If your child likes playing with words and writing, they will love this interactive workshop with Sarah Webb, Award-Winning Children’s Author, who runs weekly writing clubs for children and teenagers. From painting pictures with your words, to call and response poems, join Sarah for an hour of creative fun in Dalkey Library.

Sarah Webb

This generative workshop, suitable for beginners as well as writers with some experience, will look at flash fiction - short stories typically under 500 words - and explore the challenges and the benefits of working within this compressed, intense form. For lovers of succinct storytelling, this flash fiction workshop invites you to hone your craft under the guidance of Claire Hennessy, writer, editor, and seasoned creative writing facilitator. Best known for her acclaimed young adult novels and award-winning short fiction, Claire brings nearly two decades of experience nurturing writers’ voices. Through lively exercises and insightful prompts, she will help you explore how to distill a world of meaning into a few powerful paragraphs. Join this engaging session to spark your creativity, refine your mastery of brevity, and celebrate the joy of storytelling in its most compact, poignant form.

(This writing workshop for up to a maximum of 15 adults will run from 10.30 am to 1pm.)

Claire Hennessy

We are honoured to have Pulitzer prize winner Paul Muldoon - widely regarded as the best poet of his generation - in Dalkey at this very special event. Muldoon will select a poem (or poems) published in a literary journal in the preceding week and, along with the help of you, the audience, will deconstruct the poem. “Poetry is the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty” so said Edgar Allan Poe, but it is a beauty that requires skill to unveil. This show will highlight strategies to help you make sense of the contemporary poem. All are welcome. The only prerequisite? An open mind.

Paul Muldoon

In a raw and riveting conversation, Mary Ann Kenny joins broadcaster and writer Barbara Scully to share her extraordinary memoir, The Episode, an unflinching account of mental illness, survival, and the blurred boundaries between sanity and suffering. Kenny’s story invites us into the heart of psychiatric institutions and the realities of a system often ill-equipped to heal. This is not just a tale of madness, but of resilience, love, and what it means to reclaim your life. A rare and necessary event that promises to move, unsettle, and enlighten.

Mary Ann Kenny with Barbara Scully

We will miss it when it’s gone, won’t we? Trump’s America is leaving us. It has decided that Europe is the enemy, so too is Canada and Mexico. Washington wants to annex Greenland and abandon Ukraine while it cosies up to the Kremlin. So long the protector of the global legal order, Trump is taking a chainsaw to everything from USAid to Voice of America. As the US turns inwards, what will it look like, what will replace it and could isolation lead to ultimate regeneration? Will its democracy survive? And how will Trump try to export the MAGA rebellion? This provocative conversation will explore the cultural, political, and moral unravelling of a once-idealised nation. Join us for a sharp, timely, and essential discussion in an age of global realignment.

Lionel Shriver, Mary Cregan, Simon Kuper, Pat Leahy with Jennifer O’Connell

From the cool girl to catfights, pop culture has long shaped how women see and judge each other. Sophie Gilbert unpacks the subtle and insidious ways film, television, and celebrity culture have pitted women against one another in the name of empowerment. What happens when the stories we consume turn solidarity into rivalry, and how might we write a different ending?

Sophie Gilbert with Caroline West

Join bestselling children’s author and illustrator Peter Donnelly for fun and lively readings from The Dead Zoo picture book series: The Dead Zoo and The Great Discovery. Meet Mr Gray and a host of characters that reside in Dublin's Natural History Museum! An engaging and colourful event for 5-8 year olds with lots of audience participation.

Peter Donnelly

What is Artificial Intelligence, who owns it and do you have any idea what you are giving away? Our lives are about to be remade by artificial intelligence—or to be more accurate, by a few companies run by a few very self-confident, extremely rich and influential people. If you ever wondered whether all of this is inevitable, whether to believe the promises of tech luminaries, whether we could save a little bit of our democracy in the age of AI, then this is the show for you. To discuss your future in their hands join Karen Hao, whose new book, Empire of AI, is just out, and Des Traynor, one of Ireland’s most successful tech entrepreneurs and Co-founder of Intercom.

Karen Hao and Des Traynor with Pat Kenny

Proudly supported by TCL NXTPAPER

Spanning continents, generations & the lingering shadows of an empire, The Inheritance, is a luminous novel of love, betrayal, and the secrets we carry. In this intimate conversation, Cauvery Madhaven explores the complex legacies of colonialism, identity and belonging through her critically acclaimed book - praised by Donal Ryan as 'brilliantly written' and hailed by Graham Norton for its heart and honesty. A rich, moving discussion on the stories that bind us.

Cauvery Madhavan with Barbara Scully

Drop in to Dalkey Library, unwind and colour in Dalkey’s vibrant wildlife, including dolphins, lobsters, and local landmarks like Vico Baths and Dalkey Castle! It's a perfect way to relax and engage with the beauty of Dalkey. Jennifer Delaney, illustrator, celebrates the wonders of the natural world, inspiring participants of all ages to explore science topics like microscopy, botany, and astronomy. She brings her oversized Dalkey-themed colouring poster to the festival, inviting all to join in the fun of colouring.

(Timings are flexible, you can stay for 5 mins or 50 mins, it’s up to you! Children should be supervised at all times. )

Jennifer Delaney

James Shapiro’s brilliant Shakespeare in a Divided America shows us the eternal relevance of Shakespeare’s plays, which continue to cast a spell over American politics. For centuries, Shakespeare has played a crucial role in the culture and politics of the United States – more pivotal than we might realise. In 2025, with the US perhaps more discombobulated than ever, Shapiro, Professor of English at Columbia and author of '1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare', is once again right on the money.

James Shapiro and Fintan O’Toole

What draws digital natives to the dark brilliance of a 19th-century Russian existentialist? In a world of memes, microtrends, and short attention spans, Dostoevsky’s explorations of guilt, freedom, alienation and the human psyche are finding fervent new readers. This conversation delves into why Gen Z are embracing White Nights , currently a massive bestseller across Ireland and the UK. Is it the Russian angst or could it just be because it's short, cheap, and a TikToK sensation? Or does it say about the mood of a generation searching for meaning in chaotic times?

Jana Bakunina, Jess Kelly, Finn McRedmond, Max McGuinness with Merve Emre

Have you ever thought about how writers write? The brilliant Wendy Erskine takes us inside the head of the writer in this unique event, explaining the choices she makes when she crafts her award-winning short stories. By teasing out one short story, on a sentence or paragraph level, Wendy will generously share how she writes, what narrative techniques she employs and how they work on the reader. If you are interested in understanding how and why a story works, this mesmerising show will be right up your street.

Wendy Erskine

In Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way, Elaine Feeney turns her gaze inward. In this unflinching novel, the Dalkey Literary Award-winning author explores grief and the legacy of violence with raw poetic precision. Feeney’s novel reflects on what it means to lose your grip, in order to find your voice. In conversation with Madeleine Keane.

Elaine Feeney with Madeleine Keane

Is Gaza a line in the sand or are people really just viewing it as 'everyday' massacre, like the Rohingya or Sudanese slaughters? What does watching mass-murder on your phone actually mean for humanity? Does the TikTok-isation of ethnic cleansing mean indifference? Is this what the 21st century will be about, where one race attempts to annihilate another and the world just shrugs? Or will it be one where terrorist groups drag all the people of that race or religion down with them? Is collective responsibility and collective retaliation the new normal. Or can we go back to the UN, to international rights, to international shared values and international justice? Does Gaza mean the End of the West?

Avi Shlaim, Nelofer Pazira-Fisk, Mehreen Khan with Pat Leahy

Almost ten years after Brexit, what are we to make of the UK? The great British revival never came, a significant majority of British people think Brexit was a major mistake, and with Trump upending the Atlantic Alliance, London and Brussels have far more in common than many admit. Culturally, how has the UK changed? Scottish nationalism has waned as immigration has taken off, and a government that has the largest parliamentary majority in history, appears completely at sea. Is endless austerity England’s future? Where is our big neighbour headed and how will she get there?

Robert Shrimsley, Andrea Catherwood, John Burn-Murdoch, and Naoise Nunn with Colm O’Regan

Proudly supported by FT Weekend

Who doesn’t have their favourite Roddy Doyle story, their favourite character? Who doesn’t remember their first Roddy Doyle novel, their classic Roddy Doyle line or that uncle who reminds you of yer man out of a Roddy Doyle book? Roddy is us and we are Roddy. For almost five decades, the Bard of Kilbarrack has been creating a Dublin we all know. We don’t just know it, we can smell it. It’s home. We’ve dragged Roddy across the river on the Dart to the deep south for an event which will start with one of his most memorable creations, Paula Spencer, sixty five, mother, grandmother, widow, survivor. Finally getting to live her life, everything is looking good until it goes pear-shaped and off we go. We will start with Paula but who knows where we will end up?

Roddy Doyle with Declan Hughes

Dive in with Aoife Dooley for tips and tricks on how to make your own comics, coming up with ideas for characters and how she created her new Graphic Novel ‘Squid Squad’. This workshop is for children aged 8-12 years old.

Aoife Dooley

Ireland was the Celtic Tiger; Portugal is the new Iberian Tiger. From art to culture, from finance to urban design, Portugal is simply the most happening country in Europe. There’s more to the place than golf courses! Young Irish professionals are flocking to Portugal. What is going on? It’s not just a matter of available housing, it is about bigger ideas and much bigger trends. Five centuries ago, the Portuguese showed Europe the way; could it be the same again? Once the world’s most dominant maritime and economic power, the Portuguese Tiger is roaring again. We explore the thrilling story of the new Portugal and its culture with Afonso Cruz.

Afonso Cruz, Carla Mateus, Oisin O'Cuill with David McWilliams

Proudly supported by Visit Portugal.

Unlock the secrets of compelling storytelling with novelist and critic Carlo Gébler. This 2.5 hour workshop will explore the tools and techniques that bring fiction to life. From all-over-the -shop timelines to omniscient, first person and unreliable narrators and free indirect speech, you'll gain hands-on insights into the techniques that shape powerful stories and how to tell them. Whether you're an aspiring writer looking to refine your craft or an avid reader keen to understand the techniques at work behind your favourite novels, this master class will deepen your understanding of how narrative choices transform a story. Join us for an in-depth session with Carlo that will help you understand how fiction works.

Carlo Gébler

A Liberties bar lock-in with Shane MacGowan led Bridget Hourican to discover James Clarence Mangan: poet, patriot, opium addict, ghost. Long hailed as a founding father of Irish literature—yet barely understood—Mangan haunts the margins of our cultural memory. How could a figure so central to Yeats and Joyce fade so completely from view? In Finding Mangan, Bridget Hourican sets out to unravel the enigma, excavating myth from man, madness from mastery. A revelatory journey into the life of a man who helped imagine the nation, inspiring James Joyce, W.B Yeats, Shane Magowan and Phil Lynott, only to vanish from its story.

Bridget Hourican with Rick O’Shea

If you are interested in the minimum wage, don’t write for a living. How can writers sustain themselves, how do they pay their rent and at what point can a writer drop everything else to pick up the pen? We write because we must, but a few quid wouldn’t go amiss. Four wonderful writers explain the reality of writing for a living.

Donal Ryan, Elaine Feeney, Danijela Crljen, Jennifer Horgan with Madeleine Keane

The West’s Awake, but not as you might expect. In the War of Woke, power is shifting from NGOs driven by social justice to Tech Bros driven by social realism. Elon, the world’s whitest African/American, is driving the bus. Diversity, inclusion, equality - the slogans of last year - are being replaced by nation, merit and outcomes. Handouts are gone, pull ups are in. Aid is out, graft is in. RFK is in, Fauci is out. Masculinity is back and where America leads the West follows. BTW McGregor backed by Tech bros aims to bring this fight to the Aras. So, who are the tech bros, the hoodie aristocracy, and what is their worldview? How will the combination of money and tech in positions of power change the world?

Lionel Shriver, Des Traynor, Karen Hao, Mark Little with Jess Kelly

Great revolutions lead to great upheaval, the consequences of which can rarely be forecast. The revolutionaries respond to a grievance, tear down the existing, replace it with the new and, from there, new societies are born. Looking at the Irish Rebellion 1916, the Portuguese Coronation Revolution 1975 and the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity 2013-2014, we examine what these uprisings did to the nations, the similarities, the players, and of course, in these turbulent times, we ask if they could happen again.

Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses, Diarmaid Ferriter, Olesya Khromeychuk with Christopher de Bellaigue

Proudly supported by Visit Portugal

How do authors who are plot-driven craft intricate storylines that captivate and resonate with readers? What role does plot play in shaping a narrative, and how has it evolved to reflect the complexities of modern storytelling? Authors Jean Hanff Korelitz, John Banville and James Shapiro explore the art of plotting, from classic structures to experimental forms, and consider how plot intersects with character development, theme, and pacing. Of course, plot, narrative and story are not the same thing and some novels are not really interested in plot at all. ‘ I have never troubled myself much about the construction of plots,’ confessed Anthony Trollope. Whether you're a writer seeking to refine your craft or a reader curious about the mechanics behind your favourite novels, this conversation will offer fresh insights into what is often considered a fundamental element of fiction. Expect a difference of opinion. Sparks may fly but whether it is plot or some other structuring at play, for the novel to work, the reader must be curious about how the story might end.

Jean Hanff Korelitz, John Banville, and James Shapiro with Mariella Frostrup

Kevin Barry is one of Ireland’s most dazzlingly gifted fiction writers. Whether he’s conjuring Bohane, a dystopian city on the west coast or John Lennon on an Irish island or his viciously accurate and imaginative short stories, Kevin brings you into his special world like no other. He couldn’t write a boring sentence if he tried. Kevin came to our first ever Dalkey Festival back in 2010 and we are delighted to have him back this year. If you have been to a Kevin Barry gig you will know what to expect, but if not, all we will say is there is no better performer of his own work out there. This will be brilliant.

Kevin Barry

What will the world look like next year? Is it at a tipping point or it has already tipped? Old alliances have shattered. America is explicitly rapacious in its foreign affairs, laying claim to countries like a 19th century imperialist. Russia will be rewarded for invading Ukraine, China is biding its time, watching, waiting. Technology is accelerating social change while the world's poor are on the move. Immigration dominates the West’s political agenda and all the while, economic power moves to Asia. Nativism has replaced cosmopolitanism, free trade is gone , tariffs are in. There are echoes of the 1930s everywhere, and strong men are in the ascendancy. What does the New World Order look like, where is it taking us and what can be done to change the direction of travel?

Katja Hoyer, Mark Blyth, Bill Emmott with Colm O’Regan

Described as ‘the Poet Laureate of the Ordinary’ by HuffPost, Kelly Corrigan is best known for her heartfelt storytelling and insightful reflections on life and loss. Her four New York Times bestselling memoirs and popular podcasts explore themes of family, love, and personal growth. Her 2024 TED talk about the everyday bravery of family life has been viewed over a million times. Known for her curiosity and warmth, Kelly will join communications specialist Duncan Keegan to share stories on the pain of bereavement, navigating feelings of hopelessness and finding wisdom in solace. This event promises to go beyond the everyday and into what truly matters.

Kelly Corrigan with Duncan Keegan

What is it about writers and their homeland? What draws them back, constantly? Exiled artists, no matter where they end up, carry home wherever they go. Think Joyce and Dublin, he couldn’t get away. Maybe he didn’t ever really leave. When there is a crisis, journalists can tell us the story, but writers tell us what it means. As the world appears on the brink again, how can writers and poets respond to the fractures and crises in our societies? This is the dilemma of our times, which is not solely political or economic, but deeply existential. As Elif Shafak asks in Unmapped Storylands, how can artists raise their voices and fight back with no weapons other than stories, poems and paintings?

Elif Shafak, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Donal Ryan, Nelofer Pazira-Fisk with Rick O’Shea

Proudly supported by TCL NXTPAPER

Join Ed Luce, the Financial Times’s chief US commentator and columnist, as we explore the life and times of one of the world's truly brilliant geo-strategic thinkers. We could do with Zbig’s wisdom now more than ever. Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security advisor and one of America’s leading geopolitical thinkers, was a key architect of the Soviet Union’s demise, which ended the Cold War. A child of Warsaw, the heart of central Europe’s bloodlands, Brzezinski (known as Zbig) turned his fierce resentment at his homeland’s razing by Nazi Germany and the Red Army into a lifelong quest for liberty. Brzezinski’s impact, aided by his unusual friendship with the Polish-born John Paul II, sprang from his knowledge of Moscow’s “Achilles heel”, the fact that its nationalities, such as the Ukrainians and satellite states, including Poland, yearned to shake off Moscow’s grip. In the almost cinematic arc of his life can be found the grand narrative of the American century and great power struggle that followed.

Ed Luce with Mark Little

Writers have always been critical to responding to the world in crisis. In times of social and political upheaval, literature offers a unique space for writers and readers to process collective anxiety, question power, and propose new ways of thinking. Literature also provides solace, connection and hope when the world feels fragmented. The work becomes both a mirror of the crisis and a refuge from it, providing a space for readers to find meaning amid uncertainty. In this show four wonderful writers will discuss books that changed the world and what books to read in turbulent times.

Merve Emre, Fintan O’Toole, James Shapiro and Afonso Cruz with Mariella Frostrup

Proudly Supported by Visit Portugal

Poet Gary Jermyn reads from his latest collection of poems 'For My Brother': the delights of tinned peaches, electric woks, Hot Wheels, the first moon landing and growing up in 1960’s Dublin, with musical accompaniment by the legend that is Henry Earnest.

Gary Jermyn with Henry Earnest

It is so much more than a game. Simon Kuper, described by Time Magazine as "one of the world's leading soccer writers” and Mehreen Khan, Economics Editor at The Times and a football fanatic, have, through their podcast, explored football's most interesting figures, their lives and their culture. Who better to talk about football than Roddy Doyle and Paul Howard, two of our most brilliant writers - soccer nuts both? As the lads are Chelsea and Liverpool, expect an afternoon of goals, stories, near misses and dodgy decisions.

Roddy Doyle and Paul Howard talk football with Simon Kuper and Mehreen Khan

Those who don’t remember their history are bound to repeat it. History tells us where we came from , who we are, what stories we tell ourselves to create cultures, identities and nations. At a time like now, how apt to have four brilliant and very different historians - from Britain, Germany, Ireland and the Middle East- remind us of our past?

Katja Hoyer, Diarmaid Ferriter, Hallie Rubenhold, Avi Shlaim with David McWilliams

What began as a loose web of online advice for disaffected men has morphed into a cultural juggernaut, a breeding ground for misogyny, conspiracies and radicalisation. Welcome to The Manosphere: the dark underbelly of the internet where masculinity is monetised, victimhood weaponised, and feminism is to blame. We unpack the phenomenon of the TV series Adolescence, the rise of alpha-male grifters, the likes of Andrew Tate, digital cults, and the influence they are garnering over the next generation. Who’s watching, and who’s fighting back?

Sophie Gilbert, John Burn-Murdoch, Robert Shrimsley, Finn McRedmond with Jess Kelly

Inflation is back, and its impact can be felt everywhere, from the grocery store to the mortgage market to the results of elections around the world. Yet the conventional wisdom about inflation is stuck in the past. Since the 1970s, there has only really been one playbook for fighting inflation: raise interest rates, thereby creating unemployment and a recession, which will lower prices. But this simple story is based on beliefs that are often wrong. Leading political economist, Mark Blyth, reveals why inflation really happens, and how to combat it. With a good dose of humour, Blyth brings the complexities of economic policy down to earth.

Mark Blyth with David Murphy

Join Anna Carey to explore the recent rise of the literary romcom, and why a genre that's as old as Shakespeare has such huge appeal to both writers and readers right now. In her first book for adults, Our Song, Carey captures the messy drama of college crushes, the thrill of writing a song that’s actually good and the joy and pain of falling in love with both music and a musician. In conversation with Sinead Moriarty, Carey dives into the appeal of the second chance love story, the risks of bandmate romances and why it's never too late to find your voice. Hilarious, heartfelt, and full of rhythm, this is one for the dreamers, the diary-keepers, and anyone who's ever wondered about the one who got away.

Anna Carey with Sinéad Moriarty

Colum McCann, author of eight novels published in over 40 languages, has won the US National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, and an Oscar nomination. And he's from down the road in Deansgrange. The Borough has produced many a writer but few as garlanded as Colum. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His 2009 novel Let the Great World Spin has sold a million copies in the US alone, and was voted on the New York Times Readers List, “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” Apeirogon became an immediate New York Times best-seller and won several major international awards. His latest novel, Twist, was published this year.

Colum McCann and Merve Emre

There are many tales of Garech Browne, his eccentricity, wealth, lavish parties and countless famous friends like Mick Jagger, Brendan Behan, Kofi Annan, Brian Jones, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Seamus Ennis, Picasso, Samuel Beckett, Anita Pallenberg and Lucian Freud. At Luggala he hosted parties that became legendary but for those who knew him best, Garech Browne was, first and foremost, one of the greatest archivists of Irish culture of all time. In establishing Claddagh Records in 1959, he made it his life’s work to preserve Ireland’s musical and spoken-word culture against the backdrop of an emerging pop-culture scene. Join James Morrissey to celebrate the life of Garech Browne and his quest to preserve Ireland’s musical and spoken-word heritage with Claddagh Records.

James Morrissey with Tony Clayton-Lea

What happens when empathy disappears from our society? In her novel The Mark, Icelandic author Frida Isberg imagines a chilling near future where empathy becomes measured and weaponised by the State. Can empathy be taught? Legislated? Lost? And is it the most emblematic political force we have left?

Frida Isberg with Rick O’Shea

The USA that we thought we knew has left us. In its place is a new superpower which is unpredictable, unhinged and now unbound, but it could get even worse? How does democracy die? When do you know it? Do people go missing, while journalists are silenced, judges stymied, institutions gutted? Is that where America is headed, gradually, peacefully but deliberately?

James Shapiro, Paul Muldoon, Simon Kuper and Lionel Shriver with Mark Little

Proudly supported by Cantor Fitzgerald

Any man who signed off his letters as “the great lord and conqueror of the whole world” was a character to be reckoned with. That’s precisely how, by 1538, Suleyman the Magnificent had taken to referring to himself. It would be hard to disagree with the man who terrified Europe and ran an empire from the Gulf to Serbia, from North Africa to the Black Sea. Join us as we explore the life and times of this extraordinary Sultan, whose Ottoman Empire featured beauty and cruelty in equal measure, resplendent in the highest art, literature, culture and most fantastic architecture. Its imperial centre, Istanbul, was the largest city in Europe for ten centuries, capital of not one but three major Empires!

Christopher de Bellaigue with Maurice Casey

Why does so much creativity, writing and music come from the so-called faceless suburbs? Far from being dull and boring, the suburbs are the dynamic source of inspiration for generations of artists. Although critics and commentators often dismiss suburbia as soulless mediocrity, the suburbs are a melting pot of all sorts of people busy transforming themselves - those on the up and those on the way down, kids with lots to say and no one to say it to. Let's celebrate the suburbs, the unsung source of great art with the Bard of suburban Barrytown, Roddy Doyle; founder of The Specials ,Horace Panter; West London's finest and the FT's everyman, Robert Shrimlsey; and chief diarist of Belfast's dark underbelly, Wendy Erskine.

Horace Panter, Roddy Doyle, Robert Shrimsley with Wendy Erskine

In his groundbreaking book ‘We Don’t Know Ourselves’, Ireland’s leading public intellectual Fintan O’Toole brought us through the transformation of the country in his lifetime. As we try to make sense of 21st century Ireland, culturally, politically, ethnically and socially, Fintan takes us through the possibilities, problems and projections for our New Ireland, looking forward but also looking backwards. This will be an essential but funny and nostalgic conversation, holding up the mirror to ourselves to see if we still fancy the reflection.

Fintan O’Toole with Jennifer O’Connell

We are delighted to have Elif back at Dalkey. She is simply a one-off and a great friend of the festival. She has published 21 books. Best known for her novels, her works have been translated into 57 languages and have been nominated for many literary awards. She has been described by the Financial Times as 'Turkey's leading female novelist', many of her works are bestsellers internationally. Her latest work There are Rivers in the Sky is a typically ambitious, multi-perspective novel about the politics and preciousness of water that ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary London.

Elif Shafak with Madeleine Keane

Once a bedrock for Democrat loyalty, Irish America has shifted. The Dropkick Murphys, Mickey Spillane & John F. Kennedy no longer represent the descendants of the famine emigrants who are as likely to be Joe Rogan or Dana White as George Clooney and Conan O’Brien. White American Catholics backed Trump two to one, while the Scots-Irish Ulstermen have their poster-boy, JD Vance. If MAGA is Irish, what does Irish America look like, believe and stand for? Where are our long lost cousins headed?

Colum McCann, Kelly Corrigan, Mary Cregan with Niamh King

Rife with secrets, survival, and a distinct smell of rebellion, once the largest red light district in Europe, Dublin’s Monto was a world unto itself. Caroline West joins Bridget Hourican to delve into the untold stories of the women's lives affected by the degeneracy of the day.

Caroline West with Bridget Hourican

With the world going to hell in a handcart, take time out to laugh along with Colm O’Regan, author of the Irish Mammies books, Bolloxology and Climate Worrier, as he celebrates what’s important in life: family, relationships and having a hitch on your car (because trailers are better than handcarts). As the Sunday Independent says, this show is ‘a winning combination of drily hilarious and thought-provoking, often all at once.’

Colm O’Regan

Ross O’Carroll-Kelly returns to Dalkey to share the lessons of the life he’s lived with the people who need them the least.

Paul Howard