‘Small Things Like These’ Is a Haunting Meditation on Collective Sin
Which is the greater horror, Small Things Like These asks; the women who suffered under Ireland’s abusive Magdalene Laundries or the citizens’ complicity?
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On Ireland’s Painful Emergence into the Modern World
Fintan O’Toole’s lucid history of Ireland, We Don’t Know Ourselves, is a vivid telling of how his country’s culture of silence and repression was broken open.
McGinley’s Darkly Comic ‘Foggage’ Explores Incest in Rural Ireland
As seen in Foggage, Patrick McGinley's fiction reveals a writer whose worth lies in his ability to balance perverse humour and human pathos on the cutting blade of his perfectly turned phrases.
In ‘The End of Outrage’ An Historian Peers into His Ancestral Irish Shadows
Culling local storytellers' accounts, land valuation records, field maps and more, Mac Suibhne exposes the clash between the secret society of the "Molly Maguires" in their homeland with the forces of law and order in this history of Ireland.
‘After Ireland’ Bridges the Gaps Between Ireland’s Official Languages
After Ireland considers the changing culture, the changing identity, and a fast-changing Ireland in the varied voices and languages of its literature.
On Debut Novelist Sally Rooney’s 21st Century Adultery Novel for the Internet Age
Irish writer Sally Rooney's methodical, calculated, ultimately rewarding debut novel, Conversations With Friends, explores real love lost, found, and transformed.
Thin Lizzy / Philip Lynott Bio ‘Cowboy Song’ Is Like Reading the Best Liner Notes, Ever
Cowboy Song is not the first biography of Thin Lizzy and/or Lynott, but it is profoundly well-researched and may be the best.
Nick Laird’s ‘Modern Gods’ and Restless Protagonists
Modern Gods veers away from its trajectory, but it lingers askew.
‘The Island of Horses’ Captures the Beauty of a Windswept Irish Coast
Between the villainous merchants, sailors and mysterious horses, it is the windswept Irish landscape that emerges as the true character of this story.
Colm Mac Con Iomaire Brings Pastoral Tranquility to Muldoon’s Picnic
NYC's Irish Arts Center hosts a regular literary/musical salon curated by poet Paul Muldoon and will offer free books on St. Patrick's.
Rose Cousins: Natural Conclusion
Years collaborating and exploring creative outlets result in a collection of tight, focused songs from folk artist Rose Cousins.
Cultural Purgatory in John Crowley’s ‘Brooklyn’
Rarely do immigration dramas deal with the trouble of re-assimilating back to one’s homeland as John Crowley’s story of cultural purgatory, Brooklyn, does.