Category Archives: Portfolio

AN ULSTER PSYCHE

AN ULSTER PSYCHE

I was shocked by her photographs. How could she dare? As well as projected slides she had a dozen cibachromes on display whose marvellously luminous surface makes the paper itself a fresh lens. It becomes a pool of water in which everything is gently enhanced by the limpid medium. And yet, this pool is pinned to a wall.

I had to leave the room. Such things should not be shown without a warning. Continue reading AN ULSTER PSYCHE

The Ballymurphy Precedent

This documentary looks at the deaths of 11 civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast in 1971 in the context of concerns about handling the legacy of the Troubles.

I was a teenager in the city at the time. My short story ‘The Road‘ in the current New Welsh Reader is set in Belfast in that year.

I’ll be chairing the Q & A session with Director, Callum Macrae at the BACTA Cymru screening, 6pm, Weds 8th August at Chapter Arts Centre.

Fe fydda i’n cadeirio sesiwn Holi ac Ateb BAFTA Cymru gyda’r cyfarwyddwr Callum Macrae ar yr 8fed o Awst am 6 yh yng Nghanolfan Chapter, Caerdydd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAKCVRx14l0

See Victoria Cosstick in  Northern Slant on related documentaries and an acclaimed exhibition.

Stories of the Troubles: Silent Testimony and The Life After

 

Short Story in ‘The Honest Ulsterman’

I am particularly pleased to have my short story ‘Runner’ in The Honest Ulsterman, online on Thursday June 28th. Launched 40 years ago as ‘A Handbook for Revolution’, it has showcased world-class writers such as Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian, Michael Longley, Louis McNeice – an amazing list.

Time to pay a personal tribute. Continue reading Short Story in ‘The Honest Ulsterman’

New Welsh Reader #117 ‘The Road’

A Taster here of my Short story ‘The Road’ featured in New Welsh Reader Summer Issue #117 alongside fiction by Joao Morais, Mihangel Morgan and Anna Vaught.  This is the opening story of my Collection ‘A City Burning’ for which I’m seeking a publisher.

Jon Gower has said of ‘The Road’,  “a fine tale, solar-plexus punching, vivid and filmic and puts the tragedy fully back into the term ‘Troubles.'” Continue reading New Welsh Reader #117 ‘The Road’