Dublin UNESCO City of Literature is delighted to announce the programme of events for this year’s One Dublin One Book which features The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes (Transworld) following on from Nora by Nuala O’Connor in 2022.

This annual Dublin City Council initiative, supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, encourages reading for pleasure. One Dublin One Book aims to encourage everyone in Dublin to read a designated book connected with the capital city during the month of April.

There will be free events including discussions, talks, walks, readings, music performances, book club events and lots more during the month in various venues across the city as well as in Dublin City Libraries, DLR Libraries, Fingal Libraries, South Dublin Libraries, and drawing on the connection with Andrew’s home county, a special event by Wexford County Council Library Service, will take place on 6^th April. There will also be One Dublin One Book online events with the Irish Embassy in Warsaw and Vancouver.

http://www.onedublinonebook.ie/whats-on/

Events will include:

Andrew Hughes in conversation with Niall MacMonagle in the beautiful setting of the Hugh Lane Gallery to discuss his journey from archivist to writer of historical fiction, and to explore the themes, settings, and characters in his novels. Accompanied by music from the Dublin String Quartet and dramatised readings by actors Julie Crowe and Shane O’Regan.

The Anatomy of Crime discussion with author Andrew Hughes and State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers and Deputy State Pathologist Dr Jill Roman.

James Scannell from the Old Dublin Society on the police intelligence reports from various newspapers around the 1800s.

Meteorologist Joanna Donnelly on freak weather events in Irish history.

Andrew Hughes, Nicola Cassidy and Sinéad Crowley on writing vivid and authentic female protagonists.

Download a pdf of the full programme here

Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy, who launched the programme at Hugh Lane Gallery, said “I’m a fan of the One Dublin One Book initiative inspiring people across the city to revel in the delights of reading every April. The canvas for this year’s selection is familiar city territory. Names may have changed but the buildings, squares and streets are still there, 200 years later.”

Andrew Hughes says “I’m so thrilled that The Coroner’s Daughter has been chosen for this year’s One Dublin One Book. The city has always been a huge source of inspiration, providing me with a setting and a cast of characters, and I love uncovering stories hidden in Dublin’s old houses. Although I’m from Wexford, I went to college in the city and have lived in Drumcondra for more than twenty years. My extended family are Dubliners, so it’s a huge source of pride to have my book celebrated in this way. I sincerely hope readers enjoy following Abigail and her forensic investigations. I can’t wait for the events to begin in April.”

Dublin City Librarian, Mairead Owens, says “The Coroner’s Daughter is a story rooted in Dublin city of the early 19^th Century with fascinating themes such as forensic science, religion, and the role of women in Ireland at the time. It is also an entertaining detective story, which I’m sure will engage the readers of Dublin and beyond. I’m looking forward to the discussions that will take place among readers this April.”

Copies of The Coroner’s Daughter have been purchased by Dublin City Libraries and are available to borrow from all public libraries nationwide, and on e-book format through the free BorrowBox library app. The e-audiobook will be available on 1^st April via Borrowbox. The new One Dublin One Book edition of The Coroner’s Daughter is also available to buy from all good book shops.

The NCBI Library Access Service have created a Braille version of The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes. This title is also available in fully accessible digital formats (EPUB, BRF, DAISY and Word) from the NCBI Bookshare Ireland platform

Dublin City Council and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature are delighted to announce that The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes is the One Dublin One Book choice for 2023, following on from Nora by Nuala O’Connor in 2022.

One Dublin One Book aims to encourage everyone in Dublin to read a designated book connected with the capital city during the month of April every year. This annual project is a Dublin City Council initiative, led by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and Dublin City Libraries, which encourages reading for pleasure. The initiative is also funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Dublin City Librarian, Mairead Owens, says “The Coroner’s Daughter is a story rooted in Dublin city of the early 19^th Century with fascinating themes such as forensic science, religion, and the role of women in Ireland at the time. It is also an entertaining detective story, which I’m sure will engage the readers of Dublin and beyond. I’m looking forward to the discussions that will take place among readers next April.”

A new One Dublin One Book edition of The Coroner’s Daughter (Penguin-Transworld) will be available to borrow from all public libraries nationwide and to buy from all good book shops. There will be a programme of free events in April to accompany the reading initiative. 

Andrew Hughes says “I’m so thrilled that The Coroner’s Daughter has been chosen for next year’s One Dublin One Book. The city has always been a huge source of inspiration, providing me with a setting and a cast of characters, and I love uncovering stories hidden in Dublin’s old houses. Although I’m from Wexford, I went to college here, have lived in Drumcondra for more than twenty years, and all of my extended family are Dubliners, so it’s a huge source of pride to have my book celebrated in this way. I sincerely hope readers enjoy following Abigail and her forensic investigations. I can’t wait for the events to begin next April.”

 

The Book

1816 was the year without a summer. A rare climatic event has brought frost to July, and a lingering fog casts a pall over Dublin – a city stirred by zealotry and civil unrest, torn between evangelical and rationalist dogma.

Amid the disquiet, a young nursemaid in a pious household conceals a pregnancy and then murders her newborn. Rumours swirl about the identity of the child’s father, but before an inquest can be held, the maid is found dead. When Abigail Lawless, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the city coroner, by chance discovers a message from the maid’s seducer, she is drawn into a world of hidden meanings and deceit.

An only child, Abigail has been raised amid the books and instruments of her father’s grim profession. Pushing against the restrictions society places on a girl her age, she pursues an increasingly dangerous investigation. As she leads us through dissection rooms and dead houses, gothic churches and elegant ballrooms, watching from the shadows is a sinister figure whom she believes has killed twice already, and is waiting to kill again . . .

Determined, resourceful and intuitive, and more than just a dutiful daughter or society débutante, Abigail Lawless emerges as a memorable young sleuth operating at the dawn of forensic science.

BORROW THE BOOK

 

The Author

 

Born in Co. Wexford, Andrew Hughes was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. A qualified archivist, he worked for RTÉ before going freelance. It was while researching his social history of Fitzwilliam Square – Lives Less Ordinary: Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Square, 1798-1922 – that he came across the true story of John Delahunt, a Victorian murderer and Dublin Castle informer. His debut novel, The Convictions of John Delahunt, was shortlisted for the Bord Gáis Irish Crime Book of the Year. The Coroner’s Daughter, a tale of a young lady sleuth operating at the dawn of forensic science, was nominated for the CWA Historical Dagger. Andrew lives in Drumcondra, where he continues to work on archival and historical research projects, as well as Dublin-set crime fiction.

 

The Publisher

The Coroner’s Daughter is published by Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House.

 

For more information on One Dublin One Book please contact Anne-Marie Kelly, Director, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature at annemarie.kelly@dublincity.ie

For further information on The Coroner’s Daughter by Andrew Hughes, please contact Sorcha Judge, Penguin Ireland at SJudge@penguinrandomhouse.ie

 

Love, says Bloom – Exhibition

Curated by Nuala O’Connor at Museum of Literature Ireland, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

Into the heart of the Joyce Family
2 February – 3 July 2022

https://moli.ie/lovesaysbloom/

—Love, says Bloom looks at the deep love between Irish writer James Joyce, his wife Nora Barnacle, and their children Giorgio and Lucia, using music as a steadfast element in their lives. Giorgio trained as a singer, Lucia was an accomplished dancer, and all four Joyces often sang at the piano, with friends, for both celebration and succour.

The Joyces lived in a war-ruptured early twentieth-century Europe – in Pola, Trieste, Zürich, and Paris – and their native Ireland was also up-ended by division. In this exhibition, curator Nuala O’Connor celebrates the Joyce’s mutual devotion, alongside some of the music that bound them, while their world was in flux.

Curator Nuala O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1970 and lives in County Galway. Her fifth novel NORA (Harper Perennial/New Island, 2021), about Nora Barnacle, wife and muse to James Joyce, was named as a Top Ten historical novel by the New York Times in 2021. Nuala is editor at flash fiction e-journal Splonk. nualaoconnor.com