Common Concerns: John Clare & Other Ghosts
There’s a strangeness to singing in a language you don’t understand, akin, perhaps, to the…
Browsing: culture
Cassandra Voices Podcast: Loafing Hero
In our latest podcast Ben Pantrey interviews former musician of the month Bartholomew Ryan in…
Operation Mass Formation
We need to sing again. We need to be Irish. We need to socialise. We…
The Importance of Public Debate
At a recent debate organised by the English-Speaking Union (ESU) at its HQ, Dartmouth House…
What is Freedom?
Last week, the Russia-Ukraine-NATO tensions reached a crescendo when Russia decided to recognize both Luhansk…
On the Nature of Evil
I met Vladimir Putin once. Or, at least, I was in the same room as…
Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob
In a quiet room, two men smoke hashish and discuss the inevitability of the Apocalypse.…
A Fairy Tale of Dún Laoghaire 2
I knew the game was up when my mother told me that Santy had given…
The Empty Unconscious
Banality is the byword of mass consumerism There’s a piece of public art that for…
Ciarán O’Rourke: Breaking the Cycle
One Big Union is a self-published collection of essays by Irish poet Ciarán O’Rourke. The…
Review: Richard Kearney’s Touch
Touch: Recovering Our Most Vital Sense is a recently published work by Irish philosopher and…
Towards the Brink of the Cataract
Unaware of the roaring cataract ahead, a small boy splashes in the dark river named…
Jack B. Yeats: Painting and Memory
Often overshadowed by his elder, Nobel laureate, brother W.B., Jack Butler Yeats occupies an exalted…
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest
I have a mild neurosis, situated in Utopian wish-fulfillment, of the ideal that I often…
Where is Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World?
For Christmas two years ago, my mother bought me a copy of Sally Rooney’s novel…
Love and Literature in Numbers
Whenever I think about Literature I think about Love. Both are written with big Ls.…
Cuban Love Songs Launch
In a rousing introductory speech, retired diplomat Philip McDonagh described the publication of Cuban Love…
Ireland: The Lipsticked Pig
On February 15th, 2021, John Buckley McQuaid, released an album of original songs about Ireland,…
Shakespeare’s Wisdom in Troubled Times
As a barrister I am given to quoting from Shakespeare’s plays in closing speeches. This…
Review: Strumpet City
Picture the scene: the small backyard of a tiny working-class pub in Belfast at around…