Still, figures from the 1891 public records suggest that the Irish-speaking population had dropped to less than 4% – a major language transformation in less than a century. Continue reading
Posted by huntrogers …
What we are reading and reviewing at the moment
Brian Corr: 800 Years of Sadness: … how the Irish overcame despair, disadvantage, helplessness, and sorrow. [Tasmania], 2024.Kindle Edition: Available on Amazon.com.auISBN: 9798334955943RRP: $9.95 For an Australian with an interest in Irish culture and music and a passing knowledge of Irish history, Irish-born, Tasmanian resident, Brian Corr’s self-published, Ireland: 800 Years of Sadness, is a compelling and punchy … Continue reading
Creative Fiction: short story ‘Family Trivia in Lavey, County Derry.’
by Michael Boyle It must be nostalgia, but when our extended Irish family gets together local trivia breaks out and there is a cacophony of sound. We all talk at the same time just like we did when we had much more hair and when we were cutting turf in the moss under a hot … Continue reading
Reflections on Saint Brigid
He tells us that Patrick was a powerful, diligent, and determined man. After reading the Lives of Brigid, you could espouse this forceful but patient woman with the same attributes and above all piety and humility. Continue reading
POETRY CORNER: Michael Boyle, Patrick Deely, Colin Ryan.
My father’s father’s father
survived the potato blight of ’47.
lived all his life
on the Crow’s Nest farm
where he heard an eerie
caw, caw, cawing
late in the night. Continue reading
Is ‘So Long’ an Irish ‘Goodbye’?
Lexicographers and linguists have indeed puzzled over the American English term ‘So Long’ and some have advanced a possible origin in Irish slán. Continue reading
Creative Fiction: short story ‘Uncle Jack’
My grandmother and father would sometimes make derogatory references about Uncle Jack’s conduct and deportment on certain occasions, whether he was alone or not, at what hour he arrived, or was the last to leave, or even if he showed up at all, information that was meticulously dissected. Continue reading
Poetry Corner: Aedh Eamon, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Audrey Molloy, Anne Casey
The old man’s sighs emerged from a deep-felt sorrow as he dipped oars into poetry and myth,
his phrases like sails gliding between uncertain isles before shifting the rudder of his thoughts to old
familiar phrases: ‘sin a dóigh, that’s the way of it’. Continue reading
Christmas Delights and Disasters: recipes and anecdotes
The main course was a labour of love, requiring a new (double) cherry seeder and a great deal of patience and finding space in the fridge, overstuffed for the season. To me, it looked festive with its glossy cherries and a crisp watermelon. Continue reading
What we are reading at the moment: Hilary Mantel, Donal Ryan, Emma Donaghue, Colette Ní Ghallchóir
A little snippet, a snapshot, insights that convey so much. A sentence that describes one man’s grief ‘Chris, his poor heart smashed…’ is an example of how much emotion is expressed in so few words. Continue reading
Tinteán 