The "Silent Voices Festival" was a series of events to celebrate Library Ireland Week. The events were cultural representations of traditions not often in the foreground. The theme synced well with 2008 as the year of intercultural dialogue. Dr Henry Leperlier opened the event on Tuesday March 4th by a reading of the poem "Silent Voices" which has been loaded on Youtube. This was accompanied by another poem entitled Farewell to Cambridge - read in Chinese by Yiling Liu and Tie Dong Yang and then in translation by Oissine Boushell Payne.

Yiling Liu and Zhe Dong provided much entertainment by playing the classical Chinese piece "Butterfly Lovers" which is also available on Youtube..

On Wednesday 5th March and Thursday 6th March, Nuzhat Abbas - a premier Pakistani poet - sang Sufi poetry and read from her own work. Nuzhat was accompanied by her husband Mohammed and daughter Anusha. They were followed by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill - a leading Gaelic poet and member of Aosdána - who read selections of her own work chosen specially to complement that of Nuzhat. In between the poetry, Antaine Ó Faracháin sang in the sean nos style. Antaine accompanied himself on violin and tin whistle.

A number of DVDs produced by FOMACS to depict the migrant experience were broadcast on the plasma screens in DIT Kevin Street Library throughout the Festival.

The Festival was a significant cultural event for DIT. It represented a major collaborative effort between all partners involved including DIT Library Services, DITSU, CSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars Association), FOMACS, Oifig na Gaelige and the School of Languages and demonstrates the positive outcomes possible from such partnership activities. It is hoped in future to host similar events in DIT libraries, thereby exploiting their potential as cultural spaces.