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Martin Doyle

@martindoyle.bsky.social

6K followers 220 following 460 posts

Books Editor of The Irish Times; author of Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place (Merrion Press)

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · Dec 23

“Writing Dirty Linen brought me closer to my roots, helped me face almost forgotten fears. The low-level anxiety I lived with may have been all in my head but it wasn’t my imagination. I have sat with the people it actually happened to. They are my tribe.” www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

I have tried to record the toll the Troubles took on my neighbours, the long tail of trauma left beh...

The scale of the Northern conflict, more than 3,700 dead over 30 years in a population of just 1.5 million, is impossible to comprehend. I focused on my own parish

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 21h

I enjoyed interviewing Katriona O’Sullivan at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. She confirmed my theory that Poor grew out of her Trinity Tales essay which went viral on publication in The Irish Times. A Trinity Tales edition that checked its privilege after Diarmaid Ferriter reviewed its predecessor

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 2d

Books Upstairs is a fine store with a particularly excellent poetry section. Why not support them by ordering your books online instead: booksupstairs.ie

The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 2d

‘Really shocking’: Independent Dublin bookstore damaged in arson attack

‘Really shocking’: Independent Dublin bookstore damaged in arson attack

Books Upstairs manager hopes to partially open the D’Olier Street store later on Monday

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 3d

Boy, fetch me my chisel!

Reposted by Martin Doyle

The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 3d

Times are changing - do those who favour Irish unity need to rethink what it is to be Irish?

Times are changing - do those who favour Irish unity need to rethink what it is to be Irish?

The Republic needs to start listening, young SDLP members say at this weekend’s party conference

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Martin Doyle

John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 3d

‘“I think Saul Bellow was not a good influence on Martin. Bellow’s prose was a specifically American idiom, and that didn’t sit well on top of an educated English literary voice.”

But what about Money? I ask him.’

I interviewed Ian McEwan about Amis, Barnes, Nabokov, Trump and his new novel:

Ian McEwan: ‘I’ve been following politics for years, and I’ve never felt such anxiety about the chaos, the lack of leadership’

The writer on his futuristic novel What We Can Know, climate change and the alarming lack of self-scepticism in Trump and Putin

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 4d

I met Stelios Haji-Ioannou in Monaco and discussed the divided islands of Ireland and Cyprus with him before giving him a signed copy of Dirty Linen. The EasyJet founder created the North-South Business Co-operation Awards to encourage cross-Border entrepreneurship. His partner Orla is from Kerry.

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 4d

Mark Mazower’s On Antisemitism: A Word in History - Clear, comprehensive and nuanced. A book that can contribute to honest discussions that are desperately needed in a new age of racism, war and genocide, writes Dr Brian Hanley

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Mark Mazower’s On Antisemitism: A Word in History - Clear, comprehensive and nuanced

A book that can contribute to honest discussions that are desperately needed in a new age of racism, war and genocide

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 4d

‘Fame is a kind of hell. I have seen the dark side of this culture’. The Booker Prize-winning novelist Kiran Desai talks to Nadine O’Regan about emigration, her new novel and disappearing into her fiction

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

‘Fame is a kind of hell. I have seen the dark side of this culture’

The Booker Prize-winning novelist Kiran Desai on emigration, her new novel and disappearing into her fiction

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 4d

In pictures: Portraits of Irish writers as you have never seen them before. Former New Yorker photographer Steve Pyke has compiled a striking book of portraits beginning with Neil Jordan in 1985 and including Marian Keyes, Edna O’Brien, Sebastian Barry (and me!)

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

In pictures: Portraits of Irish writers as you have never seen them before

Former New Yorker photographer Steve Pyke has compiled a striking book of portraits beginning with Neil Jordan in 1985 and including Marian Keyes, Edna O’Brien, Sebastian Barry

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 4d

Seamus Heaney’s Ribbons: A beautiful poem about his sisters, published for the first time and astutely analysed by Dr Rosie Lavan, co-editor of his Colleced Poems with Bernard O’Donoghue, out next week
www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

Seamus Heaney’s Ribbons: A beautiful poem about his sisters, published for the first time

The reader is transported by Heaney’s illuminating memory: we’re in a school, a photographer is visiting and the girls are having their picture taken

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Martin Doyle

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 6d

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

There’s no perfect parallel between the ongoing war in Gaza and the Northern Irish Troubles, Megan Stack writes, “but it’s worth recalling that Northern Ireland’s conflict was also dismissed as unresolvable.”

Opinion | Peace in Northern Ireland Was Impossible, Until They Put Hate Aside

Middle East peace may seem hopeless, but Northern Ireland shows that even the most intractable conflict can be resolved.

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Marc de Faoite @marcdefaoite.bsky.social · 8d

quote of the week just dropped

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 10d

AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations”

Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · 10d

Doctorow on the impending economic collapse when the AI bubble bursts. pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Raven Books @ravenbooks.bsky.social · 8d

The power of translation cannot be underestimated, mostly for good but also ill - Scientology uses translators of relatively small languages to spread their cult, a recent translation into Irish turned a neutral 'gay' into 'f*gg*t' - another reason to celebrate careful, respectful, human translation

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝 @jacqbetula.bsky.social · 8d

Today is International Translation Day.

Create connections through literature instead of division through ignorance!

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 10d

Cheers Rónán

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 10d

One thing about Banville is that he always gives good Banville. Lots to enjoy here – @martindoyle.bsky.social holding his own in this shadow boxing interview/quip-a-thon.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

John Banville: ‘You cannot censor me. They would try it now with all this wokeist nonsense’

The author on his latest novel, Venetian Vespers, how Graham Greene treated him ‘very badly’, and his support for Israelis

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 10d

Banville’s fiction is peppered with words, such as contemnor, which readers must look up. What does it mean? “I can’t remember,” he says. However, “I found a wonderful word the other day, invaginate. It doesn’t mean what you think. It simply means to form a sheath”
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

John Banville: ‘You cannot censor me. They would try it now with all this wokeist nonsense’

The author on his latest novel, Venetian Vespers, how Graham Greene treated him ‘very badly’, and his support for Israelis

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 15d

Discussing Dirty Linen on France 24 ahead of my evrnt with Neil Hegarty at the @centreculturelirlandais on Thursday as part of my month’s residency. If you’re in Paris , come along www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/...

Perspective - 'Some wounds have never been allowed to heal': Author Martin Doyle on the Troubles

The author of a new book which tells the story of the troubles in Northern Ireland that spanned three decades has spoken to FRANCE 24 about how his aim was to create a microhistory of the period by ho...

www.france24.com

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 15d

Nice interview with Yang Hao. I reviewed her fascinating new novel, Diablo's Boys, in the Irish Times last week. Translated by Nicky Harman and Michael Day.

‘Dublin should be a joyful city but there is a certain sadness floating in the air’

www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

‘Dublin should be a joyful city but there is a certain sadness floating in the air’

Yang Hao moved to Ireland three years ago and studies at Trinity College Dublin

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Claire Connolly @claireconnolly.bsky.social · 17d

Wonderful few days in Mexico City hosted by UNAM/La Cátedra Extraordinaria Eavan Boland-Anne Enright de Estudios Irlandeses - thanks to Hannah McCarthy for this great write up also featuring my @ucc.ie colleague Nuala Finnegan

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 18d

‘It’s a phenomenon - we’re very privileged’: Contemporary Irish women writers celebrated at symposium in Mexico. Irish studies programme in Mexico has introduced students to writers such as Sally Rooney and Claire Keegan, writes Hannah McCarthy

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

‘It’s a phenomenon - we’re very privileged’: Contemporary Irish women writers celebrated at symposium in Mexico

Irish studies programme in Mexico has introduced students to writers such as Sally Rooney and Claire Keegan

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Patrick Freyne @patrickfreyne.bsky.social · 19d

I interviewed the brilliant Brenda Fricker about her harrowing new memoir. Very glad to have met her www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Brenda Fricker: ‘It was real violence, and I needed protection. Where was my father? There was blood all over me’

Parental abuse, sexual violence and mental health struggles: the Oscar-winner has endured more than most. She explains why she decided to write a memoir

www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Martin Doyle

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18d

Power is the rock on which truth founders. The mainstream media, with a few exceptions, is a single-issue lobby group, whose purpose is to assert the rights of capital.
Here's what I've learnt about the industry in 40 years in journalism.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I have now been a journalist for 40 years. The forces ranged against my profession have never been so powerful | George Monbiot

Once, I believed that humanity’s problem was an information deficit. Now, I know you can’t speak truth to power if power controls your words, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 18d

Best Irish Books of 2025: your Culture Night (and Christmas) guide to children’s literature. Elaina Ryan of Children’s Books Ireland on its latest guide to the best of Irish writing

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Best Irish Books of 2025: your Culture Night (and Christmas) guide to children’s literature

Elaina Ryan of Children’s Books Ireland on its latest guide to the best of Irish writing

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 18d

‘It’s a phenomenon - we’re very privileged’: Contemporary Irish women writers celebrated at symposium in Mexico. Irish studies programme in Mexico has introduced students to writers such as Sally Rooney and Claire Keegan, writes Hannah McCarthy

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

‘It’s a phenomenon - we’re very privileged’: Contemporary Irish women writers celebrated at symposium in Mexico

Irish studies programme in Mexico has introduced students to writers such as Sally Rooney and Claire Keegan

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 18d

For Irish women writers, James Joyce was never a shadow but a light, writes Annalisa Mastronardi. Many Irish women writers have engaged with Joyce - both challenging and building on his legacy in their fiction. In studying them, I was also studying myself

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

For Irish women writers, James Joyce was never a shadow but a light

Many Irish women writers have engaged with Joyce - both challenging and building on his legacy in their fiction. In studying them, I was also studying myself

www.irishtimes.com

Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 18d

Roddy Doyle: ‘I got a phone call from one of the New Yorker’s famous fact-checkers’ . Doyle, Anne Enright, Colin Barrett and Belinda McKeon reflect on their relationship with the magazine ahead of an Abbey Theatre celebration. Plus panel listing all Irish in mag

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Roddy Doyle: ‘I got a phone call from one of the New Yorker’s famous fact-checkers’

Authors Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, Colin Barrett and Belinda McKeon reflect on the Irish relationship with the magazine ahead of an Abbey Theatre celebration

www.irishtimes.com