Category: General

An Immodest Announcement

Anime, Animus, Anima
Cover of my new book

Well, it’s happened. My new book is out, published by the UK-based poetry publisher Shearsman Books. I’m quite excited about it. Being an artist and book artist, I usually produce my own books in different sizes and shapes. This time someone else is doing it, which helps enormously. I’ll be giving a reading in London on April 20, which is also a thrill. You’re all so far flung that I doubt that I’ll see any bloggers there, but it would be a delight. Some day I’d like to put real faces to the many words that have been tumbling out in cyberspace, here and at the Site that Must Remain Nameless. Info at the reading can be found at http://www.shearsman.com/pages/editorial/readings.html

The poetry is not at all like what I usually post at the Site that Will Remain Unnamed. I think that’s supposed to be a warning. There’s a description (sort of) on the site at Shearsman and there’s another on Amazon.

Enough of this brazen self promotion!

Sinead O’Connor and the Catholic Church

I saw Sinead O’Connor being interviewed on a chat show here on Friday night. I’ve always liked Sinead. She is an extraordinary singer (see clip below) but a maverick who would not play the celebrity game; hence she has had far less commercial success than she could have had.

She has always been painfully honest, intense and vulnerable. When she speaks out on something it is because she feels it and she cares, and she knows whereof she speaks … she is the antithesis of the vacuous rock star dabbling in ‘causes’. She is loved by many in Ireland; I don’t doubt that many despise her too. Continue reading “Sinead O’Connor and the Catholic Church”

Julius Malema, the Hutu and Eugene Terre Blanche

For those of you who do not know, Julius Malema is the 29 year old firebrand president of the ANC Youth League here in South Africa. The son of a domestic worker – a single parent – in the Limpopo province, he became politically active while in his early teens, since when his rise to prominence within the ranks of the ruling party has been swift.

Malema is renowned for speaking his mind and rallying the South African youth behind the leadership of the party. He steadfastly backed Zuma in the power struggle with Mbeki pinning his colours to the mast of popularism over intellectualism.

That he is corrupt both politically and financially is beyond a shadow of a doubt. Ostensibly he earns a modest political salary, but his position within the party has enabled him to win provincial contracts for companies which he owns and on which he serves as director. Thus his lifestyle is as lavish as any African tin-pot dictator, a role he seems increasingly anxious to fill. Continue reading “Julius Malema, the Hutu and Eugene Terre Blanche”

altar boy

As an altar server, Easter was a busy time for me. Particularly so given one of our priests had delusions of grandeur. To some extent, his ambitions were thwarted because church was built when our town was still a village and was of limited capacity. Easter is one of those times when all those Catholics who have fallen by the wayside briefly rediscover their faith and pile into the front pews at their local adopting a suitably pious expression. I may have only been twelve, but I had them sussed.

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On This Day – 3rd April 1042

Coronation Edward the Confessor

On the 3rd of April 1042 Edward the Confessor was crowned in Winchester.

Edward was born in about 1003. He was the oldest son of Ethelred II (The Unready) and his second wife, Emma sister of Richard II of Normandy.  Ethelred’s name means ‘well advised’, while the epithet ‘Unready’ meant exactly the opposite –  ‘ill advised’.

Continue reading “On This Day – 3rd April 1042”

Bling up your dead

You’ve probably read in one of the national rags that it’s tomb sweeping festival this weekend. Time to get the diesel generator out the garage and wheel it down to the local graveyard first thing in the morning along with the high pressure hose you bought for cleaning the lawn furniture. Best to beat the crowds; rest assured, it’s going to get busy down at the cemetery this weekend.
Continue reading “Bling up your dead”