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children’s book festival

clonmel-libraryOctober was a very busy month, with the Children’s Book Festival running in schools. libraries and bookshops all over Ireland.

It was a hectic time for me, starting with fifteen talks in five days spread across libraries in county Tipperary. It was great to meet so many enthusiastic young readers, and the hospitality from the librarians was wonderful – I certainly piled on the calories from all the cakes and buns I was offered!

The rest of the month was taken up with meeting readers in counties Clare, Galway, Kildare and Dublin, many of whom had been reading Friend or Foe as part of their schools’ 1916 centenary commemorations.

By the end of the month I had done thirty-nine talks and had an array of different throat tablets! It was tiring but also great fun. And now that I’ve had time to catch my breath again, all I can say is roll on next year…

BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Image for Brothers and SIsters

Brothers and Sisters

My radio play Brothers and Sisters will air on Newstalk on Monday June 6th at 11.30.a.m. and can also be listened to as a podcast after the broadcast.

Brothers and Sisters looks at the tensions arising in the staff room in an eighties Dublin school when it’s suggested that a Christian Brothers School and a convent should amalgamate because of falling pupil numbers.

Starring Denis Conway, Karl O’Neill and Marion O’Dwyer, the programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television License Fee.

 

 

VISITING BLACKROCK COLLEGE

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!Following in famous footsteps

Blackrock visit

Blackrock College Transition Year talk

Blackrock talk

 

 

THE LAST SUMMER

Deer bay river

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.

 

 

Lucky Penny

Lucky Penny brochure imageGreat 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.

Reflecting the Rising

Friend or Foe coverIt was exciting to take part in RTE’s mammoth commemoration project, RTE Reflecting the Rising, on Easter Monday (28th March 2016).

My talk, based on Friend or Foe, was given in the DIT on Aungier Street, which felt very appropriate,
in that this was the original site of the Jacob’s biscuit factory, one of the rebel strongholds during the Rising.

Other writers such as Marita Conlon McKenna and Patricia Murphy – who have also written books set in 1916 – were also in the DIT giving talks and there was great buzz around the college, and indeed around the whole city.

World Book Day Event

Brian was joined by authors Steve Butler, Sibeal Pounder, Jonathan Meres and Shane Hegarty for the launch of World Book Day in Liberty Hall, Dublin.

Hundreds of children converged on the theatre in Liberty Hall for photographs, book signings, readings and talks by the authors.

Steve gave a hilarious account of his own childhood, Sibeal dressed volunteers from the audience as witches, Shane spoke about his Darkmouth series of books, Jonathan played the guitar, and Brian read the opening scene from his World Book Day novel, One Good Turn.

Afterwards all of the authors met the children, and the event was filmed by RTE and shown on News2Today.

Brian on stage, Liberty Hall Brian reads from One Good Turn Brian, Steve Butler, Jonathon Meres, Sibeal Pounder and Shane Hegarty