ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Ireland’s finest female renegade
FIONA O’CONNOR treasures the work of Edna O’Brien for the depth of evocation of psychologies, desires and losses among ordinary lives
AGAINST BRAINWASHING: (L) Magdalen Laundry in Ireland, early 20th century; (R) Edna O’Brien in 2015
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
THE magnificent Edna O’Brien died last week. She was one of Ireland’s most talented writers — perhaps the most gifted female writer to be hounded out of Ireland in the 20th century. The role that London played in her career was integral, as sanctuary and the stimulus for her creative development, although this is rarely mentioned.
Edna O’Brien’s 1962 debut novel, The Country Girls, forever associated her with her country, its natural beauty and sexual repression. She related how it was written in a feverish three weeks on her arrival in London, as a farewell to Ireland.
She described her first impressions: “I had never been outside Ireland and it was November when I arrived in England. I found everything so different, so alien. Waterloo Station was full of people who were nameless, faceless. There were wreaths on the Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday, and I felt bewildered and lost — an outsider.”
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