Books for Breakfast (Ireland)

Send us Fan Mail Today's show is a bit special. We're very happy to feature My Name Suspended in Air: Leland Bardwell at 100, published by Lepus Print, to coincide with Poetry Day Ireland 2022.  Leland was a remarkable poet, and indeed fiction writer, and this book is a selection of her poems chosen by Irish women poets and writers:  Eva Bourke, Jackie Bardwell, Mary Branley, Siobhan Cam...

Send us Fan Mail This morning we talk to Colm Tóibín in New York about his debut poetry collection, Vinegar Hill . From the best-selling author of Brooklyn , Nora Webster , The Master , and the recent The Magician Colm Tóibín’s first collection of poetry explores sexuality, religion, and belonging through a modern lens. ‘Fans of Colm Tóibín’s novels will relish the opportunity to re-encounter Tóib...

Send us Fan Mail On this morning's show we talk to Wendy Erskine , whose second collection of short stories, Dance Move , has just been published by The Stinging Fly . And we feature two Ukrainian poems: 'Crow, Wheels' by  Lyuba Yakimchuk , with permission from Words without Borders where it first appeared, and Ilya Kaminsky's 'We Lived Happily During the War'   from...

Send us Fan Mail We begin this weeks's show with In Trust. In Gratitude. In Hope. 10 Years at the Laois Arthouse , an exhibition featuring the work of over 60 artists who have been part of the Laois Arthouse programme since its establishment in 2011 by Laois County Council Arts Service. Enda talks about a book that has impressed her recently, The Black Snow by Paul Lynch. Our guest this morni...

Send us Fan Mail This morning actor and writer Gabriel Byrne talks to Books for Breakfast about his newly published memoir Walking with Ghosts . In a lively and wide ranging conversation with hosts Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr Gabriel talks about his love of reading, his favourite writers, and the importance of memory for both acting and writing, Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire , ‘Thou Shalt...

Send us Fan Mail Today's show is devoted to an in-depth interview with poet Thomas McCarthy , whose Poetry, Memory and the Party: Journals 1974-2014 has recently been published by Gallery Press. The journals span forty years of Thomas McCarthy’s life lived between a modest background and the ‘Big House’ of West Waterford and his immersion in the literary life of Cork against the troubles of a...

Send us Fan Mail A special Christmas Eve edition of Books for Breakfast . In the last episode of the year we pay  tribute to the work of Thomas Kinsella 1928-2021. We also feature some highlights from this year’s podcast. So take a break from turkey basting and join us for a listen! Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire , ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner , 2008, with thanks to Colm...

Send us Fan Mail 'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.' – Hilary Mantel 'A haunting, hopeful  masterpiece'. – Sinéad Gleeson 'Astonishing ... Claire Keegan makes her moments real – and then makes them matter.' – Co...

Send us Fan Mail On today's show we talk to two poets who have published new collections: Eleanor Hooker , whose Of Ochre and Ash is published by Dedalus Press, and Amanda Bell whose Riptide is available from Doire Press. Eleanor's Toaster Challenge choice is 'Snow Woman',  a poem by Breda Wall Ryan while Amanda chooses 'I Worried',  a poem by Mary Oliver. And we mark...

Send us Fan Mail On today's show we talk to Liam Carson , director of the Irish language literary festival IMRAM about this year's wide-ranging and adventurous hybrid programme, which starts today. And we talk to Alannah Hopkin about her honest and heartbreaking literary memoir of the lives of two Irish writers,   A Very Strange Man : A Memoir of Aidan Higgins , published by New Island B...

Send us Fan Mail Today's show is a short story special and double Toaster Challenge edition. We begin with John MacKenna whose We Seldom Talk About the Past , the first selection of short stories from one of Ireland's great masters of the form, has just been published by New Island. John's Toaster Challenge choice is Raymond Carver's All of Us: The Collected Poems. Next up is M...

Send us Fan Mail Why have women been treated differently, and discriminated against, in the literary world? Why has gender been a ‘problem’ in the writing, publishing, funding and reviewing scene? And why does it matter? Éilis Ni Dhuibhne asked twenty one writers who were born in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, north and south, to write about their literary lives. The resulting essays, full of fasc...

Send us Fan Mail To celebrate thirty years of the Irish  Writers Centre , Enda talks to co-host Peter, who was the first director of the Centre, about the early years, and Peter talks to current director Valerie Bistany about current activities and plans for the future. And the toaster is back in action, with Valerie choosing Kent Haruf’s Plainsong for her Toaster Challenge. Intro/outro music: Col...

Send us Fan Mail We ease our way back into breakfast book chat after our summer intermission with an episode on what we read ourselves during the summer. Enda chooses Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women , while Peter selects Deer on the High Hills: Selected Poems by Iain Crichton Smith , edited by John Greening. We also give a shout out to this weekend's Fingal Poetry Festival and...

Send us Fan Mail Today, in the last podcast in the current season, Enda Wyley talks to Aoife Lyall about her debut collection Mother Nature , published by Bloodaxe Books. Aoife's Toaster Challenge Choice is A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume , published by Tramp Press in 2017. And Books for Breakfast co-host Peter Sirr talks about his Intimate City: Dublin Essays , just published by Gallery...

Send us Fan Mail Today former RTE producer and writer Julian Vignoles , know for his biographies of Rory Gallagher and David Thomson of Woodbrook fame, reviews Sinéad O'Connor's memoir Rememberings , described as 'inspiring, liberating, hilarious and fascinating'  by the Irish Times and  'beautifully observed ... lyrical, funny and anguished' by the Guardian. Our Toas...

Send us Fan Mail This morning's show features  interviews with two outstanding writers. First up is Louise Kennedy whose collection of stories The End of the World is a Cul de Sac has been widely praised. 'A dazzling, heartbreaking debut collection' said the Guardian while the Sunday Times  said that 'Kennedy's voice, and her unforgiving gaze, are electric'. Our Toast...

Send us Fan Mail Today we talk to Evelyn Conlon whose new collection of stories, Moving About the Place , has recently been published by Blackstaff Press. Brilliantly written, witty, and full of the sharp observation for which Conlon is well known, Moving About the Place brings together some of the best of her recent work, along with brand-new stories, including a novella, to show how borders, mov...

Send us Fan Mail Where did Dublin's uber-toffs live in the eighteenth century? Melanie Hayes drops in to talk about The Best Address in Town, Henrietta Street, Dublin and Its First Residents, 1720-1780 , published by Four Courts Press. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Moya Cannon , whose Collected Poems was recently published by Carcanet, featuring more than three decades of fine work. Moya&apo...

Send us Fan Mail We're looking eastward toward today, with Toaster Challenge guest poet Justin Quinn who joins us from Prague, and we review the latest collection of stories from Bucharest based Philip Ó Ceallaigh . Justin's latest collection Shallow Seas was published by Gallery Press late last year; Philip's collection, Trouble , will be published by The Stinging Fly in May but is...

Send us Fan Mail This waning moon          is pitiless, as dawn swiftly follows and we        must separate – such heartbreak! –Mibu No Tadamine Today's show features James Hadley and Nell Regan talking about their translations of Japanese classical poetry for A Gap in the Clouds published by Dedalus Press. And we travel all the way to Melbourne for an interview with Australian poet Grant Cal...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the audio edition of the special Books for Breakfast video  podcast for Mountains to Sea dlr Books Festival.  We were delighted to be the opening event for the festival, with two writers and  two Toaster Challenges. Our first  guest was  Laura McKenna , whose new, ambitious and epic novel Words to Shape My Name   has just been published by New Island. Inspired by true e...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the 25th episode of Books for Breakfast! On today’s show we review Apocalypse: An Anthology , edited by James Keery , the first anthology of Apocalyptic or neoromantic poetry since the 1940s and including more than 200 poets. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Una Mannion whose novel A Crooked Tree has just been published by Faber to considerable acclaim. Una’s Toaster Chal...

Send us Fan Mail Today we look at Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus , often considered her most brilliant novel,  and poet Peter Robinson' s investigation of the relationships between poets, poetry and money from Chaucer to the the present in Poetry and Money . Our Toaster Challenge guest is Leeanne Quinn whose new poetry collection Some Lives   has recently been published by Dedalu...

Send us Fan Mail This week we begin by looking at Days of Clear Light , a festschrift in honour of Salmon Press founder Jessie Lendennie to celebrate 40 years of the poetry press. Peter reflects on a favourite book, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space , and our Toaster Challenge guest is actor Cathy Belton , fresh from her performance in the Landmark Productions online version of Mark O’Rowe’s...