Ireland’s troubles in fact and fiction It is inevitable that the flood of books about 1916 should include some novels. But the precedents for such fictions are not good, as I know from reading many of them while writing my account of the literary revival and the Irish revolution, The Heart Grown Brutal (1977). There…
“interesting conversations” dominated this week’s viewing, writes Brendan O’Regan It was a week of interesting conversations. There was that meeting of two of Ireland’s best known ‘Grumpy Old Men’, George Hook and Vincent Browne on The Right Hook (Newstalk), Tuesday of last week. They knocked strips off each other as they cranked up the crankiness,…
Protecting Mental Health by Dr Keith Gaynor(Veritas, €12.99) Mental health is an issue that affects every family in some way or another. Historians have traced out how the mentally ill were treated – or rather not treated – in the Georgian and Victorian periods. Today we can assume that treatments have improved, and yet, as…
Oddball and the Penguins (G) Foxes are killing baby penguins on their colony on Middle Island, which is off the coast of the south-western Australian town of Warrnambool. There used to be thousands of penguins there. Now they’re in danger of extinction, the predatory foxes making their way across the shallow channel from the mainland…
Truce: Murder, myth and the last days of the Irish war of independence by Padráig Óg Ó Ruairc (Mercier Press, Cork, €17.99) Ian D’Alton The Irish Revolution industry marches on. This book is somewhat ahead of the centenary of the events it chronicles, so it is almost a welcome diversion from the veritable tsunami of books about…
Young Eliot: From St Louis to The Waste Land by Robert Crawford (Jonathan Cape, €31.50 hb) John Wyse Jackson The two most important early works of modernist literature were published in the same year, 1922: Ulysses, by James Joyce, and The Waste Land, by T S Eliot. Both writers are still widely read and studied, and…
When the Church of England twitter account reacted to news that Richard Dawkins had had a mild stroke by tweeting “Prayers for Prof Dawkins and his family”, the tweet’s author didn’t expect the ensuing storm of protest, along with cheers from those who thought it a hilarious thing for them to have done. Anxious to…
Brendan O’Regan reflects on the Election’s media debates being delivered by a “bunch of actors” In every media debate on the General Election it’s like we’re getting the same script, but spoken by a different bunch of actors each time, so I prefer the independent analysis. I’m not a fan of Newstalk’s Breakfast Show, but…
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (G) We’ve had dinosaurs ruling the Earth. We’ve had robotoid cowboys on a virtual reality game show. We’ve even, for God’s sake, had vampires from outer space. But what filmgoers really needed was, yes, an episode of American Idol featuring a trio of singing chipmunks. This is what’s…
Brendan O’Regan reflects on “something of a good news bad news week” It was something of a good news bad news week. Síle Ní Chonaonaigh (fresh from the wonderful Garraí Glas gardening programme) gets to apply her infectious enthusiasm and good humour as she dips into rural life as presenter of Dúiche (TG4) which last…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Greg Daly