Reviews Archives

Reviews

HEARTLAND – PATRICK McCABE (NEW ISLAND)

May 17, 2018

SINCE THE success of The Butcher Boy in 1992, Patrick McCabe has pioneered a distinctive literary genre. His claustrophobic narratives – usually about... Read more »

THE GREAT HOUSE REVIVAL – RTÉ 1

May 17, 2018

IRELAND’S enduring love affair with home ownership is unlikely to end anytime soon – particularly as so many property porn programmes continue to... Read more »

ASSASSINS – GATE THEATRE

May 3, 2018

“EVERY NOW and then the country goes a little wrong,” says one of the classically understated line in Stephen Sondheim’s musical about the... Read more »

THE DELINQUENT SEASON – DIRECTED BY MARK O’ROWE

May 3, 2018

ON THE face of it there’s not a lot wrong with The Delinquent Season, playwright Mark O’Rowe’s first film as a director, having... Read more »

SILENCE UNDER A STONE – NORMA MacMASTER (DOUBLEDAY IRELAND)

May 3, 2018

SET MOSTLY in the early 20th century in a remote and introspective Co Cavan, this slow-paced story centres on Harriet Campbell whose unfulfilled... Read more »

MICHAEL INSIDE – DIRECTED BY FRANK BERRY

April 19, 2018

PUT MARK Hamill on a familiar rock in the Atlantic, add a few CGI bells and whistles and we’ll readily believe he’s an... Read more »

FROM A LOW AND QUIET SEA – DONAL RYAN (DOUBLEDAY)

April 19, 2018

DONAL RYAN’S novels have focused to date on damaged and distracted characters experiencing lives of quiet misery. Ryan’s latest book echoes both The... Read more »

ALISON SPITTLE’S CULCHIE CLUB – RTÉ2

April 19, 2018

ALISON SPITTLE’S one-off documentary tried to discover the meaning of being a modern-day culchie. Over a very long hour, we learned little enough.... Read more »

ALMOST LOVE – LOUISE O’NEILL (RIVERRUN)

April 5, 2018

FOLLOWING THE success of her two Young Adult novels, Only Ever Yours and the hugely hyped Asking For It, Co Cork writer Louise... Read more »

BOOM? – GAIETY THEATRE

April 5, 2018

THE CELTIC Tiger should still give Irish playwrights plenty to write about. The depths of personal consumption and bad taste may be overly... Read more »

COUNTDOWN TO CALVARY – RTÉ One

April 5, 2018

ON EASTER Sunday, RTÉ broadcast an impressive documentary focusing on the final six days of the life of Jesus Christ. Fronted by actor... Read more »

THE UNMANAGEABLE SISTERS – ABBEY THEATRE

March 22, 2018

WITH INTENSE public pressure to ensure that women are sufficiently represented on stage, what easier way for theatre managers (like the Abbey’s co-director... Read more »

THE LODGERS – DIRECTED BY BRIAN O’MALLEY

March 22, 2018

CLEARLY, going to the cinema to see an Irish film is often a risk. Much as you hope for the best there is... Read more »

THE HOARDER – JESS KIDD (CANONGATE)

March 22, 2018

THE LONDON-based Irish author Jess Kidd published her well-received first novel, Himself, in 2016. Her follow-up is narrated by Mayo-born Maud Drennan, who... Read more »

LOOK BACK IN ANGER – GATE THEATRE

March 8, 2018

THEATRE-GOERS like to reaffirm their own highbrow taste. Regardless of what’s happening on stage, interval banter typically features thoughtless questions like, “Don’t you... Read more »

RESTLESS SOULS – DAN SHEEHAN (WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON)

March 8, 2018

SET IN the 1990s, this ambitious debut novel focuses on the close friendship between three Dubliners in their mid-20s. When Tom Dempsey returns... Read more »

SOFT BORDER PATROL – BBC One

March 8, 2018

THE SECRET of comedy, they say, is timing and if that were the only benchmark, then Soft Border Patrol, which kicked off on... Read more »

THE APPROACH – PROJECT ARTS CENTRE

February 22, 2018

AT THE turn of the millennium, Mark O’Rowe’s ultra-violent plays exploded like a fat line of speed up the nostrils of the Irish... Read more »

THE YOUNG OFFENDERS – RTE 2

February 22, 2018

BASED ON writer-director Peter Foott’s underwhelming but uber-popular 2016 movie of the same name, The Young Offenders is a co-production between RTÉ and... Read more »

IN WHITE INK – ELSKE RAHILL (APOLLO LILLIPUT)

February 22, 2018

THIS COLLECTION of 11 short stories follows Elske Rahill’s 2013 debut novel Between Dog and Wold. The French-based Irish writer specialises in exploring... Read more »

SIVE – GAIETY THEATRE

February 8, 2018

AMONG theatre companies, even the most sure-footed occasionally misstep. Druid is no exception. The Galway troupe rehabilitated the work of John B Keane... Read more »

THE BLINDBOY PODCAST – BLINDBOY BOATCLUB

February 8, 2018

LISTENING TO The Blindboy Podcast is akin to stepping on a bus with no knowledge of where you’ll be disgorged. Blindboy turns out... Read more »

THE EARLIE KING & THE KID IN YELLOW – DANNY DENTON (GRANTA)

February 8, 2018

LITERARY dystopias have become commonplace in recent times. But what distinguishes this ambitious debut novel is Denton’s anarchic language – a propulsive blend... Read more »

SPRING SEASON SCHEDULE – TV3

January 25, 2018

DAMP SQUIB would be a polite description for the launch earlier this month of TV3’s spring schedule. Coming so soon after the Ballymount... Read more »

BLOOD TIDE – CLAIRE McGOWAN (HEADLINE)

January 25, 2018

THIS IS the fifth book in Claire McGowan’s “Ulster noir” series which sees Northern Irish forensic psychologist Paula Maguire investigating the disappearance of... Read more »

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI – DIRECTED BY MARTIN McDONAGH

January 25, 2018

MARTIN McDONAGH’S Three Billboards… arrives in Ireland garlanded with four Golden Globes (best drama, screenplay, actress, supporting actor) and, at time of writing,... Read more »

MRS OSMOND -JOHN BANVILLE (VIKING)

January 11, 2018

IN HIS latest novel, John Banville picks up where Henry James left off at the close of The Portrait of a Lady (1881).... Read more »

GETAWAYS – RTÉ 1

January 11, 2018

IT BEING January, holiday shows are a TV staple along with the get-fit programmes. RTÉ’s offering is Getaways, produced by Waddell Media, which... Read more »

HERE AND GONE – HAYLEN BECK (HARVILL SECKER)

January 11, 2018

HAYLEN BECK is the pen name of Northern Irish crime writer Stuart Neville, who has been capturing the mean streets of Belfast in... Read more »

MY ASTONISHING SELF – (RTÉ 1)

December 14, 2017

IN recent years, a growing trend is evident towards arts documentaries presented by celebrities rather than unknown (boring) experts – presumably because knowledge... Read more »

OH MY GOD WHAT A COMPLETE AISLING – SARAH BREEN / EMER MCLYSAGHT

December 14, 2017

THE NOVEL Oh My God What A Complete Aisling began life as a Facebook page detailing the travails of the typical country girl... Read more »

THE RED SHOES – GATE THEATRE

December 14, 2017

AS A new era takes hold at the Gate under Selina Cartmell, one thing is clear. Audiences may come to the theatre to... Read more »

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – ABBEY THEATRE

November 30, 2017

VAMPIRES SMELL funny. Or at least they do according to Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, whose bestselling 2004 novel is currently in an... Read more »

he: A NOVEL – JOHN CONNOLLY (HODDER & STOUGHTON)

November 30, 2017

THE “he” of John Connolly’s title is Arthur Stanley Jefferson, born in Lancashire and who went on to become the thin part of... Read more »

FUNNY BUSINESS – ALAN SHATTER (POOLBEG)

November 30, 2017

IT’S EASY to mock Alan Shatter and it’s very hard to like him. This book could well be regarded as his effort to... Read more »

POSTCARDS FROM THE LEDGE – GAIETY THEATRE

November 2, 2017

WHEN THE curtain rises on the latest Ross O’Carroll Kelly play, the ‘Ledge’ stands in front of a tiny derelict house, and describes... Read more »