Arts – RTÉ Press Centre

December 19, 2024December 10, 2024

An Post Irish Book Of The Year 2024

The six titles competing for the overall An Post Irish Book of the Year Award are drawn from the category winners at the An Post Irish Book Awards, and are chosen on the principle of the highest number of votes secured during the shortlist voting process across all categories.

The overall ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2024’ winner will now be decided by a distinguished panel of judges, including a literary editor, Director of International Trade with An Post, the CEO of Children’s Books Ireland, the Managing Director of Dubray Books and a literary journalist.

The judging panel consists of:

Maria Dickenson, Judging Chair – General Manager of Dubray, Board Member of the An Post Irish Book Awards

Madeleine Keane – Literary editor of the Sunday Independent, lecturer at University College Dublin and Chair of Children’s Books Ireland

Cyril McGrane – A certified public accountant by profession, Cyril has worked with An Post for the last 27 years, holding a succession of senior roles in retail, operational and logistics management. Cyril is An Post’s key liaison lead with IPC and UPU and he is leading An Post’s Customs 2020 and Brexit programmes

Elaina Ryan – CEO of Children’s Books Ireland and Co-Artistic Director of Tower and Tales Children’s Books Festival in Co. Wexford

Alex Clark – A critic, journalist and broadcaster, Alex is patron of the Cambridge Literary Festival and has judged many literary awards, including the Booker Prize.

One of the six titles will be revealed as the ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2024’ during a one-hour television special hosted by Oliver Callan on RTÉ One on Thursday, 19^th December at 10:15 PM

Previous winners of the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award include Paul Murray for The Bee Sting, Sally Hayden for My Fourth Time, We Drowned, Fintan O’Toole for We Don’t Know Ourselves, Doireann Ní Ghríofa for A Ghost in the Throat, the late Vicky Phelan for Overcoming, Emilie Pine for Notes to Self, John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, Mike Murphy and John Borgonovo for Atlas of the Irish Revolution, Mike McCormack for Solar Bones, Louise O’Neill for Asking For It, Mary Costello for Academy St, Donal Ryan for The Spinning Heart, Michael Harding for Staring at Lakes, and Belinda McKeon for Solace.

September 20, 2024September 19, 2024

Culture Night 2024

Culture Night on RTÉ One will entail a special hour of television with a curated array of exclusives.

Denise Chaila anchors the show from The Round Room in Dublin’s Mansion House as she interweaves the line-up of exceptional one-off performances.

David Gray makes a voyage to Sceilg Mhichíl in the company of his longtime friend Colm Mac Con Iomaíre. This is a trip that David has dreamed about for decades, a place that has loomed so large in his imagination that he named his last album after it and painted it for the album cover. “It was nothing short of magical to be there”, gushed David after the filming.

Also featured on this celebration are Leitrim’s Edwina Guckian and adopted sons Mohammad Syfkhan and Ultan O’Brien providing the soundtrack for dancing at the crossroads in Effrinagh.

The show also features a celebration of punk from Derry, hair raising aerial circus mastery from Ballydehob in West Cork and a treetop display of street dancing from Avondale in Wicklow.

All of this is interspersed with a series of orchestral explorations with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra helmed by conductor David Brophy with special guests vocalists Villagers, Niamh Regan, New Jackson and Joe Chester with Gemma Hayes.

RTÉ Culture Night, Mohammad Syfkhan, Ultan O’Brien and Edwina Guckian

Loosysmokes ‘Knotheads’ for RTÉ Culture Night 2024. With Elaine Mc Cague & Performers: Lucia Fernandez, Mimi Ke, Imogen Macrae by Jason Lee

December 14, 2023November 20, 2023

THE WORKS PRESENTS

John Kelly returns with The Works Presents, adding to the extensive archive of this well-loved series. Four of Ireland’s most inspired and inspirational creative people, talk with John about how encounters with art transformed their lives – and in turn, became their lives. Guests include author Joseph O’Connor; artists Patricia Hurl and Mick O’Dea, and musician, composer, and Artistic Director of Crash Ensemble, Kate Ellis. John discovers what drives them to create the works they make.

EPISODE FOUR – Mick O’Dea

From Ennis in County Clare, the painter Mick O’Dea is one of our best-known artists – his work included in many public collections including The National Gallery of Ireland, as well as in public, corporate and private collections throughout the world. A Past President of the Royal Hibernian Academy, he lectured for 16 years at the National College of Art and Design – where he himself had studied before continuing his studies abroad. He’s perhaps best known for his portraits – those of friends and those commissioned portraits of significant public figures – and also for a remarkable trilogy of exhibitions that explored his own fascination with Irish history and, in particular, the foundation of the State. He now divides his time between a studio in North Mayo and a studio in Dublin – fully committed to a rich, varied and very busy practice.

The Works Presents, Episode 4 Mick O’Dea Copyright: RTÉ 2023

December 7, 2023November 16, 2023

THE WORKS PRESENTS

EPISODE THREE – Kate Ellis

Kate Ellis is a cellist and Artistic Director of Crash Ensemble, Ireland’s premier new music ensemble, devoted to today’s most adventurous and ground-breaking music. As a member of Crash, Kate has collaborated with the giants of contemporary music such as Steve Reich, Gavin Bryars, and Terry Riley, and has premiered works by composers such as David Lang, Valgeir Sigurdsson and Donnacha Dennehy. She’s regularly collaborates with other musicians, notably in the Martin Hayes’ Common Ground Ensemble, and with Bono as part of the Songs of Surrender tour. Much in demand, Kate has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the Electric Picnic.

The Works Presents, Episode 3 Kate Ellis, Cellist Copyright: RTÉ 2023

December 7, 2023November 17, 2023

Imogen from the Heart

A fascinating arts documentary about one of Ireland’s most celebrated artists, Imogen Stuart, who is busy creating in her mid 90’s. Her grandson Emile Dinneen has spent that last 13 years filming with this inspiring woman.

After growing up in an artistic half-Jewish family in Berlin during WWII – where her father captured remarkable film footage – Imogen met a young Irish sculptor student Ian Stuart. They fell in love and moved to Ireland. Ian Stuart was the grandson of Maud Gonne, and Imogen resided in their family home in Laragh Co. Wicklow. Over the following 70 years, Imogen Stuart has created her own life and an extraordinary body of work, which are located all over the island of Ireland and beyond. This unique, personal film tells Imogen’s remarkable life story which has straddled two worlds, giving us a intimate window in to how she has coped with loss and tragedy while sharing her views on family, art, religion and the meaning of life

Imogen from the Heart Imogen Stuart Copyright: Conor Horgan

December 6, 2023November 24, 2023

AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR

In the final chapter of the 2023 book awards season, Oliver Callan explores the six books shortlisted for the ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023’ in a one-hour special on RTÉ One television.

Oliver takes a closer look at this year’s finalists – the stories and the writers behind six very different books – culminating in the reveal of 2023’s overall winner.