Dalkey Book Festival reveals line-up; Mercier Press shortlisted for IPA Prix Voltaire

In this Saturday’s Irish Times books pages, Henrietta McKervey talks to the people involved in a new project by Fighting Words helping Ukrainian women to write their own stories about leaving home and coming to Ireland; Aoife Barry talks to Patrick Freyne about her new book, Social Capital: Life Online in the Shadow of Ireland’s Tech Boom; and there is a Q&A with poet Majella Kelly about her debut collection, The Speculations of Country People.

Reviews are Catriona Crowe on Girl in the Tunnel by Maureen O’Sullivan and A Dublin Magdalene Laundry: Donnybrook and Church-State Power in Ireland edited by Mark Coen, Katherine O’Donnell & Maeve O’Rourke; Catherine Taylor on the best new translations column; John Boyne on How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney; Niamh Cullen on A Kidnapped West: The Tragedy of Central Europe by Milan Kundera; Helen Cullen on The Midnight News by Jo Baker; Rabeea Saleem on A House for Alice by Diana Evans; Liam Bishop on Peter Frankpoan’s The Earth Transformed: An Untold History; Ian Duhig on Lori & Joe by Amy Arnold; Sara Keating on the best new children’s books; Michael Viney on Island of Woods by paul McMahon; Alice Kinsella on Soundings by Doreen Cunningham; and Sarah Gilmartin on Claire Fuller’s The Memory of Animals.

This weekends Irish Times Eason offer is The Maid by Nita Prose, only €4.99 with your paper, a saving of €5.

Leading figures from the fields of literature, history, politics, journalism, comedy and science, including Brian Cox, Dylan Moran, Roddy Doyle, U2 guitarist The Edge and Roddy Collins, will be taking part in this year’s Dalkey Book Festival, which runs in the Co Dublin seaside village from June 15th to 18th.

Highlights include conversations between The Edge and Brian Cox; Ruby Wax and Ian Robertson; Masha Gessen and Dylan Moran, who will also perform the Irish premiere of his show We Got This; and a football head-to-head with Roddy Collins and Paul Howard.

Literary figures taking part include Richard Ford, Sebastian Barry, Paul Murray, Roddy Doyle, Elaine Feeney, Jan Carson, Joseph O’Connor, Liz Nugent, John Banville, Audrey Magee, Donal Ryan, Merve Emre, John Connolly, Victoria Kennefick, Nicole Flattery, Sarah Gilmartin and Alice Ryan, as well as historians Peter Frankopan, Roy Foster, Donal Fallon and Naoise MacSweeney.

Tickets go on sale on Wednesday, April 26th at 10am. To find the full festival programme, or to subscribe to get presale tickets, visit the festival’s official website.

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Cork’s Mercier Press has been shortlisted for the 2023 IPA Prix Voltaire alongside publishers and authors from Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey.

Kristenn Einarsson, Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee said: “Publishers play a vital role in guaranteeing the freedom of expression of authors. This year’s 2023 IPA Prix Voltaire shortlist is a testament to publishers who put themselves at risk to publish the works of others and contribute to our societies by ensuring readers have access to multiple voices and perspectives.”

The laureate will be announced at the World Expression Forum (WEXFO) in Lillehammer, Norway on Monday, May 22nd.

Mercier Press was founded in 1944 by Captain Seán and Mary Feehan as they believed in the importance of Ireland’s ability to provide accessible histories and cultural books for all who are interested in Irish life. Mercier challenged Catholic dogma, which dominated Irish society, as well as censorship in Ireland, publishing books such as Marriage Partnership (which had to be sold under the counter). It went on to publish titles on previously undiscussed matters such as drug abuse, domestic violence, the sexual revolution, women’s rights and clerical sexual abuse. Mercier continues to publish controversial books – including One Day in My Life by Bobby Sands; The SAS in Ireland by Raymond Murray; Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland by Anne Cadwallader; and Burnt Out: How the Troubles Began by Michael McCann.

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My Father’s Kind: A collaboration of traditional Irish music and the poetry of Dermot Bolger, featuring Dermot Bolger, Danny Diamond, Macdara Yeates and Sile Friel, takes place in The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, Naul (May 5th); glór, Ennis (11th); The Dock, Carrick-On-Shannon (12th); and An Droichead, Belfast (13th).

Weaving a tapestry of music and words in celebration of a bygone generation of Irish artists, My Father’s Kind is based on a suite of poems by Dermot Bolger. My Father’s Kind depicts many 20th century traditional Irish musicians, including Séamus Ennis, Mary Ann Carolan and Johnny Doherty, exploring not only the iconic music, but the real lives and humanity behind the loved and celebrated figures.

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Bestselling author Cathy Kelly is returning to HarperFiction in a three-book deal, negotiated by Lynne Drew, publisher, general fiction, with Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown, for UK and Commonwealth rights.

Sisterhood, the first book in the deal, will be published next February. Moving from Ireland’s wild Atlantic coast to the sun-baked shores of Sicily, it follows Lou as the events of her 50th birthday party turn her life on its head.