I’ve spent a lot of time this past year talking about guilt, about exile and return, and about mammies, and about the guilt mammies can instil in their offspring when said offspring return from self-imposed exile, which was usually to escape said mammy’s guilt trip in the first place. But I suppose it was to be…

My husband is convinced that there is a website called “wiki-paddy-a,” which I use to prove that my beloved homeland, Ireland, has given the world many great things. Like Halloween, for example, or the discovery of America.

That’s…

When someone says to me that the Irish are natural storytellers, I’m usually really pleased. I’m an Irish writer, and isn’t it the ultimate aim of all writers to tell a cracking story? The writing life is full of rejection and self-doubt. You draw hope and confidence from…

I absolutely loved this short film by Wild Geese member and fellow County Tyrone author, Colin Broderick. 

It's called "Smile," and it's a visual poem set in New York. Lyrical and melancholic, like so much Irish poetry, it is, in the end an uplifting story of transformation and renewal. 

Enjoy!

Caroline …

Two years ago if you asked me what magic realism was I would have confidently told you that it was “a creative device where magic elements appear within an otherwise realistic environment.” I was sure I understood the concept. After all I had read Allende, García Marquez…

When I woke to my first St. Patrick’s Day in Colombia, I grabbed my laptop before I’d even got out of bed and Skyped home. Through the magic of the Internet, I was suddenly transported to my parents’ dining room table. My mother and aunt, resplendent in green, with shamrocks pinned…