Bridge of San Luis Rey Over ten years ago Irish film director Mary McGuckian first became interested in adapting Thornton Wilder's novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey for the screen. “It's strange. I'm more comfortable in a literary Cinema environment, but they're not very easy films to get off the ground. It was originally […]
Brian Kerr is now two games into his first real campaign as Ireland manager. Mick McCarthy's legacy to Kerr was a poor start in the Euro 2004 qualifiers, and a rift with Ireland's captain and most influential player. Despite these disadvantages, Kerr came within a whisker of bringing Ireland to Portugal, and the Irish support […]
The fine spray of regurgitated aguardiente, with an unexpected force, drenches her, as two clowns, in every sense of the word, clash antlers all around her. Meanwhile I thank my lucky stars that it’s not me, pulled from the crowd, to participate in this curious ritual. Let’s clarify the above picture. Imagine that you’re at […]
Cause baby I’m a wild cat strutting thing Pride of lions feeding thing A history of hearts loving thing Wild cat strutting [Wild Cat Strutting Thing] – Interference In many ways it seems as if time has finally caught up with one of Ireland’s most influential bands Interference. Caught up in the sense that they […]
England Half English “You've got to be engaged, haven't you?”, says Billy Bragg, responding to questions about his extra-music political activities, activities that have ranged from writing opinion pieces on Englishness for major newspapers, like The Independent, to making serious proposals for the reform of the house of Lords. Engaged is a good word to […]
Jonathan Safron Foer says he was never particularly interested in family history, and did not give much thought to his Jewishness. Then he went to the Ukraine with an old photograph, and found himself writing a book steeped in Jewish culture. “ One of the great things about writing is that you get a chance […]
Czesław Miłosz, Nobel prize winning Polish poet, died on August 14th aged 93. Born into the intelligentsia, his was a formidable intellect, and there is something forbidding about his meditations on philosophy and literature – though he claimed to be neither philosopher nor literary critic. He said that if writing was to be a pleasure […]
In the introduction to his extraordinary book from 1998, Explaining Hitler – the search for the origins of his evil, Ron Rosenbaum detailed what has been termed ‘the survival myth’ in the realm of Hitler explanations. While obviously dismissing the idea that Hitler escaped his Berlin Bunker, Rosenbaum puts his finger on the attraction of […]
The Economic Models of Terrorism “I think there was a reluctance to accept a book like this because at that certain moment, after 9/11 what they wanted to push forward was the religious argument. That it was a bunch of religious fanatics, whereas this book is saying the opposite”. Loretta Napoleoni is talking about the […]