harbour Doubts by Bebe Ahley; Over Here by Alan Gillis; Chic to be Sad by Molly Twomey; New Arcana by Jesica Traynor; The Convent of Mercy by Tom French; À la Belle Étoile: The odyssey of Jeanne by Afric McGlinchey and Scaffold by Thomas Brezing. A strong poet of coffee needed!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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In this episode we invite Colm Tóibín to the breakfast table to discuss his new book A Ship in Full Sail: The Laureate Lectures and Other Writings. The book collects the blogs he wrote during his term as Laureate for Irish Fiction,  one written each month on topics as diverse as  Artificial Intelligence, reading Ulysses, the discomfort of Salman Rushdie in the wilds of County Dublin, Bob Dylan in concert, a life of Thom Gunn and the author’s role in a campaign to save the House of The Dead. Also included are essays on abiding interests –  music and the visual arts. It's a wide-ranging collection full of fascinating insights into the mind of one of Ireland’s beloved writers.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On this morning's show novelist Henrietta McKervey talks to us about four recent novels: Fair Play by Louise Hegarty, Air by John Boyne, Murder takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman and Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. 

And she also does a surprising Toaster Challenge. Listen to see what she chooses ...
Henrietta McKervey is the author of the acclaimed novels What Becomes of Us, The Heart of Everything, Violet Hill and A Talented Man. She has a Hennessy First Fiction Award and won the inaugural UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award. She has programmed the ECHOES festival and International Literature Festival Dublin, and contributes to the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and the Brendan O'Connor show on RTÉ Radio 1.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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This episode sees us visiting Dublin's historic United Arts Club where Enda interviews Mary O'Donnell about her latest collection of short stories, Walking Ghosts. 

Praise for Walking Ghosts

'Each story shines in its own distinctive light.' —Neil Hegarty

'O'Donnell is unflinching in her ability to display humanity in all its flaws and vulnerabilities.' —Mary Costello

'The magic of her writing is in the subtle, mysterious evocation of the unconscious, of the potent mixture of mood and thought and half thought which colours human lives.' —Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

'Searingly intimate and subtle stories, the beauty, the pain and the hope of desperate lives lived in everyday places. A fascinating, varied and utterly compelling collection.' —William Wall

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On this episode we drop in to the Carlow University Pittsburgh MFA summer programme in Trinity College, Dublin to interview Sarah Moss about her latest novel, Ripeness. 

'Tender and rueful . . . Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence' - Emma Donoghue

'One of our greatest living writers' - Katherine May, author of Wintering

More Praise for Sarah Moss:

'Throws much contemporary writing into the shade' - Hilary Mantel

‘One of our very best contemporary novelists’ - Independent

'A brilliant mind' - The Guardian

'Moss has quietly been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years' - Financial Times

'One of the finest contemporary writers working in Britain today' - Stylist

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On this episode we talk about this year's International Literature Festival Dublin which runs from 16-25 May, and where Enda will be interviewing novelists Gethan Dick and Patrick Holloway. We also talk to Karin-Lin Greenberg about Your Are Here, her novel set in a dying mall in upstate New York.

"Lin-Greenberg’s web of characters illustrate the complex lives of ordinary people." —Laura Zornosa, Time

"Like Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the charm of Lin-Greenberg’s engaging story lies in the sweetness of the characters’ everyday lives." —Becky Meloan, The Washington Post

"Charming . . . The small lies woven into a lifelong marriage, the petty resentments harbored by polite neighbors and, above all, the comic discrepancy between a character’s outer and inner life—all emerge unforced and unadorned in this multifaceted narrative . . . But the everyday reality that Ms. Lin-Greenberg so memorably creates is not easily eclipsed. Compassion and wry understatement remain her strengths, and in You Are Here she captures not only the frayed texture of suburban existence but also the turbulent emotions, immediate and long buried, of protagonists who are ultimately far more than stereotypes." —Anna Mundow, The Wall Street Journal

"Beautifully written and radically sympathetic . . . Among its achievements, You Are Here is a breathtaking depiction of a community—even one at the mall." —Jeffrey Condran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Absolutely irresistible." —People

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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In this episode, on Poetry Day, we cross the Atlantic and. breakfast in Miami, where we talk to Cuban American poet Richard Blanco about his Homeland of my Body: New and Selected Poems, a rich, accomplished, intensely intimate collection with two full sections of new poems bookending Blanco’s selections from his five previous volumes. We also feature this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Festival, including the five poets shortlisted for the Strokestown Poetry Competition. 

If you’re around for the festival Enda will be giving  a poetry workshop and Peter will be giving a talk on The Life of the Poet.

Praise for Richard Blanco:

“An engineer, poet, Cuban American… his poetry bridges cultures and languages – a mosaic of our past, our present, and our future – reflecting a nation that is hectic, colorful, and still becoming.”

– President Joe Biden, conferring the National Humanities Medal on Richard Blanco

Sandra Cisneros describes Blanco’s poems as “sad, tender, and filled with longing. Like an old photograph, a saint’s statue worn away by the devout, a bolero on the radio on a night full of rain. Me emocionan. There is no other way to say it. They emotion me.”

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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On this episode we talk to poet novelist and critic Mary O’Donnell about Mary O’Malley’s The Shark Nursery, Patrick Holloway’s The Language of Remembering,  ! All’ ARME /? by Eilish Martin and Beginnings Over and Over: Four New Poets from Ireland, edited by Leeanne Quinn.

We also give a shout out to a special anthology for One Dublin One Book, Dublin, Written in our Hearts, published by the Stinging Fly Press and edited by Declan Meade. It’s an anthology that offers writings about Dublin in the first quarter of this century and contributors include Kevin Barry, Caitriona Lally, Felizspeaks, Stephen James Smith, Anne Enright, Estelle Birdy, Paula Meehan and our own Peter Sirr. There are lots of events happening throughout the city to coincide with this anthology and you can find out more by checking out onedublinonebook.ie

Mary O’Donnell’s book of short stories, Walking Ghosts, comes out this May from Mercier Press. ‘Each story shines in its own distinctive light,’ Neil Hegarty says. It will be launched in the Maynooth Bookshop on the 7th of May, and in Hodges Figgis, Dublin on the 20th of May.  

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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Finding inspiration in the local and near at had, attentive to climate concern and global unrest, to home and homeless, belonging and welcome, concern and global and welcome – on today’s episode we talk to poet and publisher Pat Boran about his eight collection Hedge School. 

'A writer of great tenderness and lyricism' – Agenda, UK

'... local and international, full of wisdom and wry humour ...' – Irish Literary Supplement, USA

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

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‘A beautiful tapestry of late middle age reckoning’ – today we interview the writer Mary Morrissy about her new collection of short stories, Twenty-Twenty Vision, published by Lilliput Press. For her Toaster Challenge, Mary chooses The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazard. Get the coffee on!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

Mary Morrissy is an award-winning Irish novelist (The Hennessy Award, Lannan Foundation Award) and short story writer, the author of four novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender, The Rising of Bella Casey and Penelope Unbound, as well as two collections of short stories, A Lazy Eye and Prosperity Drive. She has 20 years’ experience of teaching creative writing at university level in the US and Ireland. Until May 2020, she was the associate director of creative writing at University College Cork. 

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Was 1950s Dublin really a place of murder and intrigue? On today’s show we travel to the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation  in Dublin’s Fenian Street to talk to novelist John Banville about his latest novel, The Drowned, the fourth in a series featuring Detective Inspector St John Strafford and the pathologist Quirke familiar to many from the Benjamin Black novels. And we talk to Estonian poet Doris Kareva who visited the Centre recently about her own poetry, translation, and Estonia. Brew up a big pot of coffee and join us for a lively show!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.

Reviews of The Drowned

'Cold, compelling and seamlessly plotted, The Drowned also offers a fine portrait of that familiar and never likeable figure in Banville's fictions: the supercilious villain who has lost his moral compass.' ― Financial Times

'A beautifully written and intriguing slowburn of a book, in which the various quandaries in the main characters' private lives are as absorbing as the central mystery'. ― Guardian

'Brilliant . . . You need not have read the earlier novels to follow this one, but it will be a better read if you do . . . while various loose ends are left tantalisingly in the air, making it clear that a sequel will follow. It can't come too soon for this devoted fan. '― Irish Examiner

'Richly atmospheric . . . It's a Dublin where you can smell the pubs, feel the drizzle, and taste the Bewley's coffee. [...]At the centre of it all is the strained relationship between Quirke and Strafford, a couple at odds who are right up there with Banville's greatest achievements.' ― Irish Independent

'Tight-lipped humour thrums through the latest in the Booker winner's Strafford and Quirke crime series . . . The Drowned stands alone, too, suspenseful on its own terms . . . while it's ultimately evil, not good, that gives The Drowned its crackling denouement, the novel takes care to part on a more cheerful note - even if the logic of the series demands that Quirke can hardly be content for too long.' ― Observer

The Drowned delivers an ultimately satisfying and immersive mystery in beautifully wrought prose. ― Irish Independent Books in Brief

Bravo! ― The Times

Doris Kareva is one of Estonia’s leading poets. She was born in Tallinn in 1958, daughter of the composer Hillar Kareva, and published her first poems at the age of 14. In 1977 she entered the University of Tartu as an already acknowledged young poet. Due to her dissident connections she was expelled but graduated as a distance student in Romance and Germanic philology. She has worked for the cultural weekly Sirp (Sickle) and as the Secretary-General of the Estonian National Commission for UNESCO from 1992 to 2008, and is currently an editor for the literary journal Looming (Creation).

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How much do we need to know about a writer's life? How does the life impinge on the work? What is the human price of art? In this episode we talk to biographer Adrian Frazier about John Montague: A Poet's Life.

‘The best Irish poet of his generation’ – Derek Mahon

Already a highly lauded biographer, Adrian Frazier was a close acquaintance of Montague for more than forty years. In this fully authorised narrative he reveals the sources of poetry in Montague's life and traces the progress of his style from book to book. Based on Montague's archive of private papers, and informed by the counsel of the poet's lifelong friends, partners, and fellow poets, this is a monumental work of Irish literary biography, sure to be a classic of the genre.

The two poems by John Montague were recorded by The Irish Writers' Centre for the CD Dublin 15: Poems of the City and appear by permission of the Gallery Press. 

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
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In the darkness of an old asylum, a young man unscrews the lid from a bottle of sleeping pills. In the nearby village, two couples begin their day. Local doctor, Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out on his rounds, while his pregnant wife sleeps on in the warmth of their cottage.  Across the field, in a farmhouse impossible to heat, funny, troubled Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. He's been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy farm he bought, a place where he hoped to create a new version of himself, a project that's already faltering … 

In this episode we talk to Andrew Miller about his latest novel, which some have called his best yet, The Land in Winter. For his Toaster Challenge Andrew selects Light Years by James Salter.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
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Andrew Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, was published by Sceptre in 1997. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for the best foreign novel published in Italy. It has been followed by Casanova, Oxygen, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award in 2001, The Optimists, One Morning Like a Bird, Pure, which won the Costa Book of the Year Award 2011, The Crossing, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free and  The Slowworm's Song.  Andrew Miller's novels have been published in translation in twenty countries. Born in Bristol in 1960, he currently lives in Somerset.

The Land in Winter  was a best book of the year for the Independent, Guardian, and Good Housekeeping.

'Tender, elegant, soulful and perfect. A novel that hits your cells and can be felt there, without your brain really knowing what's happened to it. Superb'  
SAMANTHA HARVEY, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital  
  
'Delicate and devastating'  
INDEPENDENT, The 20 best books of the year  
  
'Miller may have written his best book yet . . . brilliance that is not to be missed'  
GUARDIAN, The best fiction of 2024  
  
'Incredibly satisfying'  
FINANCIAL TIMES  
  
'A novel of dazzling humanity and captivating, crystalline prose'  
MAIL ON SUNDAY  
  
'Perfect'  
RACHEL COOKE, OBSERVER  
  
'I loved The Land in Winter . . . There were moments I thought of Penelope Fitzgerald - that moment I have always loved in The Beginning of Spring when the birch trees seem to grow hands - those liminal moments that are kind of beyond words, or explanation, but Miller finds them anyway. It's a thing of rare beauty'  
RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry  
  
'Disruptive and graceful beyond anything I've read'  
SARAH HALL, author of Burntcoat  
  
December 1962, the West Country.  
  
PRAISE FOR ANDREW MILLER
 
'Andrew Miller's writing is a source of wonder and delight'  
HILARY MANTEL  
  
'One of our most skilful chroniclers of the human heart and mind'  
SUNDAY TIMES  
  
'A writer of very rare and outstanding gifts'  
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY  
  
'A highly intelli

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On today’s show, the last of 2024, we talk to Keith Payne about his recent  boat building and poem writing project. Currachs and naomhógs are among the only sea craft built upside down, and the expertise dates back generations. Keith learned all of this and a. lot more when he found himself working on a Dunfanaghy currach over 16 weeks. He was Cork City Library eco-poet in residence from 2022 to 2023 when he was drawn to the work of Meitheal Mara. He learned about carpenters' marks and pigtails and how to row with Naomhóga Chorcaí. His latest work, Building the Boat, records his experiences with Meitheal Mara in verse, and it has just been published by Badly Made Books. He also talks to us about Whales and Whales, his recent translations of a powerful Galician poet, Luisa Castro.

The second half of today’s show is a look back at some highlights from our podcast in 2024, with contributions from Michael Agustin, Dermot Bolger, Kerry Hardie, Aoife Lyall, Victoria Kennefick, Mary Costello, Paul Muldoon, Neil Astley, Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin Ní Bheoláin, Noel Monahan and Christine Dwyer Hickey.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
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Join us for a lively discussion of some of the best books published this year. At the breakfast table to discuss their poetry and fiction choices are poet Adam Wyeth and novelist Henrietta McKervey. Plenty of stocking filler ideas here, and Peter and Enda also get to mention some of their own favourite books of the year. This is a double espresso and multiple pastry episode, so get that pot on the stove and get the earbuds in!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Adam's picks for 2024: Crash Centre by David McLoghlin , All the Good Things You Deserve by Elaine Feeney, High Jump: An Icarus Story by Gustav Parker Hibbett, We Go On by Kerry Hardie 

Honorable Mentions: Four Thousand Keys by Linda McKenna , American Anthem by Kelly Michels , Dismantle by Anne Tannam, Naming Love by Geraldine Mitchell.

Henrietta’s Fiction Choices: Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything, John Boyne, Fire , Christine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives , Katja Oskamp, Half Swimmer  , Michael Frayn, Among Others

Books mentioned by Peter: Lesley Chamberlain, Rilke, The Last Inward Man, Pushkin Press, Guillevic, Selected Poems, 1974, tr. by Teo Savory, Salvatore Quasimodo, Debit and Credit, tr. by Jack Bevan, 1972, Richard Zenith, Pessoa: An Experimental Life , Stanley Moss, Goddamed Selected Poems .

Books mentioned by Enda
Deborah Levy,  The Position of Spoons , Samantha Harvey, Orbital,, Grace Wilentz, Harmony (Unfinished), Aifric Mac Aodha, Old Friends,  James Harpur, The Gospel of Gargoyle

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This episode sees us back in Books Upstairs in Dublin’s D’Olier Street again. This time we’ve come for a conversation between Paddy Bushe and poet and academic Ben Keatinge on the occasion of the Dublin launch of The Amergin Step: An Exploration in the Imagination of Iveragh. The book is named after the famous poem that Leabhar Gabhála Éireann or The Book of Invasions tells us was recited by the poet and lawmaker of the Gaelic Milesian people, as he stepped ashore in Kerry after their voyage from Galicia and staked an imaginative claim to the island.  In a book reminiscent of Tim Robinson’s Aran and Connemara explorations Paddy Bushe investigates contemporary and historical literature, folklore, myth, archaeology and placenames are explored by the author at the same time as he explores the mountains, sea and islands of the tip of the Iveragh peninsula to uncover the stories that have animated them from earliest to present times. Coffee time!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Goddess of the Sea · Jimena Contreras.

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As we write it is 1002 days since the fullscale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, but over ten years since Putin first seized Crimea and sponsored insurrection in the Donbas. And even longer that he has sought to meddle in Ukrainian affairs. So we thought we would mark those suffering filled days and years by talking to Oksana Maksymchuk whose Still City: Diary of an Invasion, published by Carcanet Press, came out this year. Oksana is also translator and co editor of Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine. We caught up with Oksana at Books Upstairs in Dublin.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

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First up on today's show, I chat with Liam Carson, who is back again with another episode of the Irish language Festival, IMRAM.

And we hear from Kelly Michels, whose Forward Prize shortlisted debut collection,  American Anthem, published by Gallery Press this year, focuses on the tragedies both personal and national, of the opioid epidemic and its devastating effects of addiction and of gun violence in America, where the poet grew up. We talk to Kelly about growing up in the U.S., writing about her mother's addiction,  the mass shootings in her home town and her take on the American anthem..

Kelly's Toaster Challenge choice is 'Starlight Scope Myopia' by Yusef Komunyakaa, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of selected poems, Neon Vernacular.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

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Today's show features conversation and poems from two poets with new collections: Katie Donovan, whose collection May Swim, is published by Bloodaxe Books, and Micheál McCann, whose debut collection Devotion, is published by Gallery Press.

Both poets take on the Toaster Challenge, this time a Toaster Poem Challenge. Micheál' choce is Louise Glück's 'Sunset' from her collection The Wild Iris, while Katie chooses Pascale Petit's ‘Jaguar Girl.’ from Mama Amazonica.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

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We're back from the summer break and in conversation with Christine Dwyer Hickey, who was the subject of our very first Books for Breakfast podcast. This time around we're talking to her about her latest novel Our London Lives, just published this week.

We also give ourselves a double Toaster Challenge. Enda talks about Alba de Cespedes' Roman novel Forbidden Notebook, while Peter stays in Rome but goes back 2000 years to the last years of the Republic and the poet Catullus, two of whose poems he pays homage to.  

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

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On today's edition, the last before our summer break, we look at  new editions of Poetry Ireland Review and The Stinging Fly. We feature recordings of three poets published in Poetry Ireland Review: Valentine Jones, Patrick Chapman and Shakeema Edwards, and we also feature a poem by Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin Ní Bheoláin from The Stinging Fly.  Enda discusses the novels of Tessa Hadley, who also has an. essay in The Stinging Fly, and we travel to Cavan for the launch of Noel Monahan's ninth collection, Journey Upstream, published by Salmon.

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Scott Buckley - Filaments
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On today's show we interview poet, novelist and publisher of Bloodaxe Books Neil Astley. We talk to Neil about the latest Bloodaxe Books poetry anthology, Soul Feast, poems to stir the mind and feed the spirit, companion volume to 2007's Soul Food.  We also talk about how he got into publishing, what poetry means to him and  some of the discoveries he's made along the way. Two Irish poets in the anthology, Enda Coyle Greene and  Mary O'Donnell , read their contributions.

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Today’s show marks 25 years since the foundation of the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in Co. Roscommon. This year’s festival takes place over the May Bank weekend, May 3 - 5. We spoke to the Director,  Joseph Woods about the festival and his new book, Veld Fires. We also feature poems by Eva Bourke whose Tattoos was published this year, and Patrick Deeley, who reads from his new collection, Keepsake.
We also interview the Welsh poet Tony Curtis , whose new collection is Leaving the Hills. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Today’s show marks Poetry Day Ireland with readings by the five poets shortlisted for the Strokestown International Poetry Competion, the winner of which will be announced at the Festival over the May Bank Holiday Weekend. And we go the Trinity College Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation to talk to poet Paul Muldoon about his role as Ireland Professor of Poetry and his new collection of poems Joy in Service on Rue Tagore.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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We’re joined on this morning’s show by Mary Costello, whose new collection of short stories, Barcelona, has just been published by Canongate.

"Barcelona is full of devastating lines … Costello is working in the tradition of her literary heroes [Kafka, Musil, Coetzee]: delivering insights which are painful but also energising because of the beauty with which they're captured … The most impressive collection I've read in some time" 
JOHN SELF 
The Times

"Clear-eyed and provocative, bruised and bruising: these are the stories of a writer at the very top of her game" 
EIMEAR MCBRIDE

"It is rare that a writer of fiction can evoke such depth of feeling and visceral/moral revulsion as Mary Costello … in stories dealing with cruelty to animals, especially the slaughter of farm animals; rare that marital intimacy is so powerfully rendered" 
JOYCE CAROL OATES

"Costello's writing is insistent, precise and unsparing. Everyday acts and ordinary lives are infused with a sense of the skull beneath the skin and of a catastrophe held tautly at bay" 
Observer

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On this mornings's show we talk to Victoria Kennefrick about her new collection Egg/Shell, just published by Carcanet, a double album, as she describes it, which explores early motherhood and miscarriage, and the impact of a spouse's gender transition and the dissolution of a marriage. The book is a follow-up to her widely acclaimed first collection  Eat or We Both Starve. Hers had been described as one of the boldest poetic voices to emerge in recent years and Egg/Shell is The Poetry Book Society Spring Choice 2024.

‘It is hard to hurt and then explain the hurt away / so as not to hurt anyone. But have you seen / my life?’ (‘Child of Lir’)

Today also sees the return of the Toaster Challenge, where our guest talks for the length of time it takes to cook up a nicely done slice of toast about a book that has resonated with them. Victoria's choice is Falling Awake by Alice Oswald.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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On today's show we discuss Fleur Adcock's Collected Poems, newly published by Bloodaxe Books, and we go to the launch of two more Bloodaxe books in Hodges Figgis, Kerry Hardie's We Go On and Aoife Lyall's The Day Before. We talk to both poets about their work and listen to them reading their poems. So put the kettle on and join us!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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We're back with a show dedicated to a book commemorating the life and achievement of a fondly remembered writer: Distant Summers: Remembering Philip Casey, Writer, Fabulist, Friend, edited by Eamonn Wall, Katie Donovan and Michael Considine, Arlen House, 2024. We feature contributions by Katie Donovan, Dermot Bolger and Michael O'Loughlin, and Michael Agustin reading his poem from the book.

We also cover the recently announced winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and readings of poems by the two Irish shortlisted poets, Jane Clarke and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.

Jason Allen-Paisant,  this year's winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, full video here

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
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Not Books for Breakfast this time but a link to our poetry programme Stanza on RTE Radio 1. 

In conversation with fellow poets, Paula Meehan and Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr will discuss why poetry matters. We also visit Poetry Ireland to hear about their big plans for 2024, and hear from viral spoken word poet Mikey Cullen. Produced by Clockwork Productions, producer Fiona Kelly. Additional reporting by Taylor Mooney.

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We're not back in full podcast  mode quite yet but we will be back in the autumn, all going well, and in the meantime we visited poet James Harpur during his stint as Trinity College Writer Fellow and we thought it was time for a couple of summer poems. Have a listen and enjoy the summer!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music "Timeless One" by Solas. 

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Enda has been recovering from a recent injury so podcast productivity has taken a hit, but we're back with our first episode for a while, which features a conversation about Basho with Andrew Fitzsimons, whose Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho has recently been published by the University of California Press. And we've got the old toaster working again and revived the Toaster Challenge. Andrews's choice is Three Days by Thomas Bernhard.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music "Timeless One" by Solas. 

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Some of the highlights of this year's Books for Breakfast, featuring contributions by Gabriel Byrne, Thomas McCarthy, Wendy Erskine, Colm Tóibín, Brian Leyden, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Leland Bardwell, Kevin Power, John McAuliffe, Kelly Michels, Mark Granier, Judith Mok and Mark Roper.

Enda and Peter also discuss some of the books on their desks at the moment: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by  David W. Anthony; Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker; The Magpie and the Child by Catriona Clutterbuck; Stretto by David Wheatley; My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley; Crooked Love/Grá fiar by Louis de Paor; Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell and Earth’s Black Chute by Cian Ferriter.

Extract from Lá dá raibh/One Day courtesy of Rockfinch Ltd.

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Welcome to a special  Books for Breakfast edition this morning to celebrate  Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin's 80th birthday. We wish her all the best on this very special day. This  is
an edited audio version of the interview we did in 2020 in MoLi to celebrate the publication of her Collected Poems. Listen and enjoy!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

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Today we talk to Liam Carson, Director of annual Irish language festival Imram, about this year's programme. And we interview Mark Roper about his latest collection of poems, Beyond Stillness, of which Martina Evans wrote in the Irish Times:

Roper has an unerring sense of the gulfs between the miracle and damnation, life’s beginning and its end:

As I dragged the dead hare
from the road, a crack of bone.
Those marvellous feet, mishandled.
Its shadow waits on the moon
but the hare is nailed to earth.

(The Hare)

 Mark will be reading from Beyond Stillness at 3.00 pm on Sunday 27 November in Books Upstairs, D’Olier Street, Dublin, and in The Molly Keane House, Dysert, Ardmore  on Thursday 8 December, time to be confirmed. 

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On todays’s show we talk to Judith Mok, whose memoir The State of Dark has just been published by Lilliput. Judith Mok was born in the Netherlands, to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. She trained as a classical singer and travelled the world performing as a soloist, and has also  fiction and poetry. For the last twenty years she has been based in Ireland, where she works as a voice coach with classical singers and  international pop stars.

The State of Dark is a memoir and detective story. Like many children of Holocaust survivors, she was raised with the emotional trauma of having no other family members, while her parents tried to rebuild their lives in postwar Europe. Despite the constant and occasionally intrusive presence of the past – Anne Frank’s father Otto makes an emotional visit to her father to hand over some letters – she had little concrete information about the hundreds of members of her family who died. All the same, the Holocaust and its consequences continued to haunt her life.
Some praise received by The State of Dark:

‘The State of Dark is a privilege to read. With luminous prose, Judith Mok shines a light into the darkness of her family’s past. It is an extraordinary feat of storytelling to be able to write about inconceivable tragedies with such warmth and humanity.’ LOUISE NEALON
‘Possibly the most powerful book to be published in Ireland this year … unforgettable’ DERMOT BOLGER, SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

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Does love poetry still pack a punch? Do new anthologies of love poetry have anything to say about the kind of world we live in? Join us on today’s show to hear some answers as we discuss Romance Options: Love Poems for Today, just out from Dedalus Press. We’ll be talking to editors Joseph Woods and Leanne Quinn, and we’ll be listening to poems read by contributors Mark Granier, Catherine Ann Cullen, Mark Roper, Kelly Michels, Martina Dalton, Philip Davison, Seán Lysaght, Grace Wilentz,  Joseph Woods and Enda Wyley.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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What’s the state of criticism in Ireland? Who needs reviewers and critics and are they even worth reading in any case? Well, one man who is worth reading is Kevin Power, novelist, whose The Written World, just published by The Lilliput Press, gathers some of the reviews and essays he’s written over the last decade. I’ll be talking to Kevin about his book in this, the last Books for Breakfast of the current season; we hope you’ve enjoyed the journey so far and hopefully we’ll be back with more in the autumn. In the meantime feel free to enjoy the now extensive back catalogue of breakfast bites …

Kevin Power established his reputation early, with the publication of Bad Day at Blackrock, which told a fictionalised version of a story that had gripped the country, the death of Brian Murphy  in Dublin in 2000 as a result of a violent assault outside a nightclub. That novel was subsequently made into the award winning film What Richard Did  directed by Lenny Abrahamson in 2012. He was the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize and last year his much anticipated second novel White City was published and won a lot of attention and praise. A darkly funny book, it revisits the same sort of terrain occupied by Bad Day at Blackrock, set in the word of Celtic Tiger Ireland among the city’s privileged and in this case ruthless upper classes, and it’s in the voice of the seriously shattered son of a South Dublin banker desperately trying to piece his life together. 

Praise for The Written World
'Kevin Power’s glorious collection reveals a writer to depend upon.'
Declan Hughes in The Irish Independent

The elegant and intelligent essays in The Written World will appeal to anyone with an interest in literary criticism.

– Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time

'The Written World is a testament to Power’s well-deserved status as one of Ireland’s most reliably engaging writers. Oh, and did I mention he’s often hilarious, too?'
– Totally Dublin

'...his book is metropolitan and cosmopolitan in word and spirit, enlightening and amusing, and across its pages art is happening too.;
– drb.ie

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Three poetry collections on the breakfast table today ... We begin with Stars Burn Regardless by Jean O'Brien and Moonlight: A Full Moon by  Louise C. Callaghan, both published by Salmon Poetry.  Of Jean's book Mark Roper has said 'These poems rise to their occasion, they are tough, tender, generous, passionate and deeply engaged — I cannot recommend Stars Burn Regardless highly enough.' Thomas McCarthy has written of Louise's book: 'Here is this marvellous poet of elegies and celebrations, seasons and servants, of boarding school and trundling foreign journeys. Louise C. Callaghan has a keen eye for detail and a poet’s gifted ear.'

And where is satire when you need it? Chris Agee's Trump Rant is a visceral response to Donald Trump,  'a combination of long-form radicalism and eclectic satire, startingly unique in its blend of aphorism, acuity and epic cultural imagining.' Brew up a big pot of tea or coffee, get the toast on and listen to what these poets have to say ....

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today's show is a bit special. We're very happy to feature My Name Suspended in Air: Leland Bardwell at 100, published by Lepus Print, to coincide with Poetry Day Ireland 2022.  Leland was a remarkable poet, and indeed fiction writer, and this book is a selection of her poems chosen by Irish women poets and writers:  Eva Bourke, Jackie Bardwell, Mary Branley, Siobhan Campbell, Jane Clarke, Evelyn Conlon, Monica Corish, Enda Coyle-Greene, Martina Devlin, Katie Donovan, Anna Dunn, Fionnuala Gallagher, Peggie Gallagher, Tess Gallagher, Olivia Goodwillie, Eithne Hand, Libby Hart, Rita Ann Riggings, Alannah Hopkin, Ann Joyce, Alice Lyons, Una Mannion, Joan McBreen, Molly McCloskey, Paula Meehan, Patsy J. Murphy, Kate Newmann, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Annemarie Ni Churreain, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Mary O’Donnell, Mary O’Malley, Enda Wyley.

We'll be in conversation with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Brian Leyden, and poems will be read by Libby Hart, Molly McCloskey, Mary O'Donnell and Anna Dunn.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This morning we talk to Colm Tóibín in New York about his debut poetry collection, Vinegar Hill.

From the best-selling author of Brooklyn, Nora Webster, The Master, and the recent The Magician Colm Tóibín’s first collection of poetry explores sexuality, religion, and belonging through a modern lens.

‘Fans of Colm Tóibín’s novels will relish the opportunity to re-encounter Tóibín in verse. Vinegar Hill explores the liminal space between private experiences and public events as Tóibín examines a wide range of subjects—politics, queer love, reflections on literary and artistic greats, living through COVID, and facing mortality. The poems reflect a life well-traveled and well-lived; from growing up in the town of Enniscorthy, wandering the streets of Dublin, and crossing the bridges of Venice to visiting the White House, readers will travel through familiar locations and new destinations through Tóibín’s unique lens.
Within this rich collection of poems written over the course of several decades, shot through with keen observation, emotion, and humor, Tóibín offers us lines and verses to provoke, ponder, and cherish.’ (Penguin Random House)

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We begin this weeks's show with In Trust. In Gratitude. In Hope. 10 Years at the Laois Arthouse, an exhibition featuring the work of over 60 artists who have been part of the Laois Arthouse programme since its establishment in 2011 by Laois County Council Arts Service. Enda talks about a book that has impressed her recently, The Black Snow by Paul Lynch.
Our guest this morning is John McAuliffe, whose Selected Poems, was published last year by Gallery Press. John talks about his work and his Toaster Challenge Choice, In the Same Light: 200 Tang Poems for Today by Wong May, which is a Poetry Books  Society Translation Choice for Spring 2022.

McAuliffe’s gift is to be mindful of elsewheres. He swerves to effect: his shrewd sideways and backwards glances count, pouring light on a subject from several directions simultaneously. Any given moment is likely to be underpinned by what went on before or what is to come. He knows the power of parallel universes.

 — Kate Kellaway, The Observer

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This morning actor and writer Gabriel Byrne talks to Books for Breakfast about his newly published memoir Walking with Ghosts. In a lively and wide ranging conversation with hosts Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr Gabriel talks about his love of reading, his favourite writers, and the importance of memory for both acting and writing,

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today's show is devoted to an in-depth interview with poet Thomas McCarthy, whose Poetry, Memory and the Party: Journals 1974-2014 has recently been published by Gallery Press. The journals span forty years of Thomas McCarthy’s life lived between a modest background and the ‘Big House’ of West Waterford and his immersion in the literary life of Cork against the troubles of a changing Ireland. It's an intimate portrait of a poet's life with all its attendant excitements and frustrations, as well an engrossing account of the literary and social milieu of  Cork, the Anglo-Irish world of the Brigadier whose Victorian garden he replanted, and his travels farther afield.

‘For those interested in literature, this is addictive reading material, offering unparalleled insight into the many joys and sundry frustrations of someone who determined early to devote himself to the pursuit of his literary vocation.’ — Clíona Ní Ríordáin, The Irish Times

Thomas's Toaster Challenge choice is Ethel Mannin's Young in the Twenties.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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A special Christmas Eve edition of Books for Breakfast. In the last episode of the year we pay  tribute to the work of Thomas Kinsella 1928-2021. We also feature some highlights from this year’s podcast. So take a break from turkey basting and join us for a listen!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.'
– Hilary Mantel

'A haunting, hopeful  masterpiece'.
– Sinéad Gleeson

'Astonishing ... Claire Keegan makes her moments real – and then makes them matter.'
– Colm Tóibín

'A moral tale that is unsentimental and deeply affecting, because true and right.'
– Andrew O'Hagan

Some of the responses to Claire Keegan's new book. Today on Books for Breakfast, in an extended and wide-ranging interview,  Claire talks to us about and reads from  Small Things Like These.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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On today's show we talk to two poets who have published new collections: Eleanor Hooker, whose Of Ochre and Ash is published by Dedalus Press, and Amanda Bell whose Riptide is available from Doire Press. Eleanor's Toaster Challenge choice is 'Snow Woman',  a poem by Breda Wall Ryan while Amanda chooses 'I Worried',  a poem by Mary Oliver.
And we mark the passing of two fine Irish poets, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Brendan Kennelly.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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On today's show we talk to Liam Carson, director of the Irish language literary festival IMRAM about this year's wide-ranging and adventurous hybrid programme, which starts today. And we talk to Alannah Hopkin about her honest and heartbreaking literary memoir of the lives of two Irish writers,  A Very Strange Man : A Memoir of Aidan Higgins, published by New Island Books. Alannah's Toaster Challenge choice is Songs for the Flames, stories by International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner Juan Gabriel Vasquez.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today's show is a short story special and double Toaster Challenge edition. We begin with John MacKenna whose We Seldom Talk About the Past, the first selection of short stories from one of Ireland's great masters of the form, has just been published by New Island. John's Toaster Challenge choice is Raymond Carver's All of Us: The Collected Poems.
Next up is Madeleine D'Arcy, who talks about her follow up to her award-winning first collection Waiting for the Bullet with Liberty Terrace, published by Doire Press. Madeleine's Toaster Challenge choice is Alastair McLeod's No Great Mischief.  A very full programme today; enjoy!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Why have women been treated differently, and discriminated against, in the literary world? Why has gender been a ‘problem’ in the writing, publishing, funding and reviewing scene? And why does it matter? Éilis Ni Dhuibhne asked twenty one writers who were born in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, north and south, to write about their literary lives. The resulting essays, full of fascinating insights into the journeys of these writers, are published as  Look! It’s a Woman Writer!: Irish Literary Feminisms, 1970-2020 edited by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne. Enda interviews Éilis and writer Catherine Dunne, who also contributes to the book. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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To celebrate thirty years of the Irish  Writers Centre, Enda talks to co-host Peter, who was the first director of the Centre, about the early years, and Peter talks to current director Valerie Bistany about current activities and plans for the future. And the toaster is back in action, with Valerie choosing Kent Haruf’s Plainsong for her Toaster Challenge.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We ease our way back into breakfast book chat after our summer intermission with an episode on what we read ourselves during the summer. Enda chooses Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women, while Peter selects Deer on the High Hills: Selected Poems by Iain Crichton Smith, edited by John Greening.
We also give a shout out to this weekend's Fingal Poetry Festival and to forthcoming and recently published books such as Hugo Hamilton's The Pagesand Colm Tóibín's The Magician.

No Toaster Challenge this morning as we're getting the toaster fixed, but it will be back in operation next week. 

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Today, in the last podcast in the current season, Enda Wyley talks to Aoife Lyall about her debut collection Mother Nature, published by Bloodaxe Books. Aoife's Toaster Challenge Choice is A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume, published by Tramp Press in 2017.
And Books for Breakfast co-host Peter Sirr talks about his Intimate City: Dublin Essays, just published by Gallery Press.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today former RTE producer and writer Julian Vignoles, know for his biographies of Rory Gallagher and David Thomson of Woodbrook fame, reviews Sinéad O'Connor's memoir Rememberings, described as 'inspiring, liberating, hilarious and fascinating'  by theIrish Times and  'beautifully observed ... lyrical, funny and anguished' by the Guardian.

Our Toaster Challenge guest is Victoria Kennefick whose debut collection Eat Or We Both Starve, was published recently by Carcanet.  Her collection draws readers into seemingly recognisable set-pieces - the family home, the shared meal, the rituals of historical occasions, desire - but gives them new shapes and uses them to explore what it is to live with the past  and not to be consumed by it.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This morning's show features  interviews with two outstanding writers. First up is Louise Kennedy whose collection of stories The End of the World is a Cul de Sac has been widely praised. 'A dazzling, heartbreaking debut collection' said the Guardian while the Sunday Times said that 'Kennedy's voice, and her unforgiving gaze, are electric'.
Our Toaster Challenge guest is the fine poet Penelope Shuttle whose new collection, Lyonesse, is published this month by Bloodaxe. The submerged land of Lyonesse was once part of Cornwall, according to myth and the oral tradition, standing for a lost paradise in Arthurian legend, but for this poet, who has lived all her adult life in Cornwall, it's now an emblem of human frailty.
Her Toaster Challenge choice is Denise Levertov's still available Collected Earlier Poems 1940-1960.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Other music:
'Undertow' and 'Wanderlust' by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
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Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/

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Today we talk to Evelyn Conlon whose new collection of stories, Moving About the Place, has recently been published by Blackstaff Press. Brilliantly written, witty, and full of the sharp observation for which Conlon is well known, Moving About the Place brings together some of the best of her recent work, along with brand-new stories, including a novella, to show how borders, movement and history change and transform people’s lives.
Evelyn’s Toaster Challenge Choice is the classic Enormous Changes At the Last Minute by Grace Paley.
First up on the show  is James Harpur’s The Examined Life, a sequence of honest and compelling poems about his five years in a boy’s boarding school in the 1970s. We discuss his memorable account and listen to the poems he recorded specially for us.


Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Other music:
Soft Interlude by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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Link music: Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

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Where did Dublin's uber-toffs live in the eighteenth century? Melanie Hayes drops in to talk about The Best Address in Town, Henrietta Street, Dublin and Its First Residents, 1720-1780, published by Four Courts Press. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Moya Cannon, whose Collected Poems was recently published by Carcanet, featuring more than three decades of fine work. Moya's Toaster Challenge choice is the classic The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. Bring them with you on your morning walk!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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We're looking eastward toward today, with Toaster Challenge guest poet Justin Quinn who joins us from Prague, and we review the latest collection of stories from Bucharest based Philip Ó Ceallaigh. Justin's latest collection Shallow Seas was published by Gallery Press late last year; Philip's collection, Trouble, will be published by The Stinging Fly in May but is available for pre-order.

Today's Toaster Challenge choice is Edith Templeton's Living on Yesterday. Templeton was born Edith Passerová in Prague in 1916, to wealthy Bohemian parents  and published a number of novels in English.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Undertow by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This waning moon
         is pitiless, as dawn
swiftly follows and we
       must separate –
such heartbreak!
–Mibu No Tadamine

Today's show features James Hadley and Nell Regan talking about their translations of Japanese classical poetry for A Gap in the Clouds published by Dedalus Press. And we travel all the way to Melbourne for an interview with Australian poet Grant Caldwell whose Blue Balloon is a collection of his  best haiku and senryu poems spanning several decades. So bring these brilliant tanka, haiku and senryu with you on your morning walk ....

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Yugen by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
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Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/

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Welcome to the audio edition of the special Books for Breakfast video  podcast for Mountains to Sea dlr Books Festival.  We were delighted to be the opening event for the festival, with two writers and  two Toaster Challenges. Our first  guest was  Laura McKenna, whose new, ambitious and epic novel Words to Shape My Name  has just been published by New Island. Inspired by true events, this outstanding story of failure hope and resilience traverses continents and two centuries and has at its core the unbreakable bond between the Irish rebel Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his manservant. Laura was followed by Conor O'Callaghan whose much-anticipated second novel, We Are Not In The World, about a man in the aftermath of a painful love affair driving a haulage lorry from England to France with his twenty something daughter, has just been published by Doubleday.

Laura's Toaster Challenge choice was André Brink's A Dry White Season, while Conor chose Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Video podcast intro music was 'Homage to  Brian Keenan' by Fintan Vallely from Merrijig Creek

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Welcome to the 25th episode of Books for Breakfast! On today’s show we review Apocalypse: An Anthology, edited by James Keery, the first anthology of Apocalyptic or neoromantic poetry since the 1940s and including more than 200 poets. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Una Mannion whose novel A Crooked Tree has just been published by Faber to considerable acclaim. Una’s Toaster Challenge choice is Louise Kennedy’s short story collection The End of the World Is A Cul-de-Sac. So put the coffee on and enjoy!

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Today we look at Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus, often considered her most brilliant novel,  and poet Peter Robinson's investigation of the relationships between poets, poetry and money from Chaucer to the the present in Poetry and Money. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Leeanne Quinn whose new poetry collection Some Lives  has recently been published by Dedalus. Leeanne’s Toaster Challenge choice is Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets  by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich,  described by the New York Times as 'A symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia'.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/
and Green Fields ©Scott Holmes Music https://www.scottholmesmusic.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

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This week we begin by looking at Days of Clear Light, a festschrift in honour of Salmon Press founder Jessie Lendennie to celebrate 40 years of the poetry press. Peter reflects on a favourite book, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, and our Toaster Challenge guest is actor Cathy Belton, fresh from her performance in the Landmark Productions online version of Mark O’Rowe’s The Approach.
Cathy’ s Toaster Challenge choice is The Great Gatsby   by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Link music: Alone, Purple Planet Music, https://www.purple-planet.com/


Artwork by Freya Sirr

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In this episode we look at new and recent poetry collections, which we list below.  And our Toaster Challenge guest is Michael O’Loughlin whose new book of poetry and prose, Liberty Hall, will be published by New Island in April. Michael goes in search of lost gods with his Toaster Challenge choice, Roberto Calasso's  Literature and the Gods.

Here's a list of poetry books mentioned in the episode.

Maurice Scully, Play Book
Justin Quinn, Shallow Seas
Grace Wilentz, The Limit of Light
Victoria Kennefick, Eat Or We Both Starve (Due Mar 2021)
Doireann Ní Ghríofa,  To Star the Dark
Moya Cannon, Collected Poems (Due this year)
Jessamine O’Connor, Silver Spoon
Poems from Pandemia, edited by Patrick Cotter
Patrick Cotter, Sonic White Poise
Greg Delanty, No More Time
Jeffrey Wainright, As Best We Can
Thomas A. Clark, A Threadbare Coat: Selected Poems
Apocalypse An Anthology edited  by James Keery,

Jean O’ Brien read her poem ‘Hotter Stars Burn Blue’ from Glimmering Girl, her forthcoming collection .

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.


Artwork by Freya Sirr

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Welcome to Books for Breakfast in 2021! We begin the year with a look at some noteworthy fiction from new and familiar writers. Books mentioned are:

The Art of Falling  by Danielle McLaughlin
A Crooked Tree  by Una Mannion
Words to Shape My Name  by Laura McKenna
Pure Gold  by John Patrick McHugh
Snowflake  by Louise Nealon
We Are Not in the World  by Conor O’Callaghan
The Death of Francis Bacon  by Max Porter
The Dark Room  by Sam Blake
Life Sentences by Billy O’Callaghan
Nora: A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce  by Nuala O’Connor
White City  by Kevin Power
A Shock  by Keith Ridgway
Weirdo  by Zadie Smith and Nick Laird

Also mentioned was RTE’s Spoken Stories, Independence,  a collection of 12 stories where authors write about what Independence means to them.

Today's Toaster Challenge Guest is Philip Coleman, Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and co -editor of  The Selected Letters of John Berryman.  We feature a rare recording of John Berryman reading from the Dream Songs and discuss Berryman's life, work and letters. Philip's Toaster Challenge is the groundbreaking new anthology, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle edited by Kevin Young.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. 

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This is our bumper Christmas episode, featuring two Toaster Challenges with Tara Bergin and Paula Meehan respectively. Paula also discusses  her recently published As If By Magic: Selected Poems. Tara's Toaster Challenge Choice is Fernando Pesssoa's The Book of Disquiet,translated by Margaret Jull Costa, while Paula chooses  More than concrete blocks: vol. II, 1940–72: Dublin city's twentieth-century buildings and their stories.

Tara also reads  a poem by Anne Carson and we features some  books we enjoyed this year: Eiléan Ní Chuilleanéain's Collected Poems, the new Bloodaxe anthology Staying Human edited by Neil Astley and Donal Ryan's novel Strange Flowers.
 
The show also features a Christmas poem by James Harpur, and poems from recently published collections Revolutions of Humming Things  by Aoife Reilly, Fox Trousers by Eithne Hand, and Street Light Amber by Noel Duffy.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Song for Better Times by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/47949 Ft: smilingcynic

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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IMRAM  is a longstanding festival that celebrates writing in Irish. This year sees it going digital with an enticing series of 'magical film' featuring translations of Ovid, Rilke's Duino Elegies, the Scottish performer and poet MacGillivray  and much more. We spoke to festival director Liam Carson about the inspirations behind this year's programme.

Today's Toaster Challenge guest is Henrietta McKervey whose A Talented Man  was published this year. Henrietta's Toaster Challenger is Anagrams  by Lorrie Moore.

Marbhna le Rainer Maria Rilke aistrithe ag Máire Mhac an tSaoi, ceol le Sean MacErlaine, léite ag Dairena Ní Chinnéide. Le caoinchead ó IMRAM.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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It’s not quite winter yet but we thought we’d begin with some poems to get us in the mood for the approaching season. Thanks to John O’Donnell, Jean O’Brien, Jane Clarke and  Mark Granier for reading some of their favourite winter poems.

Today’s Toaster Challenge guest is Kathleen MacMahon, whose new novel Nothing But Blue Sky  has recently been published.  Kathleen’s choice is The Spare Room  by Helen Garner

Poems read:

‘Lines for Winter’  by Mark Strand, read by John O’Donnell
‘Snow’  by Louis MacNeice, read by Jean O’Brien
‘Those Winter Sundays’  by Robert Hayden, read by Enda Wyley
‘Small Cold Poem’ by Sally Purcell, from Collected Poems , edited by Peter Jay,   Anvil Press, 2004, read by Peter Sirr
‘Winter Love'  by Linda Gregg, read by Peter Sirr
‘River Snow’ Liu Tsung-yuan, read by Peter Sirr
‘Mistaking the season’ by Yosa Buson, read by Peter Sirr
‘To Juan at the Winter Solstice’ by Robert Graves, read by Seán Lysaght
‘February Evening in New York'  by Denise Levertov, read by Enda Wyley
‘Encounter' by Czeslaw Miłosz, read by Mark Granier
'Glacier' by Gillian Clarke, read by Jane Clarke

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

1000 Years by fourstones (c) copyright 2005 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/victor/2302
Romance for Piano and Cello by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/50238 Ft: AT

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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Are dictionaries still important? Who uses them? How does new words get into a dictionary? Are they ever kicked out?  Today's show features a discussion of an important new addition to the Irish language, the Concise New English Irish Dictionary  edited by Pádraig Ó Mianáin and also looks at  the latest updates to the Oxford English Dictionary.

This week's Toaster Challenge guest is poet and nature writer Seán Lysaght  whose account of the North Mayo landscape, Wild Nephin, has just been published. His choice is the acclaimed Diary of a Young Naturalist  by Dara McAnulty.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Song for Better Times by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/47949 Ft: smilingcynic

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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Who are the people who keep a love of books alive in our city and in our communities? Our Toaster Challenge guest is Bernadette Larkin who has extensive experience in literature and arts education for children and young adults. Bernadette chats to us about books for young adults and, among other things, her role as project manager and curator of  Our City Our Books, an initiative of Dublin City Council Culture Company.

What books matter to you?  Bernadette is eager to hear from readers about the books that matter to them. People are invited to send in their recommended reads and take part at https://www.ourcityourbooks.ie/

Bernadette’s Toaster Challenge choice for young adult readers  is Sarah Crossan’s novel Moonrise, published by Bloomsbury. She also talks about The Hate You Give  by Angie Thomas and Mal Peet’s  The Family Tree  while young reader Freya Sirr chats about a favourite of hers, Anna and the Swallow Man  by Gavriel Savit.

We also discuss  Hilary Mantel's memoir Giving Up the Ghost  and her novel The Giant, O’Brien.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Royalty free music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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This morning, to mark Irish Book Week, we go on a virtual tour of Dublin bookshops past and present. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Kerry Hardie, whose new poetry collection, Where Now Begins, is published in November by Bloodaxe Books.

Kerry's Toaster Challenge choice is The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann.

In Moving Light by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/61272

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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This morning's episode pays tribute to the late Derek Mahon, one of Ireland's finest poets, and also considers the work of Louise Glück who has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. We also review the Abbey Theatre's production of Patrick Kavanagh's The Great Hunger at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.

This week's Toaster Challenge is author Neil Hegarty whose novel The Jewel was published last year. Neil's choice is Alison Lurie's The War Between The Tates.

Thanks to Gallery Press for permission to read two poem by Derek Mahon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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Today we look at one of the most famous poems of the twentieth century as we consider Ian Sansom’s brilliantly entertaining book about the poem and the poet, September 1, 1939: W.H. Auden and the Afterlife of a Poem . We’ll also be looking at the latest novel by Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults. This week’s Toaster Challenge guest is Mary O’Donnell, whose poetry collection Massacre of the Birds has just been published by Salmon Books. 

The Toaster Challenge choice  is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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This week we delve into the fiction, and particularly the short stories  of the other Elizabeth Taylor. Our Toaster Challenge guest is novelist and Arts Council Head of Literature Sarah Bannan who talks about Weightless, writing and the plight of artists in Covid times. And we also explore Lee Harwood's collection The Orchid Boat.

Toaster Challenge choice: Sarah Crossan, Here is the Beehive.


Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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On this morning's show we discuss Manchán Magan's newly published Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost words of the Irish landscape, and our Toaster Challenge guest is the widely acclaimed Irish actor Owen Roe. The Whole Story, the 3 October event he mentions in The Pavilion Theatre has had to be cancelled because of the Level 3 restrictions in Dublin.

Toaster Challenge choice: J.P. Priestley, Lost Empires

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

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Today's show opens with a discussion of Zadie Smith's lockdown essays, Intimations; our Toaster Challenge guest is Caitriona Lally, author of the award-winning Eggshells, and we also feature the work of poet Michael Hartnett (1941-1999).

Thanks to filmmaker Pat Collins for permission to use audio excerpts from his film about Michael Hartnett 'A Necklace of Wrens' (1999). Poems quoted are by kind permission of the Estate of Michael Hartnett and The Gallery Press.

Toaster Challenge choice: Dorthe Nors, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Art work by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. If you want to be alerted when a new episode is released follow the instructions here for iPhone or iPad. For Spotify notifications follow the instructions here.

Support the show