Famous in East Germany, Unknown in Ireland? The Life and Work of Elizabeth Shaw

Seats are limited; please arrive early if you need to sit down.

Elizabeth Shaw (1920-1992) was a Belfast-born artist who became one of the most popular children’s book authors and illustrators in East Germany. She remains a continuing influence and may be seen as an embodiment of Irish-British-German cultural relations. In her works, which are among the classics of German children’s literature, she brought a sense of Irishness and innovative creative ideas to post-WWII Berlin, informed by her experience of Ireland and of 1940’s cosmopolitan London. She reflects on this in her memoir, How I came to Berlin, published for the first time in English in 2025.

We have invited four contemporary Irish children’s authors and laureates to reflect on Shaw’s life and oeuvre from their own perspectives as writers and illustrators: PJ Lynch, Siobhán Parkinson, Margaret Anne Suggs and Emer O’Sullivan. How can Shaw’s work be situated within the wider context of Irish and international children’s literature today? What made the arts scene in post-war East Berlin so different, while allowing Shaw’s work to flourish? How is Shaw’s work and life relevant in today’s multicultural and multilingual Ireland? These are some of the questions to be explored at the roundtable following the keynote by Prof. Dr. Emer O’Sullivan (Leuphana University, Lüneburg) and a welcome by the German Ambassador, David Gill.

A selection of books by Elizabeth Shaw will be on display for viewing. Copies of her recently published memoir, How I Came to Berlin: An Artist’s Journey from Belfast and the London Blitz to a Cold-War City, edited by Sabine Egger & Fergal Lenehan (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2025), will be on sale at a reduced price. 

The support for the event from the DAAD, the German Embassy, the Goethe-Institut and the Kunstarchiv Graetz & Shaw is gratefully acknowledged.