Hello all!
I'm a writer from Dublin and I mainly write very long short stories. Decided to sing up as my poor wife has had a snotful of reading and re-reading my work which may be grounds for divorce. (I got lucky, she's a pretty insightful critic.)
Any other Irish folk on here?
Howaya! trans. How are you? Dublin slang
Welcome to LitReactor, enjoy your stay :)
Hi.
I've been to Dublin a few times and love the place. I've been thinking of going to the Cork festival in September. Have you ever been?
Welcome! Not sure if it counts, but my grandmother was first generation American-born Irish.
Speaking of Dublin, did you read the article Trevor White wrote recently in The Irish Times about "Why nobody really loves Dublin"? It was interesting; just wondered what you thought of it?
Anyway, have fun here. There are great folks on the site. Cheers!
Welcome!
I went on a little road trip around Ireland and NI last year and stayed in Dublin for a few days. Don't know if our timing was bad, but it was insanely busy, like a perpetual street fest. Belfast seemed post-apocalyptic in comparison. Had some amazing tapas though.
@justwords, I tried to find the article and this is as close as I got. Do you have a link or is that the right one?
@Linda- your link is to the original story; I was quoting from a weekly American magazine, The Week, that gives a little synopsis on the best columns from that week in Europe, the US, Asia etc., and they editorialized it somewhat. I'll get that link for you if you're still interested. It was the March 28 edition.
I've not been to Belfast; didn't have enough time when we went to Ireland to do the whole country. We flew into Shannon airport and stayed all along the coast in bed-n-breakfasts and small inns for a little over two weeks, and ended up in Dublin at the Merrion for a few days and then flew home. We had great food everywhere! I love fresh seafood. We had a great time.
Hi all!
@Bruno Hat Which festival are you referring to? There's a great literary festival held in July in West Cork, but September in Cork has a lot of amazing things going on. And it's a great city, I'm sure you would have a ball there, no matter what time of year.
@Justwords Thanks for pointing out that article, I had missed it. Honestly, it's pretty offensive and a sad recycling of the Dublin v Rest of Ireland crap that should best be avoided. There are some quite archiac historical references to a colonist mentality that seperates Dublin peope from Ireland. So many articles have been written about the search for "authentic" Irishness without conlcusion There are many ways of being Irish, Irish people live in the Gaeltacht, work the land, and drink lattes in Starbucks before heading to the latest hipster restaurant in Dublin (I am a little distressed about the Starbucks invasion, though independent coffee shops are popping up every where ). All these people are Irish. There is a great reply to the piece here: http://lovindublin.com/dublin/dublin-cool-tool/
@Linda Completely understand your percepttions of the two cities. I'm just back frrom a weekend in Belfast and the group found it strangely quiet on a Saturday night (this may have been the area we were in.) Certain areas in Dublin arre thronged with people on weekend nights, it does look a little like a street party. Especially around Camdem street/Temple Bar, though the latter resembles a zoo sometimes.
@justwords, if it's available online I can hunt around for a bit and see if I can find it. Galway is as far south as we went, but from there and up the whole east coast was unbelievably beautiful.
@Diddly, my friend was (and remains) a huge fan of Temple Bar. We had to drag her away from there at four in the morning to drive out to the airport. The Foo Fighters were in Belfast the weekend we got there and there wasn't a bed available the night they were playing, so unfortunately we never got a chance to experience the night life. But just judging by the daytime activity I can easily believe it would be on the quiet side.
@Diddly, thanks for the reply. I was just interested in what you thought; I didn't mean to imply anything with the reference. I'd love to go back and stay longer. I think it's a beautiful country, and all the people were so friendly -- we had such a good time! Maybe next time I can make it up to the Northern part.
Have you published any of your stories in a collection?
@Linda, we actually got pretty far up the west coast. We visited the Aran Islands, which geographically is more rugged and wild. Everyone there it seemed spoke Gaelic; we had rented a car and a lot of the signs were in Gaelic, which was a little difficult for us to translate. There were a lot more stone walls around the homes. Dun Angess (I might have spelled that wrong) was impressive; sheer drop on one side, and the slope up to the "fort" part had stone spikes all round it to keep it protected from enemy horsemen. It's awesome to think people lived there over 4000 years ago.
I'll get that link for you; I've been a little preoccupied trying to get my tax information ready for the IRS deadline of April 15.
@Justwords Sorry, didn't mean to imply that I was offended by the link, very happy that you pointed the article out. A lot of people are quite angry about it over here, but then the Irish times does enjoy publishing rag journalism to increase its traffic. The amount of opinion pieces they give to ultra-conservative Catholic mouthpieces is unreal. (I do understand that editorial balance is required, but there are only so many times that the same anti-gay marriage-think-of-the-children article can be published.) You should come back it's a great spot. Published a very short piece in Word Riot, which then made it into an anthology. Nothing else :(
^ Well, I'm sure we'll be seeing your name in print again soon!
And I'm a fallen-away/lapsed Catholic; had a lot of problems w/Church when I went to college (me and my sister went to parochial schools in the South; there was some prejudice here against Catholics when we were children). About the gay thing: my sweet, dear sister stayed in the closet for the longest because she was a single parent & would lose custody of her son in our state if she didn't, so. Her son's a great guy now and I am and know she would be proud of him (she died of breast cancer 5 years ago). I hope Ireland can gather its good people and resources and be the great country I think it can be; I'll be cheering for her, anyway!
Cheers! and Slainte! (didn't spell that right and no accents, but heart's in right place!)
