Books for Breakfast (Ireland)
Episodes
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...