‘Only Our Rivers run Free’, ‘It was a classic example of the right song, in the right place at the right time, recorded by the right artist, Christy Moore, because Christy’s career was taking off in a big way it afforded an authority and a whole importance to the song… Continue reading
Beads of rain streak the window beyond which there is a violet tint in the sky as dusk begins to fall. Dim telegraph poles slip by. Then the chequerboard of yellow and black at the edge of a small town, and bubbled letters caught in the floodlights of an AstroTurf pitch. Continue reading
Winter is coming by David M Reid Acrylics on canvas A Homeless Ghost by David M Reid 28 October 2025 In ’68 I left my troubled Belfast homeland.Friends, with only a hint of friendly malice,slyly suggested,‘You’re not emigrating.You’re deserting.’ In that divided city,one must pick a side.But I feltneither Irish nor British,neither Protestant … Continue reading
Liath Feictear liath ar liathA chiallaíonn Gaza:Liath na luathaLiath an smionagarLiath na haibhleoigeLiath craicinn gan fuilLiath na gcléití réabthaLiath na cnámh lomLiath an fhásaigh, ina bhfuil coscAr áthasAr atruaAr bheathaAr dhóchasAr thrócaireAgus, fiú, ar dhaonnacht. Grey There is a particular shade of greyThat signifies Gaza:Grey of ashGrey of rubbleGrey of embersGrey of bloodless skinGrey of … Continue reading
‘Have you seen the exhibition yet?’ Continue reading
Go see the movie for the breathtaking landscape and the solid acting of Gabriel Byrne and the young stars Anne Skelly, Fionn O’Shea, and Ferdia Walshe Peelo, Continue reading
Telling her that he’d ply her with honeyed words, whilst she tucked in the edges, devour her, she said, consume her, smoothing out the centre with her flat palm, tugging the creases to the corners. Continue reading
She used a blue biro pen and had numbered the pages on small, plain, lined notepaper…I was pleased to see, sometimes, the smudged ring of a teacup or saucer imprinted on the page. I ould see her in the kichen getting a cup of tea as she wrote to me on a Sunday night. Continue reading
I grew up in County Monaghan, in Ulster and I have been profoundly influenced also by Patrick Kavanagh and Seamus Heaney and the love of landscape and placename. Continue reading
Ó hEochagáin wryly suggests that Irish car windscreen wipers should have special settings to cater for the variety and intensity of the rain: ‘slow, medium, fast, Irish’. Continue reading
Tinteán 