Book Launch: If I Must Die – Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer
Info
Date:
October 8, 2025
Time:
6.30pm - 8.30pm
Location:
Irish Writers Centre
Price:
Free
Book Launch
If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer
Wednesday 8 October 2025
6.30pm – 8.30pm
Irish Writers Centre
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is honoured to invite you to the launch of a new collection of poetry and prose from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer.
The book will be launched by Refaat’s close friend and editor, Yousef M. Alajamal, and hosted by poet and activist, Clíodhna Bhreatnach.
Dr. Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, translator, university professor and activist from Gaza. On 6th December 2023, he was murdered by a targeted airstrike on his apartment, one of the more than 62,000 Gazans killed by Israeli occupation forces over the last two years. He is perhaps best known as the author of the poem ‘If I Should Die’, written just weeks before his martyrdom. Under the supervision of Refaat’s friend and literary executor Yousef M. Aljamal, OR Books has published a new collection of his poetry and writing. These pieces, some never before published, form a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist; someone whose voice will not be silenced, but rather amplified, by death and will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity and genocide.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase. This event is hosted by the Dublin branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, with thanks to the Irish Writers Centre.
Praise for the book
“As versatile as it is urgent… a beacon of light in our darkened world.”
— World Literature Today
“Fragments of a visionary’s blueprint for liberation.”
— Middle East Eye
“The ‘Voice of Gaza’ lives on.”
— New Arab
“Remarkable . . . a tragic document of genocide, and a beacon of hope for a Palestinian future.”
— The Morning Star
Accessing our building
The Irish Writers Centre is currently housed in 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. This is a Georgian building which unfortunately does not have a lift. There are 5 steps into the entrance level. This event will take place in the Kiely Room which is on the first floor and requires climbing 30 steps in total. Please do inform us of any accessibility requirements you might have before the night so we can make any necessary arrangements.
If you have any questions about the event, please email info@irishwriterscentre.ie.
