I grew up in North Belfast, close to a fairy fort, though I didn’t realise it at the time. Beyond The Troubles, the violence and the social upheaval. This significant memory, a sighting, of a wee fairy man, still caught in the memory, like a gentle spider’s web. As processed by a six year […]
Politics-free Zone
As I’ve said in the main section, I’d like to use this part of the site for stuff that’s not got a political bent – more concerned with creative writing. I’ll put up stuff of my own from time to time and invite comment. If you’re interested in giving something you’ve written – non-political, remember, or at least with creativity the main element – then by all means put it up and let’s have a bit of discussion around it. I know people feel tentative about exposing creative stuff, especially if you haven’t done much of it yet, but believe me, it’s the only way. An un-audienced piece makes the sound of one hand clapping…
PATIENCE AND AGE by Harry McAvinchey
Patience. That’s the thing . If you were to ask what benefits Old Age brings, that would be my current answer. It’s not that I feel remotely old, you understand …but…The thing is that time moves so quickly from the moment I arise in the morning and flies by throughout the day that it sometimes […]
PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF EVERYTHING by Harry McAvinchey
People are afraid of everything.The fear stops them from doing all sorts of new things that they might fail at. People might make fun of their useless efforts. There’d be hoots of unholy belly laughs at their efforts to make a chair, write the great novel, learn to play an instrument or put up a […]
HOW THE HIPPIES MADE NATIONALITY AN IRRELEVANCE by Harry McAvinchey
It’s a curious turn of events but it is nonetheless very real . The reason you are reading this at all is in large part the result of a bunch of hippies in the 1960s .These words on that little electronic screen are their legacy. I suppose if you are young enough to have […]
Gerard Cappa review: ‘The Black-eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel’ by Benjamin Black
I was determined to enjoy this from the moment I heard about it. John Banville has been my favourite living writer since the 80’s, when my reading diet was almost completely restricted to an Irish menu, and before I got the noir bug. Then, when I converted to noir as an eager disciple, Chandler was […]
NO MORE HEROES ? by Harry McAvinchey
I’ve been able to see most of my musical heroes…well except the ones who’d already left this mortal coil before I realised they’d be worth the watching. I’d love to have seen Billie Holliday or Duke Ellington for instance and I missed the Beatles because they decided to quit touring in my teenage years and […]
A NOSFERATU FOR THE NEW AGE by Harry McAvinchey
My late mother would have called Jimmy Savile “an odd crature”. Even back in the the day when “Wee Mick” and the rest of the Stones would have been on Top of the Pops around 1964/1965. She always loved the excitement we all shared with the craziness of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones social, […]
THE DARK ANGEL OF ANTRIM by Randall Stephen Hall
There is, in Antrim town The dark imprint of an angel. A dusky silhouette On a gable wall. And yet, I’m left to wonder . . . Yonder, at the wall So tall, this dark stain. The evidence of such a presence In this local town. Lounging by the Six Mile […]
THE GARDEN by Harry McAvinchey
I love this. Bending down on my hunkers picking a few strawberries and raspberries for the porridge bowl. This time of year. June. This time of morning too .That wide-open stillness. Not too much background noise. The birds fighting and yippering in the bushes. Nagging each other.I noticed two young thrushes yesterday fighting over […]
AFTER THE STORM by Harry McAvinchey
It is a curiousity how the brain edits the electrical storm that crosses the many floors of the mind. Lightning flashing while synapses blast and turmoil , ripping changes across dimensions and oceans of shardy, tarnished memories. I’m in a bar sometime in the late 1950s or possibly the very first or second year […]