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Voices of working-class Ireland
Mike Quille speaks to JENNY FARRELL about Land of the Ever Young the last book in a trilogy of working people’s writing from contemporary Ireland
‘A room without books is like a body without a soul’ - Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43BCE
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CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists
In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Mike Quille: Land of the Ever Young: An Anthology of Working People’s Writing for Children from Contemporary Ireland has just been published. It is the third book in a trilogy of working people’s writing from contemporary Ireland, edited by you. Can you tell us about the background to the project?
Jenny Farrell: When I began work on the first anthology, Children of the Nation, which had been commissioned by Culture Matters, the big question for me was how to reach out to working-class writers. I realised that there had never before been such a collection of working people’s writing in Ireland.
Until recently, I taught modern Irish literature and over the years have observed that students respond far more enthusiastically if they think a poem has something to do with their lives.
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