Programme

This year’s One Dublin One Book author Nuala O’Connor will be in conversation with author and journalist Edel Coffey on Friday 22nd April brought to you by Fingal Libraries. They will be discussing Nuala’s novel NORA: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce (New Island Books). Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards, Nora is an earthy and authentic love letter to Irish literature’s greatest muse.

Join One Dublin, One Book author Nuala O’Connor (Nora) as she discusses the important role played by James Joyce’s muse and wife Nora Barnacle in Irish literature. Nuala will be joined in conversation by Joycean enthusiast Katherine McSharry of the National Library of Ireland and Terence Killeen, Research Scholar at the James Joyce Centre, Dublin and author of Ulysses Unbound.

Nuala O’Connor lives in Co. Galway. Her fifth novel NORA (Harper Perennial/New Island, 2021), about Nora Barnacle, wife and muse to James Joyce, was recently published to critical acclaim in the USA, Ireland, the UK, and Germany, and is forthcoming in other languages. NORA was named as a Top 10 2021 historical novel by the New York Times. Nuala is editor at flash fiction e-zine Splonk. 

Katherine McSharry is Acting Director of the National Library of Ireland and a proud west of Ireland native. She was the National Library lead on the UCD/NLI partnership to create the Museum of Literature Ireland, with its strong focus on James Joyce. She was also co-curator of the 2004 exhibition ‘James Joyce and Ulysses at the National Library of Ireland’, and wrote the collection-based publication ‘A Joycean Scrapbook’ which accompanied the exhibition

Terence Killeen is Research Scholar at the James Joyce Centre, Dublin. He is the author of Ulysses Unbound, which has just been published in a new edition by Penguin Books. He has published in the James Joyce Quarterly, the James Joyce Literary Supplement and the Joyce Studies Annual. A former journalist with The Irish Times, he continues to write on Joyce-related matters for the newspaper.  He has taught Finnegans Wake for many years at seminars at the Dublin James Joyce Summer School and the Trieste Joyce Summer School. He has also lectured at both schools, at the James Joyce Centre, at Trinity College Dublin at various International and North America James Joyce Symposiums and at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris.

This April, Richmond Barracks book club will read and discuss the One Dublin One Book 2022 selection, Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce by Nuala O’Connor.

If you’re attending one of these special book club sessions, you can avail of a free copy of the book, but please note that places are limited.

You can either collect a copy of the book from Inchicore Library free of charge, or have it posted to you for €6.20, which covers the cost of postage. 

About this month’s book

When Nora Barnacle, a twenty-year-old from Galway working as a maid at Finn’s Hotel, meets young James Joyce on a summer’s day in Dublin, she is instantly attracted to him, natural and daring in his company. But she cannot yet imagine the extraordinary life they will share together. 

All Nora knows is she likes her Jim enough to leave behind family and home, in search of a bigger, more exciting life…

About the Book Clubs

The book clubs are held on the last Tuesday and Thursday of every month, one taking place online and the other in-person at Richmond Barracks. We start each session with an inclusive discussion about the current title and then have a broader discussion about what we’re reading and swap recommendations.

This online talk by Ludovica Neglie (National Library of Ireland) will explore Joyce’s world, celebrate his most famous work and the important role that the National Library of Ireland played in Joyce’s life.

This event will have ISL (Irish Sign language) interpretation and captioning.

Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco – Under the aegis of the Fondation Princesse Grace

Nuala O’Connor will speak about what inspired her to write this book and the meticulous research undertaken. This bio-fictional novel takes the facts around the lives of Nora and James Joyce, and re-imagines them as a fictional story.

The talk will be illustrated by dramatic readings of personal letters between Nora and Joyce, performed by actors from the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society.

Nuala will also briefly bring us behind the scenes of the exhibition that she curated for the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) in Dublin entitled “—Love, says Bloom”, which looks at the deep love between the couple and their children, using music as a steadfast element in their lives. 

The talk will be followed by drinks in the Princess Grace salon of the library and signings of copies of the book, which was named by Dublin City Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature as the ‘One Dublin One Book’ choice for 2022.

The talk will be recorded and the replay on YouTube will be made public in the days following the event (subject to the author’s permission)

Open to all with priority to Friends of the Princess Grace Irish Library. 10 Euro entrance fee at the library.

In an event specially created for One Dublin One Book, writer Martina Devlin and actors Lise-Ann McLaughlin and Nick Dunning combine to take a fresh look at the world’s most famous novel. With selected readings by the actors from Ulysses and Nuala O’Connor’s NORA, the performance captures two earthy, independent and quintessentially female perspectives on life and art.

An informal and interactive discussion of this year’s One Dublin One Book selection: The Coroner’s Daughter along with the author, Andrew Hughes. You don’t need to be a literary expert to join in – everyone is welcome! We recommend that you read The Coroner’s Daughter before the book club so you can enjoy our chat.

A talk by James Scannell from the Old Dublin Society about the police intelligence reports from various newspapers around the time period of The Coroner’s Daughter (1800s) highlighting how offenders were treated.

No booking required. First come, first seated.

Join us for a fascinating evening as author Andrew Hughes and State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers and Deputy State Pathologist Dr Jill Roman will be in conversation with novelist and journalist Conor Brady. In the years preceding 1816, the year in which The Coroner’s Daughter is set, forensic investigation into deaths was almost non-existent. 1816 was also the year of publication of George Male’s Epitome of Forensic Medicine, a pivotal guide as to how marks of a violent death appear on a body, and a textbook which became instrumental in The Coroner’s Daughter. This panel discussion will explore the history of forensic science, the development of investigative techniques, and their use in crime fiction, from the historical through to the contemporary.

A 4-week course led by tutor Garret Fagan, based around The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes. You’ll also read other titles, as well as material which relates to The Coroner’s Daughter and the Dublin of the time, and to Dublin in literature and crime writing.

No prior knowledge or skills are required for this course beyond an enjoyment and an interest in reading and in finding out more about your city.

Takes place on Wednesday 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th April.

Course Code: Spring AE-LN248

From love letters and diaries, to court records and newspaper archives, Andrew Hughes will talk about how his background as a professional archivist, and his research with archival sources, has inspired the stories, characters, and setting for his historical crime novels The Coroner’s Daughter and The Convictions of John Delahunt.

Andrew Hughes born in Co. Wexford, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. A qualified archivist, he worked for RTÉ before going freelance. It was while researching his social history of Fitzwilliam Square – Lives Less Ordinary: Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Square, 1798-1922 – that he came across the true story of John Delahunt, a Victorian murderer and Dublin Castle informer. His debut novel, The Convictions of John Delahunt, was shortlisted for the Bord Gáis Irish Crime Book of the Year. The Coroner’s Daughter was nominated for the CWA Historical Dagger.

In this special event to partner Wexford County Council Libraries and One Dublin One Book, Wexford authors Andrew Hughes and Cat Hogan will be in conversation with Caroline Busher about creating chilling, sinister and complex villains, and the different dynamics in writing novels from the perspective of the murderer, and the perspective of the sleuth.

Andrew Hughes born in Co. Wexford, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. A qualified archivist, he worked for RTÉ before going freelance. His debut novel, The Convictions of John Delahunt, was shortlisted for the Bord Gáis Irish Crime Book of the Year. The Coroner’s Daughter was nominated for the CWA Historical Dagger.

Cat Hogan is an international bestselling novelist and screenwriter. Her first award nominated novel They All Fall Down was published in 2016, and her second novel, There Was A Crooked Man (2017) was nominated by Bord Gais Energy as Crime Fiction of the Year Novel.

Caroline Busher is the Irish Times best-selling author and Irish Book Award nominated author. Her books include of The Ghosts of Magnificent Children, The Girl Who Ate The Stars, The Legend of Valentine Sorrow and The Spectacular Library of Magical.

In The Coroner’s Daughter Abigail Lawless breaks the mould of our idea of a 19^th Century Irish woman. Join historian and author Liz Gillis as she explores the status of women in 19^th Century Ireland. Presented by South Dublin Libraries.

Historian and author Liz Gillis is from the Liberties. She is the author of six books about the Irish Revolution  including, ‘The Fall of Dublin’, ‘Women of the Irish Revolution’ and ‘The Hales Brothers and the Irish Revolution’ and  ‘May 25: The Burning of the Custom House 1921’. Liz has worked as a researcher on numerous publications, television and radio documentaries covering the period. 

Liz is the Historian in Residence for Dublin South County Council for the Decade of Centenaries. She also works as a Researcher for the History Show on RTE Radio and lectures at Champlain College Dublin.  Liz was a Historical Consultant for the new Custom House Visitor Centre and was a Curatorial Assistant in RTE, specialising in researching the Easter Rising and a tour guide for many years in Kilmainham Gaol.  In 2018 Liz was a recipient of the Lord Mayor’s Award for her contribution to history. 

 A talk by James Scannell from the Old Dublin Society about the police intelligence reports from various newspapers around the time period of The Coroner’s Daughter (1800s) highlighting how offenders were treated.

*This event has been postponed. We hope to re-schedule for a later date in April.