Writing the World, Writing the Island: Irish Writers in Conversation

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What is the current state of Irish literature? Five Irish writers discuss their work to help mark St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Berlin. What are the ideas, styles and settings that concern Irish writers today? What are the themes that resonate with audiences? Does being Irish make a difference?

Christine Dwyer Hickey and Paul Lynch will be interviewed about their writing practices by Dr Gesa Stedman, Professor of British Culture and Literature. Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, Martin Doyle and Rónán Hession will be interviewed about their work by Kate Ferguson, journalist and anchor at Deutsche Welle.

Christine Dwyer Hickey is a novelist, short story writer and playwright from Dublin. Her most recent novel, Our London Lives (Alle unsere Leben, Unionsverlag 2025), was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. Her previous novels include Tatty, Last Train from Liguria, The Cold Eye of Heaven, and The Lives of Women. Her 2019 novel, The Narrow Land (Schmales Land), was published in German by Unionsverlag in 2022. She has won several major awards, including the prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Literature Ireland has supported translations of Christine’s work into languages such as German, Dutch, Italian, Arabic, Estonian, Danish and Polish.

Paul Lynch is the Booker Prize–winning author of five novels. His most recent novel, Prophet Song, was an international bestseller and won the 2023 Booker Prize and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among other honours. He has received numerous literary awards, including the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and both France’s Prix Libr’à Nous and Prix des Libraires for Best Foreign Novel, and has been shortlisted for major international prizes including the Dublin Literary Award, the Strega European Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize. In 2025, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Limerick for his “remarkable contributions to literature” and was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. His fiction has been translated into over 40 languages.

Rónán Hession is a writer and musician based in Dublin. His debut novel, Leonard and Hungry Paul, was published by Bluemoose Books in 2019 whereupon it was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, the 2019 An Post Irish Book Awards, the British Book Awards, the Dalkey Literary Prize, and longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. It was first published in German by Woywod & Meurer Verlag in 2023 (Leonard und Paul), and became a surprise bestseller. In 2025, it was adapted into a six-part BBC series, starring Alex Lawther and narrated by Julia Roberts. His latest novel is Ghost Mountain (Blessing Verlag, 2024). Literature Ireland has supported translations of Rónán’s work into many languages, including Spanish and German.

Tadhg Mac Dhonnágain is a writer, musician and publisher working primarily in the Irish language. His novel, Madame Lazare, was named Irish Language Book of the Year at the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards. In 2022, Literature Ireland nominated the book for the European Union Prize for Literature, where it was awarded a Special Mention. Literature Ireland has supported the translation of Madame Lazare into Serbian and Estonian, and most recently in German (Kröner Verlag, 2026). Mac Dhonnagáin lives in Spiddal in the Connemara Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking region on the west coast of Ireland.

Martin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times, where he has worked since 2007. He was previously Editor of The Irish Post in London, and also worked at The Times in London. In 2023, his memoir, Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Own Place, was published by Merrion Press, and was subsequently shortlisted for Non-fiction Book of the Year at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards; it will soon be published in Polish and Chinese. A collection of his interviews, A Hosting: Interviews with Irish Writers 1991-2025, is forthcoming from Lilliput Press.

An event presented in partnership by the Embassy of Ireland, Germany, the Centre for British Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Literature Ireland