Books | Latest News & Reviews For Bookworms

Meg Grehan: 'Writing in verse can seem intimidating.'

Author Meg Grehan: How writing in verse helped me find my voice

'Poetry is a scary word for so many...' Acclaimed Donegal-based author Meg Grehan introduces her latest novel for young readers The Brightest Star, written entirely in verse.

Books • 19 Jun

The Tarot Reader of Versailles by Anya Bergman - read an extract

It is the early days of the French Revolution and, on the streets of Paris, terror reigns.Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand is a young woman with an extraordinary power...

Books • 7 hrs

In Plain Sight by Joseph Birchall - read an extract

Darcy has always dreamed of joining the serious crime detectives of the NBCI. She finally gets her chance to prove herself on what should have been an open-and-shut case...

Books • 20 Jun

Former Republic Of Ireland football manager Jack Charlton

An audience with Big Jack - Eamon Carr's new book extracted

In the late 1980s Horslips lyricist and drummer Eamon Carr began his journalistic career by conducting interviews with an eclectic mix of famous people.

Books • 18 Jun

Book Of The Week: The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine

When John William De Forest coined the 'Great American Novel' in 1868, he anticipated a work which had the ability communicate the tableau of contemporary living through "the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence".

Book Of The Week • 23 Jun

Banshee is one of the many journals in the busy Irish literary scene

Get Creative: On writing a novel - go find your tribe

Ever dreamed of writing a novel but didn't know where to start?

Get Creative • 22 Jun

Cristin Leach: 'Much of my recent work has taken the form of hybrid texts.'

Get Creative: writing non-fiction – hybrid texts & collaborations

Ever thought about writing non-fiction, be it an essay, a memoir or even a brief snapshot of your life? Why not take the leap?

Get Creative • 08 Jun

Our Song - author Anna Carey (Pic: Brid O'Donovan)

Book Of The Week: Our Song by Anna Carey

Our Song marks Carey's first foray into fiction for adults, and what unfurls in this charming and compulsively readable novel is not just a tender love story, but one that harmonises with Carey's real life story of musical romance.

Book Of The Week • 16 Jun

Katherine Lynch: 'It's a celebration that welcomes everyone into the world of James Joyce'

Katherine Lynch: the magic of Bloomsday, and finding joy in Joyce

Bloomsday is simply Bohemian bowler hat heaven in our beloved Dublin.

Bloomsday • 17 Jun

Something For The Weekend: Oisin Fagan's cultural picks

Oisin's new novel, Eden's Shore, is a bold and inventive work that explores greed, love and power in an imagined South America at the close of the 18th century.

Something For The Weekend • 12 Jun

Both Dante and James Joyce explore the soul, society and language to examine the human condition. Photo: Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images

How Dante's work deeply influenced James Joyce's literary journey

Dante and Joyce take different paths with the Divine Comedy and Ulysses, but their journeys are deeply connected

James Joyce • 16 Jun

Aimée Walsh: 'All good writers are first great readers'

Get Creative: On writing a novel - a great place to start

Ever dreamed of writing a novel but didn't know where to start? Now's the perfect time to pick up your pen (or keyboard) and dive into the world of storytelling—no experience needed, just your imagination.

Get Creative • 15 Jun

RTÉjr Book Club: Read with Pride this month

Ruth Concannon, Publications Officer for Children's Books Ireland, is here with more great reading recommendations for all you RTÉjr Book Clubbers. And she tells us about a brand new reading guide too!

Book Club • 04 Jun

The original Bloomsday boys of summer (left to right): John Ryan, Anthony Cronin, Brian O'Nolan, Patrick Kavanagh and Tom Joyce

What happened on the very first Bloomsday in 1954?

Dublin's annual celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses may be a big event now, but its debut outing was rather inauspicious

Bloomsday • 17 Jun

Book Of The Week: Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney

Elaine Feeney's new novel is a masterclass in Irish storytelling...

Book Of The Week • 09 Jun

Dermot Flynn, Eilish Fisher, Steve McCarthy, Graine Clear, Kelly McCaughrain and Ned McCarthy (front). Photo: Julien Behal.

We Love Books: We meet award-winning writers and one hero reader!

We Love Books is the podcast from RTE where all about books - the people who make them and the kids who read them!

Podcasts • 16 Jun

"Latin was a language for Joyce between English ('an acquired speech') and Irish ('what for?')". Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

Why is there so much Latin in Ulysses?

The language, the way it was taught and references to Latin literature are constants throughout James Joyce's work

James Joyce • 13 Jun

A one-stop summer reading list, via a trio of top Irish authors

Speaking to Brendan O'Connor, acclaimed Irish authors authors Naoise Dolan, John Banville and Emer McLysaght bring us an eclectic list of book recommendations for your suitcase this summer

Books • 09 Jun

Something For The Weekend – Anna Carey's cultural picks

Anna Carey is an Irish Book Award-winning novelist, journalist, editor and scriptwriter who spent her teens and twenties playing in bands...

Something For The Weekend • 11 Jun

Colin Firth in the BBC's celebrated 1995 TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice

Why Jane Austen novels make perfect period adaptations

Announcing its new six-part adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Netflix quoted screenwriter Dolly Alderton as saying: "Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story."

Opinion and Analysis • 11 Jun

Christine Dwyer Hickey: 'I wasn't officially allowed to go into town on my own, until I was 10 years old.'

Village people - Christine Dwyer Hickey on Dublin then and now

We present the text of a speech made by author Christine Dwyer Hickey at the Dublin Literary Dinner, 2025, celebrating the winner of this year's Dublin Literary Award, Canadian author Michael Crummey.

Reminisces • 04 Jun

Our Song by Anna Carey - read an extract

Tadhg and Laura used to be in a band together.They used to be a lot of things.

Books • 11 Jun

Dorothy Cross: ' I felt compelled to return the body and sarcophagus to his homeland'

Artist Dorothy Cross on returning a mummified body to Egypt

We present an extract from Kinship, the new book by celebrated artist Dorothy Cross.

Books • 26 May

Watch: Poet Stephen James Smith celebrates the voices of Dublin

For the 10th anniversary of their Dublin You Are project, Dublin City Council Culture Company have created a new film, entitled Talk To Me, to reflect the voices of people across Dublin City.

Poetry • 28 May

The late Desmond Fennell pictured in Portobello Dublin, circa 2000

'That is the Writer's Decision!' – Desmond Fennell's legacy today

'That is the writer's decision!': The legacy, rigour, and continued relevance of Desmond Fennell's thinking

Books • 30 May