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Apprentice
by Frankie Quinn
ALEX HALL welcomes a book about Gaza that recognises how imperial capitalism defines groups of people by their non-existence
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes challenging insights and thought-provoking criticisms of a number of widely accepted assumptions on the left
JAN WOOLF finds out where she came from and where she’s going amid Pete Townshend’s tribute to 1970s youth culture
MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play
MARJORIE MAYO, JOHN GREEN and MARIA DUARTE review Sudan, Remember Us, From Hilde, With Love, The Road to Patagonia, and F1
MARIA DUARTE recommends the very human portrayal of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist in Putin’s Russia
I stood and watched him hit the nail
Each strike precise as a marksman’s shot,
He’d take my hand, his rough leathery skin
Guide my trembling fingers.
He’d drum, drum, drum along a stud wall,
Hearing changing note he’d nod
I’d drive the nail home.
I’d smile, he’d say:
Carry on now.
I’d never master that sound.
He was like a harpist tuning fine strings,
His ear caught every note
While I stood driving nails in air.
These days, his thumb nails blackened,
His fingers tremble holding a delft cup.
Frankie Quinn is a former political prisoner who served 14 years in the H Blocks and other prisons. He now runs an ex-prisoners’ centre in Dungannon Co Tyrone. Apprentice is taken from his collection Open Gates (Colmcille Press, 2021).
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