Dissecting Christine Falls: Forensic Science and Crime Fiction at the National Library

Christine Falls is the first of Benjamin Black’s Quirke novels - the pseudonym under which John Banville writes crime fiction set in 1950s Dublin. Quirke is a pathologist at the Mater Hospital, and the series is as much about the dark side of mid-century Irish institutions as it is about who killed whom. The title of this event is a very good pun.

The event brings together State Pathologist Dr. SallyAnne Collis and journalist Garrett Fagan to discuss forensic science: its history, how it actually works, and where crime fiction gets it right and wrong. The National Library of Ireland is the appropriate setting - there’s something fitting about a serious conversation about forensic science and Irish crime fiction happening in an institution that holds the archives of the culture that produced it.

What to Expect

An in-conversation format between Dr. Collis and Garrett Fagan, covering the history of forensic pathology in Ireland, the real procedures that crime writers dramatise (and frequently misrepresent), and what the science tells us that the fiction doesn’t. Dr. Collis is one of the most prominent forensic pathologists in Ireland - the person who actually does the work that Quirke does fictionally.

This is the kind of event that appeals to crime fiction readers, science enthusiasts, and anyone curious about how the legal and medical systems that underpin Irish crime writing actually function.

Good to Know

• 6pm Wednesday at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street
• The National Library is one of Dublin’s great public buildings - worth arriving early to see the reading room
• Check the Eventbrite page for ticketing
• Smart casual is appropriate for a National Library event

Getting There

The National Library of Ireland is at 7-8 Kildare Street, Dublin 2, opposite Leinster House. Luas Green Line at St Stephen’s Green is a 5-minute walk. Pearse DART is about 10 minutes on foot. Multiple bus routes serve Nassau Street and Molesworth Street nearby.