‘Suddenly rich’ – ‘Snow’ by Louis MacNeice
The Irish born poet and playwright Louis MacNeice was part of the ‘Auden Group’ sometimes referred to simply as the […]
Waterlog: My Summer of Wild Swimming
My summer of wild swimming has been infinitely improved by the accompaniment of Roger Deakin’s classic book ‘Waterlog’. Subtitled, ‘A […]
Edna O’Brien
‘To read Edna O’Brien is to know love; of words, of literature and of life itself.’ Eimear McBride One day, […]
A Rainy Night in Soho
The funeral of Shane MacGowan, the lead singer of The Pogues, was such a fitting tribute. The streets of his […]
I Believe in You
In 1999, I was watching T.V. and happened to see a tribute concert to Linda McCartney (the late wife of […]
An Ending
A quote today: the famous passage that ends James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’, which, in turn, concludes his first prose work […]
He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
It is, of course, a cliché to say that suffering can be transformed by a great artist into beauty – […]
Under Your Weather
Apart from possessing a hypnotic voice of great precision, Lisa Hannigan makes great videos – as here, in the visuals […]
Looking at the Stars
Oscar Wilde was my first literary love and still, to this day, he remains an important talisman in my life. […]
Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?
The greatest singers are always instantly recognisable. Dolores O’Riordan, front woman of the Irish band ‘The Cranberries’, has just such […]