Delighted to get this one across the line and into #DIFF2026. It's been a mad scramble over the past month! This is the story of a city fighting for itself as a broken property market ruthlessly chews up its citizens for profit, treats homes as assets and people as obstacles to be moved out.

Any recent poetry reviews or essays worth reading??

Back in 2017, I wrote about how Kate Millett was rescued by a bunch of friends from an institution in Ennis; Margaretta D'Arcy, Sylvia Meehan, Nell McCafferty, Ivor Browne, Deirdre McCarten, Maere Rountree amongst them. Millett wrote about this in her 1990 book The Loony-Bin Trip.

All welcome 🩷💚 Launched by Ellen Dillon with guest reader Lauren Lawler. And a double pamphlet launch alongside Shakeema Edwards!

Great to see IPSC are going ahead with this demo! It's important to mark our victories, clarify why we fought, and celebrate together. This morale boost is essential; we can use the energy to push the OTB over the line. When we mobilise together, we can win big victories!

Can you be arrested for an anagram? How to hide Palestine Action, useful for placards at demos no elite captains I alone, pittances a polite instance penalties action set national epic a spleen citation inpatient solace antiseptic alone a social penitent pain at elections Atlantic peonies

Always helps to remember that the initial essay criticising The Poetry Review for “speaking only to itself” was a review of the issue that included this poem, which was read and shared by tens of thousands. x.com/PoetrySociet...

Delighted to say that my pamphlet is now available to buy online, alongside a whole rake of excellent debuts! greenbottlepress.com/product/pink...

Big congrats to @cliodhnabhreatnach.bsky.social on this gorgeous debut pamphlet! Very excited for it to be out in the world finding its readers.

Finola is the best

Happy, grateful, lucky, happy, to have a poetry pamphlet forthcoming with the brilliant Green Bottle Press. Launch in London, Friday 27th June, 7.30pm at the Arts Workers Guild (free wine). Dublin launch TBD!

New episode up now. Les Belles Images (The Image of Her) by Simone de Beauvoir, with translator Lauren Elkin @laurenelkin.bsky.social in conversation with @iammilliam.bsky.social and @johnmitchinson.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/239...

Best film in a while

It's time for the Central Bank to #StopFundingGenocide IPSC lodges criminal proceedings against Central Bank officials for complicity in Israel’s genocide www.ipsc.ie/press-releas...

Artists and arts workers in Ireland are facing uncertainty. As the government reviews the Arts Council, we must ensure that those who create and sustain our culture are not left vulnerable. Sign the survey now: surveymonkey.com/r/PRAXIS2025

Lovely to share this list with such a plethora of fine poets 🩶

A lot of people are reasonably very concerned that a well-liked comedian might be hurt by angry online comments, but are unconcerned that already piled-on and sometimes destitute immigrants might be hurt by false and alarmist online comments because they see the former as a person but not the latter

I really dislike these “discussions” about immigration that clearly only address other white Irish people, as if immigrants themselves are totally other and alien. Irish schools, workplaces and families are now wonderfully full of different cultures and backgrounds. That’s reality for most.

Having received previous Arts Council funding now disqualifies you from the Agility Award. Obviously resources are limited but it’s hard to support this decision. What is out there to support artists in the massive middle ground between first agility award and a bursary?

Congratulations to Rebecca Goss, who has been longlisted for the 2025 New Angle Prize for Literature with her collection Latch! Well done to Rebecca, and all the other longlisted writers and publishers! 🎉 www.carcanet.co.uk/np69.shtml

Gratuitous plug here, but only €5.50 here (new copies) - thebookshop.ie/melatu-uche-...

This is a great book! If I was in charge it’d be ranked a lot higher too.

The ‘can machines do creative writing’ thing is mostly a distraction from the use of the machines to go through text and images to cancel grants and put people on deportation lists

News! 🎉💃🏻🚨🍾 Absolutely delighted. www.cuirt.ie/new-writing-...

🚨 EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE Columbia/Barnard faculty, Jewish community leaders, immigrant advocates, and rabbis are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody. We will not be silent or cower in the face of American Fascism. #FreeMahmoud

Is Rousseau very unfashionable these days because I’m reading the Confessions and have never heard of how funny it is - he’s really the Larry David of the Enlightenment

One of the most chilling things I've ever heard from a public figure is when Obama said "We tortured some folks"

Harris has never reacted with “fury” to the deliberate dereliction that blights this country as property is hoarded and put beyond use as part of the speculation game. It’s clear the arts is being used as an easy lightning rod for public frustration with this rotten FFG junta. Don’t fall for it

A gloriously sunny afternoon at Cork City Library reading poems with fellow Howl poets ❤️‍🔥💛✨☀️ as part of #IrelandReads Day @leggettbohan.bsky.social @mollytwomey.bsky.social #howlwriting #jenniferhorgan

Thrilled to be reading at this year's #Cúirt40 festival alongside fellow @doirepress.bsky.social poet Jennifer Horgan. Friday 11th April, 6pm at Charlie Byrne's bookshop. www.cuirt.ie/whats-on/the...

RIP Nilay Ateşoğlu, a Queer Kurdish asylum seeker who sadly took her own life at the Cliffs of Moher. "I have no family," her note said. She asked to be buried in "a handful of soil" in Ireland. "Do not give my corpse to the oppressors." Her note was ignored & her body was sent to Turkey.

Great and really important initiative, but opposite the GPO is where static demonstrations assemble. Have the councillors not considered this? I don’t think these women would want their legacy to be even less public space to practice politics!

This Saturday!❤️‍🔥

Reminds me of @seamas.bsky.social's Examiner column. Throwing trans youth under the bus in the north gained SF nothing, just like fence sitting over immigration and asylum gained them nothing. It alienates progressives and the right still paints them as the pride flag waving open borders party.

Fantastic piece from @jennymaguire.bsky.social in the Irish independent, a rare and valuable case of a trans person commenting on trans issues 🏳️‍⚧️ www.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

“So many parents in Ireland are living in hell, trying to keep it together for their kids with no help. Any change now will be too late for my child. But I don’t want any parents to go through what we are.” Radie being a boss in the Irish Times.. ❤️ www.irishtimes.com/health/2025/...

The Irish Times really are willing allies in this government's little "no one (but landlords) can have nice things" campaign. Today they've a piece about "who's who" in this "scandal" that doesn't feature any of the business executives whose firms failed to do what they were paid for...

Kristin Ghodsee is launching her new book at Hodges Figgis later at 6pm! I’m so annoyed I won’t make it due to health stuff but you should go!

Booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmed Muna of the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, have been arrested. Books about the conflict have been confiscated, and the store ransacked. Here's a short LRB piece by Mahmoud M about selling books to foreign journalists www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2023/no...

The Waxed Lemon Literary Journal Submissions are open from 10 February 2025 to 02 March 2025. Submit here: www.thewaxedlemon.com/submissions #submissions #writingcommunity #writers

Between right now (Thurs afternoon) and Sunday night, there will be at least 23 actions or events for Palestine in Dublin City.

Wow this episode is a real education. Amazing critique of liberal grievance politics and how the “loudest yell” became the most radical one. A lot more thoughtful than I’m describing it here.

Such a wonderful discussion on maybe my favourite novelist. Translate them all!