The 9th Franco-Irish Literary Festival, organised by the Alliance Française Dublin and the Cultural Service of the French Embassy, will be held on the 18th and 19th April 2008 in the Coach House, Dublin Castle and on the 20th April at the Alliance Française.

We would like to thank sincerely those writers who have accepted their invitation to the Festival and who will make it a very special occasion! Our partners this year are the Austrian Embassy, the Délégation Générale du Québec à Londres, the Goethe- Institut Dublin, the Instituto Cervantes and the Mexican Embassy. We have also had the invaluable support of the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, Dublin City Council, Foras Na Gaeilge, Ireland Fund of France, the Irish Eyes, the Irish Writers’ Centre, Ireland Literature Exchange, Poetry Ireland and several companies.

It is important to underline that the considerable success enjoyed by this festival to date, would not have been possible without the unfailing support of the academic members of the Festival Committee and the extensive coverage of the media.

The Franco-Irish Literary Festival will once again include writers in the English and Irish languages, together with writers of the wider francophone world and other literatures.  This year, the 2008 Festival will be composed of interviews, round tables, cafés littéraires and readings, around the theme of  SECRETS.

During the three days of the festival, our literary exchanges will concentrate on all the intriguing aspects of the world of secrets: from their nurturing process and their composition, to their way of travelling and their impact on the different levels of our lives. If you want to discover more on love secrets, family secrets and political secrets, if you want to be privy to the latest gossip, and come to realise what is mere hearsay as opposed to genuine secrets, all could be unveiled by our literary figures who might also discuss the importance and the relevance of the realm of secrets in their literary production, as well as their presence in their own literary outputs.
The presence of secrets is part of what constitutes our present world, our present imagination, our lives, past and future. Yet, secrets can only function if they remain secret… Is unveiling a secret distorting and annihilating it, or does it only allow this secret to be regenerated into a newer transformation of itself? What is the position of literature as regards secrets? What is the position of the writer as regards secrets? Is it the role of the literary world to have a say on the secrets of a writer or on the secrets contained within a book? Can literature solve or exacerbate any problematic situation generated by secrets? What makes a secret sad, tragic, hilarious or pathetic? Why are mankind, society and literature feeding on secrets? To be seen… Maybe…

For the third time this year, with the help of Writers in Schools, some of the participating writers will visit Secondary Schools and Teacher Training colleges to discuss their work. For the third year also we are delighted to invite you to a bookcrossing.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to express our warmest and most sincere thanks to all our sponsors and patrons without whom a festival of this size and nature would never be possible.

We look forward to seeing you in April!
A bientôt!

Patrick Debut
Cultural Councellor
French Embassy in Ireland

Jean-Michel Garcia
Director
Alliance Française Dublin