How have you found your first year as Director of the PGIL? I took up my appointment during lockdown and that forced a review of the traditional way of doing things. We kept the library alive with virtual events and reduced audience events, which we televised in Monaco to increase our audience. Our goal now is to enrich these events. We have a long tradition of welcoming outstanding Irish people to give talks in the PGIL, including writers Edna O’Brien, John Banville, Colm McCann and Seamus Heaney, and former Taoiseach Garett Fitzgerald. Monaco is home to a dynamic, international population and professionals coming to work here want the best education for their children and a anglophone hub like the Library. What are some of your plans for the PGIL and how do you see the partnership with Trinity developing? Our goal is to facilitate exchange and learning through collaboration with our schools and university, be it through lectures, symposia, workshops or joint performances engaging the Académie de Musique Rainier III or amateur actors from the Monaco-Ireland Arts Society (the co- founder is a Trinity alumnus). We recently welcomed Jane Ohlmeyer, Erasmus Smith Professor of Modern History at Trinity, to address the PGIL and 200 secondary school pupils at the Lycée Albert II (where the Prince was educated), and next year, we’re looking forward to Professor Rachel Moss speaking about the Book of Kells. We hope that our academic bursary, funded by The Ireland Funds of Monaco, will benefit from a Trinity academic in the future. The PGIL’s role is to be a vibrant hub promoting Irish history and heritage, a place where like-minded people can flourish and fall in love with Ireland’s cultural treasures. Trinity will help us fulfil this role. Laura Shanahan is Head of Research Collections at the Library of Trinity College Dublin
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