On a Saturday night, when I was a teenager in 1970s Ireland, my pals and I would go to the school-kids’ disco at the Presentation College, Glasthule. ‘Prez’, as it was known, was fairly grimy at the time, but fantastically exciting, too. Deep Purple were in vogue. The girls wore cheesecloth and denim. When Status Quo were played, the air would be filled with swirling dandruff as we head-banged and thrashed air guitars. The climax of the evening was always Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’, and if you... More >>

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ELIZA MOONEY’S WALK: THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION FALLS

Joseph O’Connor

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I’m never sure about the extent to which writers choose their subjects. Often, the process seems to work the other way around, so that you wouldn’t even call it a choice, as such, but more of an invitation. An image, literally a picture unfurls itself in your mind, or a line of dialogue, or a situation involving two characters. You might hear... More >>

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Star of the Sea

An Introduction and Notes for Book Clubs and Readers’ Groups.

Visitors to Connemara, that wilderness of stony beauty in the west of Ireland, sometimes stop at the village of Letterfrack. It’s a charming little hamlet, with thatched cottages and cosy pubs; picture-postcard pretty, on the face of it untroubled. Not far from the town is the manor where Yeats honeymooned. (Like many Great Houses, it is now a hotel.) Nearby you can stroll on a shingled beach. Sea-wrack, gull-call, Atlantic breezes -- the strange loveliness of... More >>

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