Gate Theatre, 5 April–12 May 2024 Directed by Louise Lowe By Sylvie Kleinman Fictionalising the past is a creative process that can make historians uneasy, though many admit enjoying a well-researched costume drama or novel. We quickly identify what is plucked out of context to validate or mirror present-day concerns or norms, and this reviewer … Read more
BBC Northern Ireland 27 March 2024 By Brian Hanley Reviewing John Bowyer Bell’s The secret army in January 1971, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh recommended the book ‘highly’, calling it ‘required reading’ for ‘all with a deep interest in Ireland’. Ó Brádaigh was a senior figure in the newly formed Provisional IRA, whose Belfast paper, Republican News, … Read more
BBC Radio 4 16 March 2024 By Eoin Dillon When Brendan Behan is being discussed as a writer, very often it is mentioned early on that he was also a house-painter, and it is left at that as though a sense of incongruity is warranted but not to be pursued any further. Trades are an … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell On 3 July 1924, Minister for Education Eoin MacNeill announced that the teaching of Irish was to be made compulsory in all schools. A key figure of the Gaelic revival, MacNeill was a co-founder of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) in 1893. He has been described as ‘the father of … Read more
By Joanne Rothwell These days there are lots of articles about the benefits of ‘wild swimming’, but the healthful benefits of sea bathing and sea air have long been proclaimed. County Waterford as a coastal county had a number of sea-bathing locations. Tramore is one of the best known and was developed first by private … Read more