Broadsides – A collection of bits and pieces
"Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a blog”
Not the most pleasant headline, but this is a true travel story about an experience at a leading British hotel chain during a city break in Liverpool. I travel a bit more now that I am retired, and love nothing more than a short city break, mostly in the UK, but occasionally further afield. I... Continue Reading →
This stunning, dramatic, magnificent portrait, by Ken Currie, hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. It portrays Scotland's principal forensic anthropologist, Professor Dame Sue Black. It is an enormous canvas, 9 feet by 6 feet, which the artist has entitled "The unknown man" It captures Professor Black at the very height of her... Continue Reading →
I wrote this play, in the vernacular of the Nottingham accent, about the fate of British Soldiers from Nottingham and Newark and Derbyshire, who were sent to Ireland in 1916 to crush the Easter Rising. Yet to be performed, so if you know any theatre groups in the East Midlands - drop me a line!... Continue Reading →
Sad to note that the House of the Dead on Ushers Quay in dear old Dublin has now closed and will not be available, this coming Bloomsday (16th June) for the wonderful Joycean dinner hosted by my great friend Brendan Kilty that were such a joy in the years gone by. This is a review... Continue Reading →
Sad to note that the House of the Dead on Ushers Quay in dear old Dublin has now closed and will not be available, this coming Bloomsday (16th June) for the wonderful Joycean dinner hosted by my great friend Brendan Kilty that were such a joy in the years gone by. This is a review... Continue Reading →
Used my bus pass for the first time today. Caught the No: 13 from outside of the Guinness brewery at St. James’s Gate; top deck front seat, out of the liberties through scruffy scruffy, down at heel Thomas Street, out onto the glories of Christchurch and then down the gentle slope of Dame Street in... Continue Reading →
The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, holds a series of coffee morning talks on the paintings on exhibition in the gallery. Such talks are for about 40 minutes, followed by questions and then to coffee for a continuing discussion. This was my talk, on the 22nd June 2016, given before the great canvas (10' x... Continue Reading →
This piece was originally published in "An Cosantoir" (The Defender), edited by Wayne Fitzgerald and appeared in the 1916 -2016 Commemoration issue of March 2016 Who were they and where did they come from, those stern English soldiers, marching now towards the city, marching from Kingstown, marching through the spring Dublin sunshine, into the second... Continue Reading →
If you were to seriously sit down and attempt to adapt Joyce’s Ulysses for the stage then you possibly ought not to do so without being supervised by a consultant psychiatrist. Alternatively you could prepare for such an epic task by ensuring a good supply of whiskey, perhaps a bottle per chapter, a continuous intravenous... Continue Reading →
To the memory of the 31 soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were killed in this and other areas of Dublin during the Easter Rising 1916 -Lest we Forget- (your can read their story here and here) L/Cpl Barks (Newark); Private Barnett (Loughbourgh); Private Blissett (Nottingham); Private Bradford (Alfreton); 2nd Lieut. Browne (Nottingham); L/Cpl... Continue Reading →
Believe me, if you stay in Ireland for any period of time, you will grow to hate Dublin Taxis. To begin with there is simply no consistent method of determining whether an approaching or passing cab is free for hire. True they have oblong, rather tatty illuminated signs lashed to their roofs, but most such... Continue Reading →
She has been gone now for over six years, but still I see her striding through the law library, still hear her infectious raucous laughter, still remember her little, and not so little acts of kindness to new unsure and hesitant barristers making their way in that tough and daunting cauldron of Dublin’s law library.... Continue Reading →
So far as I know there is but one single memento to the role played by the Four Courts during the Easter Rising of 1916. It is a portrait that hangs in the Irish bay of the barrister's Law Library. It is of Charles S. Bevan, the volunteer who helped to relieve the Chancery Place... Continue Reading →
Conscription came in March 1916. By Easter of that year the last of the army's voluntary recruits were coming to the end of their training for the trenches of France. They knew, those young men, of the risks they faced in Flanders; they knew of the casualty lists. But still they volunteered, to fight, be... Continue Reading →
For a dead English soldier it really doesn’t matter whether the foreign field in which you finally rest is in Flanders or in Dublin. At least it shouldn’t. But scattered across Dublin cemeteries lie the forgotten remains of the young men of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were slaughtered on Dublin’s Streets during the... Continue Reading →
Broadsides - A collection of bits and pieces 