Reviews Archives

Reviews

HALAL DADDY – DIRECTOR CONOR McDERMOTTROE

July 13, 2017
FORGET JOHN Carpenter, George A Romero and other masters of horror, there are few more disturbing sights in cinema than the phrase “Bord Scannán... Read more »

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS – SALLY ROONEY (FABER & FABER)

July 13, 2017
DEBUT NOVELIST Sally Rooney creates a portrait of modern young women in this slow-moving tale centring around two university students, Frances and Bobbi, inseparable... Read more »

RIVIERA – SKY ATLANTIC

June 29, 2017
THE NEW Sky Atlantic 10-part crime drama comes with impressive credentials. Created by Oscar winner Neil Jordan (who co-writes the first two episodes with... Read more »

THE INHERITANCE – ALLY BUNBURY (POOLBEG)

June 29, 2017
OVER RECENT weeks months, the first-time author (and wife of historian-about-town Turtle Bunbury) has been receiving no shortage of publicity for her romantic novel.... Read more »

HOUSE OF NAMES – COLM TÓIBÍN (VIKING)

June 15, 2017
IN HIS successful 2012 novel, The Testament of Mary, Colm Tóibín imagined the mother of Jesus struggling to accept her son’s divinity. The Enniscorthy... Read more »

MINDING FRANKIE – GAIETY THEATRE

June 15, 2017
THEATRE IMPRESARIO Breda Cashe knows, better than most, how to tap into Irish punters’ desire for cheap, feel-good stories. With this saccharine version of... Read more »

PAULA – RTÉ ONE

June 15, 2017
ONE OF the better series delivered to RTÉ viewers ended its run last week and many of those who enjoyed the three chilling episodes... Read more »

SKINTOWN – CIARÁN McMENAMIN (DOUBLEDAY)

June 2, 2017
THIS DEBUT novel touches on well-trodden aspects of yoof culture, with themes of male friendship and the prospect of redemption running the length of... Read more »

ITHACA – ALAN McMONAGLE (PICADOR)

June 2, 2017
THE DEBUT novel from Galway-based Alan McMonagle is set in the summer of 2019 in an unnamed Irish Midlands town “miles from anywhere, and... Read more »

IN VIEW – DIRECTED BY CIARAN CREAGH

June 2, 2017
WHEN IT comes to film pitches, a story about a suicidal Garda officer is not exactly Pirates Of The Caribbean. It is much to... Read more »

THE JOURNEY – DIRECTED BY NICK HAMM

May 17, 2017
IRISH AND BRITISH critics have been relatively united in their dismissive attitude to The Journey, Belfast director Nick Hamm’s film about an imagined car... Read more »

THE FRACTURED LIFE OF JIMMY DICE – RONAN RYAN (TINDER PRESS)

May 17, 2017
CLONMEL-BORN Ronan Ryan’s debut novel joins the already saturated field of coming-of-age fiction published over recent years. Ryan’s story begins in 1980 and traces... Read more »

ASSASSINS – TV3

May 17, 2017
GANGLAND CRIME and manufactured celebrity are TV3’s central obsessions. Before 9pm most evenings, it’s all X Factor and Xposé but, after the watershed, the... Read more »

NOTORIOUS – JACK SLACK (JOHN BLAKE)

May 3, 2017
WE CAN’T seem to get enough of Conor McGregor. Books, newspaper articles, TV documentaries, merchandise, and billions in pay-per-view dollars. The Crumlin mixed martial... Read more »

MAZ & BRICKS – PROJECT ARTS CENTRE

May 3, 2017
SET as a home for counter-cultural voices 50 years ago, Project Arts Centre made its mark when tones of dissent and difference were very... Read more »

A LINE MADE BY WALKING – SARA BAUME (HEINEMANN)

May 3, 2017
SINCE HER widely acclaimed 2015 debut, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, expectations have been high for Sara Baume’s second novel. In her follow-up, the Cork-based... Read more »

THE PONZI MAN – DECLAN LYNCH (HACHETTE)

April 19, 2017
DURING THE latter stages of the delirium known as the Celtic Tiger, Irish high society became the land of the pyramids – or at... Read more »

PRIVATE LIVES – GATE THEATRE

April 19, 2017
TRANSITIONS are a curious business. Former director Michael Colgan may have left the Gate Theatre at the start of April and his successor Selina... Read more »

THE EFFECT – PROJECT ARTS CENTRE

April 5, 2017
AFTER PRODUCING a few notable pieces for the stage, British writer Lucy Prebble seems to have moved on from theatre to TV comedy, chirpy... Read more »

CARNIVALESQUE – NEIL JORDAN (BLOOMSBURY CIRCUS)

April 5, 2017
IN BOTH his fiction and films, Neil Jordan has frequently been drawn into dream worlds of ghosts and tangled fairytale horror. This latest novel... Read more »

THE SECRET SCRIPTURE – DIRECTED BY JIM SHERIDAN

April 5, 2017
ALTHOUGH IT sticks to a conventional approach familiar from the hoariest of melodramas, Jim Sheridan’s adaptation of Sebastian Barry’s Booker-nominated novel The Secret Scripture... Read more »

BECKETT FRIEL PINTER FESTIVAL – GATE THEATRE

March 23, 2017
AFTER HIS 33 years at the helm of the Gate Theatre, it’s no surprise that Michael Colgan would throw himself a self-congratulatory farewell party.... Read more »

THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES – JOHN BOYNE (DOUBLEDAY)

March 23, 2017
THE BESTSELLING author of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas returns to familiar themes of flawed and forbidden relationships in his latest novel. Boyne... Read more »

ABOUT BEING NORMAL – DES FENNELL (SOMERVILLE)

March 9, 2017
“THE ‘ECONOMIC foundation of independence’ cannot be built in a context of decreasing independence … It can be built … only in an independent... Read more »

DANIEL AND MAJELLA’S B&B ROAD TRIP – RTÉ ONE

March 9, 2017
FOLLOWING their initial success on UTV Ireland, the Donegal crooner and his wife have been nabbed by RTÉ for the new series of their... Read more »

THE GOOD PEOPLE – HANNAH KENT (PICADOR)

March 9, 2017
HANNAH KENT’S second novel follows her internationally successful debut, Burial Rites, the disquieting account of a young wife executed for her role in a... Read more »

ROCKADOON SHORE – RORY GLEESON (JOHN MURRAY)

February 23, 2017
AS A new wave of writers continues to energise Irish fiction, Rory Gleeson (son of Brendan) makes his literary debut with a novel about... Read more »

THE DEAD – PAVILION THEATRE

February 23, 2017
SINCE James Joyce’s work came out of copyright five years ago, Irish theatre producers have spun his work in all manner of ways, with... Read more »

JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL … GATE THEATRE

February 9, 2017
TEMPTING as it is, you can’t blame La La Land. The Hollywood awards favourite may bring American musicals back into the mainstream, but Irish... Read more »

DRIVETIME RADIO – RADIO 1, NEWSTALK, TODAY FM

February 9, 2017
WELCOME to la la land. Sarah McInerney, co-presenter of Newstalk Drive, couldn’t contain her giddiness as she introduced a discussion on this year’s Oscar... Read more »

HOSTAGES – OISÍN FAGAN (NEW ISLAND BOOKS)

February 9, 2017
MIXING MAGIC realism with sci-fi dystopian horror and elements of pulp fiction, this series of standalone parables consists of five (longish) short stories, each... Read more »

DANCING WITH THE STARS – RTÉ ONE

January 25, 2017
THE NEW centrepiece of RTÉ One’s weekend schedule is a fluffy light entertainment effort filled with shameless attention seekers – and no, it’s not... Read more »

LYREBIRD – CECELIA AHERN (HARPERCOLLINS)

January 25, 2017
SINCE WRITING PS I Love You in 2004, Cecelia Ahern has had extraordinary success and there is no doubt that her 14th novel will... Read more »

STRIKING OUT – RTE ONE

January 12, 2017
TRADITIONALLY, RTÉ’s excuse for the underwhelming nature of its drama and comedy output was that it suffered in comparison with programmes produced by neighbouring... Read more »

DAYS WITHOUT END – SEBASTIAN BARRY (FABER)

January 12, 2017
THE LATEST in Sebastian Barry’s loose series of novels chronicling the McNulty dynasty has just been awarded the Costa Prize, which he also won... Read more »

THE TOMMY TIERNAN SHOW – RTÉ ONE

January 12, 2017
AT THE start of this new six-part series, the sometimes controversial Tommy Tiernan introduced his one-hour chat show by explaining that neither he himself,... Read more »