Stone can only offer you its stillness, The fact of its materiality. Its quiet unobtrusive existence that just is. It will never clamour for your attention. It could never hope to gain it anyway, competing with the hyper-stimulating technological landscape in which we dwell. As an artform scultpture has none of the bells and whistles … Read more
They turned up at the door dressed all in black, from their baseball caps and bomber jackets down to their DM boots, and they hustled in like hitmen or bouncers, or bailiffs, or the Old Bill or some kind of security syndicate, shifting on their feet, in uniform, black-gloved hands bearing black briefcases. One of … Read more
Mary Beatrice Midgley was a giant among philosophers, though she only published the first of her nineteen books at the age of fifty-nine, a feat which is unfathomable today in more than one respect. That anyone could start so late and produce so much, and so vibrantly (she produced in addition over two-hundred-and-eighty articles) is close to miraculous … Read more
Part I You know your father used to go to school next to the Casino at Marino, him and his friends would play around it. For years I would ignore my dad’s connection with the Casino, it was too incongruous a pairing to stick. Two histories known to one site but held discordant in my mind … Read more
It is a river vast, both wide and deep that corrals out joy and sadness; lulls to sleep the fretful child, and transforms the darkest landscape of a man depressed into a golden glowing cape. It is not just the spice of life, but our very life blood, perhaps the central issue in human and … Read more
It was around this time last year that I had arrived back to Dublin after a short trip to Brazil. Prior to embarking on this adventure, I had finally completed my Master’s thesis, which discussed the stylistic development of Western Classical music in Japan. The third chapter focused on the post-war era of the country, … Read more
The Cassandra Voices musician of the month for September, Louise O’Connor, explores what makes a trad session so special. I recently attended a large music festival in England where a trad session took over the night in a small fire-lit tent. There were Irish tunes, Scottish tunes, English tunes and a few Appalachian ones for … Read more
It is difficult to speak of abstract forces without personalising them, or investing them, magically, with consciousness and will. When we (by this I mean you; I never do this) refer to the markets as ‘growing jittery’, or ‘recovering’, we (you) indulge in the same thinking that saw maidens being sacrificed to appease volcano gods. … Read more
Storrington Place of storks and green- clad chalk. Are the Gypsies still perched on ‘The Warren’? Camargue Flamingo heaven, white horses, black madonna. Heart’s grey forgiven. Camargue Red dust on the shoes of Gaditans carrying Sara-la-Kali. Storrington At the age of eight: the camp fire by their wagon shed heavenly light. Jamie McKendrick was … Read more
A cormorant dives to feed, then perches, its wings spread to dry. There are fish, there is a break in the clouds. A freighter embarks, laden with necessary goods, including toys, much as a researcher presents his findings. This world is henceforth one in which these things have taken place, and the gates that would … Read more