Willy Vlautin in conversation with Nadine O’Regan at The Dalkey Book Festival.

Willy Vlautin is a writer who is taking the US by storm, described by The Irish Times as the “literary version of a Neil Young or a Tom Petty, bearing a ragged standard for empathy, compassion and decency, a throwback to a generation of novelists who still championed the underclass”.

Recorded at The Dalkey Book Festival 14th June 2018

David Goodhart’s new book The Road to Somewhere has taken the UK by storm. In it he explains the huge political changes that we see from the point of view of two conflicting tribes that have emerged in the Western world. The first are citizens of anywhere – a detached, mobile, cosmopolitan elite, who have lost contact with the citizens of somewhere – their more grounded, local and threatened fellow countrymen.

The tribal division is pretty clear. On the one side stands the liberal Europhile establishment, comfortable about immigration and globalisation, and on the other are those who are anything but comfortable, who feel left out and left behind.

This is a must listen if you are interested in the society around you. How soon before such division manifests itself here too? And what might that look like? David Goodhart is in conversation with David McWilliams.

Recorded at the Dalkey Book Festival Friday 16 June 2017.

Bruce Robinson, the iconoclastic writer and director of the revered classic Withnail & I—”The funniest British film of all time”—returns to London in a decade-long examination of the most provocative murder investigation in British history, and finally solves the identity of the killer known as “Jack the Ripper”.

They All Love Jack – Busting the Ripper is a literary high-wire act reminiscent of both Hunter S. Thompson and Errol Morris, Bruce Robinson offers a radical reinterpretation of Jack the Ripper, contending that he was not the madman of common legend, but the vile manifestation of the Victorian Age’s moral bankruptcy.

In conversation with AN Wilson

Recorded at the Dalkey Book Festival on Sunday 18 June 2017.

What is going on in the Korean peninsula? While North Korea threatens nuclear strikes and South Korea’s president is jailed on corruption charges, what do we know about this part of the world?

North Korea may be cut off but South Korea is little understood. It is the world’s 11th largest economy – bigger than Russia or Spain – and is of huge strategic significance – but what do we know about it? There has never been a more urgent need for outsiders to grasp what is going on in what used to be called “the hermit kingdom”.

This is a rare opportunity to hear Korean experts in Dublin. Hyeonseo Lee, North Korean defector, Han Yujoo from South Korea and Michael Breen, author of The Koreans, who has lived in Korea since 1982, are in conversation with Kelly Falconer.

Recorded at the Dalkey Book Festival Friday 16 June 2017.

Can good satire achieve anything? Is the impact it has on audiences underestimated, and what are the risks taken by its creators?

Take a journey into the power of satire and the impact of the law on its creation with some of Ireland’s greatest satirical writers and performers.

Having a laugh about the serious side of a slagging off are Blindboyboatclub of Rubberbandits, Paul Howard, creator of Ross O’Carroll Kelly and author of ANGLO: The Musical, Andrea Martin of MediaLawyer and Colm Williamson, the founder and writer of the massively popular Waterford Whispers News, the number one destination for Irish satire fans. Chaired by Fiona Looney, award-winning playwright, columnist, and comedy writer.

Presented by Kite Entertainment

Recorded at the Dalkey Book Festival on Friday 16 June 2017.

Roy Foster explores Yeat's links with important historic events in Ireland and Europe.

Recorded at the Dalkey Book Festival, Saturday 17 June 2017.

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