The Sigla Blog

I love that quote from William Zinsser. It sums up in a way, a craft that is very hard to define. I think about writing - short stories, a novel, poems - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but still it doesn’t quash my damned procrastination. Sometimes I excuse this by telling myself […]

The Vatican has drawn up a new document that plans to ban gay men from entering the priesthood. According to the The Observer, the document has been drafted by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries.

The article says:

“The instruction was drawn up as part of the Vatican’s response to the sexual abuse scandal […]

This time it’s all Treasa’s fault. As I’m meant to be writing a story, I might as well skive off for half an hour so here goes:
Seven things I plan to do before I die:
Write a book. God knows I talk about it enough…
Have children
Learn to play the xylophone
Visit China
Go up in a hot air […]

MICK HARVEY
One Man’s Treasure
Mute
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As a Bad Seeds co-founder, people assume Mick Harvey has been lurking in Nick Cave’s shadow for years. In fact he’s been in other bands (Crime and the City Solution), produced PJ Harvey and scored several film soundtracks, including the excellent Chopper. With such a diverse musical CV, it’s surprising that One […]

It’s bad enough that we have Christmas decorations up pre-Halloween, so I won’t start going on about albums of the year just yet. However, I found out today that ridiculously talented Sufjan Stevens will be playing with a full band in The Village, Dublin on Friday October 14th.

His second album, Come On Feel The […]

Compilations, be they of music or film, usually tend to be a varied bag of glittering gems and damp squibs. Faber’s new Irish collection of short stories is no exception, but the word ‘new’ hints temptingly at the possibility of more undiscovered writers than are actually included here. One thing an anthology like this promises, […]

I’m very sad to hear that Mo Mowlam has died. The former Northern Ireland Secretary was a popular and admired figure for her role in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. She died from an undisclosed illness that is thought to have been linked to a previous brain tumour. Mowlam was first elected an MP […]

If there’s one topic in Ireland that always generates massive and bitter debate, it’s the issue of abortion. Last week The Irish Family Planning Association launched their
Safe and Legal campaign to introduce legal abortion procedures to this country. What amazed me, was not the fact that this was reported, but how very few Irish bloggers, […]

In the past I’ve had a good ol’ rant about Book Prizes being hijacked by PR folk. It’s a reality that marketing can dictate buyer choice when it comes to cars, toothpaste and chocolate, so why not books? If Hugh Grant can be a Whitbread judge and Richard & Judy’s bookclub can tell us […]

I’m a sucker for a great album sleeve. CDs just aren’t the same with their diminutive, squeezed up versions. There’s just no comparison to full 12″ cover, especially when I think of one I included in a list of all time favourites, Dead Can Dance’s ‘Spleen and Ideal’. The CD image isn’t nearly as […]

Today London deploys thousands of extra police to its tube stations today to mark the four week anniversary of the July 7th bombs. Undoubtedly the amount of people using public transport has lessened in the last month while suspicions of other passengers have escalated. A couple of friends living in London tell me that they’ve […]

Shoes are not really something that I give much thought to. If they hurt, are too high or too impractical, I’m back to my trustee old trainers in no time. However, I have some friends who are well on their way to emulating the footwear cliche of Imelda Marcos, although they’re nowhere near opening their […]