Thursday, August 25, 2011
Majella Cullinane 'Guarding the Flame'.
Last weekend I took a little trip to Galway to celebrate the launch of my friend Majella's fantastic first poetry collection 'Guarding the Flame'. It was launched at the popular Charlie Byrne's bookshop. Myself and Majella were both neighbours and class mates during our Masters in Creative Writing at St. Andrews. We supported each other with copious amounts of tea and shortbread biscuits (not to mention whiskey and fish and chips!). At the launch I bumped into fellow scribe Damian Cunniffe who found himself on the longlist for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year.
Majella's books is available to buy direct from Salmon
publishers. So get buying and support great Irish writing!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Italy visits the Irish Writers' Centre
I am honoured to be a part of the Italian Writers at the Irish Writers' Centre event as hosted by Catherine Dunne , on the 3rd of September. The event itself will showcase the work of both Irish and Italian writers. Here is the exciting roll call on the Irish end :
Catherine Dunne, Célia de Fréine, Lia Mills, June Considine, John Lynch, Evelyn Conlon, Maggie O’Dwyer, Kevin Power, Jack Harte, Nuala Ni Conchuir, Anthony Glavin, Conor Kostick, Alan Jude Moore, Leo Cullen, John Mac Kenna, Gerry Smyth, Nessa O’Mahony, Monica Strina, Mark Kilroy, Niamh MacAlister, Orla Fay.
Check out this blog for all the info.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Pasta Day
So it took me a while but I eventually persuaded my Mam to show me how to make pasta from scratch. Given that I grew up in the eightes its not surprising that nearly everything was made at home but I have particular memories of pasta being dried out on tea towels, pillow slips and hanging over the back of every available chair and press door. Pasta was almost always made for the parentals 'dinner of eight', which was eight friends having dinner every few weeks at 8pm. The dinner of eight pasta nearly always went into a lasagne and there was never any left-overs.
I've always found the idea of making pasta a bit daunting. While it is time consuming its not diffucult and the results are definetly worth the effort! We made Raviolli, which incidentially, Mam had never made either. The pasta was made with 1/2 pound of plain flour, 2 eggs and some water to get the right consistancy. It made enough pasta for 4 people (but consumed by 3).
There was a lot of rolling and checking and rerolling ...
Taking a break with a glass of Greco.
We filled it with spinach (1 bag: wilted & squeezed) and ricotto (1/2 tub) with a pinch of nutmeg.
Leaving it to dry for a while ... (note the extremely uneven and ungeometric nature of my effort-nothing at all to do with the decreasing volume in my wine glass!)
Enjoying it all with homemade pesto, roast pepper salad and fennel. Washed down with a glass of Barbera D'Asti. (We got the wines from Wines Direct in Mullingar.)
Thursday, July 28, 2011
A lil trip to Belfast
Upon finding a pretty fantastic deal, Sarah and myself headed to the home of Stormont and the farl; Belfast. As these things turn out, its much of the same stuff but in a different location, in other words we passed the time walking, eating, drinking and talking. Ok I can fudge no longer, the focus of the day was food. And so you will find below pictures of a nice cafe and a restaurant and of me in front of city hall which incidentally was taken just before a marks and spencer picnic on
the stoop.
Cafe Conor, which we visited post Starstruck exhibition in the Ulster Museum. We had Prosecco with bread, olives and tapenade, which was brought to us by a waitress who couldn't understand why I would want olive oil for my bread as there was already tapenade on the plate. But a fellow waiter redeemed our afternoon when he pointed us in the direction of the Duke of York bar.
Very stylish indeed. We stumbled upon the newly opened Potted Hen in the Cathedral Quarter post Duke. Calamari to die for and a truffle infused risotto, all washed down with a NZ Sauvignon Blanc.
Oh and there I am!
the stoop.
Cafe Conor, which we visited post Starstruck exhibition in the Ulster Museum. We had Prosecco with bread, olives and tapenade, which was brought to us by a waitress who couldn't understand why I would want olive oil for my bread as there was already tapenade on the plate. But a fellow waiter redeemed our afternoon when he pointed us in the direction of the Duke of York bar.
Very stylish indeed. We stumbled upon the newly opened Potted Hen in the Cathedral Quarter post Duke. Calamari to die for and a truffle infused risotto, all washed down with a NZ Sauvignon Blanc.
Oh and there I am!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Lonely Voice
I'll be doing a reading in the Irish Writer's Centre, Parnell Square, at 7pm Wednesday 27th July, as part of the Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions Series. All Welcome! There will be drinkies from 6.30pm :)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Does happiness write white?
BBC Radio 4 show produced by my good friend Faith Lawrence
Everyone's talking about happiness: politicians want to measure it, and self-help books explaining how to become ever happier are two-a-penny. So why have literary folk been reluctant to depict this emotion, when many philosophers and politicians see it as the very point of human existence? The French poet Montherlant may have the answer- he claimed that 'Happiness writes white', that it is too boring to depict or even unrepresentable. Presenter Catherine Blyth explores the challenges facing award-winning writers, including Helen Simpson, novelist Ann Patchett, and poet Don Paterson when they try to put something as elusive and subjective as 'happiness' onto the page.
Have a listen!
Everyone's talking about happiness: politicians want to measure it, and self-help books explaining how to become ever happier are two-a-penny. So why have literary folk been reluctant to depict this emotion, when many philosophers and politicians see it as the very point of human existence? The French poet Montherlant may have the answer- he claimed that 'Happiness writes white', that it is too boring to depict or even unrepresentable. Presenter Catherine Blyth explores the challenges facing award-winning writers, including Helen Simpson, novelist Ann Patchett, and poet Don Paterson when they try to put something as elusive and subjective as 'happiness' onto the page.
Have a listen!
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