Feb 21, 2012 | Latest
On the way back from Dublin airport on Saturday I decided to come off the motorway before the toll and went into Drogheda to spend an hour or two. Found a free parking space, near pensioners’ bungalows just off Scarlet Street, and in the glorious morning sun, walked...
Feb 8, 2012 | Latest
Finished the novel ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers’ by Xiaolu Guo, published in 2007, the diary of Zhuang Xiao Qiao, a young Chinese woman who comes to London to learn English. The almost-charming book, written in mangled English, is funny and...
Jan 28, 2012 | Latest
Today, 28th January, I bought a lot of books on one of my regular raids on the War on Want & Oxfam bookshops on Botanic Avenue; and in NO ALIBIS shop got a hardback copy of ‘Chandler – Later Novels & Other Writings’. So, for £8.75 in the War on Want shop I got...
Jan 3, 2012 | Latest
On 30th December I wrote a short piece for the Irish News re the state papers. Did a number of interviews re the release of state papers under the thirty-year rule with specific reference to the I981 hunger strike. Was interviewed by BBC Radio Foyle, RTE television,...
Dec 9, 2011 | Latest
Have started ‘Soul Mountain’ by Nobel Literature Laureate Gao Xingjian who is also an established painter. The illustration here is from one of his ink paintings, ‘Recueillement’, roughly translated as ‘meditation’. ‘Soul Mountain’ has been patiently sitting on my...
Nov 7, 2011 | Latest
Am taking part in a panel discussion this Friday night in St Mary’s Grammar School, Glen Road, Belfast, which I attended in 1969/1970. Other speakers include my then contemporaries, the historian Dr Eamon Phoenix, and the solicitor and broadcaster, Tony Caher. The...
