Charlotte: Martina Devlin in conversation with Prof. Jarlath Killeen and Sinéad Cuddihy

Charlotte Bronte is one of the great names in fiction. Join host Sinéad Cuddihy, Martina Devlin author of Charlotte, and Prof Jarlath Killeen, lecturer in Victorian Literature in Trinity College Dublin as they discuss the importance Charlotte Bronte, her Irish connections and researching her life for a novel.

Dr Martina Devlin is an Omagh-born, Dublin-based author and newspaper columnist. She has written nine novels, two non-fiction books and a collection of short stories. Her novels include Edith about the Irish R.M. co-author Edith Somerville; and The House Where It Happened about the 1711 Islandmagee witchcraft trial, which led to a plaque erected in 2023 to commemorate those wrongly convicted following a campaign she initiated. 

Her latest book, Charlotte focuses on Charlotte Brontë’s Irish connections in Co Down and Co Offaly, and came out in September 2024. She has also had two plays performed: Call Me Madame about Countess Marcievicz and Curves of Emotion about Nora Barnacle’s influence on James Joyce. Prizes include the Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Prize and a Hennessy Literary Award, and she has been shortlisted three times for the Irish Book Awards.

Martina programmes literary and public discussion events,  and writes a weekly current affairs column for the Irish Independent for which she has been named National Newspapers of Ireland commentator of the year, among other prizes for her journalism.

She holds a PhD in literary practice from Trinity College Dublin and has lectured there and in other universities on Irish literature.

Jarlath Killeen is the Head of the School of English and a lecturer in Victorian Literature in Trinity College Dublin.

Sinéad Cuddihy is the founder of Tired Mammy Book Club, an Instagram based book club. She set up Tired Mammy Book Club after her first child was born to get back reading and to build a community of mothers and others who had fallen out of the habit of reading. Sinéad has built a community of over 11,000 followers and coined the hashtag #TiredMammy30minutes to encourage members to make time to read every day.