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 readingI’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 readingFilm 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 readingThe 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 readingTo 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 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/
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 readingAfter 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
Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, 15 February 2025
Sula gcríochnaíonn muid suas ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá agus mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le cúpla duine.
Sa gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas do Stephen Rea. Stephen, it has really made it a very special occasion to have you here with us this evening. I know Bob really appreciates it, all of our family appreciate it, and I am sure everyone here does too. Go raibh míle maith agat. I also want to thank my sister, Hannah – who was nominated for an IFTA last night at the awards in Dublin! – and who worked with Stephen on the series The Stranger on Netflix. Thank you Hannah for bringing Stephen down today.
Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le Vinny Browne agus an fhoireann ar fad anseo i Charlie Byrne’s. Vinny has been a terrific supporter of Bob’s work, and my own writing and publishing too. We’re so lucky to have Charlie Byrne’s in Galway. I don’t know what we would do without it, so thank you to Vinny and all the staff for hosting this event.
Continue readingThe Arts Council has written off €5.3m on ‘substandard work’ and an IT system that was ‘not fit for purpose’ while artists try to make ends meet. This has to be the beginning of real change, writes Toner Quinn. [Article irst published in the Journal of Music on 13 February 2025]
There were many surprising and infuriating aspects to the Arts Council’s announcement yesterday, in which it sketched out how it spent €6.675m and then wrote off €5.3m on a new grants management system that never worked, but few satisfactory explanations.
Continue reading
Toner Quinn 