In Conversation: Carmel McMahon and Martina Evans

As part of our celebrations for Irish Book Week 2024, and in association with the Irish Cultural Centre, we will be hosting an evening with writers Carmel McMahon and Martina Evans. They will be in discussion and reading from their books In Ordinary Time and The Coming Thing.

Candid yet lyrical, In Ordinary Time mines the ways that trauma reverberates through time and through individual lives, drawing connections to the events and rhythms of Ireland’s long Celtic, early Christian and Catholic history. From tragically lost siblings to the broader social scars of the Famine and the Magdalene Laundries, Mc Mahon sketches the evolution of a consciousness – from her conservative 1970s upbringing to 1990s New York, and back to the much-changed Ireland of today.

The Coming Thing is a brilliant long narrative poem which takes us to a particular version of 1980s Cork, a party town of punks and teenage poses. Martina Evans has become celebrated for work on this scale - spoken, dramatic, abundant… It looks hard at the duplicity surrounding received ideas about the sacredness of human life and how economic change runs counter to the values of 'old' Ireland.

***The ticket price is redeemable against the purchase of one of the books. (one ticket per book)***