Belfast’s youngest generation of readers are getting a head start, thanks to a new partnership between Belfast City Council and Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation. On October 23, 2025, the marble halls of Belfast City Hall were filled with the sound of laughter, the rustle of pages, and the excitement of parents and babies alike, as the city celebrated the launch of the Imagination Library’s latest chapter in Northern Ireland.
The scheme, which sees 75 newborns each receive a free book every month until their fifth birthday, is more than just a gesture—it’s a promise to nurture a lifelong love of reading. Each child will ultimately receive 60 books, delivered right to their homes, opening up a world of stories and possibilities from the very start of their lives. The initiative, as reported by BBC News NI and confirmed by city officials, was timed to coincide with the tenth annual Book Week NI, adding another layer of celebration to the city’s literary festivities.
For parents like Mark McBride, whose baby daughter Maria is among the lucky first cohort, the programme is an opportunity too good to pass up. “We thought it would be a great opportunity for kids to get a head start,” McBride told BBC News NI, explaining that his family rushed to apply as soon as they heard about the scheme online. Reading is already a family tradition in the McBride household. “We have an older child too, we've been reading with him all the time, he loves it and I'm sure she will too,” he added.
The Imagination Library isn’t new to the world, but its arrival in Belfast marks a significant milestone for the city. Dolly Parton launched the initiative in 1995 in Tennessee, inspired by her own father’s struggle with illiteracy. The programme’s mission is simple but profound: to inspire a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, regardless of family income. Thirty years on, the Imagination Library now operates in five countries and delivers over three million books each month. Earlier this year, the programme celebrated both its 30th anniversary and the remarkable milestone of 300 million books gifted worldwide, according to the Belfast City Council and The Dollywood Foundation UK.
The path to bringing the Imagination Library to Belfast was paved by local politicians and advocates. Councillor Séamas De Faoite, who first proposed the idea in December 2022, was thrilled to see it come to fruition. “I'm a huge fan of Dolly anyway so I've seen the work she's done,” De Faoite said, expressing his delight at reaching this point. “Our vision is to make sure we try and extend this out to every child in Belfast. She brings a huge amount of joy in terms of all the work she does for charity and good causes.”
Belfast’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Tracy Kelly, who hosted the launch event at City Hall, drew on her own experience as a parent to highlight the deeper benefits of the initiative. “There's nothing more important than reading and bonding with your child,” Kelly stated, as quoted by BBC News NI. She went on to describe how reading with her two children from a very young age fostered closeness, boosted their social skills, speech, and memory, and, as research shows, encouraged empathy, creativity, and of course, imagination. “Our investment in this initiative will help to deliver on our Belfast Agenda pledge of helping to create the conditions for learning and opportunity for all of our residents,” she added, underscoring the council’s broader educational ambitions.
Not surprisingly, the programme has quickly won support from across the political spectrum. DUP councillor Tracy Kelly (who also serves as Lord Mayor) voiced her hope that the pilot would be expanded throughout Northern Ireland. “I cannot imagine that any rate payer in Northern Ireland would be unhappy with children getting books when they're getting registered in Belfast City Council,” Kelly said, emphasizing the universal value of early childhood literacy.
For the Dollywood Foundation, the Belfast launch is part of a wider effort to expand their reach in Northern Ireland. Megan Fletcher, Regional Director at The Dollywood Foundation UK, attended the event and shared the Foundation’s ambitions. “We’re delighted to see the Imagination Library expanding in Belfast. Dolly was inspired to start the programme by her father’s experience of not being able to read or write and seeing how this held him back in life. The Imagination Library is all about helping children, everywhere, to develop a love of reading from the earliest years,” Fletcher told attendees. She noted that the Foundation has been working in Northern Ireland since 2015 with small community programmes and is now actively seeking partners to help bring the Imagination Library to even more families across the region. “We've got to aim big and hopefully we might see Dolly here one day, if we can go nationwide across the whole of Northern Ireland let's try and make it happen,” Fletcher said, echoing the hopes of many in the room.
The excitement and gratitude were palpable among parents at the launch. Gözde Ozan, whose baby Oliver is enrolled in the programme, summed up the sentiment felt by many: “Books are very important for children's learning and development, so it’s good to see this partnership between Belfast City Council and the Imagination Library providing a free book each month to 75 Belfast children over the next five years. We’re very lucky to get this opportunity for our family.”
The Imagination Library’s arrival in Belfast comes at a time when early literacy is more important than ever. Numerous studies have shown that children who are read to from an early age develop stronger language skills, greater empathy, and better academic outcomes later in life. By making books accessible to every child, regardless of background, the programme hopes to level the playing field and ignite a passion for reading that will last a lifetime.
As the first 75 babies in Belfast begin to receive their monthly books, the city’s leaders and the Dollywood Foundation are already looking ahead. The goal is clear: to expand the programme so that every child in Belfast—and eventually, all of Northern Ireland—can benefit. It’s an ambitious vision, but as Dolly Parton herself has shown throughout her career, dreams can take root and flourish with a little help and a lot of heart.
For now, as Book Week NI draws to a close, the real story is just beginning for Belfast’s newest bookworms—and perhaps, for the city’s next generation of storytellers.
