Month: June 2016

July 1st 2001

Posted Rick O'Shea

I’ll keep this brief because, realistically, the only person this matters to is me. However, tomorrow, July 1st, is the 15th anniversary of the day I started working for RTE back in 2001, a date so auspicious that not a single trace of it remains anywhere on the internet because nobody noticed at the time 🙂 Some pictures from that year sadly do survive… I started here playing loud things I liked between 11 and midnight for the first year or so before rattling on through 9-11pm, 8-10, breakfast, 10-midnight, 6-9 and three(?) separate shifts on daytime before coming to rest, for now, […]

Book Review – Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Posted Rick O'Shea

I was honest with Chris Cleave when I met him and interviewed him a while back for one of my book club public events. If I hadn’t needed to read it for the sake of research, a new novel set in the midst of World War II might not have been at the top of my list of priorities. It’s a crowded field. Good thing I did, so. Mary North starts the story skiing down the side of a mountain (almost James Bond-like!) to enrol in the war effort the day hostilities break out. She thinks that, perhaps, as the […]

Bad Ambassador Playlist – Friday June 24th

Posted Rick O'Shea

DJ Shadow – Six Days (remix feat. Mos Def) OK Go – Here It Goes Again Young MC – Know How Django Django – Default Kings Of Leon – King Of The Rodeo Alt-J – Left Hand Free Paolo Nutini – Iron Sky Aimee Mann – One The Dead Kennedys – Too Drunk To Fuck The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward Ciarán Lavery – Return To Form Timo Maas feat Kelis – Help Me Busta Rhymes – Gimme Some More David Holmes – Sugarman Elbow – An Audience With The Pope Regina Spektor – Machine Stevie Wonder – Higher […]

Book Review – Lying In Wait by Liz Nugent

Posted Rick O'Shea

Now that I look back I can’t believe the randomness that brought Liz Nugent’s debut novel Unravelling Oliver to my attention (read about it here). With Lying In Wait, as with the last time, she grabs you by the throat with the first line “My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.’” – I defy you to not want to read on from there. No spoilers, in fact I’m not even going to give you a plot. Just read it. As much as I adored and pressed the first book into the hands of many […]

The Bloomsday Interview 2016

Posted Rick O'Shea

This job rarely gets more dull, only more exciting and stranger… Thus I was given the honour of hosting the 2016 Bloomsday Interview as part of the annual Bloomsday Festival in the O’Reilly Theatre. The guests were the Pulitzer prize-winner Michael Chabon and author, columnist and, handily for their travel arrangements, his wife, Ayelet Waldman. The interview itself, along with all of the diversions, eddies and sharp left-hand turns we made through Joyce, fandom, gunn control, Oprah and weirder, will be up on their website in the coming weeks. For now, some great shots of the night taken by Ruth Medjber […]

Beerkat

Posted Rick O'Shea

We were in London recently and how could I not make the trip out to Norf Lahndan to the Beavertown pop-up pub Beerkat? Spent a very pleasant afternoon there, food was cheap and great, vibe was lovely, the bar is airy and opens out onto the street. Downsides? Prices were hefty and we were a 5 minute walk from the Emirates 😉 Not bad, all in all. If you’re over, get there soon as it’s only open for 4 weeks. They do, however, seem to have a Siren takeover coming this weekend. Make the trip. Loved it 🙂