Loose Leaves: Are we Irish looking at ourselves differently as a result of the wealth in our midst? Yes, says the Ireland correspondent of the Financial Times John Murray Brown in his five page cover story "The Irish Rich" in the current issue of the British magazine Prospect, which is illustrated by a hard hat with a difference: it's made of gold, writes Caroline Walsh.
Johnny Ronan, Seán Mulryan, JP McManus et al star in an essay exploring how the new rich are changing the way we see ourselves. "The image of humble but poetic Catholics living in the shadow of the stiff and snobbish Protestant English is no longer meaningful on either side, even as caricature. The nation of 'saints and scholars' has shown over the past decade that it has a genius for business too," writes Murray Brown, who also explores how the emergence of the country's new rich is not universally welcomed here. "There is an egalitarian and classless streak in the national
self-image that is not completely comfortable with a large moneyed class." The essay is also the subject of Prospect editor David Goodhart's editorial, in which he makes the point that while Ireland's boom has been one of Europe's most dramatic stories over the past decade, it has not, characteristically he says, been much noticed in England. "But the Irish are now, in the main, too confident and too busy making money to care."
While Percy French had "gangs o' them diggin' for gold in the street" in the London of his Mountains of Mourne, it's here the gold's been lately, even if, as Prospect notes, the boom is now winding down. (Prospect, January 2008, £4.50.)
One down on Dawson Street
Readers couldn't believe the bargains in the sale in the Eason Hanna bookshop on Dublin's Dawson Street this week. Book prices were slashed and the shelves were getting emptier and emptier by the minute. But this was no ordinary sale. Dawson Street, well endowed with bookshops, was losing one. By Wednesday evening, the shop had closed its doors for the last time.
Vote for your favourite blog
What's the best arts and culture blog out there - or the funniest or the best specialist post? Nominations for these and a rake of other categories in the 2008 Irish Blog Awards have opened, with the awards ceremony set to take place in Dublin next month. The deadline for votes is 9pm on Friday.
You can have your say at www.awards.ie/blogawards/nominations
A date with Ennis bookworms
A speed dating-style networking session for book club members to get to know each other and exchange views, plus appearances by writers including Roddy Doyle, Joanne Harris, Hugo Hamilton, Nuala O'Faolain and Dermot Bolger are among the features of the forthcoming Ennis Book Club Festival from February 29th to March 2nd. This is the second year of the festival, which is of special interest to members of the country's 150 library book clubs and 300 private book clubs. But non-book club readers can also use the festival to find out how to go about setting one up. More on www.ennisbookclubfestival.com
Prizes for poems
The Strokestown International Poetry Festival has launched its poetry competitions for single poems for 2008. A prize fund of €20,000 will be divided among poets who write in English, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, including poets who take the politically satirical route rather than the lyrical. Peter Fallon, George Szirtes and Vona Groarke will judge the international competition for a poet in English, with €4,000 going to the winning poet, €2,000 and €1,000 for second and third, and €450 for other shortlisted poets. Prizes of equal value will be awarded by judges Gréagóir Ó Dúill and Christopher Whyte/Crisdean MhicIlleBhain for poems in Irish or Scottish Gaelic - while brown envelopes, for political satire, will be handed out by Margaret Hickey. The prizes will be awarded at the annual festival which runs from May 2nd to 5th. The closing date for competition entries is January 31st; entry forms from Strokestown International Poetry Competition, Bawn Street, Strokestown, Co Roscommon, or at www.strokestownpoetry.org
Whistle while you workshop
"The Post-9/11 Novel" is among the topics that will be scrutinised during a six week workshop starting in UCD on January 29th. Another topic on the agenda is "Houses in Fiction". Billed as a workshop purely for pleasure, the facilitator is Kate Bateman, and memoirs and biographies are also on the agenda. It runs until March 4th. Details on 01-7167123.