Books for Breakfast (Ireland)

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

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