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
Filed under Irish language …
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
What’s on December/January and beyond
Wishing all of you a very Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Tinteán Editorial Group in Australia: Julie Breathnach-Banwait (Brisbane), Frances Devlin-Glass (Melbourne), Dymphna Lonergan (Adelaide), and Linda Rooney (Melbourne) Continue reading
Agallaimh le scríbhneoirí gaeilge/Interviews with Irish language writers
Put on the spot, the one piece of advice I would feel comfortable to impart on other writers would be to look upon the act of writing not merely as self-expression, but rather as communication. Continue reading
We are reading at the moment…
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
A new Irish-Australian Meeting point in Brisbane?
This now slightly derogatory generic name for an Australian female was first applied to Irish women who appeared in Australian courts. Continue reading
The Woman Who Lives Beside Ballymacpeake Mass Rock
by Michael Boyle The Woman Who Live Beside Ballymacpeake Mass Rock There are no half measureswith her. Even in gettinga cupán tae in yer hand.But the full spreadof fancy sandwichesand sweet cake at the table.Oh herself and the girlswill never pour ye outan ordinary a wee Black Bush.You’ll get a fill of the glassand then … Continue reading
Srúill dhorcha Dark stream and other poems
D’fhiafraigh sí san amhrán/
arbh eol duit cad is grá ann
She asked in the song if you knew what love was but didn’t hear your answer, and the world went on its way, Continue reading
Flann O’Brien: an interview with Rónán McDonald
Joyce had a huge influence on Flann O’Brien. Like others of his generation, he struggled to get out from under the Joycean shadow Continue reading
Food and Drink Invented by the Irish
There is controversy about who invented the spirit drink called whiskey, uisce beatha in Irish, but we do know that the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery is Bushmills. Continue reading
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