At Irish Heritage Forum on Wednesday 3rd February Chair Michael Walsh had a couple of special announcements to make before proceedings kicked off. Irish Heritage will soon be hosting a collection of 200 Irish interest books at their home in The Irish Centre, which will be available to forum members to borrow. They will also be holding informal discussion group meetings at 7pm on the third Wednesday of each month, talking topics such as Collins Shot: conspiracy or chance? The first discussion group meeting is this Weds 17th March.
Afterwards Deirdre O’Byrne spoke about Fathers in Irish Fiction, who generally speaking are a pretty sorry bunch of feckless, drunken, tyrannical rapists when they’re not completely absent. It was a great talk. I particularly liked her focus on one of my favourite novels The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe. Afterwards we had a good chat about Winterwood by the same author, which is all about one Irishman’s stab at perfect fatherhood going horribly wrong. Some recommended reading there.
I don’t know what’s in store for the next Irish Heritage session at The Irish Centre on Weds 3rd March at 7pm, but I don’t doubt it’ll be just as compelling.
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