The National Library of Ireland presents ‘Legacy in the Library’, a short film remembering Irish writer, Edna O’Brien.

Join us for this in-person film premiere taking place in the Joly Theatre of the National Library of Ireland on Sunday 27th of July at 12 noon on the first anniversary of her death.

About Legacy in the Library: Celebrating Edna O’Brien 1930-2024

Legacy in the Library is a new annual series at the National Library of Ireland. It pays tribute to Irish literary figures who have died in the preceding year, focusing on their holdings in the National Library’s collections. Their families are central to these tributes.

This specially curated film marks Edna O’Brien’s exceptional life, with a mixture of conversation, recordings, photographs, letters, ephemera and literary criticism. Filming took place on February 4th, 2025, in front of a small audience in the National Library’s iconic Prints & Drawings Reading Room.  Edna was remembered by her sons, Carlo and Sasha Gébler, in conversation with the Director of the National Library of Ireland, Dr Audrey Whitty and Dr Sinéad McCoole, NLI Head of Exhibitions, Learning and Programming. The film reflects on Edna’s later work, focusing on the holdings of the National Library which have recently been made available to scholars. This film also incorporates archival film of Edna O’Brien discussing her papers held in the National Library, which was directed by NLI Head of Communications Liz Coffey at the time of the papers’ acquisition.

The film Legacy in the Library: Celebrating Edna O’Brien 1930-2024 enables us to share this reflection with National Library of Ireland audiences near and far.

*Please note that this event is currently booked out; however, you can join the waitlist through Eventbrite here. 

In Dennis Driscoll's Stepping Stones, Heaney said 'opening P. V. Glob’s book The Bog People was like opening a gate.' To celebrate International Bog this month the book club will focus on this great source of inspiration to Heaney and the poetry it inspired.

This book club is for everyone, you don't need to be a poetry expert.

Join us in a celebration of International Bog Day and our boglands at Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again. On Saturday 26th July, join us for a special event with a panel of five guest speakers brought together by Tóchar Community Stories, a public engagement storytelling initiative under the Tóchar Midland Wetlands Restoration working with people across the eight counties of the Just Transition region in Laois, Kildare, Offaly, Westmeath, Galway, Tipperary, Roscommon and Longford.

The panel speakers include: poet Jane Clarke, a Roscommon native whose work explores themes of nature, land and climate change; composer Ann Cleare, from Birr, whose work Terrarium draws on aural recording of the buried bog at Lough Boora Co Offaly, connecting us to a vanished mesolithic lake; and Michael Long, a volunteer leader at Cabragh Wetlands, Co Tipperary, who will share the story behind the Cosmic Walk they have created, tracing the bogland to our origin story as a people and a planet, and how the community there became custodians of the land and its habitats. Artist Shane Hynan, from Co Kildare, whose photography draws on the landscape of the bogs, will share his work Beneath | Beofhód, and connect with the National Library collections, while community historian Seamus Corcoran, of the Lemanaghan Bog Heritage and Conservation Group, will tell the story of the treasures the bog holds for us in place and belonging far beyond what we extract in energy.

The event will be followed by a short tour of the exhibition with a particular focus on Heaney’s work responding to our relationship to nature, land, history and the bogs.

Tóchar Midland Wetlands Restoration is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund Programme and managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The exhibition draws on items from the National Library of Ireland’s Yeats Collection, the largest collections of books, manuscripts and personal items relating to WB Yeats in the world.

Explore Yeats’ many interests – Ireland, literature, folklore, theatre, politics, mysticism and the occult. Exhibition highlights include manuscripts of many of Yeats’ most beloved poems including “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “Easter, 1916”, his Nobel Prize medal, personal artefacts from Yeats’ school reports to a cherished carved piece of lapis lazuli, remarkable photographs of Yeats and his family and friends, and much more.

Exhibition opening hours

Monday, Thursday & Friday: 9.30am - 5pm (last admission 4.30pm) Tuesday - Wednesday: 9.30am - 7pm (last admission 6.30pm) Saturday - Sunday: 9.30am - 5pm (last admission 4.30pm) Public Holiday Mondays: 12pm - 5pm (last admission 4.30pm)