Dublin City Libraries & Archives

Poet Ronan Brown reads from his collection in front of a live audience in Pearse Street Library on 19 August 2015 as part of the Libraries' 'Speaking Words' Series.

Ronan Brown was born in Manchester and grew up in Dalkey in the 50s and 60s. He worked as a chartered surveyor but has been writing poetry since the 1970s. Browne was a former member of 'Chapter and Verse', the writers' group which met in the Killiney Court Hotel. His work has been published in anthologies.

Poet Rosemarie Rowley reads from her poetry in front of a live audience in Pearse Street Library on 17 June 2015.

Rosemarie Rowley has been writing for four decades, often in formal verse, and often about women and their experiences. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she has worked abroad and presented papers at conferences worldwide.

Her poetry collections include 'The Broken Pledge' (1985), 'The Sea of Affliction', 'Flight into Reality' , 'Hot Cinquefoil Star' and 'In Memory of Her' (2008). Her most recent book is 'Girls of the Globe', where she gives a female voice to Shakespeare's heroines and a voice to those who are not often heard.

Tony Riley shares practical tips on safe Internet browsing and on how to control what information you share via social media. Recorded in front of a live audience in Pearse Street Library on 13 June 2015.

Are you keen to get started on social media? Would you like to learn to tweet, comment on YouTube, share your photos and maintain your privacy on facebook? Are you looking for tips on how to protect your children online? Then this information session with teacher Tony Riley on 'how to use social media in a safe and fun way’ is for you.

This session will guide you on use of everyday apps and help you to be in control of what information you decide to share. Listen to Tony share practical tips on safe browsing and communicating with your children about online safety and limiting use of devices.

Australian poet Ross Donlon reads from his collection in Pearse Street Library on 13 May 2015 as part of the Libraries' 'Speaking Words' Series.

Ross Donlon lives in Castlemaine in Australia. His poems have been widely published in Australia and Ireland. The Blue Dressing Gown was published in 2011 by Profile Poetry. Tightrope Horizon (Five Islands Press) was published in 2003. Shh and Other Love Poems and My Ship were published by Mark Time Books in 2009. Shh has been anthologised in Poems for All Occasions and elsewhere. In 2014 Ross published Awakening: Poems from the collection of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Light Travelling: a sampler of new and collected poems. His latest book is Sjøvegan (The Sea Road).

In 2009 Ross was awarded the Varuna Writers' House Dorothy Hewett Flagship Fellowship for Poetry, and in 2010 he was awarded the Wenlock Festival Poetry Prize at the Arvon International Poetry Competition by chief judge, Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.

Image www.rossdonlon.com

The life of 19th century mathematician and poet William Rowan Hamilton told through a sequence of sonnets by poet Iggy McGovern and friends Paula Murphy and Noel Duffy. Recorded in front of a live audience in Pearse Street Library on 26 February 2015, as part of the 'Mind Yourself' Programme.

Mary Louise O’Donnell traces the history and evolution of Ireland's treasured national emblem, the harp and examines its glorious musical tradition. Includes harp recital. Recorded in front of a live audience in the Central Library, on 12 March 2015.

The image of the harp – symbolic of the political and cultural landscape of Ireland for centuries – evokes strong sentiments in the collective Irish imagination. This iconic instrument became the emblem on Irish coinage in the sixteenth century. Since then it has been symbolic of Irish culture, music, and politics – finally evolving into a significant marker of national identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Mary Louise O'Donnell holds a doctorate from the University of Limerick and is a former Irish Research Council postgraduate scholar and postdoctoral fellow. Her first book 'Ireland's Harp: the Shaping of Irish Identity c.1770 to 1880' was published by UCD Press in 2014.

In 'Dublin as a global city: through time and space', Kevin Whelan looks at the evolution of Dublin from humble origins to global city of today. The 18th Annual Sir John T. Gilbert Lecture, was recorded in front of a live audience at Dublin City Library and Archive on 22 January, 2015.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of Finnegans Wake, Sinead Murphy and Darina Gallagher perform 'Here's Comes Everybody!', a musical journey through Finnegans Wake. Recorded in front of a live audience in Drumcondra Library on 22 May, 2014.

This performance explores the musical pulse at the heart of Finnegans Wake. The irreverence and subversion of Joyce's comic masterpiece is evoked through parlour song, music hall, nursery rhyme, folk song, street ballads, sea shanties, hymns, carols and the American songbook. James Joyce filled his work with music and in Finnegans Wake there are almost 1,000 song references and allusions. These songs create the dreamlike transformations of the Porter- Earwicker family and express the ambience and cadences peculiar to the city of Dublin.

What do we think of when we think of Dublin? How has the history and physical shape of the city influenced its poems, songs and stories? How do poems, songs, stories, history and the built environment create our sense of Dublin as a city? Join Garrett Fagan and panellists Nessa O'Mahony, Ellen Rowley, Kelly Fitzgerald and Niamh Puirséil for a lively discussion on what makes Dublin the city that it is. Recorded in front of a live audience at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street on Saturday 12 April 2014 as part of 'Dublin: One City, One Book'.

Dr Howard Clarke, Emeritus Professor, Department of Medieval History, UCD, re-examines the reputation of Queen Gormlaith and Brian Boru while looking at the rules of marriage, and the bewilderingly complicated nature of the relationships between some of the key players in the battle of Clontarf. Recorded in front of a live audience on 8 April 2014 as part of the Dublin City Hall lecture series.