Recorded December 10th, 2025. Each year, December 10th is recognised globally as Human Rights Day. This year's theme, "Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials", offers a timely opportunity to reflect on the everyday rights that matter most to people with dementia and their care partners, as well as the legal frameworks that seek to safeguard those rights. Please join us for a special Human Rights Day event—“Unpacking the Essentials: A Conversation about Human Rights and Dementia”—organised by Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Kimberley Benjamin. The event, co-hosted by the Global Brain Health Institute and the Long Room Hub at Trinity College Dublin, will feature an interdisciplinary group of thought-provoking and action-inspiring speakers. It will be an open conversation among persons with lived experience of dementia and human rights lawyers. Our aim is to raise awareness about the connection between human rights and dementia so that the essentials of this community take centre stage. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded December 2nd, 2025. A lecture by Prof Jan Zielonka (University of Oxford, University of Venice) organised by the Centre for Resistance Studies. Prof Jan Zielonka's public lecture will address the challenges posed by the "sovereignist turn" in European politics to the stability of the European Union. This lecture is the annual Łukasiewicz Lecture that is organised in memory of Polish logician Professor Jan Łukasiewicz. The event is organised jointly by the Polish Embassy in Dublin and the Trinity Centre for European Studies. Jan Zielonka is Professor of European Politics at the University of Oxford and Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Venice, Cá Foscari. His previous appointments included posts at the University of Warsaw, Leiden and the European University Institute in Florence. His work oscillates between the field of international relations, comparative politics and political theory. Zielonka has produced eighteen books including Counter-revolution. Liberal Europe in Retreat (Oxford University Press, 2018, awarded the 2019 UACES prize for the best book on Europe and translated into Italian, German Polish, Estonian and Korean), Politics and the Media in New Democracies. Europe in a Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2015), Is the EU doomed? (Polity Press, 2014), and Europe as Empire. The Nature of the Enlarged European Union (Oxford University Press, 2006). Zielonka regularly contributes articles to Die Zeit, NewStatesman, Social Europe, Open Democracy, Il Fatto Quotidiano, L’Espresso, NRC Handelsblad, Diário de Notícias and Rzeczpospolita. Learn more at ww.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded December 2nd 2025. A seminar by Dr Clare Clarke (School of English) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 18th, 2025. A seminar by Yannis Athanassiou & Chiara Mastronardo (TCD) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 10th, 2025. Trinity Long Room Hub Visiting Research Fellow Dr Anna Deeny Morales (Georgetown University, USA) in conversation with Dr Evangelia Rigaki (Department of Music). Bio: Anna Deeny Morales is a US-based Latina writer who grew up between Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Her works in opera and poetry consider everyday family love and children; modes of empathy; patterns of political, religious, and legal violence; and strategies of disappearance. Her operas have been supported by the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Georgetown Americas Institute, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Recent works include Las Místicas de México, which debuted in 2024 with the IN Series and the Children’s Chorus of Washington. ZAVALA-ZAVALA: an opera in v cuts, with music by Brian Arreola, debuted at the Kennedy Center in 2022 and was performed at Gala Hispanic Theater in 2024. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow for her translation of Tala (1938) by Nobel Laureate Gabriela Mistral, she has translated poetry by Raúl Zurita, Nicanor Parra, and Amanda Berenguer, among others. Deeny Morales received a PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley; an MA in Comparative Literature, with an emphasis on Puerto Rican theater, from Dartmouth College; and a BA in English Literature with a minor in Piano Performance from Shepherd University. After college she studied theater and directing at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica, Silvio d'Amico, in Rome, Italy. A Fellow in the Humanities in the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, her monograph, Other Solitudes: Essays on Consciousness and Poetry, is forthcoming in 2026. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 25th, 2025. On 1 July 2026, Ireland will take on the Presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time since Brexit. This event, in partnership with the global CEO advisory firm Teneo, will reflect on the last time Ireland held the presidency (in 2013) and debate the challenges and opportunities ahead. The event will reflect on challenges and achievements of the 2013 presidency (including the Multiannual Financial Framework, Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020), and debate the challenges and opportunities of the forthcoming presidency. The inaugural Trinity European Laureate Award will be presented to Enda Kenny, who served as Taoiseach during the presidency, and he will speak on what was achieved during that time. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Dr Brigid Laffan (Chancellor of the University of Limerick), Danny McCoy (CEO of IBEC), and Professor Sineád Ryan (Dean of Research, Trinity College Dublin). This event will also mark the launch of the Trinity Long Room Hub’s programme of events around the EU Presidency. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded 1st December 2025. A discussion with Ambassador Lars Thuesen, Denmark’s Ambassador to Ireland, about Denmark’s European Presidency (ending on the 31st of December), their priorities and vision for Europe, as well as the challenges Europe faces at this pivotal moment. We will also hear from the Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne TD about the objectives and ambitions of the forthcoming Irish Presidency, and Dr Deirdre Foley, Principal Investigator for the TÚS Research Ireland Pathway Project in the School of Histories and Humanities. The bond between Denmark and Ireland stretches back to the age of the Vikings, and today the relationship between Denmark and Ireland is a strong and rewarding one, both politically and economically. Our comparable sizes, shared interests, and historic links make for a solid foundation on which cooperation between our two countries can take place, and there is much that Ireland can learn from looking at how Denmark has approached its Presidency. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 19th, 2025. The Trinity Long Room Hub was delighted to launch a new seminar series - Bridging the Gap between Policy and Research - exploring how scholarship in the Arts and Humanities can shape and inform public policy for the common good. The opening seminar, Do the Humanities Actually Matter? Public Policy and the Humanities hears from Peter MacDonagh, a former senior advisor in the Taoiseach’s Office whose career has bridged government and academia, and includes considerable experience in public policy and research in different countries.  Speaker: A former senior advisor in the Taoiseach’s Office, Peter MacDonagh has had an unusually broad involvement in public policy development, research funding and participation in pan-EU research programmes. Following studies in history in UCD and Cambridge, he worked for the now Taoiseach Micheál Martin when they developed the foundations for funding research in the Humanities. In government, he was substantially involved in deepening the engagement between academic research and public policy. Subsequently he served on the Board of Science Foundation Ireland, now Research Ireland, and as chairperson of its Grants Awards Committee. He has been involved with a range of large-scale Horizon projects and works on public policy and political research in different European countries. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 18th, 2025. Rough Magic Theatre Company, in association with the Trinity Long Room Hub, presents Embracing Uncertainty: An Evening with Margaret Heffernan, Roy Foster and Tommy Tiernan. In a world where change is constant, the future rarely unfolds as expected. How do we learn not just to endure uncertainty, but to harness it? Drawing upon her recent book Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians & Artists Thrive in an Unpredictable World (2025), Margaret Heffernan makes the case that creative practice isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. She argues that business structures, government policy, leadership models must give space to ambiguity, flexibility and emotional stamina - the very qualities artists exercise daily. In this unique event, acclaimed author, speaker, and entrepreneur Dr Margaret Heffernan joins eminent historian Roy Foster and broadcaster-actor-comedian Tommy Tiernan to explore how artistic practice offers vital lessons for corporate leaders, policy makers, and culture creators alike. By galvanizing our creativity, Heffernan puts artistic practice firmly at the centre of strategic thinking. For artists, the evening will affirm practice: that creativity, failure and improvisation aren’t just expressive, they are survival tools. For business leaders and corporate or government sectors, this is a call to reframe unpredictability not as a threat, but as entering territory where innovation lives. When organisations embrace uncertainty, they open possibilities. They build resilience. Learn more at www.tcd.ietrinitylongroomhub

Recorded  November 14th, 2025. The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: Past, Present, and Future Prof. Kenneth Kidd, Dr Lydia Ferguson, Laura Shanahan, Dr Jane Carroll, Dr Pádraic Whyte Recorded as part of The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: A Symposium This collaboration between the School of English and Trinity College Library brought together a range of experts to discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Collection. The Collection is one of the most important children's book collections in the world and contains over 12,000 books ranging from the 16thC to the early 20thC amassed over a twenty-year period by Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, the former Keeper of Early Printed books at Trinity College Library. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded  November 14th, 2025. Presentations from Students on the M.Phil. programme in Children’s Literature: Jovyn Anderson, Shumane Cleary, Judit Climent Torras, Alice Andrea Dall’Alba, Cleo Daly, Eryne Decluy-Mason, Isabelle Duffy, Bianca Embrén, Annelise Hoffman, Eva Hughes-Sutton, Susan Stewart, Paulina Tittertington, Jiaying Wu. Recorded as part of The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: A Symposium This collaboration between the School of English and Trinity College Library brought together a range of experts to discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Collection. The Collection is one of the most important children's book collections in the world and contains over 12,000 books ranging from the 16thC to the early 20thC amassed over a twenty-year period by Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, the former Keeper of Early Printed books at Trinity College Library. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded  November 14th, 2025. Dr Jane Carroll Convivial Patchworks: Collections within the Pollard Collection of Children's Books Tony Flynn Stories in Blank Spaces: Revealing biographies of childhood through inscriptions and marginalia found in the Pollard Collection of Children’s Books and Pollard Schoolbook Collection Dr Sinéad Moriarty "Weep on then, lost island": imagining Irish landscapes in the Irish history texts of the Pollard School-book collection 1860-1920. Recorded as part of The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: A Symposium This collaboration between the School of English and Trinity College Library brought together a range of experts to discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Collection. The Collection is one of the most important children's book collections in the world and contains over 12,000 books ranging from the 16thC to the early 20thC amassed over a twenty-year period by Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, the former Keeper of Early Printed books at Trinity College Library. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded  November 14th, 2025. Dr Pádraic Whyte The History of Harry Spencer: Paul Pollard and the beginnings of Irish Children’s Literature Dr Maggie Masterson Paul Pollard's anti-canon of unknown and uninteresting books Prof. Aileen Douglas The ‘new literature of animals’ and the Pollard Collection Recorded as part of The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: A Symposium This collaboration between the School of English and Trinity College Library brought together a range of experts to discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Collection. The Collection is one of the most important children's book collections in the world and contains over 12,000 books ranging from the 16thC to the early 20thC amassed over a twenty-year period by Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, the former Keeper of Early Printed books at Trinity College Library. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 14th, 2025. Emer O’Sullivan graduated from University College Dublin and pursued further studies and academic work at Berlin and Frankfurt universities before being appointed Chair of English Literature at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Writing in both German and English, she specialises in comparative and children’s literature, with particular interests in translation and image studies. Her work has been translated into many languages. A pioneer in comparative children’s literature, she has received international recognition, most recently the IRSCL Honorary Fellowship and the 20th International Brothers Grimm Award in 2025. Recorded as part of The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books: A Symposium This collaboration between the School of English and Trinity College Library brought together a range of experts to discuss the history, significance, and impact of the Collection. The Collection is one of the most important children's book collections in the world and contains over 12,000 books ranging from the 16thC to the early 20thC amassed over a twenty-year period by Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, the former Keeper of Early Printed books at Trinity College Library. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 24th, 2025. An evening of celebration as we award the Research Ireland - Harrison Medal to Philip V. Bohlman. Following the presentation of the medal, Bohlman will deliver the 2025 Harrison Lecture, "On Goodness". About the Research Ireland - Harrison Medal In 2004 the Harrison Medal was inaugurated by the Society for Musicology in Ireland in honour of Frank Llewellyn Harrison (1905–1987), the Irish musicologist who made a seminal contribution to the study of medieval music (especially music in medieval Britain) and to the study of ethnomusicology. Harrison held positions in Canada and the United States before being appointed to a Lectureship in Music at Oxford in 1952; he was appointed Reader in the History of Music there in 1962. Harrison subsequently became Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Amsterdam in 1970. A detailed account of his career and publications by Robin Elliott is available in EMIR, Vol. 1, pp. 469–471. In 2018 the award was renamed the Irish Research Council - Harrison Medal in recognition of the longstanding contribution towards the funding of the award by the Irish Research Council (IRC). After the IRC had been incorporated into Taighde Éireann / Research Ireland in 2024 the name was adapted to Research Ireland - Harrison Medal. The SMI gratefully acknowledges the support of both the IRC and Taighde Éireann / Research Ireland. The Medal is awarded by the President and Council of the SMI to recognize outstanding achievements and excellence in research in musicology. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 3rd, 2025. As we approach the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement on 15 November 1985, Behind the Headlines returns to debate whether this was a crucial stepping stone on the path to peace, or a controversial stumbling block. Bringing together experts from across the island, the panel re-examines the Agreement before the Good Friday Agreement, discusses what was so controversial at the time, and debates its impact and legacy. In particular, it explores the response of Unionist and Loyalist communities in Northern Ireland, the political fallout, and the mass protest campaign that followed. The event was chaired by Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Chair of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College Dublin. Panel Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh, former Irish ambassador, who played a crucial role in the negotiation of the Agreement. Dr Shelley Deane, expert in Security and International Relations at the School of Law and Government in DCU and member of the ARINS project team. Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor, Belfast Telegraph Prof Michael Kerr, Professor of Conflict Studies, Kings College London Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded November 3rd, 2025. As we approach the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Behind the Headlines revisits one of the most significant – and contested – moments in modern Irish history. In this special curated episode, Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Chair of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College Dublin, speaks with an expert panel ahead of the Behind the Headlines event The Anglo-Irish Agreement: Its Making, Impact, and the People Behind It. Joining her are: Dáithí Ó Ceallaigh, former Irish ambassador, who played a crucial role in the negotiation of the Agreement. Dr Shelley Deane, expert in Security and International Relations at Dublin City University and member of the ARINS project team. Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph. Professor Michael Kerr, Professor of Conflict Studies at King’s College London. Together, they explore the making of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, the controversy it provoked, and its lasting legacy on politics across these islands. 🎧 Was the Anglo-Irish Agreement a crucial stepping stone on the path to peace — or a political stumbling block? Tune in to find out. The Behind the Headlines series is proudly supported by the John Pollard Foundation Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded October 2nd, 2025. Thinking Aloud, Thinking Together is a new series of live and recorded conversations amplifying voices that have been silenced in Irish cultural life. It gives space to artists, writers and thinkers who offer radical new perspectives on existing narratives. Our first conversation takes the form of a podcast series. Entitled 'In the Half Light: Voices from Black Ireland', this podcast is delivered in partnership with the Museum of Literature Ireland and curated by Dr Phil Mullen (Assistant Professor of Black Studies at Trinity College Dublin and a leading researcher on the historical experiences of 'mixed-race' people growing up in Ireland). Using the audio format, Phil has created an anonymised, open space for 'mixed-race' people who grew up in Irish care institutions to explore the impact of their erasure from institutional abuse history and discourse in Ireland. Through this conversation, she aims to undo that erasure, one voice at a time. Phil will be in conversation with journalist and researcher Caelainn Hogan. The conversation will be chaired by writer Eoin McNamee. This event is organised in partnership with the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute and Trinity Research in Social Sciences. Speakers Dr Phil Mullen is Assistant Professor of Black Studies and located in the Department of Sociology. She teaches on the Trinity elective which introduces students to the epistemology of Black Studies as an intellectual pursuit. This is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of knowledge that interrogates historical events that have impacted on those who are racialised as Black, while centring the perspectives of Black people in constructing and deconstructing these events. Sheleads a research project to recover the lived experiences and sociological impact of African students who came to Trinity in the early 20th century, which amplifies our understanding of Blackness in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Caelainn Hogan is a writer and journalist from Dublin. Her first book Republic of Shame investigates the ongoing legacy of Ireland's religious-run, state-funded institutions and the shame-industrial complex that incarcerated women and children. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Guardian, VICE, Harper's, The Washington Post, The Dublin Review and more. Eoin McNamee is a novelist and screenwriter. His nineteen novels include Resurrection Man and the Blue Trilogy. He has written six Young Adult novels including the New York Times bestselling The Navigator, and three thrillers under the John Creed pseudonym. He wrote the screenplay for the film Resurrection Man directed by Marc Evans and I Want You directed by Michael Winterbottom. His television credits include Hinterland (BBC Wales/Netflix) and An Brontanas (TG4). He has written seven radio plays for BBC R4. He is the Director of the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre and Co-Director of the M.Phil in Creative Writing Course at Trinity College Dublin. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded October 1st, 2025. A seminar by Dr Peter Rogers (Macquarie University, Australia) as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Seminar Series. This talk will discuss how to translate a travelling concept with different meanings for different audiences into practical and deliverable projects. Peter will highlight examples of projects that seek to build resilience, from physical infrastructure interventions to ways of working differently to identifying, analysing, preparing for, preventing, responding to and recovering from emergent challenges - such as mental health resilience in the age of climate change. The talk will highlight how no single approach can work everywhere, whilst awareness of the many faces of resilience can improve the coordination of common goals (and deliverable outcomes) for the diverse stakeholders seeking to build resilience, in one form or another. About the speaker: Peter is a social scientist with primary expertise in resilience, in all its forms. He is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Macquarie University, Australia, and was Co-Director of 'Climate Futures' research centre from 2011-15. He has been an active researcher and consultant on resilience policy for many years. His published works include Resilience and the City (Ashgate. 2012) and The Everyday Resilience of the City (with Coaffee & Murakami-Wood. Palgrave, 2008). His forthcoming book on Resilience: Origins and Evolutions (Edward Elgar - 2026) brings together the disparate threads of his nearly 20 years of research on this topic into one volume. Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub

Recorded October 7th, 2025. A seminar by Prof Jarlath Killeen (School of English, TCD) as part of the English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series. "Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses."  The Picture of Dorian Gray opens in the studio of Basil Hallward in which the smells of an English garden at the start of summer mingle with the smoke of Lord Henry Wotton's opium-tinged cigarettes. This scent puts Dorian into a trance in which it is difficult, if not impossible for him, to resist the temptations offered: one located in Basil entrancing portrait, the other in Lord Henry’s mind-numbing peons to ever-blossoming youth and beauty. In this noxious atmosphere a new plant will grow, one even more dangerous than those that Hallward already has in the garden: the plant that is Dorian Gray. This talk will look at the ways in which Wilde has carefully used a Victorian language of the flowers throughout his novel as a way to dramatise the struggle between the forces of good and evil over Dorian's soul.  English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series is a fortnightly meeting which has been integral to the School of English research community since the 1990s. The aim of the seminar series is to provide a relaxed and convivial atmosphere for staff and students to present their research to their peers. The series also welcomes distinguished guest lecturers from the academic community outside Trinity College to present on their work. It is a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and engage with the diverse research taking place within the School.  Learn more at www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub