Irish Eyes
By
Mattie Lennon
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS ET AL
Many people on our side of the Atlantic feel that they know all about Donald Trump. But don’t get too carried away until you have read Trump Rant by Belfast based author and man of many parts Chris Agee. He is not an outsider looking in when writing about the Donald. The author was born in San Francisco on a US Navy hospital ship and grew up in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. And he points out, “ . . . the book is surely informed by the strange fruit of four decades of experience in Belfast, with all the concurrent lessons about the dangers of violence and rabble-rousing. . . “
Why did he write this book? “Apart from a really visceral hatred of the man himself, one thing is certain, we’re not dealing here with hard politics, the stuff of journalists, politicians, policy-wonks of the sort we hear every morning on the BBC- it’s much more of a psycho-social, cultural portrait of Trumpists and Trumpistan (including their media) as well as, of course, a picture of this strange man’s highly complex temperament and life-psychology . . . “.
Poet Chris Preddle describes this work “Of this Poetry or Prose :take your pick,” (the authors own words) as “ . . . a profusion of of insults and vituperation, what a cornucopia of abuse, reproach, contempt, disgust and political and psychological analysis. What an abundance of inventiveness and unfailing imagination and versatility. I am reminded of the copious imaginative and colourful execration one finds in Shakespeare.” High praise indeed, and well deserved. No matter who you want to see making it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this is the book for you.
Trump Rant cover
Details at: www.irishpages.org
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And staying on the same side of the Atlantic there is another treat in store for you. Ask Not, published by Mudlark and written by investigative journalist Maureen Callaghan will prove to be a shock to many people in Ireland. In the nineteen sixties a picture of JFK was on the wall of nearly every house in Ireland beside that of the pope.
The opening paragraph alone is informative to say the least. “This book is not ideological or partisan. It is about thirteen women and a piece of American history hiding in plain sight. Kennedy men have been valorised and lionised for nearly a century, but the women they’ve broken, tormented, raped, murdered, or left for dead have never really been part of their legacy.”
With concise chapter heading like, Mary Jo Kopechne, Marilyn Monroe and Ted’s Blondies you know that this instant bestseller, which has been described as a Horror story is a revelation.
As one reader put it, “I literally could not put this book down!
I knew the Kennedy men were players but I had no idea to what depth! There's definitely a character flaw in that family.
The book also inspired me to do some further investigation into historical events that have occurred and were discussed in the book.
Great read.”
Ask Not cover
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Listowel 06th Storytelling Festival drew to a close on Sunday September 22nd. It was a fabulous success with storytellers like Sonny Egan.
Sonny Egan
And , The Patrick Kavanagh Society in association with the Patrick Kavanagh Centre are delighted to announce this year’s recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is Simon Costello. He is from Tullamore, Co. Offaly and is currently a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar at University College Dublin. His pamphlet Saturn Devouring was published by The Lifeboat Press in 2024.
Simon Costello
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West Wicklow man James Doyle got a job selling life insurance. Sales were bad for his first week. Then, on Monday the next week he was tipped off that fifty new Irish Army recruits were being passed out that day.
He made his way to the Curragh, got permission to address the squaddies while they were assembled in the induction centre where he gave his sales pitch.
He explained the basics of life insurance Insurance to the new recruits and 100% of them took out life insurance. Perhaps that it was his closing line that did the trick, "If you have Life insurance and go into battle and are killed, the Irish government has to pay €25,000 to your beneficiaries. If you don't have life insurance, and you go into battle and get killed, the government has to pay only a maximum of €1,000. Now," he concluded, "Which group do you think they are going to send into battle first?"
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See you in November/December's Holiday issue December 1, 2024.
Click on the author's byline for bio and list of other works published by Pencil Stubs Online.
This issue appears in the ezine at www.pencilstubs.com and also in the blog www.pencilstubs.net with the capability of adding comments at the latter.
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