Dublin, Offaly, Belfast: three new Irish novels

Book reviews by Frank O’Shea OLD GOD’S TIME. By Sebastian Barry. Faber 2023. 261 pp Sebastian Barry’s latest novel is different. Very different. It is almost like an extended meditation on life and the different things that people put up with in an ordinary life. ‘Things happened to people, and some people were required to … Continue reading →

What’s On in June and July 23

Bloomsday’s Revival of James Joyce’s Exiles, 15-25 June Exiles (1919), James Joyce’s only play, explores questions key to his masterpiece Ulysses (1922). What is love? If love is constrained by conventional bonds of fidelity, is it love at all? This surprisingly modern take on polyamory and its dark side, jealousy, is a rare dramatic gem that must not … Continue reading →

Alice Cashin – the Queen of Marrickville.

When the war was declared, at the age of 44, she offered her services to the British government. She also changed her middle name from the Irish, Alanna, to the more Norman/English Eleanor. She would be known as Alice Eleanor throughout her war years and revert to Alanna on her return to Australia.  Continue reading →