Book Tickets Now
25 - 28 June 2026
Life, Work, Everything is the title of Miriam O’Callaghan’s Number 1 bestselling biography and you can expect nothing less as she joins us to talk about the experiences that carried her from current affairs reporting to becoming one of RTÉ’s most trusted broadcasters. She reflects on the defining interviews, pivotal moments and unexpected turns that shaped her life on and off air. Miriam will be in conversation with Eileen Dunne.
Award-winning journalist Kirsty Wark looks back on a distinguished career spanning frontline reporting, political interviews and three decades on BBC’s Newsnight. In conversation, she reflects on the stories that shaped her, the craft of asking difficult questions and her more recent move into fiction. A rare chance to hear one of Scotland’s most respected broadcasters discuss a life in words. Kirsty will be in conversation with Gerry Foley.
Doireann follows up the astounding success of A Ghost in the Throat (An Post Book of the Year 2021) with what is bound to be one of the most decorated novels of 2026, Said the Dead a story that begins with the sale of a derelict Victorian mental hospital in Cork and that breaks the boundaries between worlds, past and present, imagined and real. Doireann will be in conversation with Deirdre Hurley.
‘An ocean of opportunities’ is how Vincent Doumeizel describes the potential of seaweed and plankton to address many of the urgent issues facing our warming planet. A global leader in sustainable ocean innovation he argues that seaweed can cut carbon, restore marine ecosystems, clean our ocean, feed growing populations and replace polluting materials. Vincent will be in conversation with Tony Bucher.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 led to the creation of the Irish Free State. Within sixteen years the divisive treaty link to the British Crown had been almost entirely dismantled. By the time Éamon de Valera introduced the 1937 Constitution, Ireland was effectively a republic in everything but name. In From Crown to Harp: How the Anglo-Irish Treaty Was Undone, 1921 to 1949, David McCullagh traces this remarkable, bloodless revolution.
The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean. Yes or no to a united Ireland. In their book For and Against a United Ireland distinguished journalists Fintan O'Toole (Irish Times) and Sam McBride (Belfast Telegraph ) examine the arguments and bring fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions.
Best known as the ever-patient Mick Shipman from Gavin & Stacey, Larry Lamb has built a career far bigger than Barry Island. An acclaimed actor, presenter and storyteller, Larry will take us on a journey through the years with his anecdotes and very personal poems reflecting on his life at different stages, poems that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. The highs and the lows, the joys and the sorrows - beginning in 1983 and taking us right up to his life as it is now. Larry will be in conversation with Gerry Foley.
In this explosive book award-winning BBC investigative journalist John Ware forensically lays bare intelligence gathering operations in Northern Ireland. Neither Confirm Nor Deny brings together all the major official investigations into alleged state misconduct during the Troubles, from shoot-to-kill and collusion inquiries to Operation Kenova and the ‘Stakeknife’ repercussions. John will be in conversation with Myles Dungan.
For more than 25 years as an Irish Times columnist (first with The Last Straw, then An Irishman’s Diary) Frank McNally has been chronicling the foibles of his fellow countrymen and women. In Not Making Hay, he looks inwards in a memoir that covers his journey from Carrickmacross farm boy, through the Civil Service, precarious years as a freelancer and the perils of the Dublin newspaper world (including dicing with deadlines and a job interview with the fearsome Vincent Browne). Frank will be in conversation with Eileen Dunne.
Following up on his 2023 biography of John Hume, former BBC journalist Stephen Walker returns to Hinterland with his examination of the political career of Hume’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Ulster Unionist party leader David Trimble, the shy Belfast academic who helped change the political landscape of Northern Ireland. Stephen will be in conversation with Myles Dungan.
It’s strange to think that someone as influential Dermot Bannon made his first TV appearance on ITV’s Blind Date more than thirty years ago. Since his RTÉ career began on Room To Improve in 2007 he’s become one of the country’s most influential architects. Dermot will be in conversation with fellow architect Robert Miles.
Adopted at age two and a half, journalist Paul Cullen always felt like an outsider. After a near-fatal fall from Germany's highest peak in 2017 left him broken, physically and emotionally, he faced a personal reckoning. He knew that if he survived the fall he could no longer avoid the questions that had haunted him since childhood. What happened in those missing early years? And why was it so hard to find the truth? Paul will be in conversation with Sophie Grenham.
Meet Freddy Farrelly, a young Nature Hero on a mission to save the bog! Created by imaginative 5th class children of St. Kilian’s N.S Mullagh, this delightful book is bursting with creativity, colour and care for nature. Each copy is lovingly handmade, with hand-stitched bog flowers, recycled and handmade pages, and a story that changes every time - because every child has written their own special ending. No two books are the same, just like no two adventures in the bog!
Free but ticketed
In Great Irish Wives: Remarkable Lives from History, Nicola Pierce brings ten overlooked Irish wives out of the shadows, from Matilda Tone to Sinéad de Valera and George Yeats. Through vivid, accessible biographies she shows how these women powered the lives, work and legends of the men history remembered first. Nicola will be in conversation with Sophie Grenham.
Join Michael for a meditation on faith and creativity. Reflections on the in-between world where reason ends and faith begins. Michael Harding is renowned as the best-selling author of a major series of memoirs chronicling ordinary life in Ireland through a time of transformation. He has written 3 award winning novels, and many theatre works including 5 plays for the National Theatre. A member of Aosdana, a newspaper columnist, and a regular guest on television and radio, his storytelling craft is singularly optimistic and visionary. Join him as he reflects once again on the meaning of everything.
