Dearest Marian, The world you and I knew before you died has changed immeasurably. We didn’t know it, of course, but Covid-19 was already creeping through humanity in our last few weeks together. What followed – the cocooning, the absences, the denial of a hug – seems particularly surreal in light of your timing. All the rituals of death and mourning were scrambled and left many of us even further adrift. It made it harder to grieve, to find distractions, …
Category: Ireland
Anne Doyle tells us about her new new read, Tales of the Otherworld. Ghosts have always been a part of my life. This isn’t something I acknowledge easily, nor is …
During the Covid lockdowns I took to walking along the Grand Canal in Dublin, from Portobello to down as far as the docklands, within my 5km restrictions. I became fascinated …
Martin Doyle tells us about his new read Dirty Linen The Troubles in My Homeplace… Growing up in rural Co Down during the Troubles, I turned to books to understand …
Fin Dwyer tell us about his book A Lethal Legacy… Murder provides a unique insight into the past. In the aftermath of homicide, history tends to slow down. The victim …
Sometime in the late 1990s, I read Herman Hesse’s 1927 novel Steppenwolf and was awed by a passage that prophesied the great destruction coming to Europe. Harry Haller, that book’s …
The Well of Saint Nobody is a haunting fairytale-like story of love, secrets and second chances, from award-winning film director and author Neil Jordan. I was haunted by two movies. …
Peig McManus shares an extract from her memoir, I Will Be Good Mam said it was cold the day she brought me home to our tenement room on North King …
Caroline O’Donoghue shares some her inspiration behind The Rachel Incident… James and Rachel are two 20-somethings who meet working at a bookshop in 2010. I set it in a bookshop …
Naoise Dolan tells us about her new read, The Happy Couple. Astrology is a harsh mistress, yet I’m ever in her thrall. As an Aries, I am constantly told that …
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