Irish Writers' Weekend - Weekend Pass

Please see the programme below.

Weekend Passes allow access to any of the sessions although entry to specific sessions may be subject to room capacity. Discounts available for British Library Members and half price tickets for Students, Under 26 and other concession groups.  

Online tickets are also available, that will enable you to watch Piggott Theatre sessions either live or for the next 7 days on catch up. Viewing links for the online version will be sent out in the confirmation email you receive after booking.  

Please note that evening headline events are not included in Weekend in-person passes, and separate tickets are required. These are Graham Norton, Louise Kennedy and Paul Muldoon (Friday 22 November), Muldoon’s Picnic (Saturday 23 November) and Country Girl: A Tribute to Edna O’Brien (Sunday 24 November) Tickets for these events may be booked here.

Doors open 10.30 on Saturday and 11.30 on Sunday. Session times to be announced soon.  

Book signings will be running throughout the weekend. 

The Irish Writers’ Weekend is supported by Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in London. 

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PROGRAMME

SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER   
10:30 doors open

11:00 - 12.15 Small Town Big Stories   
Cauvery Madhavan, Chloe Michelle Howarth and Donal Ryan with Caoilinn Hughes. 
Pigott Theatre 
Ireland’s small towns and communities are a rich source for its literature, and the setting for some of the finest works of writers including Claire Keegan, Edna O’Brien to John Banville. The Irish Writers’ Weekend begins with a session devoted to these fascinating, often beautiful, sometimes claustrophobic places. With Cauvery Madhavan, whose new novel The Inheritance is the tale of an unexpected move into a tight knit community, Chloe Michelle Howarth, author of the acclaimed coming of age debut novel Sunburn, and Donal Ryan, who has now written Heart, Be at Peace as a companion piece to his multi-award-winning bestseller, The Spinning Heart, voted ‘The Irish Book of the Decade’. Hosted by Caoilinn Hughes. 

12:45 - 14:00 Comedy Writing: Dara Ó Briain and Joanne McNally with Séamas O’Reilly 
Pigott Theatre 
Two Irish comedy stars join columnist and author Séamas O’Reilly to talk about life, reading, and writing for the page and the stand-up stage. Both are brilliant performers, broadcasters and writers. 

13:00 - 14:00 Poetry Session
Eliot Room (not online)

14:30 - 15:45 Amnesic: Neil Jordan in conversation with Fintan O’Toole   
Pigott Theatre 
‘Neil Jordan is unique in his success both as a fiction writer and a movie maker. In his new memoir Amnesiac he looks back over his twin careers with a certain amused wonderment - how did he manage all that? The result is a fascinating record of private loves and losses, of public triumphs and lessons learned, in a narrative shaped by the hand of an artist. And yes, there is enough insider Hollywood lore to satisfy the hungriest picturegoer’ (John Banville) He is joined in conversation by award winning author, critic and columnist Fintan O’Toole, who’s own We Don't Know Ourselves is a personal history of Ireland since the year of his birth. 

14:30 - 15:45 Celebrating Diverse Irish Writing
Eliot Room (not online)
Three writers  including novelist Cauvery Madhavan and poet Nandi Jola, who have been part of the Breaking Ground Ireland programme come together to share their unique creative journeys. Since 2022 Breaking Ground Ireland has showcased 90 writers and illustrators from the island of Ireland from global majority and Irish Traveller backgrounds. It is a collaboration between Cúirt International Festival of Literature, the National University of Ireland Galway and Speaking Volumes, a UK-based literature organisation specialising in getting underrepresented voices heard in exciting ways and reaching diverse audiences. 

16:15 – 17:30 Families and their Discontents  
Caoilinn Hughes, Claire Kilroy and Seamas O’Reilly with Elaine Canning 
Pigott Theatre 
Families are complicated: they bring love and exasperation, pride and dismay, often simultaneously. They are also a rich seam of writing material. Caoilinn Hughes’s recent novel The Alternatives tests the bonds between four gifted sisters while her award-winning The Wild Laughter explored the seething relationship between the two brothers. Claire Kilroy’s astonishing Women’s Prize shortlisted Soldier Sailor is an emotional, visceral monologue of early motherhood. Seamas O’Reilly’s bestselling Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a memoir about a family of loud, argumentative, musical, grief-stricken siblings. Hosted by with Elaine Canning writer, editor and author of debut novel, The Sandstone City. 

16:15 - 17:15 Capital Vices: Conor Montague in conversation  
Eliot Room (not online)
The Galway born, London based playwright and author talks to journalist Dorothy Allen about his writing life and debut collection of short stories Capital Values. Fierce, funny and poetic, its tales take us on an exhilarating journey in the splendid company of outlaws, chancers, rogues and vagabonds, all the time scavenging for their place in the scheme of things.  
Presented by The Irish Cultural Centre, London where Conor is Playwright in Residence.   

17.45 – 18:45  The Stinging Fly: New writers, new writing
With readings by Eimear McBride, Jess McKinney, Keith Ridgway, Michael Phoenix and Martina Evans. Hosted by Lisa McInerney and Declan Meade. 
British Library Entrance Hall. Not available online.
Join The Stinging Fly, one of Ireland’s most influential literary magazines, for a showcase of readings by contributors to its two most recent issues, including – hot off the press – the Winter 2024-25 edition. First published in 1998, The Stinging Fly has become internationally recognised for playing a key role in supporting the early-career development of many of today’s most prominent Irish writers.  
*Please note. This session takes place in the main Entrance Hall of the British Library.
Seated capacity is limited, and some standing places will be available. 

Followed by Muldoon’s Picnic 19:30 - 21:00. Separate tickets required and available here.


SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER
11.30 doors open

12.00 - 13.15 Home and Away:  Belfast and Beyond 
Aimée Walsh, Lucy Caldwell and Michael Magee with Peggy Hughes  
Pigott Theatre 
Aimée Walsh’s and Michael Magee’s remarkable debut novels Exile and Close to Home both see their main characters return from time away at university and drawn back into a Belfast turmoil of displacement, disrupted dreams and friendships that are both destructive and life saving. Lucy Caldwell was born in the city and her novels and acclaimed short story collections Openings, Intimacies and Multitudes often feature its people, whether at home or from a distance. They talk to Peggy Hughes, Chief Executive at the National Centre for Writing.  

12:30 – 13:30 Poetry Session
Eliot Room (not online)

13.45 - 15:00 Modern Fables  
Jan Carson, Rónán Hession and Sinéad Gleeson with Barry Pierce. 
Pigott Theatre 
With three much loved writers and advocates for literature, each of whom have used mystery, timelessness and the play of ideas - in their tender, brave, sometimes funny tales of lives lived and worlds both strange and mundane. Jan Carson’s Quickly, While They Still Have Horses, Sinéad Gleeson’s Hagstone and Rónán Hession’s Ghost Mountain are three of the most intriguing and memorable books of this year, and their authors come together in conversation with Barry Pierce. 

15:30 - 16:45  The Irish Abroad  
Christine Dwyer Hickey, Clair Wills and Kevin Barry  
Pigott Theatre 
The true and imagined experiences of the diaspora are vividly brought to life in three acclaimed books published this year. Kevin Barry’s The Heart in Winter is an extraordinary Irish Western love story set amongst the bars and chaos of 1890s Montana. The moving journey through time, Our London Lives, by Christine Dwyer Hickey brings two Irish outsiders together in the unforgiving city. In her memoir Missing Persons, Clair Wills tries to make sense of a complex family history in Ireland from the distance of the UK.

15.30 – 16.45 Unladylike: Ireland, Women and Sport 
Eliot Room (not online)
Ireland is a sports mad country, but its sports literature has only in recent years started to represent women’s experiences and voices. A session devoted to the histories of Ladies Gaelic Football and football with Hayley Kilgallon, author of the recently published Unladylike: A History of Ladies Gaelic Football and Helena Byrne who has published widely on soccer history for general and academic publications.

17:15 – 18:30  The Dark Heart  
Colin Walsh, Mike McCormack and Una Mannion with Jan Carson
Pigott Theatre 
Exploring mystery, secrets and lies in three remarkable recent novels. The atmospheric thriller Kala by Colin Walsh reunites three old friends on the Irish west coast as their chilling past starts to unravel. This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack, which follows his award-winning Solar Bones, is a taut and darkly funny examination of a man facing up to the dangerous truth of his life. Una Mannion won the CWA Gold Dagger Award, for best crime novel of the year, for Tell Me What I Am, a haunting story of a family with a dark secret. Hosted by novelist Jan Carson.  

Followed by Country Girl: A Tribute to Edna O’Brien 19:15 – 20:45. Separate tickets required and available here.