We hesitated before that wider sea
but our heads sang with purpose
& predatory peace.
…
At no great distance out in the bay
the swell took us into its mercy,
great upheaving slopes of water
sliding under us, collapsing,
crawling onward, mountainous.
Thomas Kinsella ‘Finistère’
We hesitated before that wider sea
but our heads sang with purpose
& predatory peace.
…
At no great distance out in the bay
the swell took us into its mercy,
great upheaving slopes of water
sliding under us, collapsing,
crawling onward, mountainous.
Thomas Kinsella ‘Finistère’
‘Ireland’s lost political experiment’. Here is link to a review I wrote of a book on the All for Ireland League, a political party that flourished in Cork from 1909-1918. It was devoted to the cause of reconciliation betwen nationalists & unionists. www.irishpost.com/features/ire...
Book cover of a collection of Irish Poetry.
At times I see it, present
As a bright day, or a hill,
The only way of saying something
Luminously as possible.
Not the accumulated richness
Of an old historical language -
That musk-deep odour!
But a slow exactness
Which recreates experience
By ritualising its details -
John Montague
Here is a link to my contribution to this week’s Sunday Miscellany programme on @rteradio1.bsky.social - ‘The Man from County Buenos Aires’
www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...
Brightness was drenching through the branches
When she wandered again,
Turning the silver out of dark grasses
Where the skylark had lain,
And her voice coming softly over the meadow
Was the mist becoming rain.
Austin Clarke, The Lost Heifer
Obituary - Moya Brennan: the first lady of Celtic music.
I met her a number of times in London & Berlin. A wonderfully warm and hugely talented women. www.rte.ie/entertainmen...
Here is a link to my contribution to this week’s Sunday Miscellany programme on @rteradio1.bsky.social - ‘The Man from County Buenos Aires’
www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...
Check out @rteradio1.bsky.social’s #SundayMiscellany at 9.10 am tomorrow morning which will feature my essay on The Man from County Buenos Aires’
The six-book shortlist for the Dublin Literary Award 2026 has been announced. It was a privilege for me to be one of the five judges for this year’s award and to read so many wonderful novels. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in #Dublin next month.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
There’s not a place, stream or bush,
however remote; …
that we shouldn’t consider
with affection & sympathy.
No matter how far South Africa,
no matter how distant the moon,
they’re part of us by right:
there’s not a single spot anywhere
we’re not part of. We issue from everywhere.
Greg Delanty
The wind orchestrates
its theme of loneliness
& the rain
has too much glitter in it, yes.
They are like words, the wrong ones,
insisting I listen to sense.
…
What I am after
is silence
in proportion
to desire,
the way music plumbs
its surfaces
as straight words do
the air between them
Vona Groarke
The wind orchestrates
its theme of loneliness
& the rain
has too much glitter in it, yes.
They are like words, the wrong ones,
insisting I listen to sense.
…
What I am after
is silence
in proportion
to desire,
the way music plumbs
its surfaces
as straight words do
the air between them
Vona Groarke
“US gas prices hit $4 per gallon…” . This will pile pressure on for a quick end to this war. Even MAGA enthusiasts will not be happy with this development or with a further escalation.
edition.cnn.com/2026/03/31/w...
One more time,
call the earth female, as of old.
She needs to be placed pronto
in the recovery position, gently hold
her chin up, bend the left arm at the elbow,
hand above the head, palm facing down
—waving goodbye or hello?
Greg Delanty
It was always those with little else to carry
who carried the songs
to Babylon
to the Mississippi-
some of these last possessed less than nothing
did not own their own bodies
yet, three centuries later,
deep rhythms from Africa,
stowed in their hearts & bones,
carry the world’s songs.
Moya Cannon
It was always those with little else to carry
who carried the songs
to Babylon
to the Mississippi-
some of these last possessed less than nothing
did not own their own bodies
yet, three centuries later,
deep rhythms from Africa,
stowed in their hearts & bones,
carry the world’s songs.
Moya Cannon
The reprieve from danger
Cast a halo around
Sunlight on dewy grass,
Purple shadow thrown
By mountains, the carnal
Pink of sunset, a green
Glade amid blitzed woodlands
Above the Isonzo.
We
Hear the din of battle
In the white silence
Around his words.
Michael Longley #Irish #Poetry
The strong geese claim the sky again
& tell us …
of the many shifts & weathers
of the long-boned earth.
Blind to their huge, water-carved charts,
our blood dull to the the tug of poles,
we are tuned still to the rising & dying of light
& we still share their need
to nest & to journey.
Moya Cannon
Long after my dead time I survive
To see snow melt on the lifeless icicles
Off the coast of Atlantis
The ocean has shrunk to expose
The bleak creatures of coral animation.
Thoughts roam in aimless shoals with giddy dolphins
There are visions & revisions.
I remain in the Land of Doubt
Hayden Murphy
As a vetrran of #Stuttgart 1988, I will be watching tonight’s game with fingers crossed that #Prague 2026 will come to be remembered as another epic day for Irish football. www.rte.ie/sport/soccer...
It’s hard to think of a more brilliant Irish family in modern times than the Yeatses. 👇
www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...
Sing carnival when the mind freezes
Then turns on its own meat, carnival
Before the long fast, carnival that we turn
To drink at the blood wells of memory.
Savage simplicity, in the bleached palms
Of the self-regarding dancers;
Savage & clear, the energy
Of the self-disclosing dancers.
Theo Dorgan
This was meant to be part of the post:
It’s hard to know what the believe at this stage as the narrative from Washington keeps changing. My best guess is that the end is nigh for this war, but the future for the region will remain highly uncertain with a continuing stand-off between Iran & Israel.
It’s hard to know what the believe at this stage as the narrative from Washington keeps changing. My best guess is that the end is nigh for this war, but that the future for the region will remain highly uncertain with a continuing stand-off between Iran & Israel.
As you plaited the harvest bow
You implicated the mellowed silence in you
In wheat that does not rust
But brightens as it tightens twist by twist
Into a knowable corona,
A throwaway love-knot of straw.
Seamus Heaney ‘The Harvest Bow’
Water was the first mirror,
drinking images of beauty,
showing their wrinkled future
in the mildest breeze.
Water clings to its neutrality,
changes state at boiling point,
finds the level at which
tensions cool, limbs relax.
Dennis O’Driscoll ‘Water’ #Irish #Poetry
I will be on BBC Northern Ireland’s The View at 11 pm reviewing a busy Irish week in Washington for #StPatricksDay.
Ireland needs to grow up & get serious about its interests
Interesting reflections by ex-Irish Ambassador Bobby McDonagh & Prof Emeritus Brigid Laffan on the clouded horizons for Irish foreign policy. A wake up call for us to get serious about our future security
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
