10 Books You Should Read continues to be a favourite event at Kildare Readers’ Festival. Its format is a simple one – the guests choose five titles each – conversation ensues, as recommendations – and the advocacy of same – volley back and forth. On this occasion KRF thought to have the conversation be amongst the keepers of our cultural collections.

Simon O’Connor is the Director of the Museum of Literature Ireland, a creative collaboration between UCD and the National Library of Ireland, located on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green. MoLI has won numerous awards since opening, including the Business to Arts Best Philanthropic Support of the Arts award 2021, Red Dot Best Exhibition Design Gold Award 2021, IDEA Exhibition Design Gold Award 2021 and is shortlisted for the European Mies Van Der Rohe Architecture Award 2022. A composer by training, Simon was also the founding curator of the Little Museum of Dublin, building that museum from scratch in 2011 and winning numerous awards in the process, including the European Commission’s Europa Nostra award for Cultural Heritage. He has presented exhibitions on many writers, including Bram Stoker, Christy Brown, Lafcadio Hearn, Kate O’Brien, Nuala O’Faolain and Chris Haughton. As a composer, he has studied with Donnacha Dennehy and Kevin Volans, and is published on the Ergodos label. Notable works include the acclaimed piano suite “What is Living and What is Dead”, and the song cycle collaboration with mezzo-soprano Michelle O’Rourke, “Left Behind – Songs of the 1916 Widows”.

Jason McElligott grew up in Cabra on Dublin’s northside. He only developed a love of reading in secondary school under the influence of an inspirational English teacher, Patrick Lillis, in St Paul’s CBS, North Brunswick Street (“Brunner”). He studied history at UCD and then read for a Ph.D. in modern history at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He is a former Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and since 2011 he has been the Director of Ireland’s oldest public library, Marsh’s Library. He is currently writing about book thieves in eighteenth-century Dublin.

Kildare Readers Festival is brought to you every year in October by Kildare County Library and Arts Service. For more information about KRF see http://www.kildarereadersfestival.ie/

Please note, in line with new Government guidelines, you will be required to show your EU COVID Certificate and Valid ID for entry to the auditorium for this event.  Due to COVID safety and social distancing requirements, audience capacity for this event is reduced. The seats on sale for this event are individual tickets ( or groups of 2 or 4 people.) If you have any particular seating requirements please contact us at boxoffice@riverbank.ie or telephone (045) 448327  Please see our Covid Safety information before your visit to Riverbank Arts Centre.