🇭🇺 Hungarian dancing minister at it again at Magyar inauguration as PM Crowds gather outside the Hungarian parliament building to celebrate the official inauguration of Peter Magyar as prime minister. Attendees include incoming Health Minister Zsolt Hegedus, who went viral for his dancing skills.

"Books are the Grail for what is deepest, more mysterious and least expressible within ourselves. They are our soul’s skeleton. If we were to forget that, it would prefigure how false and feelingless we could become." Edna O'Brien

"Books are the Grail for what is deepest, more mysterious and least expressible within ourselves. They are our soul’s skeleton. If we were to forget that, it would prefigure how false and feelingless we could become." Edna O'Brien

Delighted to be invited to read my 2 new poems in Issue 54/Summer 2026 of the @stingingfly at the launch @ilfdublin.bsky.social 16 May. Hope to see you there. #poetry My thanks to editors Annemarie Ní Churreain & Lisa McInerney ilfdublin.com/whats-on/fes...

🔥🍡🎮Hoggaldyfullomp

👏👏

Coming tomorrow on Substack. A piece on the Irish media obsession with creating our very own Farage.

That Charles Strickland really is abominable.

The word "arse" has been mentioned 139 times in Dáil and Seanad debates. The first mention was in the Seanad in 1983, when Brendan Ryan read a passage from "The Great Hunger" by Patrick Kavanagh.

Wonder what this would get called if it was put up in Dublin?

Connections Puzzle #1063 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦

Wordle 1,785 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟨🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I recall being at a PiL concert in Stoke back in the mid 80s when John Lydon walking off stage having got hit on the head with a billiard ball. He had previous been angry at the crowd for gobbing on him: "I'm old enough to be your gransfather."

“The Sundial Pilgrimage,” first published in Agni and later included in Niamh MacCabe’s @niamhmaccabe.bsky.social recent collection Four Night Seas, is astonishing. Do take the time to read it.

The most predictable thing about my post blaming Substack for the accelerated collapse of literary media is when people who are personally benefiting from Substack swan in to angrily defend it. This is 100% my point! It’s good for some individuals, massively destructive for the culture at large.

Ordering food at a restaurant has made me a chef.

“The Sundial Pilgrimage,” first published in Agni and later included in Niamh MacCabe’s @niamhmaccabe.bsky.social recent collection Four Night Seas, is astonishing. Do take the time to read it.

Bunny Lake Is Missing is adapted from the novel of the same name by Evelyn Piper, who published stories in The New Yorker alongside pulp fiction. Its premise — a child vanishing on her first day at school, with the mother dismissed as hysterical — is matched by Piper’s insistently intense prose.

Wonder what this would get called if it was put up in Dublin?

In my memory, it is Bloomsday, 1989, and he is on Grafton Street dresses as the book, open to Laestrygonians. I have a picture of him somewhere.

Ok this is amazing

Thom McGinty

"My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke that caused me to laugh bitterly through the ten thousand nights I spent alone." Leonard Cohen

Nicaragua’s crackdown on free expression continues. Books by #GiocondaBelli & #SergioRamírez have been banned, while both writers have been stripped of nationality & forced into exile. Our statement. @giocondabelli.bsky.social @penamericas.bsky.social www.pen-international.org/news/nicarag...

Pales in comparison, I’d imagine, to the “proverbs” written on the the bicycle shed in St Pat’s, Cavan, back in the day.

If you are having a staycation or vacation it’s the perfect summer read, Secrets Between Friends is for you 🌅

Best film adaptation of The Odyssey, wrong answers only

It's disgraceful that Helen Ogbu, currently lying third in the polls for the Galway West by-election, hasn't been selected for the RTE live debate which contains six candidates. In fact it's downright sinister and makes RTE look like they're attempting to sway the course of the election. No excuse.

Chris O’Dowd and Jane Fonda to play Niall O’Dowd and Jean Kennedy Smith in peace process drama

You can pre-order Dooneen direct from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social here. Officially published on June 4th. I'm grateful for the kind words from Ben Pester, Jonathan Lethem, Isabel Waidner, Mary Costello, Richard Beard, So Mayer, Simon Okotie, David Hayden. fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/dooneen/

Today is publication day for my book, Prestige Drama. It's a funny, angry book about Derry, memory and Troubles-scented television. I think it's quite good, however I can *confirm* that it's quite short. But don't take my word for how great it is, look at all these lovely people saying that.

My 12th stop on the indie bookstore tour was the beautiful children’s bookstore @halfwayupbooks.bsky.social in Greystones where bookseller, Alex chose Sarah Webb’s The Bookshop Sisters as a favourite recommended read #indiebooksellers #saintsandwarriors

My review of McLaughlin's previous novel. I ended by saying "If it doesn't end up on a prize shortlist or two this year, we should riot." It didn't. And we didn't. (At least I didn't. Did you?)

McLaughlin had a good year in 2019. She won both The Sunday Times Short Story Award (£30,000) and a Windham-Campbell Prize ($165,000). Not many prize shortlists could have competed with that anyway.

This is why when I travel to sunspots for important ILT business, I bring my own plastic sun lounger and free standing umbrella with me (as just one more business expense).

Looking northwest. #burren

Fabulous opportunity here 👇

Meanwhile, I'm facilitating another #ShortStory course @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social from June 30th which I really love doing. Watching participants land giddy on an idea; leaving 6-weeks later with an achieved short story under their belt. Always a few gems. irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/writ...

New Waterboys protest song DON'T EVEN HAVE TO SAY HIS NAME Lyric video www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4xr...

this brilliant, funny and romantic book about sexy, bickering writers is by @urchinette and is published today. you should all go out now and buy it

Actor Gary Lydon instilled love of arts in young performers, funeral hears

Happy to be part of #Pride Programme with @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social this year, facilitating a #QueerShortStory course in autumn. Other interesting events too such as: Writing Queer Irish Womanhood: Katherine O’Donnell & Rosamund Taylor in Conversation: irishwriterscentre.ie/announcing-t...

Another great evening discussing the contemporary Irish short story for @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social. This week Lucy Caldwell @lucycaldwell.bsky.social bowled everyone over while Kevin Barry was no slouch either!

We recently conserved and digitised a unique typescript copy of Seán O’Casey’s the Plough and the Stars from the @abbeytheatre.bsky.social archive. In this video, Crónán Ó Doibhlin, Head of Special Collections, introduces the document and gives us a closer look at the digitisation process.

By Harry Bliss

*camera pans to Donegal*

The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce our Pride 2026 programme! 🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Read more about the programme and book tickets here: irishwriterscentre.ie/announcing-t...

Four Night Seas - Niamh MacCabe @niamhmaccabe.bsky.social www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

It’s Orson Welles’ birthday. Seen here in Ireland, 1931.