Being the one-man band behind Irish Writers Online, I get a lot of requests for links, and of course I do my best, but being as human as the next, I find that courtesy goes a long way. Muiris Ó Meara wrote me the following email, and I’m quoting in in full because I appreciate [...]

Between OS problems, service provider problems, wireless problems, paypal problems, domain problems, general sociability and the cultural life in central Dublin, there hasn’t been much time for my own work.
The technical problems and solutions will probably find their way into Ubuntu Learner when I get a minute, and as I don’t expect you [...]

This is the 150th Anniversary of the birth of George Bernard Shaw.
See the Wikipedia entry on Shaw

This takes a while, probably an hour, to watch, but its sheer brilliance makes the time slip by.

Robert Newman’s History of Oil
Sublime, terrifying and cut-to-the-bone funny, where real life leaves the theatre of the absurd in the dust.
See also Robert Newman’s website

Had he lived till now, Samuel Beckett would be 100 today.
Happy Birthday, Mr Beckett, whether, to your surprise, you are in some conscious heaven, or you have merely rejoined the dispersed atoms of the universe.
Thank you for the humanity and wit you found in yourself and gave to us all.

An unusual and busy evening tomorrow, Wednesday. March 29th. The Beckett Centenary Festival is opened by the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism in Dublin Castle at 6pm, and Dedalus Press are launching Macdara Woods’ new book, Artichoke Wine, in the Boardroom of the College of Surgeons, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, at 7 [...]

Some lovely quotes in The Guardian from Beckett Remembering Remembering Beckett, to be published by Bloomsbury next month, in good time for Beckett’s centenary in April. Here’s just part of one, from Paul Auster:
Then, out of the blue, five or 10 minutes later, he leant across the table and said, ‘You really liked it, huh? [...]