Part of my approach to life as an activist has come from my Irish heritage. Growing up, Lizzie O’Shea’s parents always encouraged her to think about issues from the perspective of the powerless. Continue reading
Posted in July 2021 …
What’s in the name ‘Sheila’? new research
According to Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, the name Sheila derives from Cecily, ‘the English form of the Latin name of the…virgin martyr St Cecilia…The Anglo-Normans brought the name to Ireland and in time it became in the Irish language Síle.. Continue reading
A Full-Bodied and Sympathetic Nora
During the writing of Nora, O’Connor says she developed a deeper empathy for James Joyce, perhaps because she now understands his writerly life. It is through her protagonist’s perverse love for Joyce that a reader sees the man’s redeeming features. Continue reading
Ghosts of Irish Australia. Bridget Gorman
Stood up at the altar, assisted migrant from Thurles, Bridget Gorman became the matriarch of a large and successful Irish Australian family. Continue reading
Poems from Colin Ryan
Ní fhágfaidh mé agat ach focail
lán de bhrí … I’ll only leave you words, full of meaning Continue reading
From the Papers
Leprechaun Economics Writing in the New York Times Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman coined the phrase ‘Leprechaun economics’ for the way that the Irish tax system deals with multinationals. The Irish ambassador to the US, Daniel Mulhall objected to the expression, describing it as an ‘unacceptable slur.’ Tintean does not feel offended by the phrase, … Continue reading
Film Review: Herself
By Shauna Stanley Herself is a new Irish film recently released in Australian cinemas on 1 July. Herself follows young mother Sandra (Clare Dunne) as she flees domestic violence and circumnavigates the Irish public housing system with the aim of building a safe home for her and her two daughters. Herself is certainly a departure … Continue reading
Balm for the Homesick
Pathways/Cosán This virtual exhibition by visual artist Bernie Joyce explores how the Connemara people and landscape inspired Patrick Pearse as a teacher, writer and leader. Pathways sends the viewer on a journey back in time to when the Celtic Revival was in full swing. This was a period when artists, poets and writers turned their … Continue reading
New Irish Fiction
Three new Irish novels. Continue reading
Half a billion years of natural history in Ireland
Humans came late to Ireland, 12,500 years ago, after the retreat of the ice. By then, the dinosaurs and marine reptiles had gone and the mammals which had flourished alongside the dinosaurs, came into their own Continue reading