Savita Halappanavar and the Doctor’s Plague
Originally published here on Friday 23 November 2012 When my sister was born my mother began to haemorrhage badly and was in danger of bleeding to death. My father and my aunt (a nurse who qualified in England) pleaded with the doctor to carry out a hysterectomy -...
Translation: Notes on Rosa Luxemburg at 150
by Carola Susani (Translation by William Wall) Originally published in Nuovi Argomenti #7 of 2021, Rome. www.nuoviargomenti.net This translation previously appeared in Critical Legal Thinking Simone Weil was fascinated by Rosa Luxemburg, reading her brought her joy....
On poetry, politics and punctuation
This essay was first published on writing.ie 1 Poetry and punctuation Recently a friend took me to task for not punctuating a poem of mine that he otherwise liked. He didn’t see the aesthetic or political argument for it, he told me, although, in declaring it ‘a fine...
On being poet Laureate of Cork and the laureate chapbook
The Temptations of Silence Being Cork Poet Laureate has been a privilege and very much a learning process. When I first took up the position in 2021 I set myself the rule that the poems had to be as accessible as possible. In addition there was the requirement (from...
A Blackbird at Polanesi
and in the evening at Polanesi high above the traffic massed bumper to bumper on the old Via Aurelia which goes all the way back in time to Rome a lonesome blackbird sings his melancholy lovesong to the olive trees the little church the stone...
Ukraine and the West’s Hypocrisy
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine Let me begin by saying there is no excuse for what Russia is doing in Ukraine. There were no grounds for war. There is no justification for invasion. There is no excuse for the bombing of civilians or the destruction of housing stock,...
Tottenham: Neoliberal riots and the possibility of politics
This post has been translated into Portuguese, Turkish, Russian and Croatian. One of the many things that we hear repeated ad nauseam in the context of the present rioting in London is that the rioters are ‘feral’, ‘yobs’, ‘thugs’ or more...
Regeneration is ongoing
Regeneration is Ongoing William Wall This article first appear on Irish Left Review in 2011 The death of Rachel Peavoy in Shangan Flats, Dublin, on the night of January 10th 2011, a bitterly cold night in the coldest winter in living memory, stands in so many ways as...
Water and its Discontents
Water And Its (Dis)Contents Thursday 5 July 2018 15:39 Water and its (Dis)Contents First published in Studi Irlandesi (Forence, Issue no. 5) The watery hazes It’s a foggy morning in Ireland as I begin this essay. The newspapers report weather warnings from the...