The wait will have been worth it. Mikel Murfi is returning to the Geneva stage following his spellbinding performance earlier this year in ‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes.’ It won him a standing ovation and GLAS received many emails from audience members looking forward to the next instalment of this fascinating trilogy (see below).…
Review, Theatre
Standing ovation for “The Man in the Woman’s Shoes”
by Denis McClean •
GLAS Events, Theatre
The Man in the Woman’s Shoes (17.01.2023)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
“You’re entitled to go to the theatre and see something which is utterly uplifting and joyful.” So says the Irish writer and actor, Mikel Murfi, and GLAS is delighted to bring his acclaimed solo show ‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes’ to Geneva. Murfi trained at the prestigious Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and has had…
Music, Review
GLAS Christmas concert raises CHF 6,500 for Gaza musicians
by Denis McClean •
The GLAS Christmas Concert was very special this year. It was a story of two halves. One played by the UN Choir, centred on yuletide carols, while The Emigrants gave us music from the rich repertoire of the Irish tradition. And the result was at least CHF 6,500 collected on the night for the displaced…
GLAS Events, Music
The UN Choir & The Emigrants – Christmas concert in aid of Gaza (14.12.2023)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Many friends of GLAS will recall the electrifying performance of Rafeef Ziadeh, the Palestinian poet, who we hosted in June 2016. At her suggestion we started to support the Gaza School of Music, founded in 2012 as a branch of the Edward Said Conservatory of Music to offer the first ever long-term music education programme…
Music, Review
Trad takes Geneva by storm
by Denis McClean •
Jigs, reels and songs aplenty rang out in the old town of Geneva yesterday as GLAS welcomed a full house inside the hallowed walls of the Lutheran Evangelical Church on the Place Bourg de Four. The traditional Irish music trio Tulsk electrified the audience from the start. The interplay between Peter Molloy on flute, Sean…
GLAS Events, Music
Songs From Ireland – Old and New (23.09.2023)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
We are delighted to host this showcase of talent from the Emerald Isle featuring five of the country’s most talented singers and musicians. Pauline Scanlon comes from an Irish-speaking tradition on the Dingle Peninsula and her voice has a haunting beauty. Niamh Regan is a singer-songwriter from Galway who combines Irish tradiiton with flavours of Americana,…
Music, Review
Eoghan O’Sullivan kicks off the GLAS year in style
by Denis McClean •
The first GLAS event of the year was billed as a spring concert and there was definitely a spring in the step of Eoghan O’Sullivan as he took to the stage to deliver a buoyant, uplifting set of songs ‘From the Bright Side’ that earned him a standing ovation from a capacity attendance. The singer-songwriter…
GLAS Events, Music
Eoghan O’Sullivan – Songs from the Bright Side (26.04.2023)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
For our spring concert this year, we’re inviting you to spend an evening in the company of locally based singer and songwriter Eoghan O’Sullivan. A troubadour at heart, Eoghan has performed throughout Europe and beyond. He left his native Ireland for Switzerland in 2004 and has lived here ever since (aside from a few years…
GLAS Events, Music
White Raven (16.12.2022)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
It has been too long since we had a live, in-person event. So, we have decided to get the GLAS ball rolling again with a Christmas concert featuring the remarkable acapella vocal trio, White Raven, on Friday, December 16 in the beautiful setting of Geneva’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the heart of the old town…
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Mohamedou Ould Slahi (21.04.2021)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Mohamedou Ould Slahi was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay for 14 years, an innocent man held in a living hell courtesy of the United States as it prosecuted the so-called War on Terror. His gripping memoir, published as Guantánamo Diary, has been reissued as The Mauritanian with previously censored material restored. It coincides with a major film…
GLAS Events, Online, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Robert Jones Jr (08.03.2021)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Robert Jones Jr. has just published his stunning debut novel The Prophets to enormous critical acclaim. He was born and raised in New York City. He has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, OkayAfrica, The Feminist Wire, and The Grio. He is the creator of the social justice social media community…
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Mukesh Kapila (11.12.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Mukesh Kapila is one of the most influential voices on the world stage when it comes to humanitarian action. He is widely celebrated for raising his voice against the genocide in Darfur which led to his expulsion from Sudan, a rare fate for a UN country representative. His memoir about that experience Against a Tide…
GLAS Events, Music
John Spillane – Live online for GLAS – 03.12.2020
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
It has been a while since we offered you a musical evening and it is even further back in the pre-COVID past since that magical evening we enjoyed in the company of John Spillane in the Lutheran Evangelical Church here in Geneva. Generous sponsorship has made it possible to invite all GLAS members to join…
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Mark Malloch-Brown (04.06.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
If there is one lesson that Lord Mark Malloch-Brown has learned in his years as a globe-trotting humanitarian and development specialist, it is that “democracy does not flow easily from the barrel of a foreigner’s gun.” An understandable sentiment from the man who founded the International Crisis Group and whose classic memoir The Unfinished Global…
GLAS Events, Online, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Christine Dwyer Hickey (28.05.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
The librarians of Dublin, the city associated with so many great writers, celebrate one book every year – Dublin, One City, One Book. These have included James Joyce’s Dubliners, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Roddy’s Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy, and Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray. This year they have chosen a modern day classic, Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey,…
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Patrick Cockburn (21.05.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS HOUR – Meet the Author: Kishore Mahbubani (14.05.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Could the US and China end up going to war? That is one of the questions we will put to the distinguished author, academic and former President of the UN Security Council, Kishore Mahbubani, when we talk to him about his fascinating new book Has China Won? during this week’s GLAS Hour, which comes to…
GLAS Events, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Kevin Barry (08.05.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
“If Roddy Doyle and Nick Cave could procreate, the result would be something like Kevin Barry,” according to one critic. The Limerick-born author exploded onto the international literary scene with his firecracker collection of short stories, There are Little Kingdoms, in 2007, and soon became a regular contributor to The New Yorker. Kevin Barry is…
Poetry, Prose, Review
That was the GLAS Hour with… Colm Tóibín
by Denis McClean •
The GLAS Hour presented viewers with a world exclusive last Wednesday when our guest Colm Tóibín read an extract from his work in progress, The Magician in which he promises to do for the life of Thomas Mann what he did so successfully for Henry James in The Master. Watch the interview in full here.…
GLAS Events, Online, Poetry, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Colm Tóibín (29.04.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Colm Tóibín is an award-winning author. He is also a professor of the humanities at Columbia University, New York. He was born in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, the setting for several of his books. His novels include The Master, Nora Webster and The House of Names. The film adaptation of Brooklyn earned three Oscar nominations in…
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: James Shapiro (22.04.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
“Ultimately there rises the familiar suspicion that, for a country in love with the future, it’s always yesterday in America. Among all the fine words currently being spilled examining the American mess, James Shapiro has outshone many of our best political pundits with this superb contribution to the discourse. He upped the wattage simply by…
GLAS Events, Politics, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: John McEntee (06.04.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Anyone cocooned, marooned or feeling like some diversion can tune in to a conversation with one of Fleet Street’s finest foot soldiers next Monday. John McEntee’s devout mother once spent EUR 1,000 on having masses said in Catholic churches throughout Ireland for his salvation and the Hollywood actor Richard Harris sued him for libel following…
GLAS Events, Online, Prose
The GLAS Hour – Meet the Author: Padraig Rooney (30.03.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
We hope all our supporters, families and friends are staying healthy and well. Physical distancing should not mean social distancing, so we’ve decided to run an occasional series of online Meet the Author interviews over Zoom. Much depends though on the response to this first one and whether there is sufficient interest. It is intended…
GLAS Events, Theatre
Howie the Rookie (22.02.2020)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell shot to movie stardom after they featured in the cult hit, Intermission, written by Mark O’Rowe. O’Rowe’s masterpiece for the stage, Howie the Rookie, has been revived and is now on tour from Glass Mask Theatre in Dublin. It stars Stephen Jones and Rex Ryan, two of Ireland’s most outstanding…
Music, Review
Lisa Lambe lights up the Geneva night
by Denis McClean •
There are not many times in a professional singer’s life when she spontaneously yields the stage to a member of the audience. It happened Friday night when Lisa Lambe called young Molly O’Sullivan up on to the stage to sing the chorus of her song Hazelwood with the support of John McLaughlin on guitar and…
GLAS Events, Music
Lisa Lambe – A Winter’s Night (06.12.2019)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
For this year’s GLAS Christmas Concert, we are delighted to host Lisa Lambe, one of Ireland’s most sought-after performers. Lisa regularly works with Ireland’s national RTÉ Concert Orchestra. For several years she toured the world as one of the lead singers with “Celtic Woman”, playing such venues as Carnegie Hall and Radio City, New York.…
Review, Theatre
GLAS welcomes back Donal O’Kelly
by Denis McClean •
In the 14 years of GLAS, most people seem to recall one production more than others and that is Donal O’Kelly’s masterpiece Catalpa; so good we staged it twice. GLAS has also hosted his Fionnuala, Joyced (performed by his daughter Katie O’Kelly), and Little Thing, Big Thing. Donal’s return to the Geneva stage was long…
GLAS Events, Theatre
The Cambria (14.11.2019)
by Geneva Literary Aid Society •
Many GLAS supporters will remember the tour-de-force that was Catalpa, performed by Donal O’Kelly, and so popular that we have staged it twice. Donal is coming back to Geneva next month with another celebrated work, The Cambria. The Cambria was a trans-Atlantic paddle-steamer. In August 1845 among the passengers on board out of Boston was…