I gave a talk to Transition Year students in Blackrock College on writing historical fiction, drawing on themes from Friend or Foe and One Good Turn, with particular emphasis on the topic of looting during the 1916 Rising.
The students were engaged and had lots of questions, and I even had my picture taken beside the plaque to the infamous Ross O’Carroll-Kelly!
Blackrock College Transition Year talk
My radio play The Last Summer will air on Newstalk on Monday May 2nd at 11.30.a.m.
The Last Summer is a drama about the relationship between a young Irish boy, Kevin Riordan, and an elderly English lock keeper, John Bennett, in late-Fifties Ireland.
Despite its idyllic summer setting, trouble is coming with the proposed closure of the local canal, and when Kevin discovers that Mr Bennett – a conscientious objector – had fled to Ireland to escape conscription in the Great War, both characters are faced with difficult moral dilemmas.
Starring Michael James Ford, Marion O’Dwyer, and Eoin Brady, the programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee.
Great event last week in the Draiocht Theatre when The Lucky Penny booklet was launched, by the Deputy Mayor of Fingal.
This was the culmination of a project in which a scene from my 1916 book, Friend or Foe, was the starting point for children in three Dublin schools to write their own cartoon stories, assisted by professional cartoonist Alan Nolan.
The children were from Scoil Thomais, Castleknock, Scoil Mhuire, Blakestown, and Mary Mother of Hope NS, Littlepace, and their artwork will be on display in the Draiocht Gallery until July 1916.
Congrats to everyone involved, and particular thanks to Sarah O’Neill in Fingal Arts Office, and Sarah Beirne, Emer McGowan and Nicola Murphy in Draiocht.
Brian Gallagher 