Bono joins Paul Muldoon for pints and poetry at Dalkey Book Festival

The pair met in Finnegan's of Dalkey and talked about crafting poems, songs and the process of writing
Bono joins Paul Muldoon for pints and poetry at Dalkey Book Festival

Bono has given his first ever reading from his forthcoming memoir while in conversation with Irish poet Paul Muldoon.

As part of the Dalkey Book Festival, the pair met in Finnegan's of Dalkey and talked about crafting poems, songs and the process of writing.

Two Fathers, Two Friends was the title of the ticketed event which took place on Father's Day.

Bono in conversation with Paul Muldoon in Finnegan's of Dalkey. Photo: Conor McCabe

The Dalkey Book Festival is now in its 13th edition and this year featured John Collison, Simon Schama, Fiona Hill, Elif Shafak, James O'Brien and more than 100 speakers from over 20 countries.

Bono with John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe, as part of the Dalkey Book Festival. Photo: Conor McCabe

On Saturday the winners of this year’s Dalkey Literary Awards were announced at the festival. Castlebar author Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You was named Novel of the Year, while Kerry-based poet Victoria Kennefick won this year’s Emerging Writer award for her collection Eat Or We Both Starve.

With a total prize fund of €30,000, the Dalkey Literary Awards are the biggest prize value awards solely for Irish writers. Sally Rooney received €20,000 and Victoria Kennefick was awarded €10,000.

The judges said Beautiful World, Where Are You was “the most ambitious of Sally Rooney’s books so far; it is exciting to experience her accomplishment in this determinedly contemporary Irish novel.”

Commenting on Victoria Kennefick's collection Eat Or We Both Starve, the judges said: “This is a slim volume with an impact that's heavy-hitting. It delivers everything one looks for in a piece of writing: emotional heft, story, nuance, hope, memorability; and because it's also quirky, it has the element of surprise. Victoria Kennefick is a poet who can hold her own on the international stage.”

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