You are invited to Dubylon (like Babylon with its many languages). In this project we will read and write poems about Dublin. We will be using all the words in our heads, in all the languages we know. Everyone is welcome. Looking forward to meeting you and playing with words. At the end, we will make a book of our poems. You will be working with poets Fiona Bolger - fionabolgerpoetry.com and Rafael Mendes. Contact [email protected] if you want to get involved. - Fiona Bolger
Dubylon is a trans- lational, national, lingual project where we will be rooting ourselves in the language and poetry of Dublin while reaching across the waters and world to bring fresh phrases to the project. If you are interested in language, if you speak a few, if you’ve come a long way to be here you are welcome to join us. We will be translating poems we like about Dublin, writing our own new poems about Dublin and digging down into the mud of Dublin and just making stuff up. We will be gathering poems and playthings, languages and lore together and making a book to share our findings and footherings with the wider community and the world. Kumonalong and join us in our wor(l)d play!
Dubylon 3 - Dubeloving
Curated by the poets Fiona Bolger and Rafael Mendes and launched October 2025, Dubeloving: From the People of Dubylon is an anthology of plurilingual writing from the 2025 Dubylon plurilingual writing workshops facilitated by the poets and involving people of broadly diverse communities who have been exploring and writing about love as tenderness, a struggle for justice, and even sometimes, the loss of hope .
Click on the picture above for an e-copy of Dubeloving.
Dubeloving was launched at the James Joyce Centre October 22nd 2025 to a great, warm and loving reception. We would like to extend our warmest gratitude to the James Joyce Centre for being such gracious hosts!
Dubylon 2 - published October 2024
Dubylon #2 was launched 12th October 2024 at Charlevile Mall Library. Dubylon 2 is in broadsheet form which folds down into a paper boat, a metaphor for the journeys told by the people who helped produce this volume (download a copy here).
Dubylon 1 - Book published November 2023
Dubylon is a collection of poems written by Dubliners from all over the world: Syria, Palestine, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Malawi, and Brazil, among other countries during the above project.
Dubylon is part of an ongoing intercultural writing programme that seeks to give voices to the many tongues and traditions that are part of Dublin’s conversations in the 21st century. A part of the Intercultural Language Service’s storytelling project which began in 2017, the book provides a space for diverse people to share how they see, feel, and live in the city which is their home.
If you would like an e-book version of the book, please click on the cover below. If you can, please make a donation to our charity by clicking the 'Donate' button here:
Dubylon had a fabulous launch at the James Joyce Centre 20th November 2023 with multilingual readings by Dubliners from all over the world.
To the girl in English class - by Hafsat Abdullahi: