One man’s field is another man’s prison. My father died from heart complications, at the age of 52 in Belfast, 1981. He was an architect and a Civil Servant. He was born in Milford, Co. Donegal, a distant field. His father was born in Newry, another field. His father, my great grandfather, was born […]
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…
‘Windmills at Slemish’ by Randall Stephen Hall
In this wee series of articles, generated by the current “Flag Issue” in Belfast, I thought I would include some poems from 1998, roughly the same period when I presented my flag idea, “The Talking Flag”, to the City fathers. These poems are as relevant today as the flag design. All things are possible. […]
‘Dead Badger’ by Randall Stephen Hall
“Dead Badger” was the first poem in a collection I called Dam Bursting from 1998 ©. My first trip to The Gothenburg Irish Festival, in 1997, resulted in a rush of poetry, shortly after returning home to Northern Ireland. These 14 poems written in a concentrated period of two weeks, enabled me to focus on […]
PULLING BELFAST INTO HEAVEN’S ORBIT by Harry McAvinchey
There are a couple of storms swirling at opposite ends of the Irish teakettle at present. On the one hand there is the anniversary of the 1916 Rising in Dublin coming up with the fear that Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Harry might be invited to get on down and enjoy the undoubted craic but might […]
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION by Patrick Joseph Dorrian
Pictures at an exhibition (apologies to Mussorgsky) The building is a Carnegie Gift relic, a cherished community facility, the Falls Road Library shows not only books but art and other local history. So that’s where I found myself, on a wet afternoon wandering in, in wet foot steps, trailing to the notice boards, showing […]
‘Has Haass been?’ – by Randall Stephen Hall
This wee poem is a bit of a ranting ramble. But I’m sure it reflects how many of us feel here in Northern Ireland with regard to Richard Haass and his recent attempts to help us resolve our past, how to give voice to the many silent victims of the Troubles and our insatiable love […]
KEVIN by Harry McAvinchey
The old saw , …what cannot be cured, love, must be endured…. …is a life lesson I suppose. We are , I am sure, all products of a sea lapping away at our bones …wearing our sharp edges smoother through time. We are at core the same but not an atom of our beginning , […]
‘Prod’ by Randall Stephen Hall
Taken from the “Citizen Ship” blog. Belfast 2013. Nos 25. This wee poem appeared originally on my own Citizen Ship blog in 2013. I’m trying to work with the very “otherness” of the squat, industrial label of “Prod”. As un-seeing a term as “Taig”. Reducing the individual to the grey shape of a wood louse, a slater, walkingacross your […]
‘On the Table’ by Randall Stephen Hall
On the Table. By Randall Stephen Hall. draft 5.4.11. Typed 21.7.11 Written just up above Breeze Mount/ Mallusk. Co.Antrim. Standing by a gate. Link for audio file from the “Hugh Midden Speaks” collection. https://soundcloud.com/hugh-midden-speaks/on-the-table-6-5-12 Some people miss out. Miss out the starters The main course The meat and potatoes. Turn up […]
Morphine’s a bugger! by Harry McAvinchey
Morphine was a bugger! ….My uncle ‘s tipple of choice had been a good full-bodied red wine or a G and T …maybe a wee “toddy” on a cold evening. He loved that. He introduced me to those same pleasures when I was a teenager back in the 1960s .This morphine , though,was […]