Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs, Dinny McGinley, launched Brendan Lynch’s PRODIGALS AND GENIUSES – The Writers and Artists of Dublin’s Baggotonia in Dublin’s United Arts Club on Nov 15, 2011.
Brendan Lynch, Mrs Margie Lynch and Minister Dinny McGinley
The first history of Dublin’s “Left Bank” and the first to celebrate Dublin’s UNESCO City of Literature award, PRODIGALS describes the authors and artists who inhabited the area around Baggot Street and the city’s Georgian quarter. These ranged from Oscar Wilde, George Moore and W B Yeats to Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan and Maeve Binchy, and included no fewer than four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Minister described a PRODIGALS as a
“wonderful celebration of national treasures”.
He praised Brendan Lynch’s
“insightful, thoughtful and informed writing which would bring the writers to a whole new audience.”
Brendan Lynch said;
“Outside of Paris, there is no city area anywhere in the world which saw such a concentration of talent. These hard-working and frequently deprived men and women were real patriots. Without bombs of guns, they brought honour to Ireland and promoted us internationally. Their work spans the generations and the continents.”
The author added:
“Sadly, sculptor Eamon O’Doherty, who helped me, died before tonight’s launch. Hopefully, Dublin City Council will one day honour his memory by reinstating his wonderful Anna Livia sculpture in O’Connell Street, where it rightly belongs.”
The large attendance included writers Peter Costello, Adrian Kenny Robert Nicholson, Eoin O’Brien, Ulick O’Connor and Noel Kissane and Gerry Lyne, former Keepers of Manuscripts at Dublin’s National Library.
"More, please!" Peadar & Treasa MacManus with Donal Whelan
Author, Brendan Lynch, regales captive audience
Val O'Donnell reads Myles na Gopaleen
Brendan Lynch 
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