Category Archives: Events

Hong Kong and Macau Turn Green

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What a great experience to be invited to take part in Macau’s Script Road Writers’ Festival! I met lots of writers not only from China and Portugal but from across the world.

I took part in a lively discussion on ‘The Peculiar Life of Writer’ at The Old Court Building with Sweden’s Bengt Ohlsson and Portugal’s Rui Zink. Also I was kept busy with events across the island, talking in Macau’s University, the International School, the Sir Robert Ho Tung Chinese School, as well as a family event at The Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Great to see Macau’s historic St Paul’s Church turn green, like many iconic buildings around the world, to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Criona ni Dhalaigh, spoke at the Hong Kong and Macau Irish Festival‘s St. Patrick’s Day dinner in the Grand Lapa Hotel. The next day she led off the first St. Patrick’s Day parade to be held on the island.

Watching the local Irish dancing groups, traditional lion dancers and the Chinese dragon, as well as local hip-hop dancers and the police bag-pipers, I felt very proud to be part of such a multi-cultural celebration of Ireland’s heritage.

In Hong Kong, the Mayor of Dublin presented Father Joseph Mallin – aged 102 – with the great honour of the Freedom of Dublin City. Father Joseph, son of Michael Mallin the 1916 Rising leader, is not only the last living child of an executed leader of the Rising but has dedicated his life to working and helping those in need in Hong Kong.

A concert entitled ‘Mise Eire’ was held to celebrate and commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising and was attended not only by the Irish community living in Hong Kong, but also by those with an interest in Ireland. I was very honoured to read a chapter from Rebel Sisters to the large audience and to get the chance to meet Father Mallin.

Well done to Ireland’s Consul, General Peter Ryan and all those involved in organising such a special event to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising!

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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Hong Kong Macau Irish Festival logoThis year I am spending St. Patrick’s Day over in Macau and Hong Kong as I am taking part in The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival and also the Hong Kong Macau Irish Festival.

There are lots of writer events along with a St Patrick’s Day parade and a dinner in Macau.

I will also be taking part in Mise Eire – a concert marking the 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising – that is being held in Hong Kong.

It’s going to be busy, but I will be back home to Dublin in time for our own very special 1916 Easter Rising Commemorations.

National Library of Ireland

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The National Library of Ireland on Kildare Street in Dublin was my first step to writing about the 1916 Easter Rising.

This wonderful old library is one of my favourite places in Dublin. I am a library member and regularly visit it for research purposes. It contains a huge amount of literary and historical documents, manuscripts, books and photographs. The library is not just an archive of the past for us to discover, but also a national treasure trove for us to explore.

The NLI contains many of the important 1916 documents, letters and personal papers of those involved in the 1916 Rising and it was there I began my research into the Gifford family.

I was privileged to be able to get access to the Gifford, MacDonagh and Plunkett family papers. These papers are a huge resource for historians, academics, students and writers and for anyone who has an interest in history.

It was very fitting that after all my time researching and writing my book, Rebel Sisters, that it was launched in the National Library on 4th February 2016.

Signatories 1916, an exhibition based on the seven leaders of the Rising who signed the proclamation, is on display in the Main Hall of the Library throughout 2016.

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Mountains to Sea and Ennis Book Club Festivals

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I had a wonderful time in lovely Ennis talking at the Ennis Book Club Festival about Rebel Sisters and my writing. Lots of teachers, librarians and history students came along. The Ennis Book Club Festival’s varied programme was really excellent, with something to appeal to everyone.

I wish that I could have stayed longer but I had to rush back up home to Dublin on the train as I was talking at the Readers’ Day in Airfield in Dundrum, which is part of the Mountains to Sea Festival.

Airfield is one of my favourite places and was a wonderful setting for the Readers’ Day with the beautiful backdrop of the estate and gardens. Once home to the Overend sisters, it is now enjoyed and visited by so many people. It was lovely to listen to my friends Sinead Moriarty and Sheila O’Flanagan talk about their writing before I joined the crowd for lunch.

It was great to meet and talk to fellow 1916 enthusiast and writer David Kenny whose own book The Splendid Years about his great-aunt Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh, the Abbey actress, has just been published. The two of us could have stayed all afternoon talking about 1916. It is very heartening to see such a huge interest in the lives of the women of 1916.

This Sunday, March 13th at 4.00pm the fun continues in the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire for The Great Big Family Book Show as I join Eoin Colfer, Ryan Tubridy, Judy Curtin and Philip Ardagh to talk about our favourite children’s books!

Thank you so much to programme organisers Bert Wright and Sarah Webb from the Mountains to Sea DLR Book Festival for organising it all.

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GPO Book Launch

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16livesspinesThe main hall of the GPO in Dublin was packed as O’Brien Press launched the last two books in the wonderful Sixteen Lives series, about the leaders and men of the Rising who were executed.

The GPO – what a fitting venue to launch Patrick Pearse by Ruan O’Donnell, Thomas Kent by Meda Ryan and 1916-The Rising Handbook by Lorcan Collins! Lorcan not only conceived the informative Sixteen Lives series, but also edited it – alongside Ruan O’Donnell. Justice Susan Denham did the honours by officially launching the books.

Everyone present could not help but reflect on the past and felt very privileged to be there. The GPO will soon open its new 1916 Visitors Centre. With huge numbers expected, it can be pre-booked. Authors Conor Kostick and Lorcan Collins are also kept very busy with the success of their Rebellion walking tours in Dublin.

Sixteen Lives has been a huge project undertaken by publishers O’Brien Press and they commissioned a number of academics, historians and a few 1916 relatives to write the individual books over the past few years.

The Sixteen Lives series is a excellent resource for all those interested in 1916 and to my mind, the collection should be an essential addition to every secondary school library in the country.