Culture

Art Culture

The Zone of Interest – Review

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest announces itself dramatically, with a blank screen and two minutes of foreboding music by Mica Levi heralding something ominous and important. The film, loosely based on the Martin Amis novel of the same name, centres around the professional and family life of Rudolf Höss, […]

Books Politics

Book Review: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Paul Lynch’s novel Prophet Song winning the 2023 Booker Prize signifies a notable awareness regarding the dismantling of democracy in the Western world. It underscores the realisation that the erosion of democratic principles is a pressing concern that transcends borders and could impact any country. Microbiologist Eilish Stack is married […]

Gaeilge - Irish Language Poetry

If I Must Die (Irish translation)

Má fhaighimse bás, ní mór duitse fanacht beo chun mo scéalsa a insint mo chuid giuirléidí a dhíol ruainne éadaigh a cheannach agus cúpla téad, (bíodh sé bán ags ruball fada air) chun go mbeadh radharc ag páiste, áit éigin i nGaza agus é ag stánadh ar neamh ag feitheamh […]

Art Imperialism

Art enters the age of imperialism

Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893) speaks to us again today with great intensity. Why has this painting become so indelibly engraved in the collective memory of the human community? The figure not only hears the scream, he is also screaming in despair. His hands cover the ears to protect them […]

Poetry

Ukraine

A bilingual poem inspired by Nie Wieder Krieg (Never Again War) by Karl Wiener Nie Wieder Krieg (c. 1928) UKRAINE  wooden crosses over gravesbeginning to look like daggerssunk with a squelch into the earthto quieten the undeadbut undead and quivering they are notthey are truly deadempire masters of the eastempire […]

Poetry

In the dark times

“In the dark timesWill there also be singing?Yes, there will also be singing.About the dark times”—Bertolt BrechtThe night is darkI see light across the skyIt is not a light of hopeIt is not the sign of dawnThe heat it radiates does not give warmthIt scorches you to ashesThe place I […]

Books

A valuable addition to O’Casey commentary

■ Paul O’Brien, Seán O’Casey: Political Activist and Writer, Cork University Press, 2023, €39. Paul O’Brien has published a political biography of Seán O’Casey, looking at the dramatist from a broadly left-wing viewpoint. The book is accessibly written and sheds light on details of working-class Dublin and international history. O’Brien’s […]

Art

Hans Holbein the Younger

The painter of Renaissance humanism Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg in the winter of 1497/98, was one of the foremost German painters of Renaissance humanism. Augsburg was the seat of the Fugger family, trading magnates and bankers. Jakob Fugger “the Rich,” elevated to the nobility of the Holy […]

Books

“Socialism Betrayed” revisited

It is nearly twenty years since the publication of Socialism Betrayed by Keeran and Kenny.¹ They offered an interpretation of the USSR’s collapse that was influential within the communist movement and the CPI. The book highlighted the disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as derived from the […]

Culture

Treating people like fools

After a number of years off the radar, out of vogue, the bogeyman of online piracy is back on billboards and your television screens. Launched in October, BeStreamWise is the latest awareness campaign to deter people from using illegal internet protocol television (IPTV), also known as dodgy boxes, firesticks, and […]