2024: About our speakers

CHAIR: IRENE KYFFIN

Of Irish-Jewish descent, Irene holds a Degree in Drama Teaching and a Masters in Social Anthropology. Interested in the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Irene created a program of jazz/poetry fusion with the jazz pianist Stan Tracey. She has performed in Ireland, the UK, the US and Nepal. She writes her own poetry.

GUEST SPEAKER: OLIVIA O’LEARY

Olivia O’Leary is a journalist and broadcaster. She has presented current affairs programmes for RTE, BBC and ITV. In recent years she presented RTE Radio One’s ‘The Poetry Programme’. The O’Brien Press has published two collections of her radio columns for RTE’s Drivetime: ‘Politicians and Other Animals’ and ‘Party Animals’. She has won three Jacob’s awards for her work with RTE and a Sony Award for the BBC Radio 4 series, ‘Between Ourselves’.

GUEST SPEAKER: EOGHAN CORRY

Eoghan Corry is a writer and broadcaster. He will discuss Emily Lawless, Irish poet and author from Kildare 1845-1913, in whom he has had a lifelong interest since his childhood just two kilometres from her birthplace in Ardclough, Co Kildare. Eoghan is enthralled by the many complex dimensions of a writer who loomed large over popular culture and the Anglo Irish literary scene in her lifetime.

POET: RITA KELLY

Rita is a poet & writer in both Irish & English. Her work has been placed on different courses, most notably, post-graduate courses at Yale University. She has published many books of poetry and prose, her latest book is ‘Aistear-Dánta’ Coiscéim, Dublin, 2024.