#Irish author

[the-children-of-the-fae]

'The Stolen Child' by William Butler Yeats

[littlemisscannonball]

He started telling her that he loved her. It just happened, like drawing your hand back when you touch something hot.

— Sally Rooney, Normal People

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

"I cannot be weaned / Off the earth's long contour, her river veins."

~ Seamus Heaney, "Antaeus" from Death of a Naturalist (1966)

[thiswomansmind]

I finally got to watch Small Things Like These. I had read the book in the autumn and absolutely loved it, and couldn't wait to see what Cillian did with Bill Furlong.

What a quietly moving film.

There is no excitement, there is no crescendo, there is no thrill sequence, and yet it is an absolutely gripping interpretation of a piece of Irish history - although based on a fictional book - that has been told in different ways in the past.

Claire Keegan's book doesn't give a lot away about Bill Furlong, and neither does Cillian's performance, but what we are presented with doesn't hold back. Bill's passive and humble manner makes him an immediately likable, "paternal" character; he poses no threat, he's warm, and for some reason there is the sense that you can trust him from the start despite this lack of real revelation or outspokenness. A man so passive you rarely meet, these days.

Bill's sad backstory breeds his feelings surrounding his concern and speculation about what is happening in the Magdalene Laundry, and we get a puzzle-piece history of Bill and how it shaped him. You can see the sense of "there but for the grace of God go I.", given his mother's 'status', when he first stumbled upon Sarah, and then when he changed his and her life on his return.

One scene I was hoping to be included in the film is a wonderfully written piece from the book, where Bill and Ned sit together and Ned sings The Croppy Boy. Sadly, this wasn't featured, but there was the eluding towards Bill's parentage and Cillian played that shock and realisation incredibly well.

I was waiting (im)patiently, also, to see the scene where Bill and Eileen talk about his speculations and worries in the bedroom, wherein Eileen tells him in no uncertain terms to essentially wind his neck in. I was keen for this scene, not only because this was a cementing scene within the book, but also because of the way in which both Cillian and Eileen had talked about the intensity of it in interviews. I'll admit, I was expecting something more severe in its delivery, but it was as wonderfully understated as everything that Bill travels through the entire feature with, so it was fitting if a little underwhelming.

As with many people, I love when a film that is based upon a book stays true to it, and this is definitely the case here. Even down to the fireside scene between the holy Mother and Bill, it was like my visual interpretation whilst reading had been perfectly brought to the screen as I'd imagined it myself. Even down to expressions and inflection, Emily, Cillian and Eileen seemed to really embody the holy Mother, Bill and Eileen as Claire wrote them, and it was extraordinary to watch it.

Don't come to the film (or the book) looking for the thrilling revelations of a dark chapter in Irish History - it wasn't in the book and it isn't in the film. It skates on the outside, as an outsiders view of whatever was happening in the Laundries, and it sparks questions about your own morals and ideas, about your own choices if faced with something similar or as challenging. I would also say that if you go to the film solely as a Cillian Murphy fan from Peaky Blinders, you're going to be disappointed, but if you're a fan of his massive back catalogue of films and his softer performances (perhaps Broken, Peacock, or The Delinquent Season), then I think you'll be able to add this film in as another of your favourites. But whatever you do, don't miss out the book from your reading list.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Laundries from a different view, Eileen Walsh starred in The Magdalene Sisters as a "fallen woman" held in one of them, and you can also find a variation on that film on YouTube called Sinners. Both are from the inside of the Laundries and therefore offer, perhaps, the answers to some of the films posed questions.

As the granddaughter of an unmarried Irish couple who came to England to avoid this situation falling upon her grandmother, I found it a brilliant story. They did return to Ireland, married with two children, and then my own parents came to England in their twenties. But, I've grown up with the 'culture' and pride for Ireland, and often find love and a sense of nostalgia in Irish books and films. It's definitely going to be one I will also purchase on DVD, and I would definitely watch it through again - as with the book, which I have read through a second and third time.

[notnursenightingale]

A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies. I have not got one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me. Is that very vain of me?

|| Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

[cillianmurphysdimples]

A reread in the park opposite the boys' school, in the cold, instead of sitting in my empty but warm house. Worth it.

[wherethefaeriesdwell]

Irish Faery Story Book "Where the Faeries Dwell"

Hi all!

I am so incredibly proud of my mother who has published her very first book, "Where the Faeries Dwell".

She really put her heart and soul into creating a beautiful book of short stories based on the tales her Grandmother told her as a child about the interactions between humans and the Sidhe, the Faery folk of Irish mythology. These stories used to be passed down in the oral tradition by people gathering around the fireside, eagerly awaiting to hear stories of the Seanachai that would leave them spellbound and feeling a greater connection to their heritage. Even through all the turbulent times Ireland went through, these stories survived. If you or your family also enjoyed hearing fairy tales while growing up, this is a wonderful book to read.

She has set herself up online for people wanting to buy the book! I will link the two websites on my page if you are interested in checking it out and if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a message and I’ll be happy to help :)

Go raibh mile maith agat <3

[desdasiwrites]

Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was or become part of it.

–Sally Rooney, Normal People

[curlyquest]

FOR ÉIRE:MUNSTER IS NOW OUT! Welp its here. When i first started writing this book i thought it would be a lockdown project that i would leave behind when i started college. But with alot of love for the story, my home and the support from my family, it is now here for everyone. Its cliché to say this but, even as a writer, words cannot express how im feeling right now (i dont even think i could draw it, it's that all over the place). Im happy,im proud, im nervous. It's alot of things. So i'll settle for this Thank you all who have supported me. And to all of you current or future For Éire fans, I am happy to share the island i call home with you all. go raibh maith agat agus taitneamh a bhaint as!

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1900 – Death of playwright, novelist, and poet, Oscar Wilde, in Paris.

Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. Married to Constance Lloyd and father of two children Cyril (1885-1915)…

[kerrwent]

[crazy-dog-lady-81]

Just finished reading a gorgeous LGBTQ story. Stir-fry. Emma Donoghue.

[wastedwinter]

I focused on my breathing, you were allowed to do that. You could even count the breaths. And then at the end you could just think about anything, anything you wanted, but after five minutes of counting my breath, I didn’t want to think. My mind felt empty, like the inside of a glass jar. I was appropriating my fear of total disappearance as a spiritual practice. I was inhabiting disappearance as something that could reveal and inform, rather than totalise and annihilate. A lot of the time my meditation was unsuccessful.

 Sally Rooney, “Conversations With Friends”

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

II Bushing the door, my arms full of wild cherry and rhododendron, I hear her small lost weeping through the hall, that bells and hoarsens on my name, my name. O love, here is the blame. The loosened flowers between us gather us, compose for a May altar of sorts. These frank and falling blooms soon taint to a sweet chrism. Attend. Anoint the wound.

Seamus Heaney, from "Summer Home" in Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996.

[gneasa]

This was actually super interesting, this author came up that I vaguely recognised and realised I had borrowed his books from the town library but I've never seen them anywhere else - so I guess that's why!

[ifellinlovehere]

help me publish my book