stomaselli

On Art & Apocalypse

By Doireann Ní Ghríofa.

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I am sitting on a bench, gazing at the displays in Dublin’s Natural History Museum – the soft hide of an antelope, a series of small skulls, a pair of taxidermy owls, glass eyes behind glass. The spectacle of this museum, so familiar in childhood, feels somehow cosy still. Despite the fact that everything here is allusive of death, of extinction, to view these displays remains comforting. But the almost nostalgic tranquility of the scene is distorted, because I am not, in fact, sitting in the Natural History Museum. I am peering at this scene from a great distance, from an art gallery many miles away, and as I look, I am slowly realising that this museum has filled with water. I begin to understand that I am watching the aftermath of a catastrophic disaster. Despite the implication of a recent cataclysm, the scene itself is somehow peaceful; the water here lulls us, as it always does.

Introducing: Aifric Mac Aodha

We are delighted to announce that Aifric Mac Aodha is joining gorse as Irish language editor. Her first poetry collection, Gabháil Syrinx (The Capture of Syrinx), was published by An Sagart in 2010, and she has had work in various magazines and journals, including POETRY Young Irish Poets. She has been translated to many languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Czech.

Reading: Claire-Louise Bennett & Sara Baume

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios presents a reading by Claire- Louise Bennett and Sara Baume.  The reading will be introduced by gorse editor Susan Tomaselli.

50 Books | 50 Covers

 

Congratulations to our designer, Niall McCormack, winner of the  Design Observer‘s 50 Books|50 Covers Award 2015 for his work on issues three and four of gorse.

About 50 Books|50 Covers:

50 Books/50 Covers has a long history of celebrating design excellence, with selections exemplifying the best current work in book and book cover design as chosen by a distinguished jury of design peers. The annual competition developed from AIGA’s “Fifty Books of 1923” exhibition and past selections have been added to the AIGA Design Archives as well as the physical archives at the Denver Art Museum and in Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Collection at the Butler Library. Since 2011, the competition has been managed by Design Observer.

 

To celebrate, we’re offering 50% off the cover price* of the winning issues, gorse no. 3 and gorse no. 4.

 

*Limited time only

The Brother

From Pádraig Ó Méalóid’s essay on Flann O’Brien, gorse no. 3:

One day, not too long ago, I spotted Micheál Ó Nualláin, the only surviving member of the twelve siblings, and eighty-six years old himself, waiting for a bus out to Monkstown. I should go and ask him, I thought. But did I want to? Did I want to actually solve this, to know for sure if it was true or untrue? I’d already done a ridiculous amount of digging, involving visits to both the National Library here in Dublin and the British Library in London, much correspondence with lots of kind and helpful people, and spent far too much money buying books that ultimately expanded, rather than diminished, the mystery here. If I asked the question, all that would be as nothing. I thought about it, and watched his bus arrive, watched him get on it, and wondered if I’d made the right decision, not approaching. And I decided that I definitely should have asked him, because I might never get another chance.

Fortunately, I got another chance. A while after that first existential encounter, I saw him again at the bus stop. This time, reader, I asked him. ‘I don’t think so,’ said Micheál, ‘but you wouldn’t know. It’s the kind of thing he’d do, though.’

RIP Micheál Ó Nualláin.