Dissecting Christine Falls

State Pathologist Dr. SallyAnne Collis will be in conversation with Garrett Fagan about the history of forensic science, the development of investigative techniques and their use in crime fiction from the historical to the contemporary. The discussion will consider what the fictional pathologist Quirke in John Banville’s Christine Falls gets right and wrong about the work of a forensic pathologist, and the differences between forensic pathology in the 1950s and today. The work of the State Pathologist will be explained and there will be an opportunity for questions.

Dr SallyAnne Collis studied Medicine at Edinburgh University in Scotland and specialised in Forensic Histopathology in Liverpool before returning to Edinburgh to take up her first Consultant post with Scotland's  Forensic Pathology Department. After five years in Edinburgh, Dr Collis joined the Office of the State Pathologist in Dublin as a State Pathologist.

Garrett Fagan teaches literature at the Open University and at universities in Dublin and at Warwick University in the UK. He has interests in Renaissance literature, legal - literary relations and Anglo Irish writing. He teaches the One Dublin One Book /UCD course on Banville's Christine Falls. 

This event is part of this year's One Dublin One Book initiative, which aims to encourage everyone in Dublin to read a designated book connected with the capital city during the month of April every year. This year's selection is Christine Falls by John Banville. This annual project is a Dublin City Council initiative, led by Dublin City Libraries and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

See the full 2026 programme here. 

Copies of Christine Falls (Faber) are available to borrow from all Irish public libraries in physical format and in digital format as eBooks and eAudiobooks via the Borrowbox app. 

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