Sinead Gleeson is a broadcaster, essayist and critic, the author of Irish Book Award-winning essay collection Constellations, and editor of a number of acclaimed literary anthologies, among them The Art of Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories, and This Woman's Work: Essays on Music, co-edited with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.
This month she releases her debut novel, Hagstone, an atmospheric tale exploring the mysteries of art, faith and desire, set on a remote Irish island.
She talks to Miriam O'Callaghan below:
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Fact: Sinead was the very first person to feature in this section, back in 2016 - to celebrate the publication of Hagstone, we're once again asking her for her choice cultural picks...
MUSIC
There's something generative and invigorating going on in Irish folk music over the last decade, with Lankum, Lisa O’Neill, Niamh Bury, John Francis Flynn and Landlass, Ye Vagabonds all making work that’s finding listeners around the world. Two newer names that have Venn Diagram links to these bands are the brilliant Oxn (Lankum’s Radie Peat, their producer John 'Spud’ Murphy, Katie Kim and Eleanor Myler of Percolator) and Poor Creature (Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum, and John Dermody, who drums with them, and Ruth Clinton of Landless). I saw them play intense, polyphonic music at the Sugar Club, and it was one of the gigs of the year.
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BOOK
My TBR pile threatens to keel over and maim me, but there’s so much great Irish writing happening right now. I’m very much looking forward to Elaine Feeney’s new poetry collection, All The Good Things You Deserve, Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn follow-up Long Island, Rónán Hession’s Ghost Mountain, Seaborne by Nuala O’Connor, The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey and The Coast Road by Alan Murrin. One of my favourite writers, Evie Wyld has a new novel, The Echoes, out soon and a proof is blinking like a beacon on my shelves. Non-Irish books I’ve got on my list are David Nicholl’s You Are Here, The Trees by Percival Everett and Lauren Elkin’s Scaffolding.
THEATRE
I’m gutted that I will be away next month and unable to catch Maxine Peake in Robin/Red/Breast in Manchester. It’s based on the 1970 BBC Play for Today, a dark story of control, bodies and small-town cabals. Peake is mercurial, and always brilliant to watch. Play for Today ran from 1970 to 1984 and started the careers of so many writers and actors. Lots of the episodes are online and one of the best is Penda’s Fen, first shown 50 years ago this year. It combines elements of myth and folk horror, incorporating elements of queerness and British pastoral weirdness.
Prepare yourself for a chilling adaptation of a cult horror classic...
— Factory International (@factoryintl) February 2, 2024
Robin/Red/Breast is the latest collaboration by Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight, retelling John Bowen's cult TV play and psychological thriller into an immersive stage show. pic.twitter.com/61R2rvOREp
TV
It has divided people, but recently, I binged and loved Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith’s novels. It’s a brave move to make a streaming series in black and white and it has such high aesthetics – lingering shots of statues, apartments of baroque furnishings and Andrew Scott as a Janus-faced conman, who veers from vulnerable to creepy. I think people objected to the slow pacing, but it added to the menace, and felt very experimental. Scott is superb (as he is in All of Us Strangers, which was out earlier this year).
GIG
A couple of years ago, I came across a 28-minute piece of music called Sometimes I Feel Like I Have No Friends which was unlike anything I’d ever heard. It was Claire Rousay, a Canadian-American composer and experimental musician, and it moved through moods and tones, diving into wells of noise to talk about life and loss and trying to live. I saw Claire play a live set in the Workman’s Basement in 2002, where she manipulated her own voice and used long, pitched loops. It was utterly hypnotic. She’s coming back to play Dublin’s Project Arts Centre on June 1st.
ART
I’m going to see the Yoko Ono exhibition at Tate Modern next week. Ono is a pioneer of performance art (making challenging situational work years before Marina Abramovic, and before her involvement with John Lennon. In some ways her proximity to The Beatles overshadowed her art career, but she’s a total auteur, a real original, and still going strong at 91.
FILM
Mainstream Irish cinema is doing great things worldwide, but there’s lots going on here, too. Three films on the horizon that I really enjoyed are Pat Collins subtle, tender adaptation of John McGahern’s That They May Face the Rising Sun (in cinemas April 25th and Paul Duane’s All You Need is Death, a horror film about a folksong, with a menacing drone score from Ian Lynch of Lankum. Duane and Lynch will introduce a screening of the film at the Sound! Soundtrack Film Festival at Letterkenny’s Regional Cultural Centre on May 4th. I’m a huge admirer of Claire Keegan’s writing and was lucky to see a preview of the adaptation of Small Things Like These, out later this year. At the other end of the Oppenheimer spectrum, Cillian Murphy gives a fantastic, subtle performance as a coal delivery man in freefall. It’s a quiet film, with many depths, beautifully shot and very faithful to the book (thanks to Enda Walsh’s spare script).
PODCAST
Speaking of Ian Lynch, he hosts the excellent Fire Draw Near podcast. He takes songs along the folk/ballad/trad spectrum where he dives into the history and context for different versions, and makes connections between politics, culture and more. There’s a fascinating archive of more than 50 shows.
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TECH
If only there was less tech…
THE NEXT BIG THING...
I first saw Tadhg (aka Sexy Tadhg) play at Egg Cabaret and they are such a unique performer. Part cabaret, a dash of Prince, Rufus and Elton John, with a queer drag sensibility. They're also a phenomenal musician and singer, and very funny between songs. Tadgh is a superstar in the making who should be huge. They're at the tail end of an Irish tour, so go and see them before they're selling out 3Arena. (Galway’s Roisin Dubh on 13/04, The Black Box in Belfast on 19/04 and Dublin’s Grand Social on 20/04.
Hagstone is published by 4th Estate - read our review here.
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