After a first visit to the city a friend of Louis MacNeice’s said to him: ‘Dublin? Dublin! There’s no such place. It’s just one enormous pub.’ MacNeice said this about one of his last visits, in June of 1962, for the opening of the Joyce Tower at Sandycove. ‘At a conservative estimate the drinking during my seven days averaged twelve hours a day’.

The opening, by Sylvia Beach, came towards the end of his stay. His drinking companion for much of the time was Dominic Behan. The morning of Bloomsday was spent in Davy Byrne’s and when they emerged, hoping for a seat in one of the two cabs freshly painted in black and yellow, they found them full. The two men loaded a crate of Guinness into a taxi and set off, one of them brandishing a bottle out of the left-hand window, the other waving one out of the right-hand side. At the Martello tower, MacNeice was said to have stationed himself at the entrance to the marquee ‘in easy reach of the passing drink-trays’. Read More...

The impenetrable Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, is about to be reborn and, for Joyceans, the event will stain the white radiance of eternity with its effulgent rays of truth and comprehension.

In terms of Irish literature, it is the greatest publishing event since Joyce's previous masterpiece, Ulysses, appeared in 1922, [and was reborn in 1984]. In the eyes of some, it may even be a greater event. Read More...

Edward Delaney: Irish sculptor who broke the mould

Edward Delaney, who died this week, was one of Ireland's foremost sculptors. He is best known for his large statues of Irish patriots that adorn the capital -- especially Wolfe Tone in Stephen's Green and the Thomas Davis fountain on College Green. Read More...

There's always been a Fringe at Wexford. Part of the genius of Tom Walsh's original concept for classical opera in the town was to create a range of artistic and cultural events to accompany the opera programme, and they run from competitive window displays in the shops on Main Street, to the bewildering number of art exhibitions spread, not only through the town, but way beyond it. Read More...

This new book paints a distorted picture of their life

Declan Foley's collection of essays on Jack Yeats, together with selected letters, is an agreeable omnibus volume with the declared purpose "of introducing Jack B Yeats to a new generation". The letters of the title, mainly from John Butler Yeats to Jack but including early letters which Jack wrote to Sarah Purser, are interspersed through the text. The rest of it consists of essays, very varied in content and quality. Read More...