Fiction A few years back, Irish novelist Joseph O’Connor wrote Star of the Sea, an ambitious, multi-layered novel set mainly during the voyage of an Irish famine coffin ship. The book was a best-seller, despite the fact that it was a demanding read. Using flashbacks, jumbled chronology and other trickery, O’Connor took readers all over the British Isles, and his narrative … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Cathie Ryan: Home is Where the Music Is
By Ian Worpole
October / November 2007
October / November 2007
My mum had a phrase that fascinated me – whenever something like the vacuum cleaner showed signs of failure, she would say, “Oh, it’s going home.” I’ve always had a vision of what a strange and wonderful place that particular Home may be, filled with weary appliances. It’s a powerful phrase, and as I grew older and maybe wiser, I realized it is more usually indicative of the … [Read more...] about Cathie Ryan: Home is Where the Music Is
Remembering Tommy Makem
By Terry Golway
October / November 2007
October / November 2007
When Tommy Makem died on August 1,the worldlost not only a great musician and storyteller but an original thinker, who was passionate about Ireland, and unfailingly gracious. We'll not see the likes of him again. It was a coincidence, of course, that legendary folk singer Tommy Makem and hotel mogul Leona Helmsley departed this world within two weeks of each other last … [Read more...] about Remembering Tommy Makem
Sláinte!: Ballinasloe’s Great October Fair
An Irish adage advises: Go East for a woman; go West for a horse. When I was a girl I had a bicycle. I wanted a horse. That was not in the cards for this city child, so I named my bike Lightening and careened about the neighborhood, crouched racing-low over the handlebars, doing daring (so I thought) one-legged pedal stands, hair flying, pulse pounding, and imagining I was … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: Ballinasloe’s Great October Fair
Sláinte!: Ballinasloe’s Great October Fair
An Irish adage advises: Go East for a woman; go West for a horse. When I was a girl I had a bicycle. I wanted a horse. That was not in the cards for this city child, so I named my bike Lightening and careened about the neighborhood, crouched racing-low over the handlebars, doing daring (so I thought) one-legged pedal stands, hair flying, pulse pounding, and imagining I was … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: Ballinasloe’s Great October Fair