Latin America and Scotland, Salsa and traditional Scottish folk music – you couldn't imagine two more different places or styles of music, or so you would think. Salsa Celtica, a Scottish/Cuban salsa band formed in 1996 in Edinburgh are a potent example of musical fusion, breaking down imagined barriers, and highlighting the links between diverse […]
Irish singer/songwriter Mundy recently embarked on an extensive nationwide tour to promote the release of latest album 'Raining Down Arrows'. This is the Offaly troubadour's third album and the second on his own label, Camcor Recordings. Its entry into the Irish charts at number one and the ease with which he can fill venue after […]
Historians take from the past only what suits their purposes. Of the last 2500 years of historiography the above statement probably holds true for most of the period and for most of the historians. It can be argued that it is the historian’s job to take from the past what suits their purpose. The Historian […]
The reader familiar with military history, on hearing of the publication of the 'D-Day Companion' to coincide with the 60th. Anniversary of that event, might conclude that it would be a day-by-day tactical account full of anecdotal reports. And D-Day must certainly be the most written-about event in military history and one might wonder what […]
“The thing about cats” says James Hamilton Paterson, “ is that I've eaten a fair few of them. Having lived in the Philippines it's almost inevitable: they eat a lot of cats and dogs out there, and it's just sort of normal. Cat eating goes on all over the world”. Delivered in a voice that […]
Michael Collins is the author of The Meat Eaters, The Life and Times of a Teaboy, The Feminists go Swimming, The Emerald Underground, The Resurrectionists, The Keepers of Truth and Lost Souls. The last three novels are mysteries that present a bleak portrait of the failed side of America: declining industrial towns pinning their hopes […]
“I just hope they will not burn the school. The Taliban is back, and in recent months they have burnt down a dozen girls' schools.” Åsne Seierstad knows what she is talking about. The school she is concerned with is the one they are building in Afghanistan with the proceeds from her best-selling book, The […]
In a telling episode at the start of his latest book Out of the ashes, Professor Marc H. Ellis tells of an encounter, in New Zealand during a speaking tour, when his arguments were dismissed by an Israeli member of the panel with the simple but caustic phrase “he doesn’t even speak our language”. And […]
For much of its independence the Democratic Republic of the Congo has experienced political violence, ethnic strife and civil war. Plagued by the twin misfortunes of extensive natural resources and the cold war, the Congo has often been the playground for outside influences, be they the concerns of the superpowers, or local regional powers. In […]