Articles
Essays, reviews, and commentary on literature, history, politics, and ideas.
You Should Be Glad
With the Beatles: a sparkling account of an innocent mania
History on the Wing
Irish Catholics under the skin: a master class in journalism
Once Upon A Time
Marina Warner’s reimagining of a near magical transformation
Hail Ruritania!
A kingdom’s progress: from Duck Soup to Princess Diana
The Flowering
The 1950s: a good time to be born for a girl who must write
Sacred Monster
Not for the drawing room: the terrifying art of Francis Bacon
Against the Clock
In his new collection, Greg Delanty makes another valuable contribution to the poetry of environmental consciousness.
Love Hurts
Megan Nolan’s debut novel, a refreshingly honest and often uncomfortable meditation on the relationship between desire, self-destruction and the female body
Freefall in the Suburbs
In Danielle McLaughlin’s first novel brief moments of high drama intermingle with journeys into the complex, foggy territory
In Defence of the Gàidhealtachd
Activists concerned to protect the oldest of all living Scottish languages have been wrongly accused of perpetrating a sort of nationalist essentialism.
They Heard the Call
A history of Ireland’s main Catholic seminary has a much wider focus than the merely institutional
Stalking Truth
Geraldine Mitchell’s four collections have in part sprung from insights gleaned from a lifetime of covert observation