The Ambassador of Italy to Ireland Nicola Faganello opened, last Friday 25th September at the Italian Cultural Institute in Dublin, in the presence of the Director Michela Linda Magrì, the fourth edition of “FIILI – Festival of Italian and Irish Literature in Ireland”. The festival concluded in Dublin on 26th September, at the end of a second day held at Trinity College, following two days of events.
The 2026 edition of the Festival, dedicated to the theme “Literature as Resistance”, was organised by the IIC, under the auspices of the Embassy of Italy in Dublin, in collaboration with the two authors and co-curators Catherine Dunne and Enrica Ferrara, the FIILI Association, and with the support of Trinity College Dublin (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Fund), Literature Ireland, Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann, the Society for Italian Studies (SIS), Foras na Gaeilge, the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation (TCLCT), and the Irish Writers Centre.
This year, the event once again brought together Italian and Irish writers, poets and translators in a rich and varied programme of talks and conversations. The large audience had the opportunity to discover the work of Italian authors Laura Pugno, Giuseppe Catozzella, Antonella Lattanzi, Tommaso Pincio, Nadeesha Uyangoda and Viviana Fiorentino, in conversation with Irish writers and poets including Martina Devlin, Martin Doyle, Wendy Erskine, Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh, Gustav Parker Hibbett, Caitríona Lally, Paul McVeigh and Paul Murray. The programme explored the relationship between literature, identity, memory, translation and creative freedom.
Among the new features of the fourth edition were Masterclasses in Literary Translation and Creative Writing, led respectively by translator Sophie Hughes and author Paul McVeigh.
