NEWS FROM THE BLOG

Twenty years ago, I travelled back and forth to Kilburn and Cricklewood, in order to meet the Irish who had settled there during the economically dark decade of the 1950s.

Early in 2021, I received a lovely – and most unexpected – piece of correspondence. It came from His Excellency, the Italian Ambassador to Ireland, Paolo Serpi. He wanted to tell me that I had been awarded the decoration of ‘Cavaliere’ in the Order ‘Stella d’Italia’, by the Italian Government. The award was being granted […]

I had the pleasure of interviewing Evelyn Conlon on the publication of her latest collection of short stories, MOVING ABOUT THE PLACE, published by The Blackstaff Press.

On the 28th March last, Imagine Belfast hosted an event curated by Viviana Fiorentino of Letters With Wings. The evening was dedicated to the women artists Chimengul Awut and Nûdem Durak. Dedicated, in fact, to all those activists who use the arts to highlight the struggle for freedom from oppression that we see unfolding every […]

In 2018, the San Patrizio Livorno Festival had its modest debut in the Ex-Cinema Aurora during St Patrick’s weekend. Since then, it has grown in stature to be a significant event in Italy’s literary calendar. In 2019, the Festival hosted an interview with John Banville, a major figure in European literature, and Marco Vichi, the […]

‘August Is a Wicked Month’ according to Edna O’Brien. And September, which has just begun, should be called the Busy Month. Before the Julian Calendar in 45 BC, September used to be the seventh month of the year. Now, of course, it’s the ninth, and among its many tasks is to signal for us the […]

Well, what a month February has been – and it’s not quite over yet.It started with a significant birthday: the one that means I’ve only one more year to go before the bus pass… Thank you to everyone who sent such lovely greetings. It was indeed a great day, followed by another great day on […]

Today’s date tells me that there are exactly two months to go to the launch of the San Patrizio Livorno Festival in March 2019.

My thanks to Niamh Boyce, whose poetry collection ‘Inside the Wolf’, is the subject of this final post for 2018. Happy Christmas to all – and more than anything, happy reading.

On Friday, 16th November, the always excellent Dublin Book Festival held a standing-room-only event at the National Library. It was further proof, if such were needed, of Ireland’s ongoing love-affair with the short story.