Latest news with #LaureateforIrishFiction
Irish Post
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
President Michael D. Higgins to release spoken word album
PRESIDENT Michael D. Higgins is to release a spoken word album featuring his poetry set to music by Myles O'Reilly. The 10-track album is due be released on September 5, not long before the end of Higgins' second term as president in November. The title track, Against All Certainty, has already been released and is available now via streaming platforms. 'Incredibly interesting life' Higgins, 84, began his political career in 1973 when he was appointed to the Seanad by Taoiseach Liam Cosgrove. He later served two terms as TD for Galway West and for several years was Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. However, throughout his political career, he also worked as a writer, broadcaster and poet. He had a regular column for the music magazine Hot Press and has had four poetry collections published, as well as a number of non-fiction books. Against All Certainty is the president's debut spoken word album and will feature 10 of his most well-known works. "Listeners can expect to find themselves fully transposed into the incredibly interesting life and times of the poet before he became Ireland's President, from childhood to adulthood," press for the album states. The album was recorded in Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence and office of the President of Ireland. The tracks will be set to musical compositions by O'Reilly, a member of the band Juno Falls, who has also directed a number of music videos and documentaries. 'Prodigious poems' Against All Certainty will be released on CD, hardback CD book and vinyl formats by Claddagh Records. Irish novelist, playwright and poet Sebastian Barry, who was Laureate for Irish Fiction from 2018 until 2021, hailed the president's work. "These are truly prodigious poems by Michael D. Higgins — not just a milestone in his own work but in Irish poetry," he said. President Higgins will step down from his role later this year, having served the maximum two terms. The album is available to pre-order from Claddagh Records by clicking here. See More: Claddagh Records, Michael D Higgins, Poetry
Irish Independent
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Madeleine Keane: Congratulations to the new Laureate for Irish fiction 2025-2028 Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, plus summer school season launches
Congratulations to Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, who has been appointed Laureate for Irish Fiction 2025-2028 by the Arts Council. She follows in the distinguished footsteps of Colm Tóibín, Sebastian Barry, and inaugural Laureate, Anne Enright.
Irish Independent
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Wexford author Colm Tóibín awarded prestigous honorary degree from Oxford University
On Wednesday, June 25, Tóibín was awarded the honorary degree of Doctors of Letters for his contribution to literature and journalism from the University of Oxford. The degree honours individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of literature, the creative arts, and humanities. The university outlined the long list of accomplishments that made him eligible for the coveted award. "Professor Colm Tóibín, FRSL is an Irish novelist, writer, journalist and academic. He currently serves as the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. Professor Tóibín's work has been widely recognised and shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. His novel Brooklyn (2009) was also adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. Professor Tóibín is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024 and in 2023 was awarded the Bodley Medal,' they said. Being awarded at the private ceremony alongside him was Dame Jacinda Ardern, Lord Melvyn Bragg, Clive Myrie, Professor Serhii Plokhii, Professor Timothy Snyder, Sir Mo Farah, Professor Robert S Langer and Professor Erwin Neher. On the morning of the ceremony, the heads of colleges, university dignitaries, holders of the Oxford degrees of Doctor of Divinity, Civil Law, Medicine, Letters, Science, and Music, and the honorands assemble, in full academic dress, in one of the colleges, where they enjoy Lord Crewe's Benefaction. They then walk in procession to the Sheldonian Theatre on Broad Street. The University dignitaries enter the theatre in procession; those who are to receive honorary degrees wait in the Divinity School where they sign their names in the Honorary Degrees Book. They are then escorted into the theatre by the Bedels. Once the proceedings have been opened by the Chancellor, each honorand is introduced by the Public Orator with a speech in Latin and admitted to his or her new degree by the Chancellor. The Orator then delivers the Creweian Oration on the events of the past year and in commemoration of the University's benefactors. In alternate years the Professor of Poetry delivers the second part of this speech. For over 100 years All Souls College has hosted a lunch after the ceremony for the honorands, their guests, and other senior members of the collegiate University and the local community. This is then followed by a garden party hosted by the Vice-Chancellor.
