OSGUR BREATNACH

Squabbling writers James Joyce, Dean Swift, Brendan Behan, Flan O’Brian, Myles na Copaleen, Oscar Wilde and Fionn Mac Cumhaill, well, squabble, as an author attempts to confront his trauma by writing.

Traumatised by a criminal conspiracy to frame him in 1970s Ireland the author’s response, in part, was to turn to poetry. Hanging Out on the 11th Floor is presented in a combination of lyrical free and blank verse, and concerns understanding internal change, in himself and others, over a lengthy period in honest emotional language.

The fortitude of Nelson Mandela The single-mindedness of Che Guevara The wit of Oscar Wilde The voice of Richard Burton A few true sentences

The killer swans lay in wait in the rushes of the Grand Canal.

On the 50th anniversary of the death of Brendan Behan It is too late to talk to him about his writing. He is dead. But he was alive when I first overheard my parents discussing him. My father, Deasún, and Brendan, were fellow writers in among other publications, The Bell, perhaps the most important Irish literary and intellectual journal in the twentieth century. Both writers shared radical political and literary thoughts, always conversing in Irish, which they had both learnt recently, post school.

You can never have enough democracy. I am a democrat with a small 'D'. By that I mean not a US Democrat or even a Canadian Democrat as in the amusing YouTube video attached. But it is still well worth viewing. In every other sense, like republicans of the socialist tradition, I am a democrat and believe you can never have enough democracy. This leads to the inevitable question of whether we have real democracy now. Watch The Story of Mouseland and decide.

Irish barrister, Martin Giblin SC, has been fighting and exposing Garda corruption cases since 1976, to date. No Surprise, he's back in court again. The same barrister is central to the recent exposure of the Gárda telephone recording/bugging. Nothing, it seems, has changed over the years.

Philip Casey, writer, poet and playwright, has passed. Philip knew a lot about pain, but he never raised it with me. I knew him only as friendly, witty, compassionate and diffusing a stillness that belied his gregariousness.

A new international campaign has been launched for an independent public inquiry into the Sallins Case Conspiracy.

I posted ongratulations to Professor Diarmaid Ferriter for his article ‘Cosgrave’s support of the Garda Cast a long shadow.’ (Irish Times Sat, Oct 14, 2017) emphasising the role of the impartial historian to rise above historical revisionism/denialism. But no sooner than written, the Irish Times pulled the article from its archive and settled an action by ex- Justice Minister Patrick Cooney against the paper. (We publish the article in full below.)

Osgur Breatnach in conversation with Sue Leonard at the Kinsale Literary Festival Word by Water.

The voice from nowhere stipulates how I should take care of dog poo. I am early-walking the path behind the sea-breaker wall, close to Dublin's Salthill train station, accompanied only by my intimate shadow and the sound of the voice of my mother.

I see singer songwriter Mick Hanley is responding positively to an Irish Arts Center invitation to perform in Manhattan New York in November while battling with Rogwort in his back garden. Is he past the point of rescue?

'...an alleged garda assault on a prisoner exposed a recording device in a stud wall..'

Recently overheard simultaneously in Gogan’s Lounge, The Scotch House and The Palace Bar public houses, Dublin. Unique Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen discussion.

A third collection of poems on life, love and loss.

TALL, FIT, soft spoken with a kindly mischievous glint in his eyes Shane Mac Thomáis was hard to miss in a crowd. When I first met him around 2001 I was already acquainted with his late father, Éamon, and had avidly read and followed his father’s folksy historical media contributions, such as bestseller Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin.

The controversial true story behind Joyce 2 (as he is now known) and his exposure of an international multi-million publishing conspiracy perpetrated by a Dublin Writing Center.

The Irish Prison Service has officially admitted that over 139 prisoners had their confidential communications with solicitors bugged.

I contacted God for the Breatnach Blog to get a deeper and more in-depth interview on the referendum issues......Her position could be summarised as the following...

Not long before journalist Veronica Guerin was shot dead in Dublin in 1996 we met ...and she confided she was working on a particular investigation of police corruption ... she and I discussed sleaze and bribery in the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force.

A campaign for an independent sworn public inquiry to expose the truth behind the injustices in the Sallins Corruption Case and the continuing cover-up.