It’s fifty years since rock music raised its middle finger to society, to a flabby self-satisfied music scene, and reinvented itself. God Save the Queen took on a whole new meaning in the hands of the Sex Pistols, and punk was born. Tom Dunne loved it all as a teenager but missed the short-lived phenomenon as lead singer of Something Happens.

From Southgate to Skibbereen, via Hollywood and the House of Lords. David Puttnam, Oscar winner for Chariots of Fire (1981) had an extraordinary career as one of foremost independent film producers of his generation (Midnight Express, The Mission, The Killing Fields) long before he became head of Columbia Pictures in 1986. He is also a distinguished educationalist, a former Labour peer, recipient of more than fifty honorary degrees and a resident of West Cork. David will be in conversation with Myles Dungan.

Eamon Carr, journalist, author and founding member of the influential band Horslips, winners of the RTE Choice Music Prize Classic Album Award 2026 at this year’s Choice Music Awards, returns home to Kells to discuss Pure Gold, his vivid collection of remarkable interviews with famous people gathered across a lifetime. A chance to welcome back one of the town’s most distinctive cultural voices. Eamon will be in conversation with Gerry Foley.

He could be taciturn and enigmatic and, although his time as Taoiseach has been well raked over by others we have not heard much in the way of personal recollections from the man himself. Until now. Sean Lemass: the Lost Memoir contains 22 hours of interviews with one of Ireland’s few transformative political leaders. Historian and Irish Times journalist McGreevy offers an insight into one of the country’s most admired and consequential politicians.

Hear the fascinating story of the newly restored Victorian Printing Presses. Print your own personalised Tote Bag on the Albion Beam Press – the collection’s oldest press dating from 1832!

Part of the Four Courts Press series on the War of Independence and the Civil War in every county in Ireland. The research and the writing of Meath and the Irish Revolution 1912-23 was entrusted to Ciarán Wallace, Deputy Director of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland who looks at the upheaval of these revolutionary years in the county, for the activists and volunteers, and the majority who tried to get on with daily life.

Former State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy reflects on fifteen years at the heart of some of Ireland’s most complex murder investigations and the evolution of forensic science. She explores how a lifetime studying real cases, evidence & human stories has provided the narrative fuel for her transition into crime fiction including her latest novel Deadly Evidence.

Marie will be in conversation with Deirdre Hurley.

Martin Doyle, as Books Editor of The Irish Times, has interviewed many of the most talented and successful of Irish writers. In A Hosting: Interviews with Irish Writers 1991-2025 (Lilliput Press, April 2026), he chats with, among others Sally Rooney, Claire Keegan, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Claire Kilroy, and Donal Ryan. Martin will be in conversation with Myles Dungan.

Mary Cloughlan is Ireland’s greatest jazz and blues singer and, according to Hot Press, ‘one of our most openly raw performers’. Her career is fast approaching its 40^th year and her legendary performances are as compelling as ever. She is Ireland’s chanteuse par excellence. Excuse our French!