This is a short but fascinating book. Written in 1992 it details the growth of hard-line right-wing religious individuals and organisations and their efforts to keep Ireland Catholic. I’ll admit that the blurb sounds fairly conspiracy theory “Probes the shadowy world of the right-wing forces that plotted the 1983 referendum on abortion and the 1992 […]
The tactics, and at times, the sheer genius, of the conservative lobby came most sharply into focus during the 1986 divorce referendum. Here was an issue that which was not as clear-cut as abortion. … the tactics used were those of the marketing guru. Points of psychological vulnerability were isolated and played upon. The fear […]
Fifteen years ago, Susan Morrow left her first husband Edward Sheffield, an unpublished writer. Now, she’s enduring middle class suburbia as a doctor’s wife, when out of the blue she receives a package containing the manuscript of her ex-husband’s first novel. He writes asking her to read the book; she was always his best critic, […]
I’m dipping in and out of Kij Johnson’s collection of short stories At the mouth of the river of bees. The Bitey Cat is one of the stories in the collection. It tells the story of a young girl, Sarah, whose parents are not getting on, and her first pet, a cat she calls Penny. […]
In the domestic courts it is time for Keefer vs Keefer. But the various arguments carry on until it is six o’clock and the presiding judge calls a halt. She wants to reconvene at nine the next morning, but before everyone leaves she decides to have a sit down with the two parties; Florence and […]