Reviews Archives

Reviews

AN ENEMY OF THE CROWN – DAVID BURKE, MERCIER

January 12, 2023
DAVID BURKE’S An Enemy of the Crown provides essential reading on British disinformation and smears, bringing readers up to speed on what is sometimes... Read more »

TRESPASSES – LOUISE KENNEDY

December 15, 2022
THIS DEBUT novel by Louise Kennedy – the latest winner of An Post’s Book of the Year award – is the much-hyped follow-up to... Read more »

SURRENDER: 40 SONGS, ONE STORY – BONO

December 1, 2022
SURRENDER IS a command and the media have complied. No editor appears to have given Surrender to someone qualified enough or brave enough to... Read more »

THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND – DONAL RYAN

November 17, 2022
HAVING MADE an impact with his early ‘recession-lit’ fiction, Donal Ryan continues to be associated with vividly drawn characters, wrenchingly sad lives and a... Read more »

ALL THE BROKEN PLACES – JOHN BOYNE

November 2, 2022
BACK IN 2006, John Boyne’s young-adult novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, focused on the story of Bruno, the son of an Auschwitz... Read more »

HAVEN – EMMA DONOGHUE

October 19, 2022
WHILE SHE has written successfully in many genres over the past 20 years, Emma Donoghue has repeatedly turned to historical fiction. Her latest novel... Read more »

MARY LOU McDONALD – SHANE ROSS

October 6, 2022
“I must make a confession… I have known and liked Mary Lou McDonald for many years.” Shane Ross anticipated co-operation in writing her biography... Read more »

NO WORRIES IF NOT! – RTÉ2

September 22, 2022
BATTLE-SCARRED survivors of RTÉ’s comedy output will have felt a cold shiver at the pitch for No Worries If Not!, which promised “quirky characters... Read more »

THE NIGHT INTERNS – AUSTIN DUFFY

September 22, 2022
THE DUNDALK author’s debut novel, This Living and Immortal Thing (2016), featured an Irish cancer researcher in a New York medical centre. Austin Duffy... Read more »

NORTH SEA CONNECTION – RTÉ ONE

September 8, 2022
FOR THOSE who think RTÉ’s drama output is a bit of a cod, it’s perhaps fitting that the national broadcaster’s new Sunday night series... Read more »

FACTORY GIRLS – MICHELLE GALLEN

September 8, 2022
THE CASTLEDERG author’s debut novel Big Girl, Small Town (2020) features a 27-year-old chip-shop worker trapped in a Co Tyrone backwater during the 1970s.... Read more »

BAD SISTERS – APPLETV+

August 25, 2022
IN AN unflattering reflection on RTÉ’s drama output, an Irish comedy-thriller series has finally landed – and it’s an adaptation of a Belgian series... Read more »

BROUHAHA – ARDAL O’HANLON

August 25, 2022
ALMOST A quarter of a century after his debut novel, The Talk of the Town, Ardal O’Hanlon’s underwhelming ‘follow up’ is another darkly comic... Read more »

IDOL – LOUISE O’NEILL

August 11, 2022
SINCE HER 2018 adult fiction debut Almost Love, novelist Louise O’Neill has focused on writing about topical feminist themes (and more recently in her... Read more »

JOYRIDE – DIRECTOR: EMER REYNOLDS

August 11, 2022
IT’S A year since Goldhawk reviewed first-time writer/director Dave Minogue’s Poster Boys, an odd-couple road movie made on the hoof without the benefit of... Read more »

HEIRESS, REBEL, VIGILANTE, BOMBER – SEÁN O’DRISCOLL

July 28, 2022
THIS BIOGRAPHY of Rose Dugdale is the second in two years. Fascination on both sides of the Irish sea lies in her privileged English... Read more »

BATTLE OF THE FOOD TRUCKS – RTÉ PLAYER

July 28, 2022
THE PURSUIT of culinary excellence is at the heart of RTÉ Player effort Battle Of The Food Trucks, in which contestants face off in hope... Read more »

READ THE ROOM- PADDY COURTNEY/MAIA DUNPHY PODCAST

July 14, 2022
A CREATION of Newstalk owners Bauer Media, the Go Loud app is quickly developing its own niche in the era of landfill podcasting, as... Read more »

BIG SNAKE LITTLE SNAKE – DBC PIERRE

July 14, 2022
SINCE WINNING the 2003 Booker Prize for his debut novel, Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre has continued to, occasionally, write hit-and-miss satirical fiction that... Read more »

RUTH & PEN – EMILIE PINE

June 30, 2022
THIS DEBUT novel expands on many of the same well-worn themes aired in Emilie Pine’s Notes to Self (2018), a short collection of essays... Read more »

LOVE BITES – RTÉ PLAYER

June 30, 2022
A TEXTBOOK example of how RTÉ these days commissions shows, the origins of Love Bites go back to lockdown, when struggling comedian Shane Daniel Byrne... Read more »

NORA – NUALA O’CONNOR

June 16, 2022
THE CHOSEN book for this year’s One Dublin One Book initiative is a richly fictionalised biography of Nora Barnacle’s life and times. Having already... Read more »

ON THE ROADS WITH SIMON DELANEY – RTÉ ONE

June 16, 2022
AS PROGRAMME pitches go, a road safety series fronted by Simon Delaney is hardly the most electrifying. On The Roads… is also part of... Read more »

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS – BBC 3/RTÉ 1

June 2, 2022
DIRECTOR LENNY Abrahamson was perhaps asking for trouble with his second Sally Rooney adaptation in two years, following on from the deliriously OTT reviewed Normal... Read more »

POGUEMAHONE – PATRICK McCABE

June 2, 2022
FOLLOWING HIS early success with The Butcher Boy in 1992, Patrick McCabe’s distinctive tongue-in-cheek fiction has often been hit and miss. The alternating scenes... Read more »

ROAR – CECELIA AHERN

May 19, 2022
THROUGHOUT HER career as a middling-to-awful fiction writer, Cecelia Ahern has generally given a wide berth to socio-political issues. But having noted the prevailing... Read more »

PANDEMONIUM – JACK HORGAN-JONES/HUGH O’CONNELL

May 19, 2022
THIS IS the second book on the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland. It also has two experienced political hacks as authors and benefits from this... Read more »

NONE OF THIS IS SERIOUS – CATHERINE PRASIFKA

May 5, 2022
THE POST-PANDEMIC fiction sub-genre (aka ‘Trinlit’) continues to grow, with this debut novel about the impact of social media on young people’s lives. It... Read more »

REDEMPTION – VIRGIN MEDIA ONE

May 5, 2022
WITH INTERNATIONAL co-productions trending during the streaming boom, TV producers are having to devise ever-more-elaborate ways for police officers to enter different jurisdictions. The... Read more »

DERRY GIRLS – CHANNEL 4

April 20, 2022
ARRIVING ON the now-familiar wave of hype, the Ireland.com-sponsored third and final series of Derry Girls once again saw some home-grown commentators return to a favourite... Read more »

THE GROUP CHAT

April 7, 2022
THIS PODCAST from Virgin Media is aiming to capitalise on the sizeable social media popularity of its news reporters Richard Chambers, Zara King and... Read more »

THE COLONY – AUDREY MAGEE

April 7, 2022
THE EMOTIONAL power that distinguished Audrey Magee’s 2014 debut novel The Undertaking earned her widespread critical praise. Written in simple, understated language, her alternate... Read more »

DRIVE IT WITH THE 2 JOHNNIES – 2FM

March 24, 2022
LAST WEEK found culchie comedy duo the 2 Johnnies returning to the 2FM airwaves after the brouhaha surrounding sexist material posted on their social... Read more »

FOSCADH – DIRECTED BY SEÁN BREATHNACH

March 24, 2022
THIS IS Seán Breathnach’s first film and is among the very best debut feature films to have been made in Ireland. Produced by Paddy... Read more »

AGAIN, RACHEL – MARIAN KEYES

March 10, 2022
THIS SEQUEL to the mega-selling Rachel’s Holiday (1998) received a level of hype on a par with that accorded to Sally Rooney. So does... Read more »

THE WAY WE WERE – RTÉ ONE

March 10, 2022
IT IS surely only a matter of time before Montrose execs commission a series in which talking heads reflect on RTÉ’s voluminous catalogue of... Read more »