RadioMoLI

For centuries, romance fiction by Irish writers from Lady Morgan to Marian Keyes has told the story of characters in love. Yet romance remains a target for public condemnation and critical contempt, in part because these popular novels have been written largely by and for women. In summer 2025, the Museum of Literature Ireland launched the exhibition Happy Ever After: Falling in Love with Irish Romance Fiction to showcase the unique character of Irish romance fiction.
In this series of interviews, Prof. Paige Reynolds (College of the Holy Cross) speaks with Irish writers who focus on romance in their fiction. The conversations reveal that the term “romance fiction” remains a vexed one. They also confirm that this genre, which promises the familiar satisfaction of a happy ending, valuably introduces – and sometimes forecasts – revolutionary personal and social changes. By featuring characters who overcome internal and external barriers to happiness, Irish romance fiction voices aspirations for personal fulfillment and a better society.
The second episode in a series, Prof. Paige Reynolds is joined by Naoise Dola, author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple. Discussing queer love in Irish romance fiction, marriage as an influence in Irish culture and literature and much more, this expansive interview explores how themes of love shape representation in contemporary literature.
Produced with the support of the Edward Callahan Support Fund for Irish Studies and the J. D. Power Center for the Liberal Arts at the College of the Holy Cross; and the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon. MoLI’s digital programme is supported by Ebow Digital.
Producer Benedict Schlepper-Connolly
Sound Engineer Caterina Schembri

MoLI’s award-winning learning programme reaches thousands of young people and adults every year, through onsite tours and workshops, online workshops to schools across the island, volunteer and work experience programmes, and through targeted work with communities. 

In this conversation, we take a look under the hood of the museum’s learning department to find out more about the intention and realities of making all of this happen. Jennie Ryan, Head of Learning and Community at MoLI, and Lily Cahill, the museum’s Learning Manager, join MoLI’s Benedict Schlepper-Connolly to discuss how learning and the museum’s mission are interconnected, bringing a lightness of touch to our learning programmes, the importance of people-centred learning, and how learning itself can be seen as a radical act.

MoLI’s learning programme is delivered with the support of many sponsors and partners, including Maples Group, AerCap, the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Dublin City Council, UNESCO City of Literature, ALL Funding and UCD All.

For centuries, romance fiction by Irish writers from Lady Morgan to Marian Keyes has told the story of characters in love. Yet romance remains a target for public condemnation and critical contempt, in part because these popular novels have been written largely by and for women. In summer 2025, the Museum of Literature Ireland launched the exhibition Happy Ever After: Falling in Love with Irish Romance Fiction to showcase the unique character of Irish romance fiction.
In this series of interviews, Prof. Paige Reynolds (College of the Holy Cross) speaks with Irish writers who focus on romance in their fiction. The conversations reveal that the term “romance fiction” remains a vexed one. They also confirm that this genre, which promises the familiar satisfaction of a happy ending, valuably introduces – and sometimes forecasts – revolutionary personal and social changes. By featuring characters who overcome internal and external barriers to happiness, Irish romance fiction voices aspirations for personal fulfillment and a better society.
In the first episode of the series, we feature Irish writer Marian Keyes, an award-winning novelist and essayist, whose books have sold over 40 million copies worldwide and been translated into 36 languages. Her novels centered on the Walsh family, and its five sisters, recently has been adapted into a television series The Walsh Sisters. In this in-depth interview, Keyes and Reynolds discuss a range of topics from Keyes’ canny use of the flashback to her strategies for writing novels linked in a series.

The 2025 Dedalus Lecture, an annual lecture held at MoLI on Bloomsday, 16 June, was delivered by the novelist, essayist and critic Naoise Dolan. In her lecture, titled ‘The Exophonic Ulysses’, Dolan will wove insights about multilingualism with an understanding of Joyce as a linguist – his love of Italian, French and Latin, and his more fraught relationship with Irish, before offering a broader reflection on adventures in multilingual writing.2
Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College, followed by a master's in Victorian literature at Oxford. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and features for publications including the London Review of Books, the Guardian and Vogue. Dolan’s debut novel Exciting Times was published by W&N in the UK and by Ecco in the US in 2020, and became a Sunday Times bestseller, widely translated and optioned for TV. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for several prizes, including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Dolan’s second novel The Happy Couple was published in 2024.

Running at MoLI across the weekend of 7-9 June 2024, HOMESWEETHOME was a multidisciplinary festival circling the theme of home. 
Taking place across the museum’s exhibitions and historic house, and with programmes designed for all ages, the festival will explore new perspectives on the central question of ‘What is home?’ through talks, discussion, performances, music, workshops, food, and more.
In the festival’s opening event, titled Remembering Home, writer and documentary maker Manchán Magan led a conversation reflecting on memory and home, featuring poet Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, writer Melatu Uche Okorie and fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.
HOMESWEETHOME was presented as part of ULYSSES European Odyssey, an epic project across 18 cities producing artistic responses to social and cultural themes identified in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Find out more at ulysseseurope.eu