Her interior monologues also allow for literary and philosophical references that catch the reader’s heart as the originals do…We learn that Ireland is the result of the collision of two giant rocks (chipped off from ancient continents, Gondwana, Queensland, and Laurentia, Canada) now fused together …This book held a mirror to me with its stark reminder of how lucky I’ve been to have stepped back from the precipice that I’d also found myself standing on. Continue reading
Unveiled for the first time on this day, August 15, 1882, the monument was designed and sculpted by John Henry Foley and finished up by his assistant, Thomas Brock. It is often believed to be Foley’s greatest work. Continue reading
Most of the stories date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and many deal with miserable school experiences. You won’t be surprised to read of Bob Geldof tormenting the priests at Blackrock College by asking inconvenient religious questions, or Edna O’Brien recounting how she sinned by the hour Continue reading
Edna was a fearless teller of truths, a superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society with realities long ignored and suppressed. Continue reading
What struck me particularly about these stories was the spirit and fight of women in the face of discrimination and adversity. Continue reading
According to the United Nations Human Development Index, Irish people enjoy the second-highest quality of life worldwide, and the country is ranked 12th in the 2024 Social Progress Index. Continue reading
What it really meant to be poor and how to survive it. And a book about a priest who fathered a child with nun. Continue reading
I decided to read classics I had not read, and to reread some that I had. I was interested to see if books I had loved on a first reading when I was young, remained beloved. Continue reading
The very earliest communal gathering and feasting for which we have solid evidence are known as fulachta fia. These were the locations where an animal, probably a deer or boar, was cooked following a hunt. The sharing of food is a social act that creates and maintains bonds and obligations within a group or community, which seems to have been the entire function of these feasts. Continue reading
The Magdalen Laundries from someone who was in one from the age of 11. Continue reading
Tinteán 