A Boat To Bilbao

Essay

13th June 2021

An essay about Ludwig the cat, and the writer who lives with him.

A Hell Taxonomy

Essay

29th January 2021

Satanic panic, screen violence and Irish doorways to Hell: Róisín Kiberd meets legendary game designer John Romero.

Memorials

Essay

25th January 2021

The tragic death of a Chinese performer in Loughrea, County Galway, in 1936 inspires Clara Kumagai to examine concepts of belonging, sameness and home.

Edna O’Brien’s 90th Birthday Banquet

Essay

15th December 2020

Louise Nealon invites us all to join her in raising a glass to the queen of Irish literature.

Going Clear: Sense and Spectacle at the Dublin Horse Show

Essay

7th August 2019

As one of the city's oldest sporting spectacles, the Horse Show is a Dublin institution butting up awkwardly against the modern world.

Five Moments In Sport

Essay

18th July 2019

Sport is admirable and sport is deplorable. It is an innocent pastime and a pernicious addiction. It means nothing and it means everything. It can be a force for good and for evil.

Power Cut

Essay

15th July 2019

The stories of women in Direct Provision are a continuation of Ireland's long history as a carceral state, a place where "it is a lot easier to offer somebody a halfway house and ambivalent status than to grant them the right to a home."

Firing Up The Imagination

Essay

4th April 2019

Fiction, that work of the imagination, is a means of making sense of the world, and a way to escape the darkest of realities.

The True One

Essay

13th March 2019

The story of Gil Courtney shows us that, when it comes to making things up, some people really just want to believe. And who can blame them?