In this episode, a conversation with award-winning poet and writer Doireann Ni Ghriofa, author of a new book, Said the Dead.

In the city of Cork, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had she lived in another time, she too might have found herself held within those walls. Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE. It is the first of many signs. Guided by an irresistible impulse, she follows them. Soon, she is trespassing, stealing, absconding from the routine of mother, spouse, daughter, as she uncovers a chorus of startling voices: those of the women who knew the hospital best. They murmur from archives and old records. They haunt from stairwells and walls. In them – and in one figure in particular – she may find meaning and solace, righteous anger, salvation even. Or her final vanishing?

A work of sublime intensity and tenderness, Said the Dead breaks the boundaries between worlds – past and present, imagined and real, fact and fiction – to make something new and lasting: an experience full of danger, full of love and full of truth.

Enjoyed what you heard? Click here to purchase the book: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9780571396177/said-the-dead--doireann-ni-ghriofa--2026--9780571396177