Reviews Archives

Reviews

THE WARRIOR’S CODE – JACKIE TYRRELL (TRINITY MIRROR)

November 2, 2017

JACKIE TYRRELL is selfish. That’s not Goldhawk’s assessment, it’s Tyrrell’s own. On no fewer than 12 occasions in his new autobiography does he... Read more »

Roddy Doyle’s ‘Smile’

November 2, 2017

THROUGHOUT his successful writing career, Roddy Doyle has been associated mostly with candid depictions of Irish family life, energetic prose and vernacular dialogue.... Read more »

DUBLIN THEATRE FESTIVAL

October 19, 2017

AS THE 60th Dublin Theatre Festival concluded last weekend, a major hit to get all the luvvies talking had yet to surface. But... Read more »

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER – DIRECTED BY YORGOS LANTHIMOS

October 19, 2017

THERE ARE many things that may justify a release being called an Irish film. Being filmed in Cincinnati is probably not one of... Read more »

DUBLIN THEATRE FESTIVAL

October 5, 2017

AT 60, Dublin Theatre Festival is the grand dame of Ireland’s cultural calendar. But punters can be forgiven for scratching their heads over... Read more »

MIDWINTER BREAK – BERNARD MacLAVERTY (JONATHAN CAPE)

October 5, 2017

KNOWN MAINLY for his skillfully crafted short stories, Bernard MacLaverty’s first novel since 2001 takes place over four days of sightseeing in a... Read more »

GERRY ADAMS: AN UNAUTHORISED LIFE – MALACHI O’DOHERTY (FABER AND FABER)

September 21, 2017

LIKE him or loath him – as Malachi O’Doherty repeatedly intones – Gerry Adams is a colossus in modern Irish politics. He steered... Read more »

THIS FAMILY OF THINGS – ALISON JAMESON (DOUBLEDAY IRELAND)

September 21, 2017

SET IN Ireland and America, the story revolves around the Keegan family, a brother and two sisters who are landowners in a remote... Read more »

MOON DOGS – DIRECTED BY PHILLIP JOHN

September 21, 2017

MUCH-HYPED as a possible breakthrough for hotly tipped young Irish actress Tara Lee, Phillip John’s Scottish-set, comic drama Moon Dogs is unfortunately something... Read more »

THE DRUMMER AND THE KEEPER – Directed by Nick Kelly

September 21, 2017

As a sensitive and nuanced depiction of mental health problems and developmental disorders, Nick Kelly’s debut feature, The Drummer And The Keeper, does... Read more »

SCHEDULES WAR – RTÉ v TV3

September 7, 2017

OUTDATED IDEAS, over-familiar faces and second-hand formats dominate the autumn schedules recently unveiled by RTÉ television and TV3. A shortage of fresh thinking... Read more »

MARRIED QUARTERS – SHANE CONNAUGHTON (DOUBLEDAY IRELAND)

September 7, 2017

SET IN the fictional border town of Butlershill, this sequel to Connaughton’s 1989 short story collection, A Border Station, offers a revealing portrait... Read more »

The Mooney Show

August 24, 2017

DEREK MOONEY and Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh are natural born fillers. All broadcasting involves a degree of waffle but both of these second-string RTÉ... Read more »

Love in Row 27

August 24, 2017

Eithne Shorthall – (Corvus) THIS DEBUT novel by the arts correspondent with the Sunday Times centres around Cora Hendricks, a Heathrow check-in attendant... Read more »

GAA Coverage

August 24, 2017

RTÉ v SKY SPORTS FOLLOWING Waterford’s epic win over Kilkenny in the hurling championship in July, RTÉ pundit Michael Duignan indulged in a... Read more »

SOLAR BONES – MIKE McCORMACK (CANONGATE)

August 10, 2017

LONGLISTED LAST month for the 2017 Man Booker Prize (along with Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End), Mike McCormack’s experimental novel tells the story... Read more »

CRESTFALL – PEACOCK THEATRE

August 10, 2017

Siobhan Cullen YOU CAN’T accuse the Abbey’s new directors of being cautious. It takes nerve to stage the most vulgar, violent and crudely... Read more »

KEN EARLY POLITICAL PODCAST – SECOND CAPTAINS WORLD SERVICE

August 10, 2017

Ken Early WHEN THE Second Captains sports team left The Irish Times stable of podcasts to strike out with their own Second Captains... Read more »

THE BLOOD MIRACLES – LISA McINERNEY (JOHN MURRAY)

July 27, 2017

THE FOLLOW-UP to Lisa McInerney’s award-winning 2015 debut, The Glorious Heresies, returns to the adventurous life of Ryan Cusack. The 20-year-old “mid-ladder dealer”... Read more »

PILGRIMAGE – DIRECTED BY BRENDAN MULDOWNEY

July 27, 2017

THE MEDIEVAL thriller Pilgrimageí opens with a scene that could be read as a metaphor for the cinemagoer who frequents Irish films, as... Read more »

All sizzle, no steak at the Gate

July 27, 2017

FEW SHOWS in Irish theatre have prompted as much anticipation as Gatsby at the Gate. The story of the 1920s millionaire playboy in... 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,... Read more »

ROOM – ABBEY THEATRE

July 13, 2017

NEARLY a decade on, Emma O’Donoghue’s breakthrough story keeps on giving. It was only a matter of time before Jack and Ma, and... Read more »

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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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,... 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... 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... 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... 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,... 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... Read more »