Reviews Archives

Reviews

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 »

BREAKING POINT – EDEL COFFEY

March 10, 2022
THE DEBUT novel from journo Edel Coffey arrived with a fairly rapturous fanfare as it climbed the Irish bestsellers list. The sensitive subject matter (infant... Read more »

FREE STATISM & THE GOOD OLD IRA – DANNY MORRISON

February 24, 2022
THIS IS a book of two parts but just one laser-like focus: ‘free statism’ and its hypocrisy, double-standard and betrayal of Irish citizens in... Read more »

HERE BEFORE – DIRECTED BY STACEY GREGG

February 24, 2022
KENNY BRANAGH’S mawkish Belfast might put some people off Stacey Gregg’s Here Before – a film actually made in, if not about, Belfast, unlike... Read more »

DOINEANN – DIRECTED BY DAMIAN MCCANN

February 10, 2022
IT’S ALWAYS somewhat bewildering when advance press releases for a film give prospective audiences vital plot information they either won’t encounter when they see... Read more »

THE RAPTURES – JAN CARSON

February 10, 2022
THIS IS Jan Carson’s follow-up to The Fire Starters, which portrayed a dystopian view of modern-day east Belfast and its people. The Ballymena writer’s... Read more »

BELFAST – DIRECTED BY KENNETH BRANAGH

January 27, 2022
KENNETH BRANAGH’S autobiographical Belfast has been on a strategic path to the awards red carpet since it launched on the festival circuit last September.... Read more »

DID YE HEAR MAMMY DIED? – SÉAMAS O’REILLY

January 27, 2022
THIS AFFECTIONATE childhood account about growing up on the Derry-Donegal border during the 1990s is one of several recent memoirs set during the Troubles... Read more »

SMOTHER (RTÉ ONE)

January 13, 2022
DESPITE THE fact that the series was a bog standard drama of the sort pumped out relentlessly these days, RTÉ was mightily pleased with... Read more »

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE (CLAIRE KEEGAN)

January 13, 2022
AT ABOUT 100 pages, this novella is dedicated to those who suffered in Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes and Magdalene laundries. There is a lot packed... Read more »

HAUGHEY – GARY MURPHY

December 16, 2021
READING THE largely glowing reviews in the national press for Gary Murphy’s Haughey, one would be forgiven for failing to realise what an intense... Read more »

APRIL IN SPAIN – JOHN BANVILLE

December 16, 2021
IN HIS latest crime novel, John Banville returns to his moody Dublin state pathologist (known only as Quirke), the hero of several earlier mysteries published... Read more »

LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN – RODDY DOYLE

December 2, 2021
IN THIS slim short fiction collection, Roddy Doyle has managed to get to market one of the very first fiction efforts to encapsulate (cash... Read more »

HIDDEN ASSETS – RTÉ ONE

December 2, 2021
FOR WHAT it’s worth, the end credit on RTÉ’s latest ‘local’ drama series Hidden Assets, reads: “Produced by Saffron Moon, Potemkino, and Facet 4,... Read more »

HOLD MY DRINK

November 18, 2021
SITTING AS it does among the more serious and polished podcasts of Bauer Media Audio’s radio shows (Newstalk, Today FM, 98FM, etc), Hold My... Read more »

WE DON’T KNOW OURSELVES – FINTAN O’TOOLE

November 4, 2021
SAMUEL BECKETT, with whom Fintan O’Toole is compared on this book’s back cover, might conceivably have compressed his era into 57 pages. O’Toole’s occupies... Read more »

CALLAN KICKS THE YEARS – RTÉ One

November 4, 2021
WHEN IT comes to entertainment programming, Callan Kicks The Years provides an interesting case study in RTÉ’s seemingly limitless capacity to shoot itself in... Read more »

THE MAGICIAN – COLM TÓIBÍN

October 21, 2021
THIS IS the second time Colm Tóibín has used fiction to imagine his way into the mind of a famous literary figure. His 2004... Read more »

ARRACHT – DIRECTED BY TOM SULLIVAN

October 21, 2021
PERHAPS THE most telling aspect, for purely anglophone audiences of Tom Sullivan’s debut film Arracht, is the translation of the title as béarla –... Read more »

THE PAGES – HUGO HAMILTON

October 7, 2021
THE AUTHOR is best known for The Speckled People (2003) in which he recalled his eccentric childhood, growing up in a Dublin suburb with... Read more »

ROSE PLAYS JULIE

October 7, 2021
IT CAN be a thankless job reviewing Irish films, but from time to time one comes along where it is evident the director has... Read more »

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU – SALLY ROONEY

September 23, 2021
WHILE SALLY Rooney’s two previous books, Conversations With Friends and Normal People, weren’t to everybody’s taste, it was impossible to argue with the phenomenal... Read more »

KIN – RTÉ ONE

September 23, 2021
WITH A recent Broadcasting Authority-commissioned report warning of an “existential crisis” in RTÉ, the cash-strapped national broadcaster’s hyping of gangland drama Kin – including a Late Late... Read more »

IMPERFECTION – BY ERIN AND JUDITH

September 9, 2021
WHILE GOLDHAWK is no gastroenterologist, it is incumbent upon him to warn potential listeners about the elevated risk of barfing up their lunch while... Read more »

THE ECHO CHAMBER – JOHN BOYNE

September 9, 2021
HAVING GENTLY satirised the publishing industry in his 2018 novel, A Ladder to the Sky, John Boyne now casts an eye on the aggressive... Read more »

Reconstruction from ‘The Ballymurphy Massacre’

THE BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE – RTÉ ONE

August 12, 2021
THIS AUDACIOUS documentary, directed by award-winning film maker Callum Macrae with no little elan and produced in association with Channel 4, is powerful stuff.... Read more »

THE GARDEN – PAUL PERRY

August 12, 2021
DUBLIN-BASED Paul Perry’s first solo novel is a modern-day morality tale of obsession, outsiders and uncertainty about the future. The orchid farm setting with... Read more »

POSTER BOYS

July 29, 2021
PUBLIC MONEY, even lots of it, is no guarantee of quality, as Goldhawk has noted in countless reviews of Irish films in recent years.... Read more »

DIVING FOR PEARLS – JAMIE O’CONNELL

July 29, 2021
THIS DEBUT novel is set about a decade ago, mainly in Dubai, where the dead body of a young Emirati woman, Hiyam Husayin, is... Read more »

IRELAND’S RICH LIST 2021 – RTÉ ONE

July 15, 2021
IF THE ‘rich list’ is the answer, what on earth is the question? Goldhawk found himself repeatedly wondering this over the course of a... Read more »

THIS EDEN – ED O’LOUGHLIN

July 15, 2021
ED O’LOUGLIN’S latest novel is a contemporary thriller packed with cinematic hairsbreadth escapades, crosses, double crosses and careering plot twists. The story is set... Read more »

MIND FULL – DERMOT WHELAN

July 1, 2021
RADIO PRESENTER turned wellness ‘guru’ Dermot Whelan displayed his impressive marketing skills last month when advising his social media followers to “de-stress your dad!”... Read more »

AGENTS OF INFLUENCE – AARON EDWARDS

July 1, 2021
THE BOOK’S front cover singles out the infamous Freddie Scappaticci in glorious technicolour. Everyone else in black and white. He is barely mentioned in... Read more »