Chairperson: Dr Zuleika Rodgers

Hubert Butler (1900–1991), Kilkenny man-of-letters, remains a largely undiscovered treasure of Irish literature. Proud of his Protestant heritage while still deeply committed to the Irish nation, he sought in his life and writing to ensure that Ireland would grow into an open and pluralistic society. His four volumes of essays are masterful literature in the tradition of Swift, Yeats and Shaw, elegant and humane readings of Irish and European history, and ultimately hopeful testimony to human progress. To commemorate Butler’s life and writing, Dublin Writers Festival presents a series of three panel discussions focusing on different aspects of Butler’s work.

A writer for whom “the ethical imagination” was paramount, Hubert Butler wrote many essays addressing twentieth-century cultural nationalism, the dangers of globalization and mass communication, the search for humane community, racialism, Mitteleuropa, Stalinism, and the Holocaust. For this second of three events exploring Butler’s work, the poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi, the BBC journalist Fergal Keane and Robert Tobin (biographer of Butler) will discuss Butler on the fate of European Jewry. The Hubert Butler discussions are brought to you in association with the journal Irish Pages and are funded by the Arts Council through their participation in the Cultural Programme to mark Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The Hubert Butler discussions are brought to you in association with the journal Irish Pages and are funded by the Arts Council through their participation in the Cultural Programme to mark Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.