Irish Books

Christopher Murray
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Each episode focuses on a single book to offer in-depth exploration of contemporary Irish writing, one of the the dominant presences in book shops, book groups, and writers’ festivals around the world. Guest experts on Irish culture join author and critic Chris Murray to explore the techniques, cultural resonances, and deeper meanings of the nation’s recent literature. Irish Books tackles prize winners and some of the biggest names in Irish writing today while also calling attention to emerging voices that deserve notice. Listeners will learn more about the books they loved and find out what they should read next. Host @drchrismurray.bsky.social (Bluesky) The Irish Books Podcast is produced by East Coast Studio with support from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Monash University

Episodes

  1. Grime, Passion, and Addiction: Eimear McBride's The City Changes its Face

    MAR 11

    Grime, Passion, and Addiction: Eimear McBride's The City Changes its Face

    Dr Frances Devlin-Glass, Director of the annual James Joyce celebration Bloomsday Melbourne,  sees Joyce's Modernism at work in McBride's novel. Chris and Frances find McBride having fun with language, the written sentence, and even typesetting at the same time as she explores the complex relations between recovering addict Stephen, his much younger partner Eily, and Stephen's daughter Grace. Chris and Frances discuss formal experimentation too: the plot centres on Stephen screening an autobiographical film. McBride embeds the screenplay in The City Changes its Face alongside studies of the characters' reactions. Through the fuss over the film, and the reunion with Grace, the sexually assertive Eily becomes jealous over Stephen. McBride invokes her range of inventiveness to portray Eily's anguish. But would a fan of Molly Bloom want Eily to be a stronger feminist? LINKS:Irish Books Podcast on Blogspot: https://irishbookspodcast.blogspot.comFollow the Irish Books Podcast channel on WhatsApp The Irish Books Podcast is proudly produced by East Coast Studio with support from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Monash University See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    36 min
  2. Losing All Life's Certainties: Paul Lynch's Prophet Song

    FEB 25

    Losing All Life's Certainties: Paul Lynch's Prophet Song

    Lynch’s Booker-winner is divisive. While Chris Murray wonders whether the characters in Prophet Song could be fleshed out, and the story of a fascist Ireland more fully realised, his guest says that this misses the point. Professor Christopher Morash (Trinity College Dublin) argues that Lynch’s purpose is to explore what happens to a person whose identity is gradually eroded. In a vividly portrayed suburban Dublin that steadily slips from view, narrator Eilish Stack first loses her husband, then her profession and her home, and faces the prospect of losing her children too. Morash says that Lynch is most interested in this reduction of a person to her basic impulse to survive, and that the story of Ireland’s decline into an authoritarian state is only a device to achieve this. While recent politics have made Prophet Song topical, Morash suggests that paying too much attention to the book’s political dimension means misreading Lynch’s experiment in ‘radical empathy’. Morash refers to playwright Sean O’Casey to show the Irish literary tradition at work in Prophet Song, in which civil war is so mutually harmful that the specific politics cease to matter. Murray wonders whether the book is too bleak, but Morash says that the closing image of the sea signals hope. Which perspective on Prophet Song seems right to you? LINKS:Irish Books Podcast on Blogspot: https://irishbookspodcast.blogspot.com Follow the Irish Books Podcast channel on WhatsAppBuy Prophet Song: https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/prophet-song-9780861545896 Guest:Christopher Morash http://www.tcd.ie/English/staff/academic-staff/chris-morash.php The Irish Books Podcast is proudly produced by East Coast Studio with support from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Monash University See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    43 min
  3. Disaster on Rails: Emma Donoghue’s Paris Express

    FEB 11

    Disaster on Rails: Emma Donoghue’s Paris Express

    In this episode of Irish Books, historian Professor Dianne Hall joins Chris Murray to discuss Emma Donoghue’s The Paris Express, a book that brings aspects of the thriller genre to literary fiction. Set aboard a train on a single day in 1895, The Paris Express assembles a cast of real figures, but in an alternate history in which they are propelled towards disaster.  At the heart of the story is the tension between the young anarchist Mado Pelletier, who carries a bomb, and the only passenger who guesses her secret, the librarian and charity-worker Blonska. Chris and Dianne explore Donoghue’s blend of historical research and imaginative reinvention, the novel’s queer aesthetic, and how the threat of impending destruction speaks to the sense of fragility in our own time. . Dianne Hall is Professor of History at Victoria University, Melbourne.  LINKS:Irish Books Podcast on Blogspot: https://irishbookspodcast.blogspot.comBuy "Paris Express" https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781035057276/ Follow the Irish Books Podcast channel on WhatsApp Guest:Dianne Hall https://researchers.vu.edu.au/2149-dianne-hall   The Irish Books Podcast is proudly produced by East Coast Studio with support from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Monash University   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    39 min
  4. Irish Books Season 1

    SEASON 1 TRAILER

    Irish Books Season 1

    Hear in-depth discussions of recent Irish books that are worth reading, across a range of genres. Expert guests get to the heart of books you know and give you ideas of what contemporary Irish literature to read next. In Irish Books, author and critic Chris Murray discusses recent Irish books with expert guests. Hear their in-depth conversations to learn about contemporary Irish books that are worth reading. For lovers of Irish fiction, The Irish Books Podcast gets to the heart of books you know and gives you ideas of what to read next.Follow the Irish Books Podcast channel on WhatsApp See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    2 min

Trailer

About

Each episode focuses on a single book to offer in-depth exploration of contemporary Irish writing, one of the the dominant presences in book shops, book groups, and writers’ festivals around the world. Guest experts on Irish culture join author and critic Chris Murray to explore the techniques, cultural resonances, and deeper meanings of the nation’s recent literature. Irish Books tackles prize winners and some of the biggest names in Irish writing today while also calling attention to emerging voices that deserve notice. Listeners will learn more about the books they loved and find out what they should read next. Host @drchrismurray.bsky.social (Bluesky) The Irish Books Podcast is produced by East Coast Studio with support from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Monash University

Information

  • Creator
    Christopher Murray
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Chris Murray
  • Show Website
    Irish Books

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