The National Library of Ireland

Podcaster in Residence - Episode 7 - The Natural History of Cage Birds - Adrian Duncan

In this episode Zoë has delved into the NLI collection to find a book that brings together a number of interests for writer Adrian Duncan: engineering, Victorian tables, the natural world and a link to Germany where Adrian lives. The Natural History of Cage Birds is a book by JM Bechstein - it explores 'Their Management, Habits, Food, Diseased, Treatment, Breeding, And The Methods Of Catching Them'. It gives details, and to modern sensibilities, shocking advice for keeping birds in captivity. Adrian was interested in the engineering and design of these cages and how they tell us as much about Victorian society and ambitions as they do about birds. Adrian has written a specially commissioned short story for this episode that shows some of the overlapping absurdity of the Victorian era and the Celtic Tiger. In it the narrator comes across a slip of paper tucked into Bechstein's book, but who wrote it and why? Adrian Duncan is an artist and award-winning writer based between Ireland and Berlin. He is the author of five novels and a work of non-fiction. His debut, Love Notes from a German Building Site, won the John McGahern Book Prize in 2019. His second novel, A Sabbatical in Leipzig, was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in 2020. His short story collection, Midfield Dynamo (2021), was longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. His third novel, The Geometer Lobachevsky, was shortlisted for both the Walter Scott Prize and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. His fourth novel, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth, was published in January 2025 by Tuskar Rock Press. His fifth, A Thought without Collision, is due out later this year. His first non-fiction book, Little Republics: The Story of Bungalow Bliss, explores rural Irish domestic architecture from the 1970s to the 1990s. He is also editor of PVA journal - its latest edition focuses on Monuments.

Podcaster in Residence - Episode 6 - An Cailín Bán - Nuala O'Connor

In this episode Zoë Comyns’ guest is writer Nuala O’Connor – they discuss writing historical fiction and specifically the case of An Cailín Bán – Ellen Hanley. An Cailín Bán/The Colleen Bawn was 15-year-old Ellen Hanley from Limerick who, in 1819, married John Scanlan a 28-year-old squire’s son. He convinced her to elope with him; he took her dowry and after six weeks of marriage he ordered his servant Steven Sullivan to kill her and dispose of the body in the Shannon estuary. Zoë speaks to historian Pat Fitzgerald about stories related to Ellen Hanley, he refers to some of the literary and stage adaptations of An Cailín Bán and the primary source National Library of Ireland documents that exist from the inquest and trial of Ellen Hanley’s murderers. Zoë has commissioned a short story by Nuala O’Connor which imagines the reader of these NLI documents. In White Ellen a descendent of one of the murderers comes to Ireland to find out more about the murder and explore the shame she feels being related to a murderer. White Ellen is read by Carla C Emmons. Nuala O’Connor Nuala O’Connor is a novelist, short story writer and poet. She is the author of numerous novels, including Becoming Belle, Miss Emily, Nora and Seaborne. She has written six short story collections, her most recent being Birdie (2020). Her short fiction has won the Francis MacManus Award, the James Joyce Quarterly Fiction Contest and the UK’s Short Fiction Journal Prize. Nuala’s novel’s has also been nominated for numerous prizes including the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the International Dublin Literary Award. Nora was shortlisted for the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards RTÉ Audience voice Award. She is editor-in-chief at flash e-zine Splonk.

Podcaster in Residence - Episode 5 - The Meteorites - Niamh O'Brien

In this episode Zoë Comyns and Niamh O’Brien discuss an article by EM Lindsay in a 1968 edition of the Irish Astronomical Journal which describes The Limerick Meteorites that fell in 1813 in the county. Niamh uses her experience in deep mapping, harp playing and audio making to write and compose a new story set to harp inspired by this collection item. (call no: Ir 5204 i 4) Niamh O’Brien is a harp player, singer, composer and sound artist. She has performed solo in Ireland and abroad, and with traditional groups such as The Chieftains, AnTara and Hoodman Blind. Since 2017 she has been active in audio and radio, working as a recordist, editor and producer on podcast and documentary projects. She was awarded a PhD by University of Limerick in 2024 for her research in the field of sonic arts and deep mapping. Her current compositional practice combines traditional, folk and electronic music, with voices, interview materials and field recordings. This year she is a Fulbright-Creative Ireland Professional Fellowship Scholar - Niamh will explore the work of Irish folklore and traditional music collectors at University of Colorado in Boulder - and through this she will explore experimental media archaeology and Irish cultural history.

Podcaster in Residence - Episode 4 - Jan Carson

Jan Carson joins Podcaster in Residence Zoë Comyns to talk about photography and how images can open the door to fiction . Jan discusses her multitasking approach to reading, her grandmother’s photographs including candid and amusing photographs taken around the North of Ireland. Jan has written a specially commissioned short story for this podcast, imagining a fictional reader, inspired by the collection item: CLON1989 from the National Photographic Archive - a glass plate negative of [Augusta Caroline Dillon and Luke Gerald Dillon with camera on tripod reflected in a large mirror, Clonbrock, Ahascragh, Co. Galway, circa 1865] Jan says “ I think in terms of composition, I really like that kind of stripped backness. It's reflected in the room, but it's also feels reflected in the art. I spent some time in the Clonbrock collection looking at other photographs, and this one feels slightly different from a lot of the others because there are beautiful landscapes. There are arrangements of, you know, groups of people.” “So for me, my process when I'm responding to something like this is to write straight away and respond. And within like a half an hour of looking at this, I had an idea for a story. Kevin Barry talks about…guarding against going down a research rabbit hole by writing the piece first and then highlighting what it is you need to research So when I had begun to write the piece, then I decided I would go back and do a little bit more research to fill it out afterwards. I am a very, very nosy writer, and if I start to research, I get really easily distracted. [The Dillon Family] were ahead of their times because they were all so obsessed with photography. There are organised family photographs and then there are also ones of, of children playing and I also love that they went out of their way to take photographs of people who worked on the estate. So it's not just a kind of catalogue of the rich and the affluent. There's some really gorgeous very lived in photographs of people doing their jobs on the estate, which is fascinating to see so early on.”

Podcaster in Residence - Episode 3 - Brian Cleary

Unearthing Bram Stoker's lost short story Gibbet Hill at The National Library In this episode of The Reader Podcaster in Residence Zoë Comyns speaks to Brian Cleary. Cleary, who had taken time off from his job as a pharmacist after suffering sudden hearing loss, was looking through the Stoker archives at the National Library when he came across a reference to a lost Bram Stoker short story. In a Dublin Daily Express advert from 17th December 1890 promoting a supplement, which contained a short story “Gibbett Hill, by Bram Stoker”. This is the story of that find and includes an excerpt of the short story read by actor Ciaran Reilly. Gibbet Hill is narrated by a man who meets three strange children standing in front of a memorial to a murdered sailor by Gibbet Hill. The man invites them to see where the murderer would be put and, together, they walk to the top of the hill. All proceeds from this book go to the newly created Charlotte Stoker Fund. Charlotte was Bram’s mother - she was a campaigner for deaf people in Ireland. She was also associated with the Rotunda Hospital. The funds from the newly published version of Gibbet Hill will go to research around acquired hearing loss in vulnerable newborns as well as research for cochlear implants and sign language.