Writer Maggie Armstrong's work has appeared in the Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, and elsewhere.
She has just published Old Romantics, a debut collection of linked short stories.
Slippery, flawed and acute, her narrator navigates a world of awkward expectation and latent hostility.
She talks to Brendan O'Connor below:
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We asked Maggie for her choice cultural picks...
FILM
Kung Fu Panda 4 was an education in that franchise more than a standout cinematic experience. There was a lot to get to grips with, not having seen Kung Fu Panda 1,2 or 3. I missed plenty of references and plot turns in the dazzling story of a friendly panda named Po who must appoint a new dragon warrior and defeat the evil sorceress. But there were a handful of good jokes. KFP4 is set in the Valley of Peace and the best scenes depict the panda hero's multiplying thoughts as he tries and fails to meditate under a tree. Many of us can relate.
MUSIC
The Craic Addicts. Johnny Flynn. Jonathan Richmond. A lot of Sinead O’Connor, the Pogues, Bob Dylan. If they are dead, I’m almost guaranteed to love them. John Creedon steps in at the end of the day to keep me company while I clean up. I love his weirder choices.
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BOOK
Colin Barrett’s Wild Houses. Once I’d gotten over the initial jealous dismay at being alive at the same time as such a fearsome talent I couldn’t stop reading it. Barrett’s tremendous descriptive power and ease with dialogue made even the tragic parts a compulsive joy to read. It also remains the only book in which I have tolerated passages detailing the dreams of fictional characters. Add to that Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self, a lot of Alice Munroe and some Kevin Barry.
THEATRE
With small children, the idea of ever going to the theatre again becomes theatrical in itself - but if I could, and having missed the new Marina Carr in the Abbey, it would have to be Emma Donoghue’s stage adaptation of The Pull of the Stars in the Gate – based on the author’s gripping historical novel of maternity during the Spanish Flu. Glass Mask theatre also put on great one-act shows in the Bookseller on Dawson Street and you can sip your drink and eat a cheeseboard during the performance. What could be better?
That's a wrap on week #2 of rehearsals for CELEBRITY ⭐️
— Glass Mask Theatre (@glassmaskdublin) April 14, 2024
Not long to go now until we move into the theatre & we hope to see you there!
Get your tickets now before they're gone: https://t.co/JvJIs07oBV
📸 Photos by Irem Akay. pic.twitter.com/LSanc4DWnt
TV
White Lotus, series two. If you haven’t seen this skewering take on the ultra rich on their holidays I would suggest you do so promptly. The locations are beautiful and the performances stupendous, in particular Jennifer Coolidge, who plays a pleasure-seeking and vulnerable bombshell of mature vintage. Succession kept me up all night when I last got addicted so I’m saving the final season for the holidays.
GIG
Pillow Queens in July is one I definitely will not make it to but will hopefully hear if I lurk around Iveagh Gardens. The last gig? Ciara Sidine, a powerful folk musician from Dublin 7 at the Viking Theatre, a frightening two years ago.
ART
Because she is my oldest friend and also, a mind-blowing artist of her generation, I have to mention Ruth E. Lyons’s 12-metre public artwork, Superunification, at Honeypark playground in Dun Laoghaire. Ruth built this colossus as a centrepiece for the people of Honeypark and all those who visit, connecting her ideas of social inclusivity with particle physics. The sun really illuminates the blue surface this time of year.
Lovely to join artist Ruth E. Lyons to celebrate the installation of her sculpture 'Superunification' in Honeypark pic.twitter.com/Tqzml3gbyB
— Cormac Devlin TD (@CormacDevlin) May 29, 2022
PODCAST
The Guardian's Today in Focus if I am going out to meet adults, and as a general rule, the New Yorker fiction podcast, the Stinging Fly podcast, and the David McWilliams podcast.
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TECH
The marvel that is Calm. They have soundscapes and tremendously dull sleep stories like 'Cricket Explained’ and ‘Amsterdam Canals’ and meditation exercises to suit your every whim. They even have meditations to get child to sleep. I try my best to do their 10 ‘Daily Calm’ and I meditate lying down which I think is cheating but feels right.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
Matriarchy.
Old Romantics is published by Tramp Press
