Three more novels from Irish women writers, the first one set in Sydney Continue reading
Filed under Book review …
Learning about Australia from John O’Brien
For many in Ireland, ‘Around the Boree Log’ was our introduction to Australia. Continue reading
Women and the Irish Revolution
If ever there was a case of a favourite chapter in this book, I would choose chapter 2, Lucy McDiarmid’s ‘Comradeship’ on the imprisonment in Holloway prison of Kathleen Clarke and her two ‘tall’ comrades, Constance Markievicz and Maud Gonne, who at times tended to dispute ‘as to which of them had the highest social status’. Continue reading
New Irish Fiction
Two new women writers and a story from early New York with an Irish background Continue reading
Mary McAleese, by herself
Born and raised, in a large Catholic family in the much-troubled Ardoyne district, violence surrounded Mary McAleese’s life from the beginning. Continue reading
New Irish Fiction
The Fenians were an oathbound and highly secret group of ruthless killers, who were much more adept than those presented here. Continue reading
The Pull of the Stars
Book review by James King. EMMA DONOGHUE. The Pull of the Stars, 2020 256 pp. ISBN: 978 1 52904 6168 RRP: $32.99 Since the publication of this novel in July this year, at the height of our first wave of the Australian COVID-19 epidemic, there have been many reviews, mostly very flattering, including one written by Frank … Continue reading
Keneally’s Biographer on Towards Asmara
The New York Times compared Towards Asmara to For Whom The Bell Tolls in its open support for an armed struggle – a big, debatable comparison. Continue reading
Back Home in Derry
In those times, in that place – it is never referred to as Stratford – the names Hamnet and Hamlet are interchangeable, each written or spoken to indicate the same person. Continue reading
The Face of Irish Australian Literature
A review of two books, a disturbing one about Keneally’s literary career, and his unsentimental and searching novel on clerical abuse in the catholic church. And an invitation to read and review the Keneally novels you’ve not got around to….. Continue reading