Efacis The German-Irish Society Saarland in cooperation with the Chair of British Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland university and Saarbrücken City Library was delighted to welcome Mary O’Donnell on her Irish Itinerary tour in Germany. Mary gave a fantastic reading to an audience eagerly listening to excerpts from ‘Empire’ and ‘Where They Lie’ followed by a Q&A session. Questions covered a wide range of topics from the contents of the books to the author’s creative writing process. We were delighted to see a good crowd showing up made up of students, workers, retirees and more – exactly the kind of general public the Irish Itinerary is hosted for. The reading was held in a hospitable and attentive atmosphere at the City Library’s Reader’s Café surrounded by large windows giving us a feeling of being in a room that was at once enlightened and shining brightly, spreading its glow out into Saarbrücken’s December dark. Following the reading and the Q&A Mary was signing copies of her books, some of which she brought along herself and some of which members of the audience brought along; the latter, undoubtedly, goes to show Mary is an author much-read not only in Ireland but also abroad.
We are absolutely over the moon with the wonderful writer that is Mary O’Donnell and would like to express our heartfelt thanks to her for joining us. In addition, we would like to thank EFACIS and Culture Ireland for their administrative and financial support, and Saarbrücken City Library for being such a kind host. We look forward to working further with all of them in the years to come.
