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Books for Breakfast (Ireland)

Books for Breakfast (Ireland)

Written by: Peter Sirr and Enda Wyley
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A podcast focussing on fiction and poetry hosted by poets and writers Peter Sirr and Enda Wyley. Also features the Toaster Challenge where guest writers are given the time it takes to make toast to talk about a book that has resonated with them.

© 2025 Books for Breakfast (Ireland)
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Episodes
  • 88: Christmas Special
    Dec 18 2025

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    Mince pie and Christmas cracker laden, today’s breakfast table is very festive indeed as we celebrate the best of books and cultural events in 2025. To help us celebrate we’ve gathered at our table four writers who have each been asked to choose just one book, either fiction or non fiction that they’ve especially admired this year and one cultural event – film, exhibition, music or anything else – that they have enjoyed over the last twelve months. The four writers are Sarah Gilmartin, Neil Hegarty, Caitriona Lally and Philip Davison.

    Books recommended: Anne Enright: Attention: Writing on Life, Art and the World
    Gerbrand Bakker: The Hairdresser’s Son; Ben Macintyre: The Spy and the Traitor ;
    Sarah Moss: Ghost Wall; Helen Garner: Collected Diaries 1978-1998: How to end a story and Tim MacGabhann: The Black Pool: A Memoir of Forgetting.

    This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

    Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.


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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • 87: More Poetry Reviews; interview with Mark Granier
    Dec 4 2025

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    This morning we welcome poet and critic Ciarán O’Rourke to our breakfast table here in Dublin 8. Ciarán has published two collections of poems with Irish Pages Press, The Buried Breath in 2018 and Phantom Gang in 2022, and he also runs the poetry website ragpickerpoetry.net. Ciarán talk about five recent books of poetry: Eiléan Ní Cuilleanáin, New Selected Poems; Catherine Ann Cullen, Storm Damages; Keith Payne, Savage Acres; Patrick Cotter, Quality Control at the Miracle Factory; Kevin Graham, Time's Guest.

    Mark Granier is an award-winning Irish poet and photographer whose work has been widely published and admired for its sharp imagery, lyric precision, and subtle wit. Over the past two decades, he has brought out several acclaimed collections, including Airborne, Haunt, Fade Street, as well as Ghostlight, New and Selected Poems. His latest book, Everything You Always Wanted To Know, is perhaps his most personal and revealing to date, weaving together memory, intimacy, and the everyday with a striking visual clarity.


    This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

    Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.


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    58 mins
  • 86: İlhan Sami Çomak, Ferdia Mac Anna on Liadan Ní Chuinn
    Nov 20 2025

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    On today’s episode we travel to IMMA and the Dublin Book Festival to meet and talk with İlhan Sami Çomak, a Kurdish Turkish poet who has spent almost thirty years imprisoned in Turkey. He was arrested in 1994 and charged with membership of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Part. In jail, Çomak released eight books of poetry and became one of Turkey's longest serving political prisoners. He is here in Dublin to mark the Day of the imprisoned Writer at the invitation of Irish PEN which followed an extensive international campaign for his release. Ilhan is accompanied by his interpreter Ipak Özel.

    Also in this episode writer, filmmaker and lecturer Ferdia MacAnna joins us the breakfast table to talk to us about Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn, the widely acclaimed collection of short stories published by the Stinging Fly Press, and now by Granta as well.

    This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

    Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Logo designed by Freya Sirr.


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    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
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