School of English’s Charity Christmas Reading Event

Posted on: 20 December 2013

Childbirth in Poetry and Prose was the theme of the annual School of English Christmas Charity Reading which took place on Tuesday, December 17th, 2013 in the Graduate Memorial Building, Trinity College Dublin.

The event, featured poetry and prose readings on the theme of childbirth by Trinity staff, students and guests, and raised money for the Andrew Grene Foundation – a charity dedicated to supporting the people of Haiti through education, loans and building projects.

The foundation is named in honour of the brother of Professor of English Literature Nicholas Grene, Andrew Grene, who died in the earthquake of January 12, 2010 when the UN HQ building in Port au Prince collapsed in Haiti.

The programme featured 12 readings ranging from Medieval English lyrics to contemporary fiction and autobiography. The School of English’s current writer-in-residence Chris Binchy read from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; Trinity’s Professor of Nursing and Midwifery, Cecily Begley, offered a beautiful poem by Barbara Kingsolver; and graduate students Eve Cobain and Hattie Induni read from Sylvia Plath and T.S. Eliot.

John Scattergood read the anonymous medieval English lyric, ‘Lollai, lollai litil child, whi wepistou so sore …’ and Usher Assistant Professor in Medieval Literature Brendan O’Connell read ‘Lyric’ from The Second Shepherd’s Play. In addition, author Selina Guinness read from her own book The Crocodile at the Door and Professor Gerald Dawe, Director of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Gerald Dawe read his works ‘Solstice’ and ‘Alba’.

Head of School Associate Professor Eve Patten commented: “It is always a pleasure to hear literature read aloud, and we’re delighted to bring together the community of the School of English and friends to enjoy the work of some great writers, as part of the festive season and in aid of a charity very close to the School’s heart, the Andrew Grene Foundation.”

Listen back to the reading on the Trinity FM site here