‘Reflections on Ireland’ will be the focus of the Sunday Symposium with guests Fintan O’Toole, Declan O’Rourke, Sophie White and Derek Scally.

Fintan O’Toole’s An Post Non-Fiction Book of the Year Prize Winning We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958 is a personal vision of recent Irish history, a brilliant interweaving of memories and engrossing social and historical narrative, but also of those who began to speak out against the ruling consensus.

Declan O’Rourke’s literary debut, The Pawnbroker’s Reward shows us the famine as it happened through the lens of Macroom, Co. Cork. Pawnbroker Cornelius Creed is at the juncture between the classes. Declan creates a kaleidoscopic view of this defining moment in Ireland’s history.

Sophie White’s powerful collection of essays: Corpsing: my Body and Other Horror Stories is an account of personal, lived stories in which the setting is her own body. Her vivid and ambitious literary non-fiction collection asks uncomfortable questions about the lived reality of womanhood in the 21st century.

Derek Scally’s The Best Catholics in the World: The Irish, the Church and the End of a Special Relationship explores his experience of Christmas Eve Mass on a visit home from Berlin where he finds more memories than congregants in the church. While Germans are engaging earnestly with their past, Scally sees nothing comparable going on in Ireland, so embarks on a quest to unravel the hold the Church had on the Irish.

Discussion with panellists will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Venue: glór
Cost: €15/€13

This event is sponsored by Reading Group Choices.

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