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Vissionary of Celtic Fusion - Joe O'Donnell

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  Joe O’Donnell Visionary of Celtic Fusion By Kieran Beville Joe O'Donnell In the wide and complicated map of Irish music, where every county likes to claim its heroes and legends, Limerick’s musical exports often stand in sharp relief: the showband-era stalwarts, the early punks, the global pop successes. Yet behind the familiar names lies a figure whose impact is harder to summarise, harder to categorise and therefore easier to overlook. Joe O’Donnell—violinist, composer, arranger, bandleader and fearless sonic explorer—has spent more than fifty years constructing a musical world so distinctive that it exists almost entirely on its own terms. For many listeners, he remains a footnote, a name glimpsed on old vinyl credits or cited by musicians who know just how deep the well runs. But those who have encountered his work, especially his 1977 magnum opus Gaodhal’s Vision, tend to speak of him with a mix of admiration and puzzlement: admiration for his originality; puzzlement...
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The Range and Register of Contemporary Poetic Voices

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  The Range and Register of Contemporary Poetic Voices What an Editor Must Hear Before Choosing What Readers Will Read By Kieran Beville When the American poet Archibald MacLeish declared that “a poem should not mean but be”, he articulated a modernist ideal that has echoed through much of twentieth-century poetry. Yet anyone surveying contemporary poetry today quickly discovers that no single dictum commands universal allegiance. Some poets still pursue the compressed symbolism of modernism. Others return unapologetically to narrative. Some cultivate the speaking voice of conversation while others construct dense linguistic architectures that reward repeated reading. Formal verse has experienced an unexpected revival even as free verse continues to dominate. Performance poetry has reshaped expectations of rhythm and audience. Eco-poetry, documentary poetry and hybrid forms have expanded both subject matter and technique. If there is one defining characteristic of contempor...
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Eric Bibb – Blues Legend

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  Eric Bibb – Blues Legend Brings Music of Hope, Healing and Peace to Dolans By Kieran Beville Eric Bibb A reverential evening in Limerick There are concerts where audiences arrive expecting entertainment and there are others where people gather in search of something deeper. Eric Bibb’s appearance at Dolans Warehouse on Saturday night belonged firmly in the latter category. The atmosphere was unlike that of a typical blues concert. Respectful would be too weak a word. The audience seemed almost reverential, listening with an attentiveness that reflected both the stature of the performer and the spirit of the music. Born in New York in 1951 into a family deeply immersed in the American folk tradition, Bibb grew up surrounded by some of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. His father, Leon Bibb, was a noted folk singer and actor while family friends included Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. After moving to Europe as a young man, Bibb gradually forged his ...
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Why Do I Write?

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  Why Do I Write? By Kieran Beville Every writer is asked this question sooner or later. It usually comes from someone who imagines that writing is a hobby, a pleasant way to pass an afternoon with a cup of coffee and a laptop. I have never found it an easy question to answer because the truth is that I do not really know. I only know that if I stopped writing, something essential would be missing from my life. Writing has never been a career choice. It has never made financial sense. It has often demanded more than it has given. Yet I continue because, after all these years, I cannot imagine living without trying to capture something of the world before it slips away. The world disappears with astonishing speed. Buildings are demolished. Friends die. Conversations vanish into silence. A melody lingers for a moment before fading into memory. Even our own thoughts evaporate almost as quickly as they arrive. Writing is my way of saying, “Wait a moment. Look again. This matter...
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Bloomsday and Ulysses - A Personal Reflection on Joyce's Masterpiece

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  BLOOMSDAY AND ULYSSES  A Personal Reflection on Joyce’s Masterpiece By Kieran Beville Portrait of James Joyce (by Liam O'Neill) Every year on 16 June, Dublin becomes a city inhabited by ghosts. Men in straw hats wander along the quays. Women in Edwardian dress stroll through streets that have long since surrendered to modern traffic and glass-fronted offices. Passages from Ulysses are read aloud in pubs, libraries and public squares. Breakfasts of kidneys are consumed with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Tourists and scholars retrace the footsteps of Leopold Bloom through a city that exists both in reality and in literature. Bloomsday has become one of the most unusual literary celebrations in the world. Yet for all its pageantry and affection, it commemorates something far stranger than most people realise. It honours a novel that many who celebrate it have never finished and a writer who spent much of his adult life in self-imposed exile from the country that now c...
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