Today is the centenary of Michael Davitt’s death. His importance has been overshadowed by the leaders of the 1916 Rising, but he was an international figure in his day, perhaps on a par with Nelson Mandela, and his death was marked all over the world.
Mayo County Library has mounted a wonderful exhibition in his [...]

The last couple of weeks at Castle Casey have been particularly busy and of course that’s the inevitable time that data one should have backed up but didn’t will be lost. My hitherto trusty Sidekick 99 PIM went AWOL and ditched my personal contacts since 2004 into some digital black hole. Fortunately a pre-2004 [...]

I was greatly saddened to read this morning of Clare Boylan’s death. I only met her on a few occasions but found her warm, generous personality delightful. She was a fine writer and will be sorely missed. This is from The Irish Times
Irish Times Article - Author Clare Boylan dies aged 58
“Author Clare Boylan dies [...]

Recently Patrick Chapman and yours truly were guests on Pat Boran’s The Enchanted Way programme on RTÉ Radio One, explaining our new website, Irish Literary Revival.
We were preceded by the extraordinary octogenarian poet Fergus Allen reading from his work at the launch of Gas Light & Coke, his latest collection.
The programme is now available [...]

It’s a long story, but a few years ago I met an extraordinary woman called Julia Camoys Stoner, and recently she kindly invited me to the launch of her book, Sherman’s Wife. I coudn’t get over to London for the launch on May 12, so this post is in part to make up [...]

The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia have rebuffed demands by the European Union and other leaders at a summit in Vienna to temper their policies on foreign investment and energy, declaring that a new political era had arrived.
Guardian Report
Meanwhile John Pilger, in his usual uncompromising style, reports on his visit to Venezeula where he interviewed [...]

Some people are just ahead of their time.
An Australian friend wrote to me about Victoria Woodhull, who was
a prostitute, spiritualist, Wall St broker, publisher of a national newspaper,
ran for President of the United States against Ulysses S.Grant and Horace Greeley in 1872.
Her platform was free love, short skirts, abolition of the death [...]

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Declan Kiberd analyses the downside of the property boom, where you’ll have to drive further to get your petrol and to bring your children to school.
But the wider implications of untrammelled development have not yet been considered by the government or economic planners as the [...]

Patrick Chapman, my fellow ‘librarian’ over at Irish Literary Revival has something else to celebrate this week apart from the launch of the ILR:
his new chapbook, Cicatrice, has just been published.
It’s a companion piece to Touchpaper Star (where does he get the beautiful titles?), which is also published by the indominatable Lapwing Publications of Belfast.
Have [...]

Patrick Chapman and I have created a new website, Irish Literary Revival, and it is officially launched today, May 1, 2006.
In a nutshell, it hosts out-of-print and out-of-circulation books by Irish authors, in digital form, but under a Creative Commons licence/license. Check the website or the Creative Commons FAQ if you’d like to [...]