Read Mór - 3,600 Books Gifted in Hospitals on Culture Night

The Read Mór book gifting project was back again for its second year and this time patients in selected hospitals across the country hadan opportunity to participate in Culture Night and escape to the furthest reaches of their imagination with a choice of 29 different books by Irish based authors and publishers. This year the Arts Council partnered up with HSE Healthy Ireland to ensure that more people in more places enjoyed Culture Night.

On the 22nd of September the Read Mór ‘Book Doctors’ and their teams ‘prescribed’ over 3,600 free books from their Library Trolleys when they visited the wards and public spaces in 7 hospitals across Ireland including: Connolly Hospital, Dublin; Letterkenny Hospital, Donegal; Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, Galway; St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny; Naas Hospital, Kildare; Ennis Hospital, Clare; and Croom Hospital, Limerick on Culture Night. 

Director of the Arts Council, Maureen Kennelly said: “In a world filled with technological distractions, the joy of reading a physical book remains an invaluable resource. Read Mór is all about the public engaging with stories, ideas, and emotions that transport us to different realms of our imagination. This year, Read Mór will also help bring the magic of Culture Night to those who cannot join in with the night’s events in the usual way. We could not have done this without the enthusiastic support of so many writers and publishers. We are especially grateful to our partners in HSE Healthy Ireland for their support in making Read Mór happen in hospitals across Ireland this Culture Night.” 

HSE Director of Strategy & Research Dr Philip Crowley said: “The HSE is delighted to be part of this event. The visit from the Read Mór Book Doctors and their teams to the hospitals will be a wonderful novelty and add some joy to our patients and healthcare staff. We can’t underestimate the benefits of reading to our mental health and wellbeing, and we hope this project will increase awareness of those proven benefits. Many of the benefits that reading bring can last a lifetime and it’s never too late to start reading”.

HSE National Healthy Ireland Lead Sarah McCormack said: “Participation in Read Mór is yet another key step forward in our implementation of Healthy Ireland promoting the building of healthy environments and adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours. This initiative will also include our staff working on the night. We hope it will remind them of the importance of taking time out for their own mental health and wellbeing and how a book can be such a valuable resource. We are very grateful to the Arts Council for choosing HSE Healthy Ireland as their partner for Read Mór”.

Once finished, patients are encouraged to share the joy of reading by passing on their book when they leave hospital to a family member or friend. With a wide variety being gifted, some as Gaeilge, there will be titles to suit all interests and ages, from novels, short stories, poetry, memoirs, to children’s and young adult books. Audiobook versions of a selection of the titles will also be available. 

There are a wealth of authors who are part of the Read Mór book gifting programme including Eimear McBride, who won the inaugural Goldsmith prize; John Banville, winner of the Booker Prize 2005; Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, leading Irish poet; Oein DeBhairduin, co-founder of LGBT TARA (Traveller and Roma Alliance); and Emma Donoghue, whose book was transformed into the Oscar winning film, Room; and many more!

The Read Mór 2023 books have been selected by the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024, Colm Tóibín; the Laureate na nÓg 2020-203, Áine Ní Ghlinn ;  the Laureate na nÓg 2023-2026 , Patricia Forde and the Ireland Professor of Poetry, Paul Muldoon