Around a century ago, Ireland was plunged into a bloody civil war. The conflict pitted neighbour against neighbour, divided families, and resulted in an estimated two thousand deaths – a large number for a small country. When the shooting stopped, how was the simmering conflict resolved? Ultimately, a great deal of the healing was done […]
Happy Bloomsday all. I was going to post about our new fiction imprint, Ely’s Arch, coming your way on 14 July, but that can wait. We often forget that, among other things, James Joyce was an enthusiastic exponent of new technology. After all, he helped launch Ireland’s first commercial cinema, the (short-lived) Volta. If he […]
I don’t know if “enjoyed” is the right word, but last night’s RTÉ One programme on #partition, as part of the #DecadeofCentenaries, certainly made for satisfying viewing. Michael Portillo, who will be more familiar to many as a railway enthusiast than as a one-time prospective future leader of the UK Conservatives, was an engaging presenter, […]
Great launch last night for #ThePursuitofKindness by Éamonn Toland. Many thanks to legendary (and sprightly!) editor Alan Rinzler for launching, Hannah Bright of Midas PR for hosting, and all the attendees, for some insightful questions. Most of all, to the man of the moment, Éamonn, who talks a good game as well as writing a […]
At the weekend, I was lucky enough to get to the National Gallery to see the exhibition New Perspectives: the artworks the gallery has acquired over the past decade. Alongside some fine oil paintings – which you might have been expecting – there are plenty of photographs, as well as line drawings, along with one […]
Many moons ago, I was a student in a tutorial on Late Anglo-Saxon England – a growth area in historical research at the time. (Hard to believe that there are growth areas even in such staid professions, but there you have it.) Our tutor passed around a number of grisly-looking weapons of war for our […]
“Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to know how to realise his wishes. Now that he can realise them, he must either change them or perish.” –––William Carlos Williams For much of modern human history, it has been believed that survival of the fittest holds sway. Or, to put it another way, […]
Last night, Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody centred on a case of coercive control which ended, tragically, with the death of the victim. The twist was that the person who died was a man – who had been repeatedly assaulted by his female partner. The programme made for fairly grim viewing. The victim […]
Here at Liberties Press, we were sorry to hear about the death of Shay Healy. Among his many contributions to the gaiety of this and other nations, Shay wrote Ireland’s winning Eurovision entry, ‘What’s Another Year?’ – with which Johnny Logan won the competition in 1980. Logan remains the only artist to have won the […]
Philip Roth once said that people tended to glamourise the process of writing a book. He compared it to building a wall: you put one brick on top of the other, and pretty soon, you have your wall. Fergus Shanahan has built a few walls in his time, but today he dismantled one. This one […]