Wednesday, 14th October

Videos: The Martyr and Larry

2.30pm, Cork City Library | Free, unticketed

The Martyr (1954) starring Ronald Reagan and Lee Marvin
General Electric Theatre was an American anthology series which ran from 1953 – 1962 and featured different actors each week. The Martyr is an episode of the show adapted from Frank O’Connor’s short story of the same name. 29 minutes.

Larry (1959) based on My Oedipus Complex
Larry is an adaptation of Frank O’Connor’s short story My Oedipus Complex, a pilot presented by Irish Television Theatre for what was hoped to be episodic adaptations of various stories by Irish writers but ultimately wasn’t commissioned for full series production. 24 minutes.

Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish as Gaeilge

4.00pm, Cork City Library | Free, unticketed

This anthology showcase of the Mercier Press anthology Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish features three writers reading their stories in Irish. For the next event at the Cork Arts Theatre at 7.30pm, the same three authors will read their stories in English and participate in a discussion with Irish-language lecturer Dr. Katie Ní Loingsigh.

Scríobhann Katherine Duffy filíocht agus ficsean gearr. I gcás an fhicsin, scríobhann sí sa dá theanga, Gaeilge agus Béarla. Tá gearrscéalta foilsithe aici in Comhar, Oghma, The Sunday Tribune, agus in Best European Fiction 2018 (Dalkey Archive Press) agus Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish (Mercier Press, 2024). Duaiseanna Oireachtais tuillte ag saothar dá cuid i nGaeilge; duais Hennessy agus an 3ú duais i gComórtas Gearrscéalaíochta RTÉ 2020 gnóthaithe aici i mBéarla. Tá saothar de chuid mhórscríbhneoirí na Gaeilge aistrithe go Béarla ag Katherine, agus cuimsíodh aistriúcháin dá cuid in The Quick and The Dead: Selected Stories of Máirtín Ó Cadhain (Yale Margellos, 2021).

Is de bhunadh Rann na Feirste Róise Ní Bhaoill. Tá cónaí uirthi i mBéal Feirste, áit ar obair sí in earnáil dheonach na Gaeilge. Is údar í ar ábhar foghlama do dhaoine fásta agus do pháistí, agus tá eagar curtha aici ar chnuasaigh éagsúla aistí agus ar ábhar béaloidis agus ealaíne. In 2023, bhuaigh a céad cnuasach gearrscéalta Imram agus Scéalta Eile Leabhar Gaeilge na Bliana ag An Post Irish Book Awards i mBaile Átha Cliath. D’fhoilsigh Éabhlóid a céad cnuasach filíochta, Idir an Dá Fhearsaid a ainmníodh do Dhuais Uí Shuilleabháin. Thuill an cnuasach filíochta is deireanaí aici, Dordéan, príomhdhuais an Oireachtais don fhilíocht anuraidh. Foilsíodh Mo Chroí Gránúill, aistriúchán léi ar bhailiúchán filíochta Fairsise le Mohsen Hosseinkhani anuraidh chomh maith.

Scríbhneoir aitheanta í Réaltán Ní Leannáin, a bhfuil idir prós, filíocht agus drámaí raidió faoina coim. Tá ceithre leabhar dá cuid féin i gcló agus is eagarthóir í den díolaim Bláth na dTulach, a bhuaigh Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin in Oireachtas na Gaeilge, 2022. Tá a gearrscéal féin, Maeirí, agus ceithre ghearrscéal eile ón díolaim sin ar chúrsa na hArdteiste. Cuireann sí an podchraoladh blath-na-dtulach.com. i láthair. Tá Éabhlóid chun cnuasach nua dá chuid gearrscéalta féin, Trom agus Éadrom, a fhoilsiú í mbliana.

Buy Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish.

Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish in English

7.30pm, Cork Arts Theatre | €5

Katherine Duffy writes poetry and stories, the latter in both Irish and English. Her stories have appeared in Comhar, Oghma, The Sunday Tribune, Best European Fiction 2018 (Dalkey Archive Press) and Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish (Mercier Press, 2024). Work in Irish has earned Oireachtas awards; in English, the Hennessy Writer of the Year Award 2006, and third prize in the 2020 RTÉ Short Story Competition. Katherine has also translated the work of leading Irish language writers, and several of her translations appear in The Quick and The Dead: Selected Stories of Máirtín Ó Cadhain (Yale Margellos, 2021).

Róise Ní Bhaoill’s first short-story collection, Imram agus Scéalta Eile, was awarded An Post Irish language Book of the Year 2023. Her poetry collection, Idir an Dá Fhearsaid, was nominated for Gradam Uí Shuilleabháin 2024. Dordéan was awarded Best Poetry Collection, Oireachtas na Gaeilge literary awards 2025. Mo Chroí Gránúill, a translation of the Farsi poetry of Mohsen Hosseinkhani was published last year. She has also edited collections of bilingual short stories, folklore and cultural essays and is the author of resources for learners of Irish. Originally from the Donegal Gaeltacht, she has mainly lived in Belfast since the 1990s.

Réaltán Ní Leannáin was awarded Oireachtas na Gaeilge’s Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin in 2022 as editor of the short story anthology Bláth na dTulach. The accompanying podcast series was shortlisted for the Irish Podcast Awards. Her short story from that anthology, 'Maeirí', is on the Leaving Certificate Syllabus as well as others from the compilation. Bláth na dTulach and two of her own solo works have been nominated for the An Post Irish Language Book Awards in the last few years. Éabhlóid are to publish a new collection of her short stories, Trom agus Éadrom, this year.

Buy Stepsisters: Stories from the Irish.

“In a myriad of manners, means, styles and senses, [these stories] offer a mosaic of contemporary Ireland … offering a more complete, more diverse and more nuanced vision of families, communities, society and nation throughout the island.” — Tara MacLeod & Brian Ó Conchubhair

(Moderator) Dr. Katie Ní Loingsigh is an Irish-language lecturer in UCC who hails from Baile Mhúirne in the Muskerry Gaeltacht. Her research interests include modern Irish literature, Gaelic revival, literature and culture of West Muskerry.

Zsuzsi Gartner

9.00pm, Cork Arts Theatre | €5

Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of the story collection Better Living through Plastic Explosives, shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize, and of the widely acclaimed collection All the Anxious Girls on Earth. The Beguiling, a novel with embedded stories, was a finalist for the Writers Trust Award. She edited the anthology Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow and was the guest editor of Best Canadian Stories 2026. Zsuzsi was the inaugural Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow in 2016 and is thrilled to return to Cork as the 2026 O’Connor Fellow. She lives in Vancouver, Canada, and has just completed her third short story collection.

Buy The Beguiling.

“A page-turner so compelling, so inventive, so weirdly weird, readers will feel like they’ve been to a party that leaves them wondering at the genius of the host who pulled it off … A book as full of imagination as heart.” — Writers Trust Jury

(Moderator) Neleigh Olson holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Kentucky and an MA in “The Beatles, Popular Music and Society” from Liverpool Hope University. She is a writer based in Louisville, Kentucky and is co-owner and Managing Editor at GreenHorse Books.

Image credits: Zsuzsi Gartner photographed by Tom Gould