Issue 130, February 2021
In This Issue
The Homes of Tipperary
Donal Ryan has, in previous work, established his facility for inhabiting the minds and spirits of his characters
Sins of the Fathers
The proportion of Irish men who acknowledged responsibility for the
But Is It Art?
It is curious how ‘mimesis’, the ability to accurately depict nature, ‘skill’, the deployment of acquired manual dexterity, and ‘beauty’, formerly
A Hero and his Valet
The runaway slave Tony Small saved the life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald
A Man About a Dog
What is alluring about dogs includes ‘their freedom, their lack of inhibition’, their dwelling in the moment – without apprehensiveness, but without hope. This is enviable in a way, yet we don’t entirely want it. Having a pet can extend one’s being, but it needn’t make one want to be a pet.
The Blame Game
It is not in the nature of states to give up territory. Why did the Provisionals, after several years of conflict, continue to believe that a few hundred men with Armalites could defeat a nuclear power? How could they claim to understand imperialism and believe that Britain secretly wanted to leave?
Quote, Don’t Dote
In his latest book, Joseph Hassett seeks to restore the full poetic and personal context to some of Yeats’s most famous and most quoted lines. The result is one of the most beautiful and enjoyable books on the poet ever to call forth the skills of a gifted designer and of a true critic.
Mission Accomplished
The thinking behind Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s working practice
The Chancer Debagged
Frank McCourt’s Limerick: a place where the sun never shone
No We Can’t
Barack Obama had all the qualities that make for a great president. Competent, incorruptible, calm yet
Hear No Evil
It is widely accepted that there was often collusion – and more ‑ between
Labour Titan
Ernest Bevin never knew who his father was and was orphaned aged eight. He started work as a farm labourer at eleven and later became a lay preacher and union organiser. As foreign secretary in the post-1945 Labour government he helped stiffen the Americans’ resolve to stand up to Stalin.
Reading Empson
William Empson’s reputation as a severely intellectual critic can be offputting for anyone coming to him for the first time, but it’s a misleading view. His mission was in another direction altogether, seeking to clarify what
News from Nowhere
Some of what passes for news comes not from ‘the coal face’ but from the fevered brains of its inventors. In a guide to news in the era of fake news Alan Rusbridger says Murdoch’s Fox News will have a ‘special place in journalistic hell’ for its Covid coverage, which contributed to numberless deaths.
A Nurse in Wartime
The tempo of life in wartime is swift and changeable. Men and women come into and slip out of one’s life, never to be seen again. Have they
Not for Gain Alone
Edmund Burke is often regarded as the father of political conservatism,
A Naipauline Conversion?
A new biographical study charts VS Naipaul’s progress from confidently judging the world to be simply ‘what it