Shelfmarks is a podcast by our podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Zoë has spent time looking through the collections and library holdings in the Academy to explore how people have written about and observed our natural world over the centuries.

In this Culture Night special to start the series Zoë explores nature writing as it was when the Royal Irish Academy opened in 1785 to now, and how its focus has changed over the centuries.

We’re going to hear a little history about some of the texts in the RIA, about some of the naturalists and members who have been part of the Academy but also get a sense of the arc of writing about the natural world. We’ll also hear how the landscape and wildlife of Ireland itself has changed over the centuries. 

Guests:  
Lucy Collins (co-ed The Irish Poet and the Natural World)
Conor W. O'Brien  (Ireland Through Birds, Life in Ireland) 
and Booker longlisted writer Niall Williams (Four Letters of Love, A History of Rain, This is Happiness) and Christine Breen (Her Name Is Rose) who have co-authored a memoir about their garden, illness and the natural world - In Kiltumper. 
Readings by Derbhle Crotty and Declan Brennan.

This project is funded by the Arts Council Literature Project Award.

Shelfmarks: Culture Night Special

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hEireann is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is the principal learned society in Ireland and has over 420 members who are elected in recognition of their academic achievements.

The Royal Irish Academy, the academy for the sciences and humanities for the whole of Ireland will vigorously promote excellence in scholarship, recognise achievements in learning, direct research programmes and undertake its own research projects, particularly in areas relating to Ireland and its heritage.