I visited Dublin last weekend – and my Irish Detective Society gave me the most amazing welcome!
My signing at Eason’s O’Connell Street (who have always been so supportive of my books!) was wonderful – I had fans from as far away as Cork come to see me. It means a lot that people travel to meet me – I feel so honoured that you care so much!
On Sunday I had two events at the International Literature Festival, both in the beautiful Smock Alley theatre. The first was a panel event about helping the planet, and I was honoured to speak with two inspirational women: the author Lauren St John, who created the wonderful Authors 4 Oceans initiative (if you haven’t, please sign up and pledge today!), and the young activist and beach cleaner Flossie Donnelly. It’s so clear to me how much children and teenagers care about the environment, and how much you’re already doing to help change the story, and I’m very proud to lend my support to all of your work. Oisin McGann was our chair – below is a photo of all of us as we were about to go on stage!
My solo event, just after the panel, was incredible. It was a full house, and I think it was one of my favourite talks I’ve done for quite a while. The audience were so engaged and inspired – I know that quite a few of them will grow up to be published authors! I loved meeting fans afterwards – the queue was long, but everyone stayed so cheerful. Thank you to Sarah from the ILF, for organising the day, to Gutter Bookshop for supplying the events, to all of the ILF staff and to everyone who came along!
On Monday and Tuesday, I worked with the wonderful Poetry Ireland Writers in Schools scheme to speak to pupils from St Mary’s Fairview and Scoil Mologa. I love the scheme, and I was so impressed with everyone I met. Again, I know I’ve worked with a lot of future published authors! Thank you to Jane and Anna, and everyone else from Poetry Ireland. They’re wonderful!
I was lucky enough to be asked to do some pretty amazing interviews and comment pieces while I was in Ireland. I spoke about why it’s important for children to be taught about LGBTQ+ identities in the Journal.ie; I spoke to Anna Carey from the Irish Times and Keeley Ryan from Her.ie about my books; and I even went on Ryan Tubridy’s RTE1 radio show! (As a big Late Late Toy Show fan that one was very exciting).
All in all, it was a brilliant trip – I loved my visit, and I can’t wait to come back to Ireland again soon!
