It’s that time again! March is coming, my favourite month in my blogging calendar, because it’s Reading Ireland Month – will you be joining us?

Ah, gwan, ya will!

By now you’ll know that we never stop banging on about Ireland and its hefty cultural punch. Four Nobel Prize winners; six Booker Prize winners, including Anna Burns wonderful win for Milkman; some world dominating musicians and a host of Oscar winners (with The Favourite, produced by Irish company Element Picture’s bagging all the nominations at this year’s awards)

We have the best pint in the world and the most stunning coastline – you could even say it’s in a galaxy far, far away.

Last year we hosted over 100 posts on all things relating to Irish culture. Books, food, travel, movies, theatre and favourite bookshops – your enthusiasm was boundless and so was your reading.

To celebrate the wealth and breadth and general awesomeness of Irish cultural life, I will be co-hosting a month long celebration of all things Irish, with my partner in crime Raging Fluff.

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.

We’d love for you to join us!

Grab our new badge and get planning your Ireland themed reading or viewing. Like our Facebook page here and then between 1 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 The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien. Post your wheaten bread recipe. Make a list of your favourite Irish books or movies. Eat a packet of Tayto crisps. Listen to The Cranberries and marvel at the brilliance of the much-missed Dolores O’Riordan. Read a novel by Sebastian Barry – the new Irish Laureate for Literature, or even read a novel from another country translated by the marvellous Sligo born Frank Wynne.

Watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi and marvel at our countryside. Read some of last year’s award winning new fiction from Sally Rooney (Normal People) and Emilie Pine (Notes to Self). If you’re feeling brave, read Ulysses – some year, I swear I will. Treat yourself to a binge watch of the latest hit comedy Derry Girls or The Young Offenders.

The options are endless!

This year, I am theming my posts – you can join in with this schedule if you like, but if you don’t, don’t worry! My reading will be grouped as follows:

1st – 10th March – Contemporary Irish Novels

11th– 17th March – Classic Irish Novels

18^th – 24^th March – Irish Short Story Collections

25th – 31st March – Irish Non-Fiction

I’ll be hosting a giveaway each week and we’ll be sharing posts on our Facebook page here.

If you need some inspiration, check out my list of 100 Irish Novels and 100 Novels by Irish Women Writers and don’t forget to link up your post to the Linky on our Master Post.

This year we’ll be tweeting using the hashtags #readingirelandmonth19 or #begorrathon19

Now. After all that, would you like a wee cup of tea?!

Ireland Month Irish Literature #begorrathon19 irish literature reading ireland month 19