Hawthorns are also associated with fertility, their musk-scented flowers blooming as harbingers of Spring. Their fruit ripens in time for Halloween, symbolizing death and rebirth. They stand as protectors, symbols of birth, death, and renewal, embodying a liminal space where exchanges occur between the human and spirit worlds. Continue reading
Filed under Of Literary Interest …
Stardust
My aunty and uncle said we were too young to go to the Stardust yet, but promised that when I came up next time we could go, we would be both sixteen then. Continue reading
Would You Like to Write for Us?
We have subscribers in 117 countries and on every continent. Our authors have been Irish-born and Irish resident; Irish-born and Australian resident or resident in other countries; Australian-born of Irish descent; or simply interested and involved in the Australian-Irish connection. Continue reading
New activities to see in Dublin: a traveller’s tale
It had been many, many, years since my sister and I had been upstairs on a double decker bus. Just holding on to the two side bars on the steps going up was enough to bring back memories of running up those steps as teenagers and of boys using them to swing down without touching the steps, to the annoyance of the bus conductor. Continue reading
Cúinne Dhátheangach Bilingual Corner
all public bodies are now obliged to do at least 20% of their annual advertising in Irish and to spend 5% of their advertising budgets on advertising in Irish in the Irish language media. Continue reading
A Book Review: Cnámha Scoilte Split Bones Julie Breathnach-Banwait
Prose poetry offers freedom from structure, from line markings, while retaining rhythm, imagery and emotional layering. Bilingual prose poetry reveals yet another dimension: word choice that can challenge and provoke. That can make you question your assumptions as you read and reread. Continue reading
Eamonn Wall: transatlantic poet part two
Much commemorated in literature and music, the 1798 legend lives on in the town because the geography and townscape have changed little. Wall walks the same trails meandering alongside the Slaney. That is his Enniscorthy, a place of enduring pain, and ancient prayer represented here by his poem, ‘Night Heron’ Continue reading
The poetry of trans-Atlantic Eamonn Wall
Do children become the ‘littoral’ or interface that joins the émigré parent/s to the new homeland? Is the émigré in a transitioning state of ‘liminality’ until they have children born in the new country? Eamonn Wall says that having children connected him to his new home. Continue reading
Poems of Rembrance by Michael Patrick Moore
Two more poems from Michael Patrick Moore reminding us of friendship and loss and love during this month of remembering Continue reading
Re-reading At Swim-Two-Birds.
The longer the book went on, the more convinced I was that I had not read it before, but then I found on the bottom of page 189 a note in my pencilled handwriting. Continue reading