Essays

After the isolation of the pandemic, Irish writer and artist Sara Baume discovers a painting at a small exhibition in West Cork that captivates her. Its creator, Mollie Douthit, is an American artist living alone in a remote coastal cabin. The two women form an unexpected friendship, finding common ground in their artistic practices, love of nature, solitary habits, and complicated relationships with other people. They establish a monthly ritual of sharing soup and swimming in the Atlantic, while Mollie prepares a new exhibition inspired by memories of her childhood. As their friendship deepens, Baume begins writing about Mollie’s paintings, exploring whether words can capture the elusive, dreamlike quality of visual art. But life soon disrupts their quiet routines, bringing loss, pain, and uncertainty. Blending memoir, art criticism, and intimate reflection, Opening Night examines how friendship shapes our understanding of ourselves, our memories, and the world around us. It is a thoughtful meditation on creativity, solitude, and the surprising connections that make life meaningful.

On a summer Friday in Dublin, office worker Cathal watches the hours pass, looking forward to the weekend. Yet his thoughts keep returning to Sabine, the French woman he was once engaged to—and to the small moments and disagreements that destroyed their relationship. As the evening unfolds, details of their time together reveal a troubling portrait of a man whose rigid expectations and lack of generosity gradually undermine the possibility of love. The 2023 collection brings together three stories: So Late in the Day, The Long and Painful Death, and Antarctica. Across these unsettling encounters, Claire Keegan examines the power dynamics between women and men, exposing how entitlement, indifference, and the threat of violence can shape intimate relationships. With extraordinary precision and emotional restraint, she finds profound meaning in ordinary conversations and seemingly insignificant gestures. The result is a quietly devastating exploration of gender, intimacy, and the harm people can inflict without ever recognising themselves as cruel.

When contemporary Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa discovers the extraordinary work of eighteenth-century poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, she becomes captivated by the woman’s life and the grief that inspired her most famous poem. After discovering her husband’s murdered body, Eibhlín drank his blood and composed a devastating lament that would survive for centuries. Determined to recover the details of a life that history has largely erased, Ní Ghríofa embarks on a literary investigation that becomes deeply intertwined with her own experiences of pregnancy, motherhood, and domestic life. Moving between past and present, A Ghost in the Throat blends memoir, literary criticism, and historical research to explore female creativity, the silencing of women’s voices, and the intimate connections that can form between women separated by centuries. It is a lyrical meditation on grief, desire, motherhood, and the transformative power of discovering another woman’s story.