Three Monkeys Online

A Curious, Alternative Magazine

Tom Brace

Tom Brace was born in Dublin in 1948. He joined the Irish Army in 1968 and served for 21 years and then entered TCD as a mature student in 1989. He graduated with a degree in english literature and history. He then entered the Irish civil service in the Department of Finance. Recently retired and completed a postgrad M.Phil in Modern Irish History in TCD where he currently acts as a research assistant in the History Department. He is a regular contributor to Three Monkeys Online

An der Alster – a poem

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Wing beats of a wild duck Startled by my unlit prescence Drum into my consciousness A moment framed in time. I am again before a dark city lake On a winter’s evening Behind me the half-heard sound Of Hamburg’s traffic. Before me an emptiness of water And space, unfilled by you.

Fred Astaire – a poem

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Fred Astaire When I was nineteen I laughed At what I heard people call your “Art”. Art! Like Joyce or Jean Paul Sarte? No. I had you firmly in a bracket. Somewhere between Elvis Presley And Bob Cratchet. But when I was thirty-eight And it was a wet Sunday afternoon And the pubs were shut. […]

New York – a poem

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

New York – a poem by Tom Brace ‘ Driven by necessity, man can achieve
Elevation in a confined space
And in a place of Babel reach the sky…’

Terrorism in Dostoevsky and Conrad – a Response from Irish History

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

The romantic view of terrorists as misfits and lost souls, presented by Dostoevsky and Conrad in their work, is very much at odds with the practical and structured guerilla warfare that was seen during Ireland’s War of Independence

Ireland and the Palestine Question 1948 – 2004 by Dr. Rory Miller

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

In a hitherto neglected area of study, Dr Rory Miller of King’s College at the University of London, adresses the history of the relationship between Ireland and the Palestine Question.

Michael Longley: Entwining Strands of Love, Nature, War & Death.

Monday, May 1st, 2006

“Longley hasn’t advertised himself as a Muse-poet, but that is what he is, a love poet, and a nature poet, a celebrant of the female principle; and like Graves he is also a war poet, of the two world wars in which his father fought, and of the war of nerves in Northern Ireland, where […]

A Poet’s Space – an interview with Brendan Kennelly

Tuesday, November 1st, 2005

I was anxious to meet Brendan Kennelly, the internationally renowned poet and for almost 40 years Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. Not only to conduct this interview with him for Three Monkeys, but finally to ask him the meaning of a phrase I had heard him use many years ago when I […]

The Stupidity of Men – Women in the Plays of Seán O’Casey

Monday, August 1st, 2005

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 […]

Seán O’Casey – Portrait of the Artist as an Outsider

Friday, July 1st, 2005

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 […]

Lovely Seaside Girls. James Joyce’s Musical Interludes

Wednesday, June 1st, 2005

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 […]