The Accidental Wife by Orla McAlinden Orla McAlinden is from Portadown in the Irish Occupied Six Counties (OSC), although she refers to it as Northern Ireland. This is apparently her first book. It shows. McAlinden received something called the Eludia Award, given out ‘for a first book-length unpublished novel or collection of stories by a […]
A band from a wasted youth… oh so long ago…
Sultans of Ping FC from Cork in Ireland. Punk didn’t die with the demise of the Sex Pistols. There’s a great guitar intro in this, and incredibly idiotic lyrics.
Dun Day I sat upon an Autumn day, where brown envelops green and thought on clouds, both white and grey that reflected then my dreams. But answers, still elusive, swayed in secret through my mind, with hollow sound in echoes played to cast a beat behind. So stranded then, in mottled glar ‘neath […]
Time’s Insidious Dreams Tick…tock… Bump… bump… I touch the walls to feel them stretch and give. I sense the muffled sounds, the rhythmic thump, thump, around, all around. Here I am. Now I am…able…to hear. Tick…tock… To sway. To stumble. To fall. Not far. Tenaciously tearing at cushions. Calling for more. Shouting no. […]
Despair ye who dare, for the subjugated majority who have lost their national self-respect, who would yet grovel to feed and fuel the low self-esteem of the Irish people. …yet a flame of patriotism burns fiercely, a torch carried doggedly by the few who know; the few with the confidence of an unbeaten minority; the […]
This punk offering from Belfast band SLF encapsulates the anger of the young of the Occupied Six Counties at the circumstances foisted upon them. The lyrics may not suit everyone there, but there’s no denying the energy in their delivery. Note: Stiff Little Fingers were referenced in the John Cusack film, High Fidelity, also starring […]
The following letter was received recently by Rebel Voice, and is from a submission by a supporter that was sent to the Nationalist, and Catholic-led, daily newspaper, The Irish News. The paper is the largest selling such publication in the Occupied Six Counties of Ireland. It has consistently adopted a pro-Israeli position in its editorial […]
The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien Edna O’Brien is widely regarded as the doyen of Irish female novelists. She is a writer of some standing in literary circles upon the island. I must confess that this is the first of her novels I have read (it is also her first novel). I don’t intend for […]
This piece of verse comments upon the major occurrences of the poet’s life. It moves in a cryptic manner through global events coming to rest upon the tragedies that marked his life more fully than the others. “The Ten” refers to the Irish hunger strikers who were martyred in the H-block protests of 1981. […]
Institutional I spied the dais on which he stood so hued in elevation, Dispensing words upon the meek, there bowed in supplication And thought of what that platform meant, though slyly did it stay, Propelling up loquacious threats of pain on Judgement Day. His head threw back in confidence, he sought to educate […]
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