Every speaker from all our festivals since the first in 2017 will soon be listed below, showing the range of contributors we have been lucky enough to attract.
Aoife Bhreatnach
Dr Aoife Bhreatnach is an independent scholar and contract researcher with strong research expertise in Irish social and cultural history.
Nigel Biggar
Professor Nigel Biggar has been Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford since 2007 and is also Director of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life.
Andy Bielenberg
Dr Andy Bielenberg is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History at UCC.
Sean Boyne
Sean Boyne is a writer and retired journalist and a former political correspondent with The Sunday World.
John Bruton
John Bruton served as Taoiseach from 1994-1997 and was deeply involved in the Northern Irish Peace Process, leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Brian Coghlan
Dr Brian Coghlan is an academic of the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin.
Marie Coleman
Professor Marie Coleman is Reader in modern Irish History at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast.
Claire Connolly
Professor Claire Connolly is Professor of Modern English at UCC.
Linda Connolly
Professor Linda Connolly is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute.
Michael Dobbs
Michael Dobbs is a British politician and author, best known for his House of Cards trilogy.
John Dorney
John Dorney is an independent historian and chief editor and writer of the Irish Story website.
Ruth Dudley Edwards
Ruth Dudley Edwards is a writer and historian, who has written for almost every national newspaper in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom and appears frequently on radio and television in both countries, and on the BBC World Service.
Daisy Goodwin
Daisy Goodwin is a British writer and TV producer, creator and writer of the TV series Victoria. Her great, great, great grandfather Robert Traill was rector of Schull during the Famine.
Fergal Keane
Fergal Keane is an Irish foreign correspondent and author, who has worked for many years for BBC News.
Mary Kenny
Mary Kenny is a journalist, author and broadcaster in England and Ireland. She has written for over 30 newspapers and magazines over the course of her career.
Robert Harris
Robert Harris is a retired architect, based in West Cork and co-writer – with Finola Finlay – of the arts and culture blog Roaringwater Journal.
Jim Herlihy
John Horne
Professor John Horne is emeritus Fellow and former Professor of Modern European History at Trinity College Dublin.
Lar Joye
Lar Joye is Port Heritage Director at Dublin Port, and was previously a senior curator at the National Museum of Ireland.
Liam Kennedy
Professor Liam Kennedy is Emeritus Professor of history at Queen's University, Belfast.
Sylvie Kleinman
Dr Sylvie Kleinman has taught courses on French and Irish history, and held an IRC postdoc grant in Trinity College.
Donal Lowry
Dr Donal Lowry is a Senior Member of Regent’s Park College in the University of Oxford
Flor MacCarthy
Flor MacCarthy is a broadcast journalist who presents political debates on Oireachtas TV (Irish parliamentary TV).
Cauvery Madhavan
Cauvery Madhavan was born in India and moved to Ireland thirty three years ago. She is the author of three books of fiction – Paddy Indian, The Uncoupling and The Tainted.
Edward Madigan
Dr Edward Madigan in Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Ida Milne
Dr Ida Milne is a social historian, currently European History Lecturer at Carlow College.
Dan Mulhall
Dan Mulhall is the Irish Republic's representative to the United States.
Thomas O'Connor
Professor Thomas O’Connor is professor in history at National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Eunan O'Halpin
Professor Eunan O’Halpin was Professor of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College Dublin.
Jane Ohlmeyer
Professor Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History (1762) at Trinity College Dublin.
Patricia O'Sullivan
Patricia O'Sullivan is a music teacher and historian with a particular interest in the social and cultural history of Hong Kong, where she lives for part of the year.
David Reynolds
Professor David Reynolds is Professor of International History (Emeritus) at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ’s College.
Miriam Ui Dhonnabhain
Miriam Uí Dhonnabháin is an Irish language scholar and singer with a particular interest in the amhrán tradition and the manuscript culture of the period 1650-1895.
Brian Walker
Brian M. Walker, Professor Emeritus of Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast.
Claire Warrior
Dr Claire Warrior is a Senior Curator at London’s Royal Museums Greenwich, and was one of the curators of the recent Polar Worlds gallery.
Briony Widdis
Dr Briony Widdis is an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics in Queen’s University Belfast.
