Dublin City Libraries & Archives

Roger Moorhouse in conversation with Robert Gerwarth.

For nearly two years the two most infamous dictators in history actively collaborated with one another. The Nazi-Soviet Pact stunned the world. WWII was launched under its auspices and its eventual collapse led to the war’s defining and deciding clash. In The Devils’ Alliance Roger Moorhouse tells the full story for the first time, from the motivation for its inception to its dramatic end in 1941 as Germany declared war against its former parter.

Roger Moorhouse is an English historian and the author of three critically-acclaimed books: Killing Hitler; Berlin at War; and most recently The Devils’ Alliance, a fascinating study of the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

Robert Gerwarth is Professor of Modern History at UCD and Director of its Centre for War Studies. He is the author of The Bismarck Myth and Hitler’s Hangman: the Life of Heydrich.

Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 24 September 2016.

Saul David in conversation with Keelin Shanley

On 3rd July 1976, Israeli Special Forces carried out a daring raid to free more than a hundred Israeli, French and US hostages held by German and Palestinian terrorists at Entebbe Airport, Uganda. The legacy of this mission is still felt today in the way Western governments respond to terrorist blackmail. Now, with the mission largely forgotton or even unknown to many, Saul David gives the first comprehensive account of Operation Thunderbolt.

Saul David is Professor of Military History at the University of Buckingham. He is the author of many books on military history and is a regular contributor to programmes on British radio and television.

Keelin Shanley is a journalist and presenter on RTÉ radio and television.

Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 24 September 2016.

Robert Gerwarth in conversation with Anthony McElligott.

For the Western allies 11th November 1918 signified the end of fighting which had destroyed a generation. It also vindicated the terrible sacrifices made in the defeat of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. But for much of the rest of Europe the end of World War 1 ushered in a nightmarish series of conflicts. In his gripping book, The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of WW1.

Robert Gerwarth is Professor of Modern History at UCD and Director of its Centre for War Studies. He is the author of The Bismarck Myth and Hitler’s Hangman: the Life of Heydrich.

Anthony McElligott is Professor of History and Head of Department at the University of Limerick.

Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 24 September 2016.

Dublin Festival of History 2016 panel with Martina Devlin, Diarmaid Ferriter, Patsy McGarry, Ronan McGreevy, Margaret O’Callaghan and moderator Sarah Carey.

Despite the many dire warnings of the risks involved in the 1916 commemorations, the general consensus confirmed that Ireland had not only conducted them with dignity and gravitas but had also succeeded in igniting a public mood of pride and confidence as people streamed onto the streets to remember Ireland’s journey towards self-determination. How can we sustain the positive tone in future commemorations? Will Civil War politics provoke division and old enmities? A panel of distinguished experts examines the key issues.

Martina Devlin is a novelist and columnist for the Irish Independent. Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD. Patsy McGarry is Religious Affairs correspondent with The Irish Times. Ronan McGreevy is a news reporter with The Irish Times. He is the editor of Was it for This? Reflections on the Easter Rising. Margaret O’Callaghan is a senior lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast School of History. Sarah Carey is a columnist and broadcaster.

Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 23 September 2016.

Listen to award-winning Irish author Sara Baume as she reads from her second novel a line made by walking, and discusses how she came to write this, and her debut novel, spill, simmer, falter, wither. Recorded at the Central Library on 9 March 2017, as part of the Contemporary Irish Literature Series. (See also: Hearts and Minds with Donal Ryan and Martin Dyar)

'A line made by walking' charts a young artist's search for meaning and healing in rural Ireland. Struggling to cope with urban life and life in general, Frankie retreats to her family's rural house on "turbine hill," vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier.

Sara Baume studied fine art before earning a Master's in Creative Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in the The Moth, The Stinging Fly, the Irish Independent, and others. She won the 2014 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award and the 2015 Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. Sara's debut novel, spill simmer falter wither received national and international critical acclaim and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and was short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award and is one of seven novels by Irish authors on the longlist for 2017 International DUBLIN Literary Award. Her second novel, a line made by walking was published in February 2017.

Books Sara mentions, that like 'a line made by walking', are somewhere between novel, essay and ode to nature: The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, The Lonely City by Olivia Laing.

Booker-nominated novelist Donal Ryan and Patrick Kavanagh Award-winning poet Martin Dyar visited the Central Library on 2 March 2017 for a special evening of collaborative and interactive explorations of their work. Donal and Martin read from their own works and read excerpts from each others work in a special call and response format.

The two writers discuss their writing process and the centrality of rural Ireland to their work, before answering questions from the audience.

Part of the Contemporary Irish Literature Series in the Central Library.

Paul Rouse in conversation with Joe Molloy at Dublin Festival of History 2016.

Paul Rouse’s landmark Sport and Ireland was the first history of sport in this country, locating it within Irish political, social, and cultural history, and within the global history of sport. It demonstrated that there are unique aspects of Ireland’s sporting history which are defined by the peculiarities of life on a small island on the edge of Europe. Equally, the Irish sporting world is unique only in part; much of the history of Irish sport is a shared history with that of other societies.

Paul Rouse is a lecturer in the School of History at UCD. His main research interest lies in Irish social and cultural history of the 19th and 20th Centuries, particularly the history of sport, and the GAA

Joe Molloy is a presenter on Newstalk 106-108’s Off the Ball and a sports columnist at the Irish Independent.

Recorded at Printworks, Dublin Castle on 23 September 2016.

'Gentlemen’s Daughters in Dublin Cloisters: The social world of nuns in early 18th century Dublin', the 20th Annual Sir John T. Gilbert Lecture, was given by Dr Bernadette Cunningham, Royal Irish Academy at the Dublin City Library and Archive on Wednesday, 25 January 2017.

Dr Bernadette Cunningham is Deputy Librarian at the Royal Irish Academy and she is an expert on the history of 17th and 18th century Ireland. Bernadette has published widely on early modern Irish culture and intellectual history. Books include The world of Geoffrey Keating (Dublin, 2000); The Annals of the Four Masters: Irish history, kingship and society in the early seventeenth century (Dublin, 2010); Clanricard and Thomond: 1540–1640: provincial politics and society transformed (Dublin, 2012), and (with Raymond Gillespie), Stories from Gaelic Ireland: microhistories from the sixteenth-century Irish annals (2003).

From 2011 to 2013 the Orchestra of St Cecilia performed the first three series of Haydn symphonies (18 concerts and 54 symphonies)at the Newman University Church, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, a building possessing splendid acoustics and architectural magnificence.

The Orchestra of St Cecilia was formed in January 1995. Drawn from the finest of Dublin’s professional musicians, it has a notable reputation for the excellent quality of its performances

The Orchestra of St Cecilia Collection was kindly donated to Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street in 2016.

From 2011 to 2013 the Orchestra of St Cecilia performed the first three series of Haydn symphonies (18 concerts and 54 symphonies)at the Newman University Church, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, a building possessing splendid acoustics and architectural magnificence.

The Orchestra of St Cecilia was formed in January 1995. Drawn from the finest of Dublin’s professional musicians, it has a notable reputation for the excellent quality of its performances.

Conducted by Proinnsías Ó Duinn

Lindsay Armstrong, Manager/Artistic Director

1st Violins

Therésè Timony leader

Margaret Burns

Sylvia Roberts

Lynda O’Connor

David O’Doherty

2nd Violins

Elizabeth McLaren

Dara O’Connell

Melanie Briggs

Violas

Elizabeth Csibi

Lisa Quinn

Cellos

Niall O’Loughlin

Claire Fitch

Bass

Aura Stone

Harpsichord

Gillian Smith

Flute

Madeleine Staunton

Oboes

Patricia Corcoran

Matthew Manning

Jenny Magee

Bassoons

John Hearne

Atès Kirkan

Horns

André Cavanagh

Ian Dakin

David Atcheler

The Orchestra of St Cecilia Collection was kindly donated to Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street in 2016.