Reviews Archives

Reviews

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 »

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 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

THIS IS IRELAND – RTÉ2

December 14, 2016
FRONTED BY stand-up comic Des Bishop, This Is Ireland has been much hyped by RTÉ as the country’s answer to The Daily Show, with... Read more »

THE HEIRESS – GATE THEATRE

December 14, 2016
HISTORICAL PERIOD dramas sport a few familiar storylines. One classic narrative features a moneyed woman in a difficult romantic situation, or a dishonest lover,... Read more »

CRIME OF PASSION – JOHN BOORMAN (LIBERTIES PRESS)

December 14, 2016
JOHN BOORMAN’S debut novel at the age of 83 is (unsurprisingly) set in the world of movie-making. The Irish-based director of Deliverance and The... Read more »

HELL AT THE GATES – JOHN LEE AND DANIEL MCDONNELL (MERCIER)

December 1, 2016
THIS BOOK is yet another addition to the painfully long list of inside stories on the financial crisis and the near collapse of the... Read more »

THE WONDER – EMMA DONOGHUE (PICADOR)

December 1, 2016
ALTHOUGH she has mainly written historical fiction, Emma Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel Room, which sold over a million copies. Donoghue... Read more »

THE IRELAND TRILOGY – PEACOCK THEATRE

December 1, 2016
IN THE last few years, a changing of the guard has accelerated in Irish theatre. New troupes working away for the last decade are... Read more »

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE – THE GAIETY

November 3, 2016
FEW COMPANIES and playwrights have enjoyed such an interdependent relationship as Druid and Martin McDonagh. Audiences could be forgiven for wondering whether, after two... Read more »

TMI/SCORCHIO – RTÉ 2

November 3, 2016
IT WAS perhaps fitting that in Halloween week, that most terrifying of phrases – new RTÉ comedy show – should emerge from the crypt.... Read more »

ALL WE SHALL KNOW – DONAL RYAN

November 3, 2016
THE TIPPERARY author’s two previous novels (The Spinning Heart and The Thing About December) successfully explored the dark brutal side of Irish rural life.... Read more »

THE STAR MAN – CONOR O’CLERY

October 5, 2016
PERHAPS because of the overdose this year on anything and everything related to 1916, earlier Irish historical material, fictional or otherwise, seems to... Read more »

THE LESSER BOHEMIANS – EIMEAR McBRIDE

October 5, 2016
IN THIS follow-up to her highly acclaimed (and much hyped) 2013 debut, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride retains the familiar coming-of-age... Read more »

THE FATHER – GATE THEATRE

September 21, 2016
ALZHEIMER’S disease has appeared frequently enough on stage and screen in the last few years. Arguably, The Father by French writer Florian Zeller led... Read more »

MINDS OF WINTER – ED O’LOUGHLIN

September 21, 2016
BORN IN Toronto, Ed O’Loughlin grew up in Ireland and worked as a journalist before publishing his debut novel, Not Untrue and Not Unkind,... Read more »

THE YOUNG OFFENDERS – DIRECTED BY PETER FOOTT

September 21, 2016
ACCOMPANIED by the hype that’s now de rigueur for every Irish film, The Young Offenders – based on true events in Cork in 2007... Read more »