Like Heaney, I too was catapulted back to the powerful impact of reading Wilde’s De Profundis, also penned in Reading Gaol, on me aged 20. Continue reading
Filed under literature …
What we are reading, hearing, attending, watching…
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
Poetry in Irish and English: Gearóidin Nic Cárthaigh, Louis Mulcahy, Emily Cullen, Ben Keatinge
He will not study Famine roads on any map in school.
I discovered those myself much later, Trevelyan’s twisted
dictate, the futile labour of those arteries tapering
into the ether, Continue reading
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
Agallaimh le Scríbhneoirí na Gaeilge/Interviews with Irish Language Writers
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
Agallaimh le Scríbhneoirí na Gaeilge/Interviews with Irish Language Writers
Childhood memories, family, grief, the beauty of nature, climate change and war are my main themes. I write to make sense of life and to shape my memories and feelings. I have a lyrical style of writing. Continue reading
Memories of Our Old House
Who can forget the smell of the Ulster fry of bacon, eggs and fadges completely soaked in gravy? Continue reading
Poetry Corner: Michael Boyle, Colette Ní Ghallchóir, Seán Ó Coistealbha, Eda Hamilton
We heard you read local poets
McNiece, Larkin, Rodgers. Told us of
Hewitt’s ox and goat metaphor
for Northern Ireland. Continue reading
Reflections on Saint Brigid
He tells us that Patrick was a powerful, diligent, and determined man. After reading the Lives of Brigid, you could espouse this forceful but patient woman with the same attributes and above all piety and humility. Continue reading
What we are reading at the moment
Poetry anthologies are always a favourite of mine, particularly those that don’t focus on a particular theme and allow all styles and colours to flow freely. Something new and exciting on every page, a book that can be dipped in and out of as you sit down for a cuppa, varied voices and styles that … Continue reading
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