The Age of Richard Nixon – a study in cultural power
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013What do you think of when you think of Richard Nixon? Watergate, Vietnam, the televised debates with John .F. Kennedy? or perhaps you imagine the sweating, nervous, paranoiac portrayed by Antony Hopkins in Oliver Stone’s biopic Nixon? Images that emphasise his failures, that suggest a man unfit to be President, a villain and one thus [...]
Beautiful Noise – Helen Seymour Interview
Monday, April 29th, 2013‘Dublin,Ireland. 1985. A war is raging between The Government, RTE [the Irish state broadcaster] and the 28 illegal Pirate radio stations, who have taken control of the Nation’s airwaves and the advertising revenue that goes with it’- so reads the description on the cover of Helen Seymour’s debut novel, Beautiful Noise- a story about an [...]
From the Chalet School to Hunger Games
Wednesday, April 10th, 2013How do British schoolgirl classics like the Chalet School and Mallory Towers translate to todays bestsellers like Twighlight and The Hunger Games? Amy Ellis-Thomas compares the stock situations and rhetoric of the 1950s boarding schools to today’s equally codified young adult literature.
The Global Minotaur – Economist Yanis Varoufakis in interview
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013Have you had the suspicion that simple narratives about subprime mortgages, last minute bail-outs, and sweaty-palmed bankers fail to adequately explain what has happened to the global economy since 2008? If so, then I can heartily recommend you pick up a copy of Yanis Varoufakis‘s The Global Minotaur – America, Europe and the Future of [...]
Extracting Gold – Mary Costello interview
Friday, March 1st, 2013Mary Costello is the author of The China Factory, a collection of short stories which was published by The Stinging Fly Press. It has received much acclaim and renown for its intensity and sensitivity. Costello has an amazing capacity to reveal characters’ lives through understated encounters, be it the restraint of two strangers in The [...]
Sins of the Flesh: The Mislabeling of Surf and Turf
Wednesday, February 27th, 2013“The flesh is the surface of the unknown.” – Victor Hugo On January 15th, The Food Safety Authority of Ireland announced the discovery of horse meat tainted beef being produced, packed, and shipped from slaughterhouses in the UK and Ireland. ABP Food Group, the company deemed responsible, suspended production in its Co. Monaghan plant. As [...]
‘Hell goes round and round’: Flann O’Brien and the search for identity
Monday, February 11th, 2013Anyone who knows anything about Flann O’Brien knows he was a man of many names. Flann O’Brien was the pen name for Brian O’Nolan, who wrote journalism under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. He used different spellings of his names and most of the discussion and arguments on his
Opportunistic – a poem
Monday, February 4th, 2013Opportunistic (in homage to Ozymandias by Shelley) I met a president from a defunct bank Who cried: “Two smashed and roofless blocks of shops Stand in the suburbs. Near them old and dank, Half built, a parking structure squats, its frame and crumbling top and sides of cold concrete tell that its builder ill these [...]
