The May issue of the Irish online ‘smorgasbord of insightful comment, artistic expression and delightful imagery’ is out now.
What can we expect?
‘Cassandra’ writes:
We lead with an insider account of the fashion industry, written by a model operating under anonymity in an industry that sells fake dreams.
Bob Quinn provides another rollicking tale as he recalls a visit to Libya in 1988 at the behest of Muammar Ghaddafi, who wanted him to write a biography.
Is it possible that going Sail and Rail between London and Dublin could one day be as fast as taking an airplane? Ruadhan MacEoin explores the possibilities, and takes the trip with his bicycle:
With Catalan politicians facing twenty years in jail for staging a peaceful referendum, the conduct of the Spanish judiciary is beginning to resemble the Grand Inquisitor, a character from Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, according to Frank Armstrong.
Writer and activist Bruna Kadletz visits a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, reeling from cuts to funding by the Trump administration.
David Langwallner examines the ambit of Freedom of Speech, ‘a search engine for the truth,’ which should not become a Trojan horse for indiscriminate advertising in the Facebook Age:
“Mitterand consumed the plucked bird whole in a sauce of Armagnac, crunching its little bones between his teeth beneath a white cloth – so that God Himself could not witness the barbarity”, Frank Armstrong traces the origins of gluttony, gastronomy and French cuisine.
“The Irish people will keep speaking English and their English-speaking officials will keep telling them to speak Irish – plus ca change – mar a déarfá.” Donal Flynn investigates the cost of the state’s failed Irish language policy.
‘Cassandra’s Roundabout’ is our take on the Dublin cultural scene and beyond, with the odd acerbic note, featuring Se Merry Doyle, Myles O’Reilly, Rhob Cunningham, Bartholomew Ryan, the Loafing Heroes, Anna-Mieke Bishop and Branwen Kavanagh.
From New Orleans to Wicklow, our literary editor Ilsa Monique Carter is ‘an émigré from the hoi omphaloi of confusion and strife.’
From the United States we have another bulletin on U.S. Politics from Bull Moose: and Nancy Harding tells us how she got on The Wrong End of Gun Karma, while Harry Tabony lays bare ‘White American Pathology.’
Fergus Armstrong offers a touching and hilarious account of his flamboyant but dissolute uncle Byran, the kind of maverick relation found in many Irish families.
Another new feature this month’s is Cassandra Classics, this month we have Shirley Jackson’s startling 1948 short story ‘The Lottery.’
Fiction comes from the aptly-maned Louis de la Foret. with poetry from editor Edward Clarke as well as Bartholomew Ryan’s ‘Forest’:
And our Musician of the Month is Paul Gilgunn and Artist of the Month is Jota Castro
In fairness.
If you wish to contribute to Cassandra’s cause you can do so via their Patreon Account
The piece on bringing a bike via sail/ rail to London is good. I’ve done it and the hardest bit, as he says, is cycling to the ferryport in Dublin. I’ve also, on quite a few occasions, cycled to the airport, and that’s much, much easier. It’s nice knowing the bike is there waiting when you get back and none of the drama of trying to get on a slow, overcrowded bus.
That’s an interesting read. Good catch there, Stan!