Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle

@martindoyle.bsky.social

Books Editor of The Irish Times; author of Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place (Merrion Press)

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Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

“Writing Dirty Linen brought me closer to my roots, helped me face almost forgotten fears. The low-level anxiety I lived with may have been all in my head but it wasn’t my imagination. I have sat with the people it actually happened to. They are my tribe.” www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comI have tried to record the toll the Troubles took on my neighbours, the long tail of trauma left beh...The scale of the Northern conflict, more than 3,700 dead over 30 years in a population of just 1.5 million, is impossible to comprehend. I focused on my own parish
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

A very pleasant surprise to be shortlisted again for an Irish Book Award, this time for A Hosting. Thanks to my publisher @lilliputpress @irishbookawards

Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Irish Book Awards: Maggie O’Farrell, Vincent Browne, Sally Hayden and Louise Kennedy shortlisted Debutant Djamel White, whose literary crime thriller was longlisted for the Booker Prize, is up for two awards www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comIrish Book Awards: Maggie O’Farrell, Vincent Browne, Sally Hayden and Louise Kennedy on shortlistDebutant Djamel White, whose literary crime thriller was longlisted for the Booker Prize, is up for two awards
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

My Q&A with Ben Barnes: ‘I would extend the basic income scheme to all professionally trained working artists’ Theatre and opera director on his new book, Side Stage: Theatre Writing 1984-2025; his wariness of celebrity actors; and his admiration for John Cleese www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comBen Barnes: ‘I would extend the basic income scheme to all professionally trained working artists’Theatre and opera director on his new book, Side Stage: Theatre Writing 1984-2025; his wariness of celebrity actors; and his admiration for John Cleese
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Karlin Lillington reviews The Last Good Day on the Internet, and The Internet We Could Have Had: How it started vs how it’s going. Books by Mark Little and Christopher M Kelty take radically different approaches to the web’s lost promise www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comThe Last Good Day on the Internet, and The Internet We Could Have Had: How it started vs how it’s goingBooks by Mark Little and Christopher M Kelty take radically different approaches to the web’s lost promise
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Eoin McNamee: Annie Dillard said: “I had been my whole life a bell and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.” You have to make a bell of yourself and allow the world to ring it. (Although being lifted and struck might well be what I deserve.) www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comEoin McNamee: ‘I’m from Kilkeel so I know exactly what an Orange march is’The author on new short story collection The Comets, the plight of refugees, and his admiration for Gavin Bazunu
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Fiction in translation: from inner conflict in Ukraine to a Norwegian descent into madness Books by Valerian Pidmohylnyi, Sevgi Soysal, Olga Tokarczuk, Hernán Ronsino, Glenn Bech and Thure Erik Lund, now available in English www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comFiction in translation: from inner conflict in Ukraine to a Norwegian descent into madnessBooks by Valerian Pidmohylnyi, Sevgi Soysal, Olga Tokarczuk, Hernán Ronsino, Glenn Bech and Thure Erik Lund
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Author Bonnie Garmus: ‘I’ve gotten so many death threats. The Andrew Tate crowd is alive and well’ The Lessons in Chemistry author on surviving a near-death experience, her new novel, and what it’s like to be a ‘global phenomenon’ www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comAuthor Bonnie Garmus: ‘I’ve gotten so many death threats. The Andrew Tate crowd is alive and well’The best-selling author on surviving a near-death experience, her new novel, and what it’s like to be a ‘global phenomenon’
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Recruiting a few new readers of A Hosting down the pub before my London launch at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith last night. Surprisingly easy to hold was the consensus.

Martin Doyle reposted

John Self
@john-self.bsky.social

A world of Ballardian abandoned aerodromes and Shakespearean body counts, where everyone has a terrible time except the reader. Me on Eoin McNamee’s The Comets, which might appeal to fans of David Peace, James Ellroy and Cormac McCarthy;

giftarticle.ft.comThe Comets — condensed, bitingly efficient short fiction by Eoin McNameeIn a collection of two novellas and 15 tightly pared-down tales, the Northern Irish writer plunges the reader into a world of danger, seediness and alienation

Martin Doyle reposted

Rónán Hession
@ronanhession.bsky.social

With huge thanks to translator Julieta Giambastiani, I'm delighted to see my story The Translator's Funeral in Spanish in Gambito de Papel of La Plata, Argentina. As well as translating the story Julieta has been tirelessly pitching it. Translators are saints. gambitodepapel.com/los-funerale...

gambitodepapel.comLos funerales de la traductora - Rónán Hession  -Relato del autor irlandés traducido por Julieta Giambastiani, inédito en castellano.
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

My interview with Niall Williams: ‘I will always be an outsider, even here after 41 years’ Co Clare based writer describes how he arrived ‘fictionally home’ in the imaginary village of Faha and how he celebrates the generosity, dignity and humour of his community www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comAuthor Niall Williams: ‘I will always be an outsider, even here after 41 years’Author describes how he arrived ‘fictionally home’ in the imaginary village of Faha and how he celebrates the generosity, dignity and humour of his community

Martin Doyle reposted

Seána
@grantsana.bsky.social

These are the deaths connected to the parade route that got the go ahead today. Telling residents that they need to build bridges feels particularly perverse

Martin Doyle reposted

Rónán Hession
@ronanhession.bsky.social

Well done @lukekennard.bsky.social and Mike John Harrison. Enjoy it all. We fellow weirdos salute you. Well done to Djamel White who was long listed for his debut, All Them Dogs – great things ahead for him I'm sure.

Martin Doyle@martindoyle.bsky.social

Booker Prize shortlist: two former winners in running for £50,000 prize. Douglas Stuart, who won with Shuggie Bain in 2020, is back with John of John, and Marlon James, who won in 2015 with A Brief History of Seven Killings, returns with The Disappearers www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comBooker Prize shortlist: two former winners in running for £50,000 prizeScottish author Douglas Stuart, who won with Shuggie Bain in 2020, is back with John of John, and Jamaican writer Marlon James, who won in 2015 with A Brief History of Seven Killings, returns with The...
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Booker Prize shortlist: two former winners in running for £50,000 prize. Douglas Stuart, who won with Shuggie Bain in 2020, is back with John of John, and Marlon James, who won in 2015 with A Brief History of Seven Killings, returns with The Disappearers www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comBooker Prize shortlist: two former winners in running for £50,000 prizeScottish author Douglas Stuart, who won with Shuggie Bain in 2020, is back with John of John, and Jamaican writer Marlon James, who won in 2015 with A Brief History of Seven Killings, returns with The...
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

My interview with Louise Kennedy about new novel, Stations: “I think writing settled something in me, because the voice in my head is completely northern. So I feel like myself when I write in a way that I probably don’t when I’m speaking in my southern accent.” www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comTrespasses author Louise Kennedy: ‘I lived on adrenaline all my life from kitchens’The author on her new novel, Stations, moving south from the North, and how she ‘hired’ Gillian Anderson

Martin Doyle reposted

Patrick Freyne
@patrickfreyne.bsky.social

Mark Little‘s new book is very good - a thoughtful and well informed takedown of the tech industry from someone who’s been inside it www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

irishtimes.comMark Little: ‘Protests against data centres is the biggest wave of civic activism since the 1960s’The broadcaster turned entrepreneur on messianic tech billionaires, and his new book tracking his journey from tech-optimism to disillusionment to a new cautious hope

Martin Doyle reposted

Patrick walsh
@speakerconolly.bsky.social

“It was a merciless, monarchy supported company,” Radburn said of the South Sea Company “and the trafficking of enslaved people was the heart of it.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...

theguardian.comThe royal crown branded on enslaved Africans: Britain’s monarchy and the slave tradeFrom Elizabeth I’s backing of early voyages to royal investment in trafficking companies, generations of monarchs were central to Britain’s slave trade
Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

Very sorry to see this. Stephen launched Dirty Linen in my home village and reviewed Martina Anderson’s autobiography for me only last week . May he rest in peace.

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Martin Doyle
@martindoyle.bsky.social

I spoke to Sebastian Barry for A Hosting and again about his new book to update it for today’s Irish Times. He felt out of place growing up and had difficult relationships with his parents. The Newer World continues his exploration of identity and belonging www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comSebastian Barry: ‘My mother was interesting, extravagant. It was difficult to be a child of such a person’The author on his latest novel, The Newer World, his difficult relationship with his parents, and feeling out of place growing up as a Dublin Protestant

Martin Doyle reposted

Dr. Eleanor Hooker FLS
@eleanorhooker.bsky.social

Huge thanks to @martindoyle.bsky.social Books Editor at the Irish Times, for his shout-out today for the Edinburgh Writing Awards shortlists (and for listing details of the Thomas MacDonagh Hedge, for which I am Talks Curator). Loads of good news here👇 #Books www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

irishtimes.comThe Fallen by Louise Brangan on $75,000 Cundill History Prize shortlistBooks newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

Martin Doyle reposted

Yashar Ali 🐘
@yasharali.bsky.social

1. AFM, the labor union representing professional musicians in North America, is paying tribute to Dolly Parton, who was a member of its Nashville Local 257 for 58 years. AFM says that for decades, Dolly consistently filed union contracts for her recording sessions, live gigs and tours.

Martin Doyle reposted

The New Yorker
@newyorker.com

"Dolly Parton is loved for many reasons—the songwriting, the singing, the industry smarts, the cheeky cracks, the homey manner, the beauty, the verve, the hits. She is also loved for being loved, and loved transcendentally,” Lauren Michele Jackson writes. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/ayBPjC

newyorkermag.visitlink.meThe United States of Dolly PartonFrom 2020: A voice for working-class women and an icon for all kinds of women, Parton has maintained her star power throughout life phases and political cycles, Lauren Michele Jackson writes.