So there we have it. The inaugural Reading Ireland Month/ Begorrathon is over and what a great month it has been!

With over 100 blog posts, an array of writers, poets, musicians and movies were explored. I read 10 books by Irish authors out of my 746 and discovered many, many more writers I would love to read! I’ll be compiling all the fantastic blog posts submitted into an Ireland Month 2015 Page in the next few weeks.

I also ran out of time and didn’t get to post about A Girl is a Half Formed Thing (which I loved) or Michael McDonagh’s The Pillowman – both of which I read. Next year could someone make March just a few days longer please?!

Congratulations to the winners of my weekly giveaways:

Col at The Only Way is Reading won the Roddy Doyle books

Raven Crime Reads won the Irish Crime package

Linda at Crime Worm won the Yeats 2015 giveaway

Akylina at The Literary Sisters won the Nuala Ní Chonchúir/ Leland Bardwell books

Highlights of the month for me were the response to my post on the rise of Irish Crime Fiction, getting the chance to interview the fantastic Nuala Ní Chonchúir and wasting an entire afternoon trawling through Father Ted clips on You Tube!

I’ve also learned a few things this month.

• I can read a lot more books when I need to. I could have this 746 done and dusted much quicker if I just put my mind to it

• If I hadn’t set myself this mad 746 challenge, I would absolutely have a blog about Irish literature instead

• I have so many Irish books that I didn’t get to that I think I’ll still be doing Ireland Month in 2018!

• I’ve really enjoyed pushing myself and writing about books and literature outside of the 746 and I may try and find a way to incorporate that into the blog in the future.

 Finally and most importantly, I’ve learned that you guys are fantastic. Thanks to everyone who took part, from the blog posts to the retweets, you have all been supportive and joined in the fun.

A massive thanks to Niall at The Fluff is Raging for co-hosting this celebration with me and to V at The Verbal Spew for sponsoring the Great Irish care Package prize, the winner of which will be announced at the start of next week.

So for now, it’s back to normality here at 746books. I’ll keep working on that TBR and am looking forward to hosting an Age of Innocence Read-a-Long with Jacqui Wine’s Journal and planning my books for the 20 Books of Summer Challenge. You can be sure though that there will be a little bit of plotting and planning going on backstage for The Begorrathon 2016! Keep following the Begorrathon on Facebook for news on Irish Literature and plans for next year.

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