Reviews Archives - The Phoenix Magazine

Reviews

THE MARIO ROSENSTOCK PODCAST

April 22, 2021
LAST AUTUMN saw the cancellation of Mario Rosenstock’s Today FM show, Mario’s Sunday Roast, due to – in the comic’s own words – “circumstances... Read more »

THE ART OF FALLING – DANIELLE McLOUGHLIN

April 22, 2021
ONE OF Danielle McLoughlin’s writing strengths comes from her powerful depictions of everyday life, often with undertones of sinister uncertainty. This was evident in... Read more »

THE 2 JOHNNIES PODCAST

April 8, 2021
SINCE ACHIEVING wide popularity with a series of viral music videos in 2017, comedy duo the 2 Johnnies have had a trajectory similar to... Read more »

WE ARE NOT IN THE WORLD – CONOR O’CALLAGHAN

April 8, 2021
IN THIS follow-up to his 2016 debut, Nothing on Earth, Conor O’Callaghan focuses mostly on one man’s fractured relationships with his family. This curious... Read more »

THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL – NEIL JORDAN

March 25, 2021
THE BOOM in historical fiction continues with this new account of the odd friendship between Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his African-American manservant, Tony Small.... Read more »

NO ONE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE EXCEPT FOR YOU – LAURA WHITMORE

March 25, 2021
READERS HOPING that Laura Whitmore’s debut might give them an inside track into her life as a TV and radio presenter may be in... Read more »

BLOODLANDS – BBC ONE

March 11, 2021
SET IN contemporary Northern Ireland, the four-part thriller stars James Nesbitt as PSNI detective Tom Brannick. Produced by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio,... Read more »

CRIME WORLD – NICOLA TALLANT

February 25, 2021
WITH TRUE crime podcasts all the rage, now might be an opportune time for somebody to do a mystery series on what happened to... Read more »

HOME OF THE YEAR – RTÉ ONE

February 25, 2021
NOW IN its seventh series, Home of the Year is back with seasoned presenter Hugh Wallace taking centre stage as always. The “design legend”... Read more »

DAVY’S TOUGHEST TEAM – RTÉ ONE

February 11, 2021
IN ADDITION to being one of the most high-profile sports managers in the country, the past seven years have seen Davy Fitzgerald develop an... Read more »

NAKED: TEN TRUTHS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE – CAROLINE FORAN

February 11, 2021
THE LUCRATIVE literary genre of personal development continues to flourish – particularly during the current lockdowns, as stressed-out readers search for answers about coping... Read more »

LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL – (RÓNÁN HESSION)

January 28, 2021
THE NEW One Dublin One Book offering this year is the debut novel by musician Hession (aka Mumblin’ Deaf Ro), which was first published... Read more »

GET MY SH!T TOGETHER – RTÉ PLAYER

January 28, 2021
ALONGSIDE COVID, a silent epidemic has been quietly building in recent times – that of half-arsed lockdown programming on the RTÉ Player. Following on from... Read more »

NO HIDING (ROB KEARNEY) & FUEL (SEAN O’BRIEN)

January 14, 2021
THERE IS a bitter irony that one of the accusations against Joe Schmidt’s Ireland team in his final year was that it had become... Read more »

UNDERNOSE FARM – HARRY CROSBIE (THE LILLIPUT PRESS)

December 16, 2020
THE PAST year of lockdown has seen a surge in autobiographical fiction. This slim hardback book (90 pages) of short stories about Dublin life... Read more »

THE LATE LATE TOY SHOW – RTÉ ONE

December 3, 2020
FOR MOST of the past year, broadcasters have been desperately looking for inventive ways of filling the schedules – and cheering people up. Predictably,... Read more »

SNOW – JOHN BANVILLE (FABER)

November 19, 2020
OVER RECENT years, John Banville has written a relatively commercially successful series of hard-boiled noir thrillers under the name of Benjamin Black. This latest... Read more »

IN BED WITH THE BLUESHIRTS SHANE ROSS (ATLANTIC BOOKS)

November 5, 2020
POLITICAL REMINISCENCES in Ireland are invariably boring, free of interesting information and full of self-justification presented with no context (or purpose). But this book... Read more »

LODGING WITH LUCY – VIRGIN ONE

October 22, 2020
THE CATEGORY that Lodging With Lucy belongs in is truly the preserve of the damned: a reality series deemed surplus to requirements by RTE.... Read more »

BURNING HERESIES – KEVIN MYERS (MERRION PRESS)

October 8, 2020
WHEN IS a victim not a victim? Apparently not when they’re single mothers whose children are described as “bastards”. Or a Traveller derided as... Read more »

CHAMPAGNE FOOTBALL – MARK TIGHE & PAUL ROWAN

October 8, 2020
GIVEN THE recent trend for behind-the-scenes football documentaries, ex-FAI boss John Delaney could probably have solved the association’s car-crash finances simply by agreeing to... Read more »

AFTER THE SILENCE- LOUISE O’NEILL (RIVERRUN)

September 24, 2020
ALTHOUGH promoted as a “twisty page-turner” murder mystery, Louise O’Neill’s much-publicised book is steeped in zeitgeist and dominated by disturbing power struggles within abusive... Read more »

STRANGE FLOWERS – DONAL RYAN (DOUBLEDAY)

August 27, 2020
SINCE The Spinning Heart was longlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, Donal Ryan has been winning consistent praise for his slight but assured... Read more »

A TRAVELLER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM – JOHN BOYNE

August 13, 2020
JOHN BOYNE’S 12th novel for adults takes place across more than 2,000 years and 50 countries. The sprawling, 430-page story addresses familiar social issues... Read more »

TV REVIEW: PRIME TIME – RTÉ 1

July 16, 2020
DAVID MCCULLAGH’S upcoming move to the Six One News is likely to prompt a much-needed shake-up at Prime Time, which in recent times has... Read more »

BRENDAN O’CONNOR – RTÉ RADIO ONE

June 18, 2020
FOR MANY years, with programmes such as Don’t Feed The Gondolas and Brendan O’Connor’s Cutting Edge, Brendan O’Connor unconvincingly attempted to position himself as... Read more »

HOLD ME NOW – JOHN MACKENNA

May 21, 2020
THIS NOSTALGIC love story, spanning several decades from the late 1980s onwards, is loosely framed against the backdrop of the Eurovision song contest and... Read more »

NORMAL PEOPLE – RTÉ ONE

May 7, 2020
IF THE Joe Duffy outrage-ometer is anything to go by, the BBC/Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People predictably generated oodles of publicity for... Read more »

A THOUSAND MOONS – SEBASTIAN BARRY (FABER & FABER)

April 23, 2020
SEBASTIAN BARRY’S Costa-winning Days Without End told the story of two young soldiers in the American Civil War. In this sequel, set during the... Read more »

THE ARMS CRISIS OF 1970 – MICHAEL HENEY (APOLLO LONDON)

April 9, 2020
IRISH POLITICS experienced a seminal moment in 1970, with two dismissed former ministers, Charlie Haughey and Neil Blaney, facing trial. The charges related to... Read more »

APEIROGON – COLUM McCANN (BLOOMSBURY)

March 12, 2020
BEST KNOWN for his hugely successful Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann’s inventive fiction ranges widely and is generally international in scope. His... Read more »

ACTRESS – ANNE ENRIGHT (JONATHAN CAPE)

February 27, 2020
ANNE ENRIGHT’S surprisingly laboured seventh novel tells the story of Norah FitzMaurice, a middle-aged novelist trying to make sense of her famous mother’s life.... Read more »

THE LINE-OUT – VIRGIN MEDIA ONE

February 13, 2020
VIRGIN MEDIA has been making a lot of noise out of its exclusive (men’s) Six Nations rugby coverage and inevitably added one of those... Read more »

BLINDBOY BOATCLUB – BOULEVARD WREN AND OTHER STORIES (GILL BOOKS)

January 30, 2020
THE FIRST laugh generated by Boulevard Wren unintentionally arrives courtesy of the publishers, Gill Books, which assert that Blindboy Boatclub is “one of Ireland’s... Read more »

THE STYLE COUNSELLORS – (RTÉ 1)

January 30, 2020
THE LATEST home-produced makeover series is presented by Suzanne Jackson and Eileen Smith – described by RTÉ as “two social media sensations”. At the... Read more »

GREAT IRISH INTERIORS – RTÉ 1

January 16, 2020
AS PART of the national broadcaster’s “jam-packed” Christmas schedule (ie seasonal specials and jaded family-friendly staples), Great Irish Interiors followed the work of interior... Read more »