Booker prize winner Anne Enright, in conversation with James Ryan. Anne Enright is one of Ireland's wittiest and most incisive commentators on modern life, as well as being one of our very best novelists and short story writers. Amongst her works are The Wig My Father Wore, The Gathering and The Lives of Eliza.

James Ryan is the author of four novels, South of the Border being the most recent. He is currently director of the undergraduate and postgraduate programme in creative writing at University College Dublin.

RMDS 21, A History of the School
Published by The Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School. Launched by Mary O'Rourke T.D.

Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School (RMDS) celebrated its 21st birthday on 1st September 2009. To mark the occasion, and to celebrate the history of the school, this book traces the story of RMDS, from the early meetings of the parents of St Columba's NS, which was due to close in 1990, to the establishment of the Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School Association (RMDSA) and the setting up of the seventh Educate Together national school.

Once the school was established, the campaign to build a new school gathered momentum, culminating in the opening of the award winning building in 1998, to which an extension was added in 2007.

The past 21 years are chronicled and celebrated in this book by the children, teachers, parents and others who have shared in this history and played a part in shaping the school. The book hopes to impart a sense of the overall purpose and direction that establishes where RMDS is now and the journey that has brought it there.


THE LIVING STREETS, An Anthology of The Ranelagh Arts Festival
Edited by Charles Crockatt

This year at the Ranelagh Arts Festival 2009, in conjunction with Seven Towers Press, we have put together an anthology of Ranelagh writers who have participated in the festival over the years. The anthology also includes some illustrations and photographs by local artists.


RANELAGH IN PICTURES, A Place in History, by Susan Roundtree.
Published by A&A Farmer
A fascinating scrapbook of pictures of one of Dublin's best-loved villages.

Ranelagh was originally notorious as the out-of-town picnic spot where the rebel O'Tooles massacred numerous Dublin citizens in 1215. Not much happened after then until Ranelagh Gardens was set up in the 18th century, now chiefly famous as the take-off point of Ireland's first manned balloon flight in 1785.

In the mid 19th century Ranelagh was two active villages, Cullenswood to the south and Ranelagh to the north. Over time they gradually grew together, and sadly for history the name of Cullenswood was dropped. By the late 19th century Ranelagh was much as we know it today. Ranelagh in Pictures brings those early days to life, with historic maps, vivid street scenes, shops, house interiors and famous Ranelagh personalities from Patrick Pearse and Maureen O'Hara to Ken Doherty and Garret FitzGerald. Special portraits of well known Ranelagh-ites and scenes from the Ranelagh Arts Festival bring the scrapbook up to date.

ISBN 978-1-906353-12-4
128 pages full colour €14.99

Susan Roundtree is an architect with a special interest in architectural history and building conservation. Her post-graduate research includes an architectural history of Mountpleasant Square (published, in part, as an essay in The Georgian Squares of Dublin, Four Courts Press) and, more recently, a history of the use of clay brick in Ireland. She is a senior architect with Dublin City Council and has been a resident of Ranelagh for 25 years.

This event has become increasingly popular in previous festivals and we expect an even larger attendance this year. The format remains the same - all are welcome to come and read their work. Well-known poets in the Ranelagh area who have taken part previously include Anthony Cronin, Anne Haverty, MacDara Woods, Elaine Ni Chuillinean, Ronan Sheehan and Louise Callaghan. Robert Frost.

Following on from last years reading of 'Under Milk Wood' Brendan Ellis is asking people to read a poem of Robert Frost's and/or play a tune that you might hear on a Winter's night in Vermont.

'There's a patch of old snow in a corner, that I should have guessed was a blow-away paper the rain had brought to rest.
It is speckled with grime as if small print overspread it, The news of a day I've forgotten - If I ever read it.'

Robert Frost