European Literary London: Irish Writing, Language and Identity

In this episode of our podcast 'Talking Europe', Hayley Anderson, one of our 2024-25 Student Ambassadors, sits down with Ciara Broderick, the UCL 2025 European Literary Map of London Writer in Residence. Their conversation delves into Ciara’s journey as a writer, her experiences settling into London, and the creative process behind her upcoming short story for the Literary Map. Together, they explore themes of writing, language, and identity—examining how the Irish language shapes both Ciara’s work and her sense of self. This episode was produced in collaboration with the UCL Platform for Linguistic and Epistemic Justice (PLEJ). PLEJ is a research centre based at UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Its focus is to place socio-cultural linguistic research front and centre among the interdisciplinary areas of enquiry with social impact at SSEES, UCL, and beyond. About our guests Ciara Broderick Irish prose and poetry writer Ciara Broderick is our 24/25 Writer in Residence. Ciara's work has been published in several Irish and international journals and in 2025 her first novel was selected as a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair. During her four-week residency in London, Ciara has been based at UCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities and engaged closely with UCL academics and students, participated in various related events, and pursued her own writing. Hayley Anderson Hayley is one of the Student Ambassadors at the UCL Europe Institute for 2024/25. She is a fourth-year European Social and Political Studies student. With her specialism in Hungarian and History, she has focussed her research on the experiences and identities of communities in Eastern Slovakia and the wider Central East Europe region.