Write the Irish Way: Tap What Your Soul Longs to Say is a Six Week Writing Workshop designed to return you to the doors of your Wild Self where your Soul and all her stories await. WHEN: 6 Tuesday nights, January 17-February 21, 2017, 6:15-9 p.m. OR 6 Wednesday Mornings,…
ILHS Speaker Series 2017 Elizabeth C. Creely, writer and public historian, will speak on Republican Daniel Harnedy and the “Sinn Fein Shoe Store” as part of her work to research and document the Irish community of San Francisco’s Mission District. As a community historian, Elizabeth works with the Irish American…
Tom Hayden, who passed away last October, was an iconic figure in America’s anti-war movement and a campaigner over many years for peace and justice in Northern Ireland. He led an extraordinary life of organizing, writing, and political reform. He put himself on the line during Mississippi Summer in 1964,…
Join Ethel Rohan for the launch of her debut novel, The Weight of Him, at The Booksmith, San Francisco on February 16th at 7.30pm. Ethel will read and be in conversation with Edan Lepucki, followed by a Q&A and book signing The Weight of Him tells the story of Billy…
Dale Jensen and Judy Wells will read their poetry at 7 pm on Friday, February 17th, at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Avenue in Berkeley. Judy Wells, educated at Stanford and UC Berkeley, has published eleven poetry books. Her latest poetry collection, The Glass Ship (Sugartown, 2014), completes her trilogy of…
Ethel Rohan Book Reading • Feb 23 Join Ethel Rohan for a reading and signing of her debut novel, The Weight of Him, at Bookshop West Portal, San Francisco. The Weight of Him tells the story of Billy Brennan. At four hundred pounds, Billy can always count on food. From…
ILHS Speaker Series 2017 Matt Spangler, Feb 26. The Irish Literary & Historical Society is planning two very special events for the months of February and March. In February they present a talk by ILHS Vice President, playwright and academic Matthew Spangler. Spangler, a Professor of Performance Studies at San…
Annual Banquet, March 19. The ILHS presents their annual St. Patrick’s Banquet on Sunday, March 19 at the Saint Patrick’s Ballroom in the United Irish Cultural Center. This year's event features harpist and storyteller Patrick Ball, with song and dramatic reading by Esther Mulligan, and music by fiddler, Anne Goess. Contact…
Chinese, Irish, and the Transcontinental Railroad • Mar 26 “Chinese and Irish Workers in the Construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.” Gordon H. Chang, Professor of American History and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford, and Barry P. McCarron, Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow of Irish Studies…
Crossroads Salon Sunday, March 26. 2:00pm-5:00pm. Location: A private residence in St. Francis Woods. Address provided with RVSP. RSVP: [email protected] or call 707-235-9858. Free event. Join us to share or enjoy creative work inspired by Irish-American life in a comfortable and congenial Salon experience! You are cordially invited to the…
Irish Literary & Historical Society Speaker Series • May 21 Elizabeth Drew on Samuel Beckett Trinity PhD scholar, will speak on the presence of Ireland in the writings of Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett. Samuel Beckett, one of the most acclaimed writers of the 20th century, was born in Foxrock, Co.…
Bay Area Book Festival • June 3 & 4 Over the weekend of June 3rd and 4th, 2017, the third annual Bay Area Book Festival will fill downtown Berkeley with a literary extravaganza that offers pleasure to anyone who has ever loved a book. Irish writers featured this year on…
Masquerade: Treason, the Holocaust, and an Irish Impostor - City Lights 7pm Phyllis Ursula James. Nora O’Mara. Róisín Ní Mhéara. Like her name, the life of Rosaleen James changed many times as she followed a convoluted path from abandoned child, to foster daughter of an aristocratic British family, to traitor…
Bloomsday with Thomas Lynch • Berkeley Lynch reads from James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” 2 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 704-8222. www.mrsdalloways.com.
Annual Bloomsday Celebration Dinner, Concert, and Community Readings Friday, June 16, 2017 - 6:00pm Eat, Read, Drink, and Walk on the Wild Side of Dublin! The evening begins with a special Bloomsday menu with lively musical interludes featuring a Celtic music ensemble with singers Melanie O’Reilly, Esther Mulligan, & John…
Judy Wells, Dale Jensen, Lynn Ireland, Carol Sheldon, Gabrielle Rilleau, and Susan Robinson will read Tuesday, June 20th, at 7 pm at Larkspur Library, 400 Magnolia Avenue, in Larkspur with the Marin Traveling Show hosted by Prartho Sereno. Judy Wells' latest poetry collection, The Glass Ship (Sugartown, 2014), completes her…
Acclaimed Irish writer Colm Tóibín is the author of nine novels including Brooklyn and Nora Webster and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times. His literary subjects have included the imagined inner life of Henry James and the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In his…
Judy Wells, Evelyn Posamentier, and Natasha Sajé will read as part of the Last Word Reading Series, and there is also an open reading. Judy Wells’ latest poetry collection, The Glass Ship (Sugartown Publishing), completes her trilogy of Irish-themed works, including Everything Irish and Call Home (Scarlet Tanager Books). She…
Ethel Rohan • Green Apple, SF Sep. 14th Ethel Rohan (The Weight of Him, St. Martin’s Press 2017) is at Green Apple Books, 1231 9th Avenue, on Thursday, September 14 at 7:30pm. Ethel will be in conversation with Ben Loory to discuss his new, critically acclaimed book, Tales of Falling…
Evelyn Conlon • Spats, Berkeley, Sep 25 The diaspora, borders, and recalcitrant women and men are recurring themes in the work of Irish writer Evelyn Conlon. Her work “highlights the exceptional and unfathomable depths of what we nonchalantly dismiss as the normal, the everyday … Conlon emerges as champion of…
Micheline Sheehy Skeffington • Sunday, November 12 Hanna and Francis Sheehy Skeffington, nationalists, pacifists, feminists, socialists: their role in early 20th century Ireland National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) Professor Emerita Micheline Sheehy Skeffington will speak on the US organizing activities and political legacy of her grandmother, Hanna…
Exploration with James Silas Rogers • Mar 11 Is there still a distinct Irish identity in America? James Rogers’ new book, Irish-American Autobiography: the Divided Hearts of Athletes, Priests, Pilgrims and More, says yes, though it’s often an indirect one. True, the age of heroic immigration is over, and today…
ILHS St. Patrick's Banquet • Mar 11 The Literary & History Society's Saint Patrick's Banquet this year commemorates the SF Irish Labor Movement, honoring former ILHS Board Chairman Edward Callanan. Tickets and information at ilhssf.org or email event chair Maureen Barry
Join the Irish Studies Program at UC Berkeley for an engaging conversation with Paige Reynolds on Eimear McBride's recent novel, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (2013) FALSE COMFORT: SEX, PRAYER AND MODERNISM IN EIMEAR MCBRIDE'S A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING April 16 5-6:30 pm 300 Wheeler Hall UC Berkeley campus …
Irish Writers at Bay Area Book Festival • April 28 Breaking Literary Ground: Ambitious Young Writers from Ireland features Eimear McBride, David Hayden, and Liz Nugent, April 28, 10am For the third year in a row, the festival showcases some of today’s most powerful writers who come from our land…
CALENDAR SPONSORED IN PART BY THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF IRELAND, SAN FRANCISCO