Fergal Keane gave a memorably moving talk as the closing speaker for our 2021 digital Festival. He has recently been writing and speaking about his PTSD including in an article in association with a documentary on the BBC. You can watch his talk to last year's Festival here.

BBC Radio 4 has had a 1990s season recently which included this really interesting documentary called Russia's Restless 90s - the BBC's former Moscow Correspondent Tim Whewell looks at how what happened in Russia in the 1990s and how it shaped the Russia we see today.

The Festival blog has just caught up with a really interesting Irish Story post from last month on Bill Dwyer, one of a number of Irish-American individuals who became leading figures in organised crime in the the 1920s and '30s. Dwyer himself, born to Irish parents in New York, was known as The King of the Rum Runners and made the most of the 'business opportunities' afforded by Prohibition.

From rum to wine- we haven't had a chance to read this book yet, but the title and cover of a new book from Four Courts Press caught the Festival's eye: Enjoying Claret in Georgian Ireland - A History of Amiable Excess by Patricia McCarthy. Find out more about the book on the Four Courts website.

The excellent newsletter Tripe & Drisheen had a piece on the future of Cork's Butter Exchange by Ellie O'Byrne, highlighting the central role played by butter in Cork's economy in the 19th century.

And finally, an unexpected but intriguing article in the Guardian this week linking the current threat to the Roe v Wade in the US, air stewardesses and women's rights in the 1960s.