LITERARY ARCHIVE

Plugged
AN EVENING WITH
Author Eoin Colfer

Sunday, September 18 | 6:30 pm

Join us for an entertaining evening with Eoin Colfer, Irish author of the internationally best selling Artemis Fowl series for young adults, as he makes his crime fiction debut with Plugged, published by The Overlook Press.

This wickedly funny crime thriller recounts the bizarre exploits of Daniel McEvoy, an Irish bouncer at a seedy New Jersey casino. McEvoy has a host of problems, least of which are his recent hair implants, as he tangles with the sudden death of his girlfriend, the disappearance of his unscrupulous doctor, and the growing threat of a menacing mob from his homeland. Both suspenseful and hilarious, full of head-spinning plot twists and nonstop banter, Plugged is a hair-raising new thriller from one of the most popular authors writing today.

Lisa Scottoline reviews ‘Plugged,’ by Eoin Colfer
“Colfer’s novel is dominated, driven and fully animated by a refreshingly original voice.”

AN EVENING WITH
Jimmy Breslin and Dan Barry 

Moderated by Wayne Barrett, journalist, fellow at the Nation Institute, and senior editor at The Village Voice for over 20 years*

Tuesday, September 20 | 7:30 pm

Join us for an evening with journalists Jimmy Breslin (The Daily News) and Dan Barry (The New York Times), talking baseball and more from two of the game’s biggest rival regions: New York and New England. The conversation will be moderated by Wayne Barrett, American journalist.

Breslin’s Branch Rickey and Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game were both published this spring 2011.

*Please note that the moderator has changed for this event.

Praise for Jimmy Breslin’s Branch Rickey:

“Breslin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is a master of the spare narrative. His strength lies in the telling”
– David Oshinsky, New York Times


“And what a book! It is about baseball --- but, really, it's about so much more. And it's the "much more" that makes this a sports book that should reach the widest possible audience.”
– Jesse Kornbluth, The Huffington Post

Praise for Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game:

“A worthy companion to Roger Kahn’s classic Boys of Summer ... [Dan Barry] exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace and journalistic exactitude. He blends a vivid, moment-by-moment re-creation of the game with what happens to its participants in the next 30 years.”
– Stefan Fatsis, New York Times

“A fascinating, beautifully told story... In the hands of Barry, a national correspondent for the New York Times, this marathon of duty, loyalty, misery and folly becomes a riveting narrative...The book feels like ‘Our Town’ on the diamond.”
– Jon Thurber, Los Angeles Times

IAC PoetryFest2011

November 4 - 6

presented in association with 
Poetry Society of America, 
Poetry Ireland and Culture Ireland

Our third annual showcase of the best of Irish poetry from around the world, presented in the intimate setting of our Donaghy Theatre. 

IAC PoetryFest 2011 features a special tribute to the distinguished and influential Thomas Kinsella.

Featured poets: Nick Laird, Michael Longley, Dennis O’Driscoll, Sara Berkeley Tolchin, David Wheatley

Curated by Belinda McKeon and Aengus Woods
With support of Glucksman Ireland House – New York University and W.B. Yeats Society

Stay tuned for podcasts of readings from past PoetryFest participants and join our email list for our highly anticipated Poem-of-the-Day series to receive a poem from each of this year’s poets each morning leading up to the festival.

Admission: FREE

You can book a festival pass or separately to individual events

If you need assistance placing your order, call 866-811-4111.

  
This event supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, a public agency, and Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland’s year of Irish arts in America in 2011.

Bradshaw Books Publishing launches

Cork Literary Review

edited by Eugene O’Connell

Thursday, November 17 | 7:30 pm

Cork Literary Review celebrates 25 years of Bradshaw Books Publishing in Ireland with the New York launch of Volume XIV of its seminal Irish anthology, edited by Eugene O’Connell. Highlights from the new, deluxe 400-page hardback edition include the inaugural American section, edited and introduced by award-winning American poet Brian Turner, a conversation between Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and James Harpur, and poetry from the best of Irish contemporary writers, including Joseph Woods, Liam Ó Muirthille, Gabriel Fitzmaurice and Helen Kidd. Join us for an evening of readings and a reception with O’Connell, Turner and Woods.

Readings from Joseph Woods, Director of Poetry Ireland, Review Editor Eugene O’Connell, Eleanor Wilner (author, The Girl with Bees in Her Hair) and NYU professor Greg Londe.

Admission:

This program is supported, in part, by Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland’s year of Irish arts in America in 2011.

The Arrogant Years:
One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth,
from Cairo to Brooklyn
(Ecco/HarperCollins, 2011)

Wednesday, November 30 | 7 pm

Author Lucette Lagnado in conversation with Malachy McCourt (A Monk Swimming)

Bestselling memoirists Lagnado and McCourt have a lively conversation about their immigrant stories and discuss Lagnado’s poignant, new book, a follow-up to her award-winning The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit.

Co-sponsored by the Irish Arts Center

Admission: $10, $5 IAC and Museum members

A Bloomsday Breakfast in Bryant Park in 150 seconds: A longer version of A Bloomsday Breakfast, including live readings from Ulysses:

Culture Ireland and Irish Arts Center
invite you to join us for
A Bloomsday Breakfast in Bryant Park
with music from Songs of Joyce
and Special Guests

Thursday, June 16, 2011 | 8 am

The Upper Terrace at Bryant Park
Behind the New York Public Library
Near 5th Avenue and 40/42nd Street

Observed annually on June 16th, Bloomsday is a worldwide commemoration of James Joyce and his epic novel Ulysses, the events of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904.

Readings:
Fionnula Flanagan (actor)
James Newman (actor)
Charlotte Moore (artistic director, Irish Repertory Theatre)
Terry George (director)
Michael Noonan, Minister for Finance, Ireland
Isaiah Sheffer (founding artistic director, Symphony Space)
Aedin Moloney (director)

This event is part of Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland’s year of Irish arts in America.

Breakfast hors d'oeuvres courtesy of Tommy Moloney's
In cooperation with Bryant Park Corporation.

Consul General Noel Kilkenny, Hanora O'Dea Kilkenny, Michael Noonan, T.D., Minister for Finance, Ireland, Pauline Turley, Aidan Connolly and Catherine Hogan Conlon and Angela Murphy.
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Darrah Carr Dance
Photo Credit IAC

Edwardian Ensemble Kimberly Carvalho and Peter Waluck.
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Fionnula Flanagan reading Ulysses
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Bloomsday enthusiasts enjoying Episode 1, Telemachus of James Joyce's Ulysses
Photo Credit IAC

Isaiah Sheffer, founding artistic director of Symphony Space
Photo Credit IAC

James Newman
Photo Credit IAC

A captive audience listens to a reading from Ulysses.
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Aidan Connolly, Fionnula Flanagan, Belinda McKeon and Isaiah Sheffer
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Darrah Carr Dance
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Edwardian Ensemble Julia Giolzetti and Mitchell Conway enjoying a stroll.
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Bloomsday dancer Russell Brown reading Ulysses.
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Songs of Joyce
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Ulysses by James Joyce
Photo Credit Erin Baiano

Symphony Space presents:

Bloomsday on Broadway XXX
30th Annual Marathon Celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Thursday, June 16 | Noon until 1am

Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street

Don’t miss Symphony Space’s annual June 16 celebration of life, love, literature, language, and lust in James Joyce’s ULYSSES! The readings follow Mr. Bloom and Stephen Dedalus around Dublin, from the tower to the library to the barrooms to the seaside to the brothels – and back home again!! This year’s 13-hour marathon reading by over 80 Broadway stars and avid Joyceans, samples all 18 episodes of the book concluding when FIONNULA FLANAGAN reaches the final “yes” of the entire uncensored Molly Bloom monologue.

Admission: $25 general / $20 members
SymphonySpace.org or 212-864-5400

The Savage City: Race, Murder,
and a Generation on the Edge
AN EVENING WITH 
Author T.J. English 

Moderated by Jim Dwyer, journalist, The New York Times

Thursday, May 26 | 7:30 pm

Join us for an evening with The New York Times bestselling author T.J. English, as he discusses his recent publication, The Savage City. 

T.J. English discusses
The Savage City on The Daily Show

Read more about T.J. English and The Savage City

For anyone who wants to understand contemporary America, the civil rights era remains one of the most inspiring—and troubling—periods in our history. Though America’s struggle with race relations at the time is usually told through the dramatic struggles of the South—in places like Selma, Montgomery, and Memphis—similar, if less well-remembered, conflicts were taking place in major urban cities in the North. The Savage City explores the story of this volatile period in New York City’s history through the eyes of three desperate men—an innocent man wrongly accused of murder, a corrupt cop, and a militant Black Panther.

T. J. English is a noted journalist, screenwriter, and author of The New York Times bestsellers Havana Nocturne and Paddy Whacked, as well as The Westies, a national bestseller, and Born to Kill, which was nominated for an Edgar Award. He has written for Esquire, Playboy, and New York, among other publications. His screenwriting credits include episodes for the television crime dramas NYPD Blue and Homicide, for which he was awarded the Humanitas Prize. He lives in New York City.

Jim Dwyer began writing the About New York column in April 2007. He has spent most of his professional life covering New York as a reporter, columnist and author. He joined the Times in May 2001 after stints at the Daily News, New York Newsday and several papers in northern New Jersey.Born and raised in the city, Jim is the son of Irish immigrants. For the last 30 years, he has lived in Washington Heights with his family.

Read more about Jim Dwyer

Admission: FREE
Reservations through 212-757-3318 ext 202 or reservations@irishartscenter.org

Irish Arts Center and Irish American Writers and Artists Present
Tabloid City
AN EVENING WITH
Author Pete Hamill

Tuesday, May 10 | 7:30 pm

In a stately West Village townhouse, a wealthy socialite and her secretary are murdered. In the 24 hours that follow, a flurry of activity circles around their shocking deaths. The head of one of the city's last tabloids stops the presses. A cop investigates the killing. A reporter chases the story. A disgraced hedge fund manager flees the country. An Iraq War vet seeks revenge. And an angry young extremist plots a major catastrophe.

The City is many things: a proving ground, a decadent playground, or a palimpsest of memories—a historic metropolis eclipsed by modern times. As much a thriller as it is a gripping portrait of the city of today, Tabloid City is a new fiction classic from the writer who has captured it perfectly for decades. Join us Tuesday, May 10th in welcoming best selling author, essayist and award-winning journalist Pete Hamill as he reads from his latest work, Tabloid City.

Admission: FREE
Waiting List Only
Reservations through 212-757-3318 ext 202 or jen@irishartscenter.org

Irish Arts Center Book Day

March 17, 2011
6:00 am until the books run out!

In association with
Speaker Christine Quinn/New York City Council
Imagine Ireland, as part of Culture Ireland
Ireland Literature Exchange
Solas Nua

Special Thanks to Sponsors and Partners
New York State American Irish Legislators Society
American Irish Historical Society
Glucksman Ireland House – New York University
New York Irish Center
Poetry Ireland
52nd Street Project
Deborah and Brian Henry

Book Distribution Locations

MANHATTAN
72nd Street and Broadway (Entrance to the IRT 1,2,3) North east corner of Dyckman/Broadway in Inwood (Entrance to the subway at Dyckman/200th Street)

BRONX
Parkchester #6 Subway Station

QUEENS
Jackson Heights Post Office, 78-02 37th Avenue Station at 78th Street

BROOKLYN
Northeast Corner of 7th Ave and 9th Street F Station

STATEN ISLAND
St. George Ferry Terminal, 1 Bay Street

In partnership with Speaker Christine Quinn and the New York City Council, Irish Arts Center will celebrate the inaugural Irish Arts Center Book Day on St. Patrick’s Day 2011! Keep an eye out for Book Day volunteers handing out books by Irish and Irish American authors, free, at subway stops and transportation hubs across all five boroughs, and be in the know on Book Day locations during the day by following our up-to-the-minute Twitter and Facebook updates. Books will be handed out starting at 6:00 am until we run out! 

Thank you for the generous support of our sponsors Akashic Books, Atria Books, Beacon Press, Bloodaxe Books, Bloomsbury, Bradshaw Books, Council Oak Books, Eterna Credencia Editora, Everyman’s Library, Free Press, Harper Perennial, Harper Paperbacks, Knopf, Little, Brown and Company, The Overlook Press, Poetry Ireland, Random House, Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Stinging Fly Press & Magazine and Tigh Filí Arts Centre

Donate your books to the inaugural
Irish Arts Center Book Day in New York City!

On St. Patrick’s Day, Irish Arts Center will set up teams of volunteers at subway locations across all 5 boroughs to hand out books by Irish and Irish American authors to New Yorkers, for free. Help us promote literacy by dropping off your books by Irish and Irish American authors at any of the following locations from now until March 15, 2011:

American Irish Historical Society, 991 Fifth Avenue between 80th and 81st Streets

Hours: M-F, 10am to 5pm 

212-288-2263

Glucksman Ireland House New York University, 1 Washington Mews on 5^th Avenue

Hours: M-Thur, 9:30 am to 6 pm, plus public events in the evenings

212-998-3950

Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street between 10th and 11th Avenues

Hours: M-F, 10am to 6pm, plus public events in the evenings and weekends

212-757-3318 x 209

New York Irish Center. 10-40 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City

Hours: M-F, 10am to 5pm

718-482-0909

Books should be in decent condition. Thank you for supporting Irish Arts Center Book Day! For further information or to learn how you can also volunteer for Book Day, contact 212-757-3318 ext 202 or volunteer@irishartscenter.org.

Irish Arts Center and Irish Network NYC Present

When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out
AN EVENING WITH
Author David J. Lynch

Thursday, February 17 | 7:30 pm

In his debut publication, veteran journalist David J. Lynch offers an insightful, character-driven narrative of how the astonishing rise of the Irish boom came to be and how it went bust. Drawing upon the cultural, social and economic history of Ireland, Lynch chronicles a nation’s downfall through the lived experience of its citizens: the public officials and bankers responsible for the current crisis as well as the ordinary men and women enduring it, and offers a vision of how the Celtic Tiger can rise again.

Join us for an evening with David J. Lynch, senior writer with Bloomberg News, as he discusses the rise and fall of the Irish economy, the upcoming elections, and more in the Donaghy Theatre.

When The Luck of the Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and its Struggle to Rise Again will be available for purchase on the night.

“A tour de force of reportage and analysis. As cold as the eye he casts upon his forbears is, Lynch retains an unmistakable affection for Ireland and a confidence that it can change, change utterly, for the better.”

—KEVIN CULLEN, columnist and former Dublin bureau chief, THE BOSTON GLOBE

Admission: FREE.
All seats currently filled.
To join the waiting list contact 212-757-3318 ext 202 or jen@irishartscenter.org

IAC PoetryFest 2010
presented in association with
Poetry Society of America, Poetry Ireland and Culture Ireland

November 5 - 6

IAC PoetryFest 2010 is our second annual showcase of the best of contemporary Irish poetry, presented in the intimate setting of our Donaghy Theatre.

Featured poets: Paul Durcan, Alan Gillis, Eamon Grennan, Vona Groarke, Sinéad Morrissey, and Caitríona O'Reilly.

Curated by Belinda McKeon and Aengus Woods.  

Friday, November 5

Favorite Irish Poems
Hosted by Alice Quinn, Executive Director, Poetry Society of America |
8 pm
We launch this year’s festival with our Favorite Poems event, featuring those influential, best-loved poems, personally chosen and read by our six poets and very special guests including:

Bill Whelan, Grammy-winning composer/producer of Riverdance

Alice McDermott, National Book Award Winner 1998

Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director, Irish Repertory Theater

Colum McCann, National Book Award Winner 2009

Susan McKeown, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter

Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman, American Ireland Fund

Saturday, November 6

Live Reading – 2:30 pm
Alan Gillis, Sinéad Morrissey, Caitríona O'Reilly
Meet the Poets book signing to follow in IAC Gallery

A Conversation with Eamon Grennan and Caitríona O'Reilly - 5:30 pm
Moderated by PoetryFest curator Belinda McKeon

Live Reading – 7:30 pm
Paul Durcan, Vona Groarke, Eamonn Grennan
Meet the Poets book signing to follow in IAC Gallery

Admission: FREE
Seating limited; reservations recommended.
Reserve through Irish Arts Center at 212-757-3318 ext 202.
Donations greatly appreciated.

Poems of the Day

Poem of the Day Thursday, November 4 Island Musician Going Home (after Veronica Bolay) By Paul Durcan Driving home along the bog road at night in the rain Leaving the village behind me, its harbour lights Making a marquee of the sea, I am half sunk by the stone in my heart. Mile after mile of bog road in the night in the rain, Not a single dwelling on the mountain either side of the road, Not knowing when a mountain sheep will light up under my wheels, My audience all couples canoodling behind in the village. But when I drive up to my maroon-painted five-barred gate And switch off my lights, and climb out of my car, And I can see nothing, and I can hear nothing, I see again that home is the skirl of silence. I kiss the darkness, and all loneliness abandons me. A life without a wife is nothing to boast about But that's music. I walk back up the road Kissing the darkness; and a small mouth of cold gold In the clouds is becoming aware of its soul.

Poem of the Day Wednesday, November 3 Daffodils Caitríona O'Reilly They bring this hint of something startled in them - the dreadful earliness of their petals against dead earth, the extremity of their faces suggesting a violent start - dumb skulls opening, overnight, to vehemence. Their lives are quicker than vision, their voices evade us. And as water tightens its surface in vases and sharpens its glass, slicing their sticks in half, these funnels clatter on their bent necks, like bells for the already dead. From The Nowhere Birds (Bloodaxe, 2001)

Poem of the Day Tuesday, November 2 Dash Sinéad Morrissey Longer please! — two out of fifty usable words you employ to hold us hostage— longer in the cooling bath, longer by the playground gates, mowing imaginary grass, longer driving your car-cum-aeroplane— and we want longer too— and smaller boxes to fold your clothes into or not to have to shed them at all— but before we know what’s hit us, we’re standing on the roadside, staring west at the last of a trail of dust, like the crowds who wait all day for a royal visit for it to simply pass them by— before they’ve memorised the hair, the eyes, the inscrutable footmen, the marvellous horses

Poem of the Day Monday, November 1 From The Green Rose Alan Gillis II Bright light sprawling white cotton clouds looked like they’d never heard of rain: some saw in them maps, memory shapes, continents, faces of demons, gondolas lazing through sunstreams. He saw sheep grazing in a greener-than-green field bedizzled by buttercups carpeted down to a fizzing hedge, stone path and two apple trees standing sentry to a view of the lough, coastline, chopped open sea, oblivious to things that might have been or might be, passing lives, the mist and creep of stolen thoughts, the dead and unborn drifting, on their backs, counting sheep.

AN EVENING WITH
Author Emma Donoghue

Tuesday, September 28 | 7:30 pm

Nominated for The 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction in July 2010.
(published September 2010 from Little, Brown)

Join us for an evening with Irish-born novelist Emma Donoghue (Slammerkin) as she reads from her newest novel, Room, in the Donaghy Theater.

Click here to read the announcement in The New York Times.

Click here to read the review of Room in The New York Times

Admission: $10 general / $8 member
SmartTix.com or 212-868-4444

ULYSSES and You

Thursday, October 7 | 7:30 pm

On the eve of New York Comic Con, experience Ulysses “Seen”, Robert Berry’s graphic novel adaptation of the 1922 edition of James Joyce’s epic masterpiece, through commentary by the artist in conversation with Mike Barsanti, editor, and moderated by Karen Green, curator of the Columbia University Library collection of graphic novels. Learn how you, too, can be part of the creative process, with a special preview of pages from the newest chapter, and a forum for readers to suggest settings, props and character types for the remaining chapters of the comic.

For more information visit www.ulyssesseen.com
Reader’s guide available for the iPad

Admission: $10 general / $8 member
SmartTix.com or 212-868-4444

Irish Arts Center
in association with
River Music
Glucksman Ireland House – New York University
American Irish Historical Society
Consulate General of Ireland
and
Consulate General of Canada

present

A Terrible Beauty
A Live Performance Inspired by the Novel
The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens

Music by Grammy Award-winning composer Paul Sullivan

Featuring
Peter Behrens, narrator
Paul Sullivan, piano
John Keating, actor
Rosie Upton, soprano

New York Premiere

May 21-23 | Friday - Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 3 pm
4th show added Saturday, May 22 at 2pm.   

"An event of uncommon depth and artistry...wrapping the tragedy of the Irish Famine and emigration in stunning music, evocative readings and incomparable songs and slides."

                                                       —Ellsworth American

A Terrible Beauty is a moving and engaging one-hour performance of literature and music, based on Peter Behrens’ novel The Law of Dreams, winner of the 2006 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, with music by Grammy Award-winning composer Paul Sullivan.

Peter Behrens’ novel tells the story of a young man’s Homeric passage from innocence to experience during the Irish Famine of 1847.  In A Terrible Beauty, an actor brings to life scenes from the book, accompanied by emigrant ballads and songs inspired by the text, woven together with Behrens’ narration, against the backdrop of striking visual imagery inspired by the famine.

Peter Behrens won the 2006 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction for The Law of Dreams, his first novel.  Paul Sullivan has been featured with the Paul Winter Consort, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Pops, as well as Benny Goodman and other jazz masters. His thirteen albums have sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.

Presented by Irish Arts Center
in association with the
Poetry Society of America
NYU Glucksman Ireland House and
Culture Ireland
IAC PoetryFest 2009                
Saturday, November 7            

Readings 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm
Meet the poets reception 5:00 pm

Single Reading $10 general /$8 Irish Arts Center members and students.
Festival Pass (both readings): $18 general sale/ $15 Irish Arts Center members and students.

Click here to buy now or call Smarttix at 212-868-4444

IAC members at all levels may book directly through Irish Arts Center and avoid ticket processing fees.  Call 212-757-3318 ext. 204 from 10 - 6 Monday through Friday. 

IAC PoetryFest 2009 is the Irish Arts Center’s inaugural showcase for emerging and established poets based in Ireland and the United States.  The day-long celebration includes afternoon and evening poetry readings, book signings, networking opportunities and Meet the Poets, a special afternoon reception.

Featured poets:

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin—recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the Irish Times Award for Poetry, and the O’Shaughnessy Award; published seven collections of poetry including the recent Selected Poems (2008)

Harry Clifton —Author of five collections of poetry, and recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Irish Times Poetry Now Award

Paula Meehan — recipient of the Marten Toonder Award for Literature, The Butler Literary Award for Poetry, the Denis Devlin Memorial Award; published six collections of poetry, including Dharmakaya (2002), and most recently Painting Rain (2009)

Joseph Woods —Director of Poetry Ireland and a recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh
Award; published two collections, Sailing to Hokkaido (2001) and Bearings (2005)

Enda Wyley —two-time winner of the British National Poetry Competition; published four collections of poetry including the recent To Wake To This (2009)

Peter Sirr —recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award; former director of the Irish Writers’ Centre; former editor of Poetry Ireland Review; published numerous volumes of poetry including Nonetheless (2004), and Selected Poems 1982-2004 (Gallery 2004)

Curated by Belinda McKeon (writer, journalist and curator of the DLR Poetry Now Festival in Dublin) and Aengus Woods (New York based Irish philosopher and critic).

Symphony Space and Irish Arts Center present

The McCourt Memoirs:
An Evening with Frank, Malachy, Alphie and Michael McCourt
or
Conflicting Sibling Memories
Within the Limerick Shanty Irish Community
or
Sure ‘Twasn’t That Way ’Tall!

Hosted by Peter Quinn and Isaiah Sheffer 

Please note: This event has been postponed. If you purchased tickets, please call the Symphony Space box office at 212-864-5400 or the IAC at 212-757-3318 for further information.

Tuesday, March 31st at 7:30pm
Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (95th Street)
Tickets: $25
Limited seating!  Call (212) 864-5400 or visit www.symphonyspace.org to reserve today!

Maybe it’s happened before that three boys from the same family have written critically acclaimed memoirs. But no trio has ever done it with as much verve, eloquence, honesty, wit and insight as the McCourt Brothers.  

Though all of Angela McCourt’s sons were shaped by the same family in the poverty-ridden lanes of Limerick, each has traveled his own path and crafted his own narrative. Together, their varied adventures as actors, activists, handymen, bartenders, teachers, husbands, writers, etc. embody a uniquely Irish, wonderfully American, quintessentially New York story. 

Now, for the first time since the release of Alphie's much-praised A Long Stone’s Throw, three of the four McCourt brothers will appear on the same stage to read from their memoirs – including Frank’s Angela’s Ashes and Malachy’s  A Monk Swimming. 

The fourth brother, Michael, will do his best to set the record straight, and all four brothers will submit to cross-examination by moderators Peter Quinn (author of Looking for Jimmy and Banished Children of Eve), Symphony Space Artistic Director Isaiah Sheffer, and YOU, members of the public.

Don’t miss the chance to hear these tales of tragedy, hilarity, endurance, hope and triumph as only the McCourts can tell them!   

Proceeds from the event will benefit Irish Arts Center and Symphony Space.

Netherland:
An Evening with Joseph O’Neill

Wednesday, October 8| 7:30 p.m

Admission: $15 general sale/ $12 members

Joseph O’Neill is author of the critically acclaimed Netherland, a brilliant new novel about a European man living in Manhattan after 9/11 conflicted by two loves: his wife, and his adopted country. Told in a lyrical, mesmerizing voice, his journey involves an immersion in the cricketing subculture of New York, a tragic friendship with a Trinidadian immigrant, and a darkening  understanding of the great American narrative. Join us for an in-depth conversation with the author about this extraordinary story of heritage and home, sport and work, friendship and love.

Joseph O’Neill was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1964, and raised inMozambique, Iran, Turkey and the Netherlands.He has a law degree from Cambridge University, and practiced full time as a barrister in London from 1990 to 1998, specializing in business law. In 1998 he moved to New York City, where he lives in the Chelsea Hotel with his wife, Sally Singer, an editor at Vogue, and three sons. 

Irish American Writers and Artists
An Evening in Tribute to Danny Cassidy

For further information on this event please call 212.757.3318 ext 204

An all-star cast of Irish-American writers and musicians come together for a special tribute to Danny Cassidy, Irish-American musician, teacher, labor activist and author of the groundbreaking book How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads.Participants include Dan Barry, Ashley Davis, Maureen Dezell, Ivan Goff, T.J. English, Terry Golway, Pete Hamill, Tom Kelly, William Kennedy, Michael Patrick MacDonald, Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt, Mick Moloney, Peter Quinn, Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra and other special guests to be announced.

Easter Rising
An Evening with Michael Patrick MacDonald

Thursday, February 28th at 7:30 P.M.

$15 General sale/ $10 Irish Arts Center Members

Click here to buy tickets or call Smarttix at 212.868.4444

Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of the national bestseller All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, which won the American Book Award. He has been a guest columnist for the Boston Globe and recenly completed the screenplay of All Souls for director Ron Shelton. Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion is his second book. 

MacDonald, who lives in Brooklyn, grew up in South Boston's Old Colony housing project. He helped launch many of Boston's antiviolence initiatives, including gun-buyback programs and the South Boston Vigil Group, and he continues to work nationally with survivor families and young people in the antiviolence movement.

Join us for a special evening with this remarkable storyteller as he examines the relationship between his work as an author and activist, discusses his latest projects, and launches the paperback release of Easter Rising.

Click here to buy the book!

“Funny and heartbreaking….MacDonald is a compelling storyteller”
Newsweek

"MacDonald is a fine writer, with a terrific ear for dialogue”
The Washington Post

"MacDonald's prose--muscular and insistently alive--quivers like a fist about to take a swing….refreshing."
San Francisco Chronicle

“Heartwrenching.... up there with the very best comic writing of Seamus Deane and Patrick McCabe ... with this masterpiece Michael Patrick MacDonald has set an audacious benchmark in Irish-American literature”
Andersonstown News, Belfast, Ireland 

Click here to Return