Poisoning Lloyd George

Poisoning Lloyd George

It’s funny how you come across things. Back in 2006 I spoke at a Writing on the Wall event in Liverpool and over breakfast the next morning I had a conversation with writer Clive Hopwood. Clive has written almost one hundred books for children and has had twenty plays...
Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New

Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New

For thirty years, and before the exponential rise of social media, most Irish republicans relied upon An Phoblacht for uncensored news and for information about the conflict and republican politics. Now An Phoblacht itself, the print edition of which went monthly...
The Story of an Adjective

The Story of an Adjective

About ten years ago when reading Making An Elephant by Graham Swift I came across the works of Russian writer Isaac Babel, bought some of his books, including You Must Know Everything, and what a treat it is. He is probably best known for his Red Cavalry cycle of...
Barcelona/Belfast

Barcelona/Belfast

My friend Glenn Bradley writes from Barcelona – I took a well earned break for my 50th Birthday last week and headed off with my lovely wife Joh to Barcelona. It’s very refreshing to go away and take a break, to clear your head, and just get into something...
The Gadfly

The Gadfly

I was in Dublin yesterday to record a short story with the artist/composer Stano and was telling him and his friend Denise Dunphy the story of Ethel Lynch from Cork who became famous in the USSR for her novel The Gadfly. I wrote a feature about that book many years...