The controversy surrounding the Irish rap band has obscured deeper questions about power, conflict and resistance, but they won’t go away. (Article first published in the Journal of Music on 30 April.)
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RTÉ Culture: Radical Irish Thinker Desmond Fennell Celebrated in New Volume
RTÉ Culture has published a piece about The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell, a new book that I have co-edited with Jerry White. Read the news piece here. Pre-order the book here.
Continue readingIFI to Host Special Screening of ‘Cinegael Paradiso’ to Mark Publication of ‘Count Me Out’
Screening to take place on Sunday 4 May at 1.30pm. Book here.
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) has announced that it will host a special screening of Cinegael Paradiso, directed by Robert Quinn, on Sunday 4 May at 1.30pm. The event marks the publication of Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn, the new collection published by Boluisce Press and edited by Toner Quinn.
Tickets for the screening are available now at www.ifi.ie.
Continue readingComing this June: ‘The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell’
I’m pleased to announce the publication of ‘The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell’ this June. See more here: https://journalofmusic.com/news/boluisce-press-publish-radical-thinking-desmond-fennell
Continue readingReview in Film Ireland
Film Ireland has published a review of Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn. Read more here: https://filmireland.net/2025/03/23/review-count-me-out-selected-writings-of-filmmaker-bob-quinn/
To purchase Count Me Out, see here.
Continue readingA Review in the Irish Times of ‘Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn’
The Irish Times has published a review of ‘Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn’. Read more here: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2025/03/15/count-me-out-by-bob-quinn-the-real-nuggets-are-in-the-personal-stories-of-this-important-film-maker/
Continue readingRTÉ Culture publishes extract from ‘Count Me Out’
To mark the publication of Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn, RTÉ Culture has published an extract in which I write about my father and growing up in the Conamara Gaeltacht. Read the full article here: https://www.rte.ie/culture/2025/0228/1497308-growing-up-in-the-conamara-gaeltacht-with-my-maverick-father/
The book is available to purchase here: https://journalofmusic.com/shop
RTÉ publishes bilingual of Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn
RTÉ has published a bilingual review of Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn, a book that I have edited. Read the full review here: https://www.rte.ie/gaeilge/2025/0227/1499253-count-me-out-godfather-of-irish-film-bob-quinn/
How to Achieve the Impossible, With Very Little, and When Everyone Says You Are Wrong
An extract from Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn. To order the book, visit https://journalofmusic.com/shop
These days, my father and I meet once a week. From Leitir Péic in Conamara I drive the half-hour west along Cois Fharraige and through the moon-like landscape of Bóthar Loch an Iolra to the townland of Tuairín, where Bob’s dwelling is almost entirely hidden from thirty years of tree-planting. He is now 89 and there are always practical things to discuss, but we are rarely in the mood. Instead, we continue on to the village of An Cheathrú Rua where in the early evening we have our choice of seats in An Chistin pub and we settle down to talk about what matters – writing, thinking, ideas, music, the world.
It has always been like this. My father is known as a filmmaker, photographer and writer, but beneath these pursuits is a relentless inquiry. That is why his artistic work is so polymathic, from the anarchic Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoire to the first Irish-language feature film Poitín to the intellectual explosion that is Atlantean. ‘A low threshold of boredom,’ is his bald explanation, but there is more at play of course.
Continue readingNew Book Now Available
After a wonderful launch on Saturday evening by Stephen Rea, I am delighted to say that ‘Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn’, which I have edited, is now available. Please see stockists below or visit https://journalofmusic.com/shop.
Available in the following shops:
Hodges Figgis, Dublin
The Library Project, Temple Bar, Dublin
Charlie Byrne’s, Galway
Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway
Worm Books, Schull, Co. Cork
Sheelagh na Gig Bookshop, Main Street, Tipperary
Banner Books, The Square Ennistymon, Co. Clare
O’Mahony’s, Limerick
TheBookshop.ie
And more to follow.
📸 Ruby Quinn
Toner Quinn 