The lonely city in The Visitor by Maeve Brennan

About halfway through Maeve Brennan’s novella The Visitor, the author comments on the two worlds that exist within the landscape of a city. She distinguishes these two worlds by describing them as, the one with walls around it, meaning the private interior world of the home, and the one with people around it, which is the public...

Maeve Brennan: Ireland’s greatest forgotten writer

“Home is a place in the mind. When it is empty it frets. It is fretful with memory, faces and places and times gone by. Beloved images rise up in disobedience and make a mirror for emptiness."   The above quote is from Maeve Brennan's novella The Visitor and was my first introduction to her. I discovered...

Homelessness and life on the periphery in Parked

In 2011, an independent Irish film entitled Parked debuted to somewhat mixed reviews and little attention. While many critics praised the strong performances in the film, its plot and pacing received a mixed response. It won awards and was well-reviewed at several international film festivals, but it didn't seem to get much attention at home. Overall the...

A look at youth culture in Irish film and television: 2003-2017

In 2016-17, I completed an MA in English, specialising in Irish Writing and Film, at University College Cork. As part of the course, everyone in my class was required to set up and regularly update a blog. The idea of the blog initially filled my classmates and me with dread, as blogging was completely uncharted territory for...

Five Daughters and Murdered By My Boyfriend: Giving a human face to the victims of crime

The following article looks at two BBC productions that recounted true incidents of violence against women. The three-part drama Five Daughters aired on BBC One in April 2010. Written by Stephen Butchard, the mini-series revolves around the Ipswich serial killer case, when Steve Wright murdered five young women during the winter of 2006. The BAFTA...