oh yeah?

this week’s bit for the andersonstown news on being up a mountain and watching a story about me play out in different ways (and a bunch of men discussing me on facebook)

'the preponderance of northern names led some local wags to label the forthcoming festival the ‘continuity writers’ week''—that's a new one to me

mick clifford in the Irish Examiner today

irishexaminer.com/opinion/commen…

'...his relentlessly radical approach to his artistic life and work would have caused a seismic shift in the culture of any city lucky enough to have him as an inhabitant.'

Lovely tribute to the much-loved and much-missed Ciaran Carson by stephen connolly.

belfastmedia.com/a-carson-tribu…

More power to stephen connolly ❤️
I had an amazing time at Listowel Writer’s Week in May. A beautiful, welcoming town. Sadly witnessed some of the barbs aimed Stephen’s way but was impossible to dispute the job he did, loved every minute of it.

irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

Really good overview of the Listowel situation here. Well done to stephen connolly for weathering this, I'm sorry he won't be there next year.

Stephen O'Neill & stephen connolly in today's Irish Times

‘It was an oppressive atmosphere’: curator of Kerry festival departs amid rancour - Stephen Connolly says he experienced hostility and anti-Northern bias from people angry at changes to Listowel Writers’ Festival. He talks to Deirdre Falvey

irishtimes.com/culture/books/…

I owe stephen connolly an apology. He dealt with my online cussedness with good humour, and he also brought together a wide-ranging and rich programme for Listowel Writers' Week this summer. Looking over it, there's no sense it was geared towards 'northern' writers.

The writers weekend at Listowel was one of the best weekends of my life, it came at the end of a run of BAFTA, Oscar and IFTA wins for our short film An Irish Goodbye. Being Irish/Northern Irish in London, LA and Dublin are three different experiences.

i have played this part of an email over and over in my head for a couple of months (i got it after suggesting that i could get some friends to help move chairs if there weren’t enough volunteers at the last minute)

‘could they not have got anyone Irish to do it?’

the vast majority of people at Listowel Writers Week were brilliant, a glorious town, but i saw firsthand how Stephen was treated, both by certain elements in the town, and by festival organisers, and it was a disgrace

i’m starting to feel like i can talk about what happened in listowel

irishpost.com/comment/when-l…

Thank you stephen connolly 🙏🏻

i wrote a little bit about arriving into (and departing from) north kerry this year (and also mushroom poems)

belfastmedia.com/stephen-connol…

world champion messer

my years in @noalibisbooks shifting chairs came in handy: here are some chairs i curated in the plaza today