TMO is, in part, an Irish magazine, so it’s no surprise we’re interested in Irish culture. We term culture broadly, so you’ll find articles/essays/posts grouped here on Irish history (including our popular essays on the Irish war of indpendence), Irish writers (interviews with contemporary writers alongside profile and criticism for authors like James Joyce, Flann O’Brien, Sean O’Casey and many more), Irish music (reviews and interviews with the likes of Glen Hansard, Luka Bloom, Bell X-1, the Dubliners to name but a few). And we’ll throw in some shamrocks, and St Patrick’s day stories to keep up with passing stereotypes!
Born in Derry in 1969, Sean O’Reilly is currently one of the most interesting writers working today, Irish or otherwise. His latest work, Watermark, may be set in contemporary Ireland but it eschews shiny portrayals of the modern city, preferring to focus on the psychological and sexual adversities of a group of characters who seem […]
In dealing with the subject of women in Seán O’Casey’s plays, it is revealing to refer to the influence of women on Sean O’Casey’s early life. O’Casey’s father died when he was a young child and he was brought up by his mother and educated at home by his sister, who was a schoolteacher. In […]
Harry Clarke was recognised for his artistic genius and achieved great success during his own lifetime, yet he often gets pigeonholed into various modes of artistic expression. Clarke however, was not merely a symbolist, a revivalist, an illustrator, or a stained glass artist; he was all of these but also much more complex and interesting […]
The Frames are one of Ireland’s most loved, and succesful bands on a national level. This live album was recorded partly because of a demand from their Irish fans, and partly as a handy introduction for a worldwide audience.
Ever since, as James Joyce remarked, we have become “Jung and easily Freudened” it has become necessary, when dealing with a writer, to refer not only to his work but to his private life as well. This is particularly true in the case of Seán O'Casey, one of Ireland's great literary icons. In fact, O'Casey […]
Irish film maker Robert Quinn grew up in the Cinema. That's not a clichéd way of saying that he liked movies, and spent all his pocket money going to the local cinema. No, Robert Quinn actually did grow up in the Cinema. His father, film maker Bob Quinn, in the 1970s set up the independent […]
Firing questions at anyone for a half an hour about their motivations and identity is bound to produce contradictions, but an interview with Glen Hansard, chief songwriter from Irish band the Frames, throws up more than its fair share. It’s not that he’s confused, or indeed confusing. Rather, the context that he and The Frames […]
John Banville’s new novel, The Sea, presents us with Max Morden, recently widowed (or is that widowered? as Max mordantly wonders) and returned to the sea-side resort of his childhood. While turning over fragments from his married life with Anna, Max also recalls the strange bond he formed many years ago with the dazzling Graces, […]
June 1904, the month in which the novel Ulysses is set, is a month that brings to mind the name of James Joyce and that name has become synonymous with that of the city of Dublin. The Sandycove Martello Tower, Sandymount Strand, Dublin’s North inner city: these have become known as ‘Joycean Dublin’. Indeed, a […]
In the dead of night, two weeks before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, five people broke into Shannon airport in the west of Ireland. Although Shannon airport is not a military base and Ireland was and remains officially at peace with Iraq, they found a US war plane and, according to charges brought against […]
