Soundcheck before our show at the Belltable tonight (23/10), STRETCHED ON YOUR GRAVE: A TRIBUTE TO SINÉAD O’CONNOR. If any of you are in Limerick at 8pm and at a loose end, call into see us!

limetreebelltable.ie/events/stret...

I am delighted to be one of the panellists on this week's “Talking History” programme on Newstalk Radio. The episode is focused on Orson Welles (including his time at Dublin's Gate Theatre). It will be broadcast this Sunday at 7pm then available afterwards here:

www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

As someone raised in the diaspora and a past member of various bands, 🎸 I’m delighted to see my latest journal article (“Key Preoccupations in the Work of English Rock Artists of Irish Descent”) out in the latest issue of STUDIES: AN IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW!:
www.studiesirishreview.ie/product/key-...

Lovely to speak at the Padraic Colum Gathering in Granard, Co. Longford this morning! A very engaged and welcoming crowd, with deep love for great local writers like Columb, Edgeworth, Goldsmith, etc.!

I'm very excited that my new book, IRELAND IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF C.S. LEWIS, has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan! The book is quite dear (!) but there is a 25% discount going till tomorrow (21/8). Just use the discount code SNB2S25 at the following site:
link.springer.com/book/9783031...

Philo & Leland

“Sanders uses Dublin speech to urge workers to prevail in war with oligarchy”

www.itv.com/news/2025-05...

It's great to see IRISHTOWN, by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, getting such fantastic reviews in New York City! (It's running at the Irish Rep till 25 May, and I really wish I could see it.)

irishrep.org/show/2024-20...

I look forward to reading this book on #WTF by Dr. Claire Keogh!!!

Your regular reminder that info summaries gleaned and “written” by AI are terrible…

Very pleased to announce the appearance of my journal article on the fantastic Co. Clare scriptwriter Ursula Rani Sarma, in the latest issue (Vol. 37) of the Journal of Irish Studies (see pp. 78-84)!!!

Also, keep an eye out for the film that Ursula wrote about Ramla Ali - IN THE SHADOWS (due 2024)!

Delighted to announce that the Keynote Speaker for the "Irish People in Great Britain (1689-Present)" Symposium at Mary Immaculate College on 12/3/23 will be Dr. Sonja Lawrenson of MMU!:

www.mmu.ac.uk/staff/profil...

For the CFP, see attached!

Here's the CFP for the "Irish People in Great Britain (1689-Present)" Symposium that @ciaramoloney.bsky.social and I are organising for March 2024 at Mary Immaculate College. Put in a paper proposal if you have an interest in the Irish Diaspora in GB. (Obviously, thinking of Shane as I post this...)

🎉 The 2-volume essay collection I co-edited with Dr Fiona McDonagh & Dr Justine Nakase, entitled THE GOLDEN THREAD: IRISH WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS, 1716-2016, is now out in paperback!!!

For Vol 1: liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

For Vol 2: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Sam Monaghan did an amazing job playing CS Lewis in THREE ADDRESSES last night at the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine! As adaptor of the script (based on Lewis’s writings*), I was delighted with his performance and the crowd’s enthusiastic response to it!
*© C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Used with permission.

Are you kidding me?!?!?

(From Vol. 14 of the 1888 - that is, the 9th - edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...)

Wow! I was unaware of that song till now. It is certainly not my bag musically, and I found this verse particularly wild/curious. It’s always interesting to see how Ireland and its people are viewed/characterised by other countries…! 😅