Aug 16, 2010 | Features
Wrote a feature for Monday’s edition of the Andersonstown News. Title of article: ‘Writers Block While The Writer’s Blocked’ Brendan Behan once said, “I only take a drink on two occasions: when I’m thirsty and when I’m not”. Sounds hilarious until you consider that he...
Aug 16, 2010 | Latest
Finished ‘My Father’s Life’ by Rétif de la Bretonne, a wonderful little French book and chance find in a second-hand bookstore in a market in Gorey a few weeks ago. I was at a wedding and had a few hours to spare, went into Gorey and bumped into Gerry Hanratty, a...
Aug 13, 2010 | Features
Finished this second volume in late July. Am trying to finish all four before Christmas. [The four-box set was a Christmas present last year!] In his introduction Orhan Parmuk writes: “The Paris Review interviews were not tied to a particular book or work that the...
Aug 8, 2010 | Latest
At Féile an Phobail I introduced many speakers during the festival including Seamus Heaney who spoke at Sam Thompson’s grave in the City Cemetery before giving a talk on his old friend and school head master, Michael McLaverty. 7th August. Introduced Lara Marlowe...
Aug 1, 2010 | Features
At Glasnevin in Dublin we were given a wonderful tour by the cemetery’s chief executive, George McCullough, a Belfast man. It was so moving. I had last been there in 1989 at the burial of my uncle, Harry White, in the Republican Plot. So, we visited Harry’s grave and...