Happy Birthday Mrs. Dalloway: A Conference Celebrating 100 Years of Virginia Woolf’s Masterpiece

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which turns 100 this year, depicts a single day in June from the perspective of a number of characters. To mark the centenary, writer Belinda McKeon presents a day of panels and discussions in the Irish Writers Centre (Dublin) on Saturday 7 June 2025 from 11am to 3pm, with novelists, poets and essayists for whom Woolf’s novel remains a deeply important influence. 

Tickets cost: €50 (€40 Members/Concession). Book online.

Event Details:

Join us for conversations about memory, expression, writing the city, and much else besides. The morning will start with tea and coffee and there will be an hour interval for lunch. The panelists will include Claire-Louise Bennett, Mary Cregan, Naoise Dolan, Belinda McKeon, Nuala O’Connor and Emilie Pine.

TIMETABLE:

Welcome: 11.00 – 11.15am Join us for light refreshments (tea, coffee and biscuits) and an opportunity to meet each other before we get started with our discussions for the day.

Dangerous to live even one day: The Novel and The City

11.15am – 12.45pm: This morning conversation between Woolf scholar Mary Cregan (Barnard College, NYC, author of the memoir The Scar ) and novelist and essayist Emilie Pine (Ruth & Pen, Notes To Self) will consider themes of the city in fiction, the rhythms of life and writing, and more. Moderated by Belinda McKeon

BREAK 12.45pm – 1.30pm

Always giving parties to cover the silence: What Novelists do with Words

1.30pm – 3.00pm: This afternoon panel discussion will see novelists Claire-Louise Bennett (Pond, Checkout 19), Naoise Dolan (Exciting Times, The Happy Couple) and Nuala O’Connor (Seaborne, Nora, Miss Emily) consider the way that Mrs Dalloway is made, and how they have made their own novels: the Woolf influence, and how it abides. Moderated by Belinda McKeon

Light refreshments will be available throughout the day.