Remarkably powerful interview with Brenda Fricker on BOC radio show @rteradio1.bsky.social 📻

I interviewed the brilliant Brenda Fricker about her harrowing new memoir. Very glad to have met her www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Brilliant conversion between new Laureate for Irish Fiction, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Niall MacMonagle at @nlireland.bsky.social. Sounds like Éilís has great plans for her three-year tenure. @cormackinsella.bsky.social @artscouncilireland.bsky.social

Neil Jordan will be at WCLF Mon 14 July chatting to @cristinleach.bsky.social about his life, career & his memoir Amnesiac 🎟️ www.westcorkmusic.ie/events/2025/amnesiac-neil-jordan/ @irishexaminer.bsky.social @cormackinsella.bsky.social @headofzeus.bsky.social www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ar...

Borris House issues appeal for return of 19th century masonic banner which disappeared during @writingandideas.bsky.social www.rte.ie/news/regiona...

Why Pat McCabe matters - his latest novel Goldengrove reviewed by @paulduane.bsky.social www.rte.ie/culture/2025... @unboundsocials.bsky.social

Anti-Israel sentiment may have prompted taking of 200-year-old @borrishouse banner, owner believes irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/0… This banner was removed during @Writingandideas - the Kavanagh family would love it back

NEW ISSUE! NUMBER 99 | SUMMER 2025 features work by Darragh McCausland, Joe Davies, Karen O’Reilly, Clement Gelly, Juliana Adelman, Nick Holdstock, Rosita Boland. To buy/ subscribe, visit thedublinreview.com @artscouncilireland.bsky.social @cormackinsella.bsky.social @aingealaflannery.bsky.social

The folks @writingandideas.bsky.social are over here now. Why don’t you give them a follow to find out all about this year’s festival and special event over the Summer & Autumn #youwillyouwill festivalofwritingandideas.com

Very sad news tonight about Paul Durcan RIP. A great loss to Irish poetry. Here’s an old interview I did with him from the 90s.

But my favourite Paul Durcan poem is 'On Giving a Poetry Recital to an Empty Hall' Thanks to @cormackinsella.bsky.social for bringing it to my attention a few years ago.

The great Pat McCabe on the bumps and realities of the publishing world. Patrick McCabe: ‘This whole idea of making money out of novels started in the 1980s with Martin Amis and Ian McEwan’ www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Love this interview with Pat McCabe. I'm 1/3 of the way through Poguemahone (2002) and love it. It's taken me this long to get to it because a friend made it sound taxing to read and a bad review put me off. But it's easy going, very readable and zips along. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Pat McCabe on the wireless. A fascinating man. And somehow no nonsense whatsoever about him. Direct.

This week in the column, I rattle on a lot about theatre and art, hoping my editor would let me get way with it. He did. Recent reading includes new novels from Seán Hewitt and @jennymustard.bsky.social and the most recent series of essays from Ta-Nehisi Coates. In Saturday's @independent.ie or:

On introduceable older books and how to find them www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ar...

At home with William Kentridge, South Africa’s greatest living artist. On the eve of two major solo shows and as he turns 70, the artist and director opens up his family house in Johannesburg www.ft.com/content/bae7... via @financialtimes.com

FRIDAY 6th June 2025 1.15 pm the Orangery LIFE ON PLANET EARTH: 2024 @thebookerprizes winner Samantha Harvey (Orbital) in conversation with Nobel Prize-winner Abdulrazak Gurnah (Theft). With arts critic and novelist @suerains.bsky.social @vintagebooks.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

Friday 6th June 1.15pm The Rookery SECRET MIRACLE WORKERS: Biologist and mycologist @merlinsheldrake.bsky.social author of 'Entangled Lives' talks to @manchanmagan.bsky.social about how fungi and their underground networks transform our understanding of how all life works

Jorge Luis Borges and Colm Tóibín in 1982.

Grand Canal Dock was like a lake tonight #loveDublin #grandcanaldock

Sure if you're near a radio... (or the internet...) ✒️

Culture That Made Me: @emmadonoghue.bsky.social selects her touchstones, including Charles Dickens, Hoop Dreams and Slow Horses among her selections: www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ar... @irishexaminer.bsky.social @picadorbooks.bsky.social #theparisexpress

Amazing evening yesterday at the live recording of Elizabeth Day’s ‘How to Fail’ podcast with Emma Dabiri. Recorded in The Bórd Gáis Theatre.

10 books for April in @irishexaminer.bsky.social including ‘Fair Play’ by Louise Hegarty www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/ar... @picadorbooks.bsky.social

Tonight, I'm talking to @hannahhg.bsky.social about Hagstone, writing, landscapes, the legacies of women artists, the body and more. It's free, just register. Starts at 6.30pm and is available to stream for two weeks. www.fane.co.uk/sinead-gleeson

Not the top priority for the world this morning but can we do something about Whole Nut being displayed between Mint Crisp and Turkish. 😉 The flavours travel.

8.35pm Baggot St bridge #lovedublin #lovespring #moon #jettrail

I had a good time with the Penguin reissue of Brian Friel's short stories. www.independent.ie/entertainmen...

Beautiful story by Colm Tóibín in @newyorker.com - he reads it beautifully as well. ‘Five Bridges’ #colmtoibin www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The paperback of Hagstone is published today. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the book in the last year, and to Ross for asking me to sign books at @foylesforbooks.bsky.social today. @cormackinsella.bsky.social

To celebrate the paperback publication of Hagstone next week, @chloeashby.bsky.social and I will be in conversation with Rosie Beaumont-Thomas of the Feminist Book Society at Bàrd Books on Tuesday 25th, followed by a book signing. 🎟️: wearebardbooks.co.uk/the-feminist... @cormackinsella.bsky.social

'Philip in the Diner' Philadelphia 1978 , by Chalkie Davies.

The RTE Short Story Competition 2025 is now open for entries! Very glad to be a judge this year, alongside Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social and Tristan Rosenstock. @rteradio1.bsky.social

Looking West along the Liffey, Dublin City. 7pm yesterday. #grandstretch #lovedublin

Great chats and fun this morning on the Ireland Am sofa with Nancy Birtwhistle @virginmedianews.bsky.social @bluebirdbooksokla.bsky.social

Tune into Ireland Am on @virginmediaireland.bsky.social at 8.15am. Nancy Birtwhistle will be telling Muireann & Tommy all about her new book ‘Nancy’s Green & Easy Kitchen’ @bluebirdbooksokla.bsky.social

Trinity College Dublin celebrates renaming former Berkeley library after poet Eavan Boland www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

I had the immense pleasure of interviewing @grainneobrien.bsky.social about her debut YA, Solo! Listen here! sites.google.com/view/booklin... @littleislandbooks.bsky.social

Paperback cover for Hagstone, which is published on March 27th. The photo is by the brilliant Jack Davison. I’ll be doing a London event on March 25th - more information soon. www.4thestate.co.uk/products/hag... @cormackinsella.bsky.social

Full house @kennysbookshop.bsky.social to hear Colum McCann talk to Sarah Kenny about his new novel #TWIST - published yesterday by @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

Beautiful reading & music at this special @writingandideas.bsky.social event with Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Colum McCann & Alec Clark in the Pepper Cannister Church last night - readings from and discussions about #Twist by Colum McCann - published yesterday by @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

Morning folks - my great pals @writingandideas.bsky.social have just landed here. Migrating over from the old place (like myself!) - give them an old follow #youwillyouwill

NUMBER 98 | SPRING 2025 is out! Featuring work by Cathy Sweeney, Neil Hegarty, Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Georgina Parfitt, Thomas McMullan, and Ian Sansom’s diary reflections on the year gone past. Order now: thedublinreview.com/product/spring… @cormackinsella.bsky.social @aingealaflannery.bsky.social

I recently interviewed @jonronson.bsky.social for the Festival of Writing & Ideas Book Club about his book ‘The Psychopath Test’ and BBC podcast ‘Things Fell Apart’. Link below if you want to have a look #thepsychopathtest #thingsfellapart #carlow #borris #writingandideas