When I wrote here last autumn about an afternoon spent scavenging in a skip full of books in Drumcondra – the contents of a former bibliophile’s house that was being cleaned out – a reader regretted the collection had not gone to a charity shop. “What a s... See more
Writing last week (Diary, January 29th) about the trouble that accompanied the opening run of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars in February 1926, I suggested it mirrored the 1916 Rising itself: a case of history repeating as farce. But among the act... See more
Thomas Kinsella was born in May, but having my own birthday around now often sends me back to re-reading his sombre poem about ageing, Mirror in February. Birthdays aside, its gloomy mood is well suited to the current sodden weather, of which there seems ... See more
Further to Joseph Holloway’s eyewitness accounts of The Plough and the Stars riots 100 years ago this week in Dublin (Diary, January 28th), reader Eric Villiers has emailed about a less well-known theatrical controversy in which the same man played a part... See more
I didn’t realise I was one, officially, until an email arrived last month addressing me as a “Dear Friend of Canada”. The message carried details of an annual outing to watch ice hockey (or just “hockey” as Canadians call it) in Belfast. And I nearly dele... See more
