Praise for the first issue of IRISH PAGES

“A wonderful achievement.”

Michael Longley
Poet, Belfast

“Congratulations on IRISH PAGES. May it keep up this graceful, agile pace, and never be tempted up a dark dead-end by plausible fellows with an agenda tucked into their socks …”

Neal Ascherson
Journalist and writer, London

“Let me congratulate you entirely on a terrific achievement that is your new journal … full of substance and stimulation and provocation, doing exactly what a little magazine (albeit not little) should do.”
Antony Farrell
Editor and founder of The Lilliput Press, Dublin

“A really handsome journal with a mix that seems just right. It reminds me of the mix of THE BELL years ago.”
Francis Harvey
Poet and novelist, Donegal

“IRISH PAGES is more European-minded and expansive in its outlook than any literary/cultural periodical I know in Scotland, or elsewhere in the British Isles.”

Mario Relich
Poet and critic, Edinburgh

“IRISH PAGES is a magnificent achievement. My wife Hilary said: "It's more than a magazine. It's an important event in the history of Northern Ireland.”

John and Hilary Wakeman
Co-editors of The Shop: A Magazine of Poetry, West Cork

“This is a marvellous production. IRISH PAGES is one of the finest journals I have seen produced anywhere in these islands in recent years.”
Gerald Dawe
Poet, Director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, Trinity College, Dublin

 

 

 

Praise for the second issue of IRISH PAGES

“A major development in Irish literature.”
John F. Deane
Poet, novelist and editor, Dublin

“What strikes me in particular is how established IRISH PAGES seems even though this is just the second issue. I expect it's because the journal fills a huge gap; it's a real relief to come across such a distinguished, and varied, collection of essays and poems which, despite their diversity, articulate a shared vision of inclusiveness and, yes, justice.”
Sarah Maguire
Poet and translator, London

“Really stunning. I haven't seen anything quite as good in some time.”
Kevin Bowen
Poet and translator, Director of the William Joiner Center, University of Massachusetts, Boston

“Many years ago, whenever writers complained they had few venues for their work, I urged them to start their own. Then the Home Depot Syndrome overwhelmed even the literary world. Today, hearing the same lament I'd direct the young to IRISH PAGES and its editors. Because it seems to me they have created something of a new paradigm here – a literary journal that acts locally but thinks and reads globally. That's just what's needed, this deliberate, self-conscious and nourishing ecology of art, responsive to weather patterns worldwide while knowing when to open its umbrella. Somehow I wasn't surprised to find the benign ferocity of Wendell Berry leading us into the second issue. The editorial philosophy animating IRISH PAGES asserts that wisdom lies in looking not only inward, but also around, behind and over our shoulders: to see both ourselves and our place in a larger whole …”

Askold Melnyczuk
Novelist, founding editor of Agni, Boston

“The most important cultural journal in Ireland at the present moment.”
Jonathan Allison
Scholar and critic, Director of the Yeats Summer School

“I very seldom read literary journals cover to cover, but I find with this one I do.”
Chris Arthur
Essayist, Lampeter, Wales

“IRISH PAGES is wonderful …”
Susan Sontag
Essayist and novelist, New York City

 

 

Praise for the third issue of IRISH PAGES

“IRISH PAGES represents a new maturity in the life of the Irish periodical.”

Belinda McKeon, The Irish Times
Critic and journalist

“Intensely non-provincial, the magazine accommodates the global and the avant-garde alongside the local and traditional … The mixture is exhilarating … The Bell makes a doughty precursor for Irish Pages, which, in a similar vein, goes all out for sober excellence and inspired audacity.”

Patricia Craig, Times Literary Supplement
Biographer and critic

“I thought it your best edition so far.”

Brian Friel
Playwright, Co Donegal

“IRISH PAGES critical reception has been outstanding, especially gaining plaudits for its blending of local and global perspectives. The Editors see the magazine operating along the crucial intellectual intersections of the literary, the historical, the ethical and the social. ”

Malcolm Ballin
Literary scholar, Cardiff University, Wales

“ I consider it the best Irish/British journal for some time. ”

Gary Allen
Poet, Co Antrim

“You guys are setting the bar very high and it makes the whole game much more rewarding and enjoyable. ”

Sven Birkerts
Essayist and critic, Editor of AGNI, Boston