Books for Breakfast (Ireland)
Episodes
93: Poetry Ireland launch; Sean Borodale interviewed
14 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us Fan MailOn today's episode we visit 11 Parnell Square in Dublin for the launch of Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann's restored headquar...
92: New poetry collections; Strokestown Poetry Festival
30 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us Fan MailOn today’s show we talk to Joseph Woods, director of the Strokestown Poetry Festival about what this year's programme will offe...
91: Mary Costello, A Beautiful Loan
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us Fan MailThis morning we talk to Mary Costello about her new novel A Beautiful Loan. My name is Anna, and for some time now, I have been tryin...
90: Cathy Galvin and John F. Deane
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us Fan MailIn this episode we go to one of our favourite places in Dublin, Hodges Figgis bookshop in Dawson Street, to interview Cathy Galvin on ...
89: Hugo Hamilton, Conversation with the Sea
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send a textWe’re back for the first episode of 2026. This week we’re back in Books Upstairs in Dublin to interview Hugo Hamilton about his latest ...
88: Christmas Special
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textMince pie and Christmas cracker laden, today’s breakfast table is very festive indeed as we celebrate the best of books and cultural e...
87: More Poetry Reviews; interview with Mark Granier
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning we welcome poet and critic Ciarán O’Rourke to our breakfast table here in Dublin 8. Ciarán has published two collection...
86: İlhan Sami Çomak, Ferdia Mac Anna on Liadan Nà Chuinn
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today’s episode we travel to IMMA and the Dublin Book Festival to meet and talk with İlhan Sami Çomak, a Kurdish Turkish poet who...
85: Enda Wyley, IMRAM 2025, Ger Reidy
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this morning's episode we talk to Ger Reidy about his latest poetry collection, Clay;Â Liam Carson tells us about the latest ed...
84: New Poetry Collections Reviewed
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today’s episode poet and critic Adam Wyeth reviews nine new poetry collections. Under the microscope are Infinity Pool by Vona Groa...
83: Colm TóibÃn, A Ship in Full Sail
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode we invite Colm TóibÃn to the breakfast table to discuss his new book A Ship in Full Sail: The Laureate Lectures and Ot...
82: Henrietta McKervey on new fiction titles
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this morning's show novelist Henrietta McKervey talks to us about four recent novels: Fair Play by Louise Hegarty, Air by John B...
81: Mary O'Donnell, Walking Ghosts
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis episode sees us visiting Dublin's historic United Arts Club where Enda interviews Mary O'Donnell about her latest collect...
80: Sarah Moss on Ripeness
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this episode we drop in to the Carlow University Pittsburgh MFA summer programme in Trinity College, Dublin to interview Sarah Moss a...
79: Mall Life: Karin-Lin Greenberg
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this episode we talk about this year's International Literature Festival Dublin which runs from 16-25 May, and where Enda will b...
78: Richard Blanco; Poetry at Strokestown
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode, on Poetry Day, we cross the Atlantic and. breakfast in Miami, where we talk to Cuban American poet Richard Blanco about...
77: Mary O’Donnell on new fiction and poetry
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this episode we talk to poet novelist and critic Mary O’Donnell about Mary O’Malley’s The Shark Nursery, Patrick Holloway’s T...
76: Pat Boran on Hedge School
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFinding inspiration in the local and near at had, attentive to climate concern and global unrest, to home and homeless, belonging and we...
75: Mary Morrissy's Twenty-Twenty Vision
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text‘A beautiful tapestry of late middle age reckoning’ – today we interview the writer Mary Morrissy about her new collection of shor...
74: John Banville and Doris Kareva
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWas 1950s Dublin really a place of murder and intrigue? On today’s show we travel to the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Tran...
73: John Montague: A Poet's Life
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHow much do we need to know about a writer's life? How does the life impinge on the work? What is the human price of art? In this e...
72: Andrew Miller, The Land in Winter
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn the darkness of an old asylum, a young man unscrews the lid from a bottle of sleeping pills. In the nearby village, two couples begin...
71: Keith Payne builds a boat and translates Luisa Castro; 2024 highlights
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today’s show, the last of 2024, we talk to Keith Payne about his recent boat building and poem writing project. Currachs and naom...
70: Books of the Year with Adam Wyeth and Henrietta McKervey
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJoin us for a lively discussion of some of the best books published this year. At the breakfast table to discuss their poetry and fictio...
69: The Amergin Step, An Exploration in the Imagination of Iveragh
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis episode sees us back in Books Upstairs in Dublin’s D’Olier Street again. This time we’ve come for a conversation between Padd...
68: Oksana Makysmchuk, Still City: Diary of an Invasion
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAs we write it is 1002 days since the fullscale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, but over ten years since Putin first seized Crimea and sp...
67: IMRAM festival, Kelly Michels' American Anthem
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFirst up on today's show, I chat with Liam Carson, who is back again with another episode of the Irish language Festival, IMRAM. An...
66: MÃcheál McCann and Katie Donovan
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's show features conversation and poems from two poets with new collections: Katie Donovan, whose collection May Swim, is publ...
65: Christine Dwyer Hickey, Alba de Cespedes, Catullus
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe're back from the summer break and in conversation with Christine Dwyer Hickey, who was the subject of our very first Books for B...
64: Summer journals, Tessa Hadley, Noel Monahan
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today's edition, the last before our summer break, we look at new editions of Poetry Ireland Review and The Stinging Fly. We f...
63: Neil Astley on Soul Feast and more
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today's show we interview poet, novelist and publisher of Bloodaxe Books Neil Astley. We talk to Neil about the latest Bloodaxe ...
62: Strokestown International Poetry Festival
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday’s show marks 25 years since the foundation of the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in Co. Roscommon. This year’s fest...
61: Paul Muldoon on his new book; Strokestown shortlisted poets
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday’s show marks Poetry Day Ireland with readings by the five poets shortlisted for the Strokestown International Poetry Competion, ...
6O: Mary Costello on Barcelona
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe’re joined on this morning’s show by Mary Costello, whose new collection of short stories, Barcelona, has just been published by C...
59: Victoria Kennefick on Egg/Shell
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this mornings's show we talk to Victoria Kennefrick about her new collection Egg/Shell, just published by Carcanet, a double alb...
58: Fleur Adcock, Kerry Hardie and Aoife Lyall
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today's show we discuss Fleur Adcock's Collected Poems, newly published by Bloodaxe Books, and we go to the launch of two m...
57: Remembering Philip Casey
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe're back with a show dedicated to a book commemorating the life and achievement of a fondly remembered writer: Distant Summers: R...
{Stanza}
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNot Books for Breakfast this time but a link to our poetry programme Stanza on RTE Radio 1. In conversation with fellow poets, Paula Me...
56: Summer is icumen in; TCD Writer Fellow James Harpur
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe're not back in full podcast mode quite yet but we will be back in the autumn, all going well, and in the meantime we visited p...
55: Injury Time; A New Basho
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEnda has been recovering from a recent injury so podcast productivity has taken a hit, but we're back with our first episode for a ...
54: New Year's Eve 2022 Special
31 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSome of the highlights of this year's Books for Breakfast, featuring contributions by Gabriel Byrne, Thomas McCarthy, Wendy Erskine...
53: Interview with Eiléan Nà Chuilleanáin
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWelcome to a special Books for Breakfast edition this morning to celebrate Eiléan Nà Chuilleanáin's 80th birthday. We wish h...
52: IMRAM 2022; Mark Roper's Beyond Stillness
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday we talk to Liam Carson, Director of annual Irish language festival Imram, about this year's programme. And we interview Mark ...
51: Judith Mok: The State of Dark
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn todays’s show we talk to Judith Mok, whose memoir The State of Dark has just been published by Lilliput. Judith Mok was born in the...
50: Love poems for today: a new anthology from Dedalus
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textDoes love poetry still pack a punch? Do new anthologies of love poetry have anything to say about the kind of world we live in? Join us ...
49: Critic at Large: Kevin Power's The Written World
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhat’s the state of criticism in Ireland? Who needs reviewers and critics and are they even worth reading in any case? Well, one man w...
48: Two Salmon Poets; Trump Rant
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThree poetry collections on the breakfast table today ... We begin with Stars Burn Regardless by Jean O'Brien and Moonlight: A Full...
47: Leland Bardwell at 100
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's show is a bit special. We're very happy to feature My Name Suspended in Air: Leland Bardwell at 100, published by Lepu...
46: Colm TóibÃn talks about Vinegar Hill
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning we talk to Colm TóibÃn in New York about his debut poetry collection, Vinegar Hill.From the best-selling author of Brookl...
45: Wendy Erskine; Ukrainian poetry
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this morning's show we talk to Wendy Erskine, whose second collection of short stories, Dance Move, has just been published by T...
44: Paul Lynch's The Black Snow; John McAuliffe on his Selected Poems and Wong May
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe begin this weeks's show with In Trust. In Gratitude. In Hope. 10 Years at the Laois Arthouse, an exhibition featuring the work o...
43: Gabriel Byne: on Walking with Ghosts
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning actor and writer Gabriel Byrne talks to Books for Breakfast about his newly published memoir Walking with Ghosts. In a live...
42 : Poetry, Memory and the Party: Thomas McCarthy Tells All
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's show is devoted to an in-depth interview with poet Thomas McCarthy, whose Poetry, Memory and the Party: Journals 1974-2014 ...
41: Thomas Kinsella 1928-2021; breakfast highlights of 2021
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textA special Christmas Eve edition of Books for Breakfast. In the last episode of the year we pay tribute to the work of Thomas Kinsella ...
40: Claire Keegan on Small Things Like These
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in ...
39: New poetry from Eleanor Hooker, Amanda Bell
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today's show we talk to two poets who have published new collections: Eleanor Hooker, whose Of Ochre and Ash is published by Ded...
38: Imram 2021; Alannah Hopkin on A Very Strange Man: A Memoir of Aidan Higgins
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn today's show we talk to Liam Carson, director of the Irish language literary festival IMRAM about this year's wide-ranging ...
37: Short story special with John MacKenna and Madeleine D'Arcy
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's show is a short story special and double Toaster Challenge edition. We begin with John MacKenna whose We Seldom Talk About ...
36: Look! It’s a Woman Writer! Éilis Nà Dhuibhne and Catherine Dunne
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhy have women been treated differently, and discriminated against, in the literary world? Why has gender been a ‘problem’ in the wr...
35: 30 Years of the Irish Writers Centre; Kent Haruf
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textTo celebrate thirty years of the Irish Writers Centre, Enda talks to co-host Peter, who was the first director of the Centre, about th...
34: New books; Lucia Berlin; Iain Crichton Smith
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe ease our way back into breakfast book chat after our summer intermission with an episode on what we read ourselves during the summer....
33: Intimate City: Dublin essays, Aoife Lyall on Mother Nature; A Line Made by Walking
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday, in the last podcast in the current season, Enda Wyley talks to Aoife Lyall about her debut collection Mother Nature, published by...
32: Sinéad O'Connor's Rememberings, Victoria Kennefick, Sharon Olds
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday former RTE producer and writer Julian Vignoles, know for his biographies of Rory Gallagher and David Thomson of Woodbrook fame, re...
31: Louise Kennedy, Penelope Shuttle, Denise Levertov
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning's show features interviews with two outstanding writers. First up is Louise Kennedy whose collection of stories The ...
30: Evelyn Conlon, The Examined Life, Grace Paley
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday we talk to Evelyn Conlon whose new collection of stories, Moving About the Place, has recently been published by Blackstaff Press....
29: Moya Cannon's Collected, The Best Address in Town, Nan Shepherd
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhere did Dublin's uber-toffs live in the eighteenth century? Melanie Hayes drops in to talk about The Best Address in Town, Henrie...
28: Philip Ó Ceallaigh's Trouble; in Prague with Justin Quinn; Edith Templeton
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe're looking eastward toward today, with Toaster Challenge guest poet Justin Quinn who joins us from Prague, and we review the lat...
27: A Gap in the Clouds: James Hadley and Nell Regan; haiku and senryu from Grant Caldwell; Hamsun's Hunger
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis waning moon     is pitiless, as dawn swiftly follows and we    must separate –such heartbreak!–Mibu No Tadamine...
26: Mountains to Sea podcast audio edition with Laura McKenna and Conor O'Callaghan
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWelcome to the audio edition of the special Books for Breakfast video podcast for Mountains to Sea dlr Books Festival. We were delig...
25: Apocalypse now; Una Mannion on A Crooked Tree; stories from the end of the world
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWelcome to the 25th episode of Books for Breakfast! On today’s show we review Apocalypse: An Anthology, edited by James Keery, the fir...
24: Shirley Hazzard; Poetry and Money; Leeanne Quinn; the last of the Soviets
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday we look at Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus, often considered her most brilliant novel, and poet Peter Robinson'...
23: 40 Years of Salmon Poetry; Bachelard's images; Cathy Belton
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis week we begin by looking at Days of Clear Light, a festschrift in honour of Salmon Press founder Jessie Lendennie to celebrate 40 y...
22: New and recent poetry; Michael O'Loughlin's Liberty Hall; in search of lost gods
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this episode we look at new and recent poetry collections, which we list below. And our Toaster Challenge guest is Michael O’Loug...
21: Fiction for 2021; Berryman's letters; African American poetry
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWelcome to Books for Breakfast in 2021! We begin the year with a look at some noteworthy fiction from new and familiar writers. Books me...
20: Christmas Special: Paula Meehan, Tara Bergin, Pessoa's disquiet, Dublin's 20th century buildings, new poems.
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis is our bumper Christmas episode, featuring two Toaster Challenges with Tara Bergin and Paula Meehan respectively. Paula also discus...
19: IMRAM's magical films; forging Dracula with Henrietta McKervey
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIMRAMÂ is a longstanding festival that celebrates writing in Irish. This year sees it going digital with an enticing series of 'ma...
18: Poems for Winter; Kathleen MacMahon, Helen Garner.
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIt’s not quite winter yet but we thought we’d begin with some poems to get us in the mood for the approaching season. Thanks to John...
17: Fuggedaboutit: dictionaries and languages; on the wild side with Seán Lysaght and Dara McAnulty
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAre dictionaries still important? Who uses them? How does new words get into a dictionary? Are they ever kicked out? Today's show...
16: Hilary Mantel: Giants and Ghosts; Books for Younger Readers
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWho are the people who keep a love of books alive in our city and in our communities? Our Toaster Challenge guest is Bernadette Larkin w...
15: Shirts for books; Kerry Hardie; The Radetzky March
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning, to mark Irish Book Week, we go on a virtual tour of Dublin bookshops past and present. Our Toaster Challenge guest is Kerr...
14: Derek Mahon, Louise Glück, The Great Hunger; Neil Hegarty
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning's episode pays tribute to the late Derek Mahon, one of Ireland's finest poets, and also considers the work of Lou...
13: The latest Ferrante; Mary O’Donnell; the poem that wouldn’t go away
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday we look at one of the most famous poems of the twentieth century as we consider Ian Sansom’s brilliantly entertaining book about...
12: The other Elizabeth Taylor; Sarah Bannan; Lee Harwood
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis week we delve into the fiction, and particularly the short stories of the other Elizabeth Taylor. Our Toaster Challenge guest is ...
11: Owen Roe: An actor calls; 32 Words for Field
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this morning's show we discuss Manchán Magan's newly published Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost words of the Irish landsca...
10: Zadie Smith; Caitriona Lally: Driving on Eggshells; Michael Hartnett
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's show opens with a discussion of Zadie Smith's lockdown essays, Intimations; our Toaster Challenge guest is Caitriona L...
9: Death and Nightingales; Joe Woods; Kathleen Jamie's Scots accent of the mind
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis week features a celebration of the work of Eugene McCabe, who died in August, with particular focus on his timeless novel Death and...
8: Birdcage Walk; Olivia O'Leary; A Legendary Dinner
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's show features Helen Dunmore's final novel Birdcage Walk and her poetry collection Inside the Wave. Â Our Toaster Chall...
7: What You Don't Want to Know; Adam Wyeth; Coming Close to Charles Simic
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday’s show features Deborah Levy’s Things I Don’t Want to Know, Flights by Olga Tocarczuk; the Toaster Challenge guest is poet a...
6: Country Pursuits, Marianne Lee's A Quiet Tide, Poetry from Sweden
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning's show features an excursion into the country in the company of a favourite novel of Enda's, J.L Carr's A Mo...
5: The Art of Seeing, Short Stories, Poetry and Place
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis morning we consider two books concerned with the arts of looking and seeing:On Looking: a walker's guide to the art of observa...
4: Cities, languages, elegies; Philip Davison
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis week we console ourselves by looking at books about people and places, our Toaster Challenge guest is Philip Davison whose novel Qu...
3: Stalled festivals, Alice Lyons and missing O's, kings and doors
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textToday's episode begins with a look at the sadly postponed Strokestown Poetry Festival and celebrates the publication of the Strokes...
2: Short poems and Spies
22 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOn this morning's show a mix of poetry and espionage, and what it's like to qualify as a solicitor and give up law on the same...
1: Hamnet, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Pearse Hutchinson
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this opening episode of Books for Breakfast Enda Wyley and Peter Sirr discuss Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell; author of the multiple...