People who know me would not think it strange for me to say that I am (at best) somewhat bemused by life.  The shape and values of the tide ...

General Eoin O'Duffy Leo Varadkar Separated at birth but still grooving at the same party?

Book no. 12 in my quest to read and review 100 Books in 2011 The Sex Pistols shot like a comet presaging doom through the medieval dives...

This memoir of the childhood of the son of an Irish father and German mother is an impressionist masterpiece. Hamilton's book has a da...

The state of Irish politics was expressed perfectly when the most successful electoral politician of the modern era stated that his biggest ...

I went to my first gig in a while last Saturday night and saw Wire for the first time approximately 32 years since first hearing them on Joh...

Upside Down, a Primer for The Looking-Glass World, by Eduardo Galeano In a engine, when one gear goes forward, another is push...

No novel which finds a white man losing his mind deep in the Congo can quite escape the shadow of Heart of Darkness. It is in the bibliograp...

It's hard to say anything about   The Grapes of Wrath . It's grown far above criticism and has a life beyond itself in song, film ...

CLICK TO WATCH I have just finished watching Garry Keane's documentary on the great Irish writer Dermot Healy. He seems to have fo...

The seventh book read in my ongoing attempt on 100+ books this year was The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink. This is a spare philosophical nov...

Six books in thirteen days - I am still on course for 100+ books in 2011. Just need fair winds and to avoid the Doldrums. The Shipping New...

Just finished watching Paul Duane's intriguing and revealing documentary about the author of The Grass Arena - one of the starkest me...

Fury - Salman Rushdie This started like a modern updating of Saul Bellow's Herzog , the academic in late middle age unable to stay with...

As usual with New Year Resolutions (100+ books to be read this year) starting off the year is easy and I've managed to finish four novel...

2010 - My virtual life grew in 2010. Decent broadband helped. Finances and being at home moved me away from newspapers and into getting mos...

In memory of the late, great Alex Chilton.

I'm not in the mood, really, but thought I'd post some quick thoughts on my recent reading. It's always useful to look back on t...

My first trip to an Arthouse screening was to see Rumblefish in the then Curzon cinema on Abbey Street. The cinema was later to be my workp...