John McGahern's Dublin by Frank Shovlin
Published on 26th January 2021
Every January Dublin City Libraries invites an expert speaker to deliver the Sir John T. Gilbert commemorative lecture on some aspect of Dublin’s history.
In 2020 Professor Frank Shovlin of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool delivered a lecture on “John McGahern’s Dublin” and this has now been published by Dublin City Council.
Read the full text of John McGahern's Dublin by Frank Shovlin online or borrow the eBook from Borrowbox.
The lecture uncovers the influence of Dublin on the life and work of the late writer John McGahern. Whether pounding the pavements, visiting its bars and ballrooms, learning and teaching in its classrooms or talking with friends, Dublin and its inhabitants seeped into McGahern’s mind and his prose. Illustrated with passages from McGahern’s work, Frank Shovlin argues that Dublin shaped this writer at least as much as his rural habitat.
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories. His novel Amongst Women, which won both the GPA and the Irish Times Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a four-part BBC television series. His work has appeared in anthologies and has been translated into many languages. His last book, Memoir, was published in 2005. McGahern died in Dublin on 30 March 2006.
John Thomas Gilbert was born in Dublin on 23 January 1829, and died there on 23 May 1898. Author of the influential three volume A history of the city of Dublin, published in 1854-59, he was a firm advocate of documenting the history of his native city using primary sources.
His very valuable library of books and manuscripts relating to Dublin and Ireland was purchased by the then Dublin Corporation after his death and forms the nucleus of the special collections of Dublin City Libraries.
To mark the centenary of John T. Gilbert’s death in 1998, Dublin City Council established an annual commemorative lecture series. The aim of the series is to celebrate the life and work of Gilbert, and the history of Dublin, the city whose past he wished to uncover and promote.