Filed under Irish poetry …

What we are reading, attending at the moment

What we are reading, attending at the moment

Melbourne Hosts successful two-day symposium on Irish Language. Next is a review of Australian novelist and diarist Helen Garner’s How to End a Story, much appreciated by those of us who are Garner fans. ‘Priests in the Family’ provides Enright’s intriguing family connection to James Joyce, followed by an ‘Introduction to Ulysses’ where she talks about her personal experience of starting to read that famous book at the age of fourteen, ‘mainlining language, getting high on words’ Continue reading →

Only our rivers: a tribute to Mick MacConnell

Only our rivers: a tribute to Mick MacConnell

‘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 →

Filíocht/Poetry: David M Reid, Rose Malone, Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Colin Ryan, Hugh Curran

Filíocht/Poetry: David M Reid, Rose Malone, Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Colin Ryan, Hugh Curran

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 →

Filíocht/Poetry: Rose Malone, Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Colin Ryan, Hugh Curran

Filíocht/Poetry: Rose Malone, Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Colin Ryan, Hugh Curran

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 →

What we are reading at the moment:

What we are reading at the moment:

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 →