It’s that time again! March is coming and so is Reading Ireland Month – will you be joining us?

Ah, gwan, ya will!

We Irish prefer embroideries to plain cloth. To us Irish, memory is a canvas–stretched, primed, and ready for painting on. We love the “story” part of the word “history,” and we love it trimmed out with color and drama, ribbons and bows. Listen to our tunes, observe a Celtic scroll: we always decorate our essence.

Frank Delaney

Ireland is about so much more than shamrocks, St. Patrick and leprechauns. For a country the same size as South Carolina, it packs a hefty cultural punch. Ireland has produced four Nobel Prize winners; five Booker Prize winners; some world dominating musicians; a host of Oscar winners (and several nominated for this year’s awards) and a leading action hero from Ballymena.

We have the best pint in the world and the most stunning coastline – even Luke Skywalker agrees!

Last year we hosted a whopping 100 posts on all things relating to Irish culture.

Books, food, travel, movies, theatre and favourite bookshops – your enthusiasm was boundless.

So this year we hope to be bigger and better.

To celebrate the wealth and breadth and general awesomeness of Irish cultural life, 746 Books and Raging Fluff are co-hosting a month long celebration of all things Irish.

Reading Ireland Month (or The Begorrathon as it is affectionately known) will feature book and film reviews, poems, music, interviews, giveaways and much, much more. This year I will be focusing on women writers, the short story and new Irish voices.

We’d love for you to join us!

That’s the Irish People all over – they treat a serious thing as a joke and a joke as a serious thing.

Sean O’Casey

Grab our new badge and put it in your sidebar and get planning your Ireland themed reading or viewing. Like our Facebook page here and then between 29 February and 31 March, post as much as you like about any aspect of Irish literature and culture – anything at all!

Read this year’s One City One Book choice Fallen by Lia Mills. Post your favourite wheaten bread recipe. Make a list of your favourite Irish books or movies. Read a book by a female writer from Northern Ireland to support Women Aloud NI. Watch the Oscar nominated movie Room, written by Emma Donoghue and directed by Lenny Abrahamson, both Irish!

It is the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, why not read some of the beautiful literature written by the men and women who took part. Read a play by an Irish woman and support #WakingtheFeminists. Watch Game of Thrones and marvel at our countryside. Dress up as Mrs Doyle from Father Ted and take a selfie, whatever it is we don’t mind!

Why not check out our fab trailer for some inspiration!

 

As an added incentive, everyone who posts during Reading Ireland Month will be entered into a draw to win a year’s subscription to Ireland’s leading literary magazine, The Stinging Fly.

We’re not big on rules so the ones we have are pretty straightforward:

• Put a link to your post on our Facebook page and we’ll be sure to share it
• Link to our master post on either of our blogs: FOR POSTS ABOUT POETS, PLAYWRIGHTS and AUTHORS, link back to Cathy at 746 Books
• FOR POSTS ABOUT FILMS, MUSIC, TV or ANYTHING ELSE, link back to Niall at Raging Fluff
• Watch our Reading Ireland Month trailer to give you some ideas for what to watch, read, eat or drink
• Join the craic on Facebook
• Check out the list of 100 Irish Novels on 746 Books blog in case you need some help choosing a book
• Don’t forget to tweet about your post using the hashtags #readireland16 or #begorrathon16

We can’t wait to hear what you are planning. Have you any books or movies lined up? Any new authors or old favourites you might visit during March?

It’s going to be some craic….

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy

WB Yeats

 

 

Ireland Month Irish Literature #begorrathon16 #readireland16 #WomenAloudNI anne enright brendan gleeson colin farrell easter 1916 fallen father ted guinness irish literature irish movies lenny abrahamson lia mills room short stories the stinging fly