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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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 1d

Colm Tóibín on The Poems of Seamus Heaney: For those familiar with Heaney’s work, the new poems will keep them going well beyond Christmas. But soon, the core of the book will matter more – the 12 volumes Heaney published in his lifetime placed in sequence.

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

Colm Tóibín on The Poems of Seamus Heaney: ‘A process of finding echoes and associations’

This book contains Heaney’s unpublished poems plus all those from his single books of poetry published

www.irishtimes.com

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 1d

Can’t wait to read it, Louise

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 2d

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai

The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storyteller

www.theguardian.com

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 2d

New Louise Kennedy novel out next year.
Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

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

New Louise Kennedy novel out next year

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

www.irishtimes.com

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 3d

You deserve to bask in the reflected glory, Declan

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Reposted by Martin Doyle

𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕟 𝕆'𝔻𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝 @jacqbetula.bsky.social · 3d

I felt a lump in my throat when it was announced that László Krasznahorkai had won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. I love his books and have reviewed four of his novels for The Irish Times.
Many thanks to @martindoyle.bsky.social for allowing me to do so.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai: A paean to depth and meaning amid violence and death

The novel’s protagonist, Florian Herscht, writes and rewrites a letter to Angela Merkel about what he believes to be an existential threat to the world

www.irishtimes.com

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 3d

Nobel Prize in Literature 2025: Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai wins.

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

Nobel Prize in Literature 2025: Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai wins

The prize, considered the most prestigious literary prize in the world, is worth almost €1 million and has had four Irish winners in the past

www.irishtimes.com

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Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 4d

Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan...The flotilla was illegally intercepted last night and seized by armed Israeli forces in international waters.
irishpen.com/2025/10/08/t...

Thousand Madleens flotilla Statement - Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann

8 October 2025 Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann is gravely concerned about the detention of writer Naoise Dolan, one of several Irish citizens taking part in the Thousand Madleens f...

irishpen.com

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 4d

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

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Markus Eichhorn @markuseichhorn.bsky.social · 6d

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 · 6d

‘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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 7d

Boy, fetch me my chisel!

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Reposted by Martin Doyle

The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 7d

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

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 7d

‘“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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 8d

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 · 8d

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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 8d

‘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 · 8d

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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 8d

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

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Reposted by Martin Doyle

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 10d

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.

nyti.ms

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Marc de Faoite @marcdefaoite.bsky.social · 12d

quote of the week just dropped

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 14d

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 · 14d

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

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Raven Books @ravenbooks.bsky.social · 12d

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 · 12d

Today is International Translation Day.

Create connections through literature instead of division through ignorance!

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 14d

Cheers Rónán

Reposted by Martin Doyle

Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 14d

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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 14d

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

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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 19d

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

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