Album Review: Arise and Go, Stephen James Smith and Enda Reilly, 2011 (on iTunes, on Facebook).
Stephen James Smith- SJS to the scene- is one of the wonderboys of Irish Spoken Word. I first met him at the Electric Picnic in 2007. He made a beeline for me after I had finished a performance on Marty Mulligan’s [...]

From a Rioter

This is for all ye toffee-nosed fuckin sadists out there
callin for rough justice.
Fuck the fuckin lot of ye
down into the ground
is what I say.
Ye’re just dronin the same old crap
as all those bullshit experts
and all those fuckin broadloid hacks
that make their fuckin fortune outta lyin
and ye’re only a fuckin crow chorus
for all the fiddlin [...]

Luca Artioli, Andrea Garbin, Fabio Barcellandi and their translator Dave Lordan will be reading in venues across Ireland as part of a national tour to promote the book Poethree-New Italian Voices (Thauma Edizioni, 2011).
Sat 18th 3.30pm Dublin
…Poetry in Process Conference
Discussion and reading at Mater Dei College,
Mon 20th Dublin
The Glor Sessions
International bar

9pm
Thursday 23 June, [...]

Song for the Minister of Education
…underneath them is swirling confusion
Financial Times 5th oct 2010
a hole a hole a whirlin hole,
frame for you, darkhaloing all
frame for you, darkhaloing all
a hole a hole a whirlin hole,
Ah Minister!
Hierarchical propagator!
Great Tamer of natural wildness!
Play us again
your hymn about targets,
your chant about measures,
your hum about grades and performance
and pluck us [...]

“…more than 11,000 articles were published in over 3,500 publications in 110 countries in the 48 hours surrounding US President Barack Obama’s visit to Ireland.”
from rte.ie
These days, before we eat something, we like to know what it is made of, where it comes from and under what working conditions it was produced. This allows us [...]

1) The fawning and fluttering of the rulers and chatterers of These Island’s over the Queen’s ‘apology’ AS IF SHE WERE SINCERE and AS IF SHE WROTE IT HERSELF shows their amazing capacity to suspend their disbelief as long as they are allowed to be part of the pageant themselves. The Irish ruling class are [...]

MINUTES TO A MASSACRE
Setting:
Meeting Room, South Dublin County Council
Cast:
SEO
45 public servants

SEO: So the horses are counted and double-counted?

45 public servants: Yes Boss.
SEO: And there are 19 horses by each of the counts?
45 public servants: Yes Boss.
SEO: And you’ve got someone in charge of overseeing not giving notice to the owners?
45 public servants: Yes Boss.

CONVERSATION BETWEEN A GARDA SERGEANT AND THE EVER-RUNNING CAMERA
Come down down outta that tree
come down outta that tree
ya gobshite
ya banshee
or we”ll bomb ya
Get off the road
ya hippy scum
Get off the fucking road
the road is for tractors
and tanks
and hummers
or anything with oil in it
but you’ve no fucking oil in ya have ya?
so get off the road
GET [...]

Book Review: Sarah Clancy: Stacey and the Mechanical Bull. Lapwing Press, Belfast 2010.
Sarah Clancy is interviewed by Dave Lordan below
It’s rare enough to go come across a volume of poetry that wouldn’t render you catatonic with boredom, but Sarah Clancy’s isn’t one of those. It pokes you in the eye repeatedly and kicks you in [...]

The Options
All the papers are saying
the Invisible Hand
is on the way back.
Do you remember the last time it came,
not so long ago atall?
It stole your job.
It tried to throw you
out of your home.
It beat up your wife
and your children.
It kept pouring drink
down your brother’s
throat until he choked.
It tied the knot in
your niece’s boyfriend’s
suicide rope.
It smacked [...]