Porto Under Lockdown
Antiga, Mui Nobre, Sempre Leal e Invicta, the city of Porto, a place so magical,…
Browsing: Society
A Voice from the Cocoon
Here’s Mr Pip, aged parent”, said Wemmick, and I wish you could hear his…
Never Such a Meal
Years ago, arriving late one evening in Ostende by train – always my favourite means…
A Rat on the Wall
1960s Belfast Sat in silence on the bottom step, with my knees tucked under my…
International Women’s Day: WomenXBorders
This year marks the 109th International Women’s Day. The now universally recognized date first bore…
Keep Spinning until you Drop
Never boast to your children that you had seventeen occupations before your twenty-fifth birthday. I…
A Monk Manqué – ‘what a young girl in love will say to keep her man’
Disregarding chronological order, this is the tenth episode of A Monk Manqué, Bob Quinn’s unpublished…
Siberian Blue
Prokopyevsk, 1974 SNOW is everywhere. So much of it, that the whole world looks like…
On Procrastination
2019 has taught us all we need to know about Mortality. So many writers, musicians,…
Twenty Questions for Bob Quinn
We sent twenty questions to Maverick film maker Bob Quinn who published ten excerpts of…
Old Man Talk – ‘I used to ride young wans in here’
I made the following notes in an old factory that was built in 1906 at…
Randal McDonnell – ‘I’d gladly strike the first match at his cremation and spit paraffin on his embers’
I was sickened to read a fawning obituary to an absolute creep and impostor Randal…
Better Butter
‘God bless all here’ as our ancestors used to say upon arrival at the home…
Overheard in the Local
Overheard in the local last night D’ye go to mass at all? Ah, just the…
The Conman and Correspondence with Kurt Vonnegut
I admire old people who live by their wits, like the ancient American, a real…
The Doomsday Machines – saving ourselves from ourselves (with audio)
https://soundcloud.com/frank-armstrong-649911741/the-doomsday-machines-ii-recording-1-2020-01-09-t01-29-51pm-frankarmstrong Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film ‘Dr Strangelove’ dramatizes the still not-altogether-remote scenario of Mutually Assured…
Himself and the Little People
That summer of 1974 for the first time in my young life I felt proud…
Lament for Áirt Uí Laoire
In August of 1969 I was driving across Ireland with the late Bearnard Ó Riain,…
The Confidence Man
‘I say the word ‘forever’ less and less, the more I understand it.’ It’s a…
Himself and the Bicycle
Sure, he was only a little lad of 4ft 10ins. Little Paddy, I called him.…