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/
Category Archives: The Journal of Music
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
This is the Arts Council’s ‘RTÉ Moment’ and Serious Change Must Follow
The 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 readingStephen Rea to Launch ‘Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn’, edited by Toner Quinn
I am delighted to announce that renowned actor Stephen Rea will launch Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn, which I have edited, on Saturday 15 February in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway City. To pre-order Count Me Out, visit http://journalofmusic.com/shop.
Interview on Film Ireland
I spoke with Film Ireland about the new book of my father’s writing that I have edited. See full article here: https://filmireland.net/2025/01/22/through-the-lens-of-legacy-a-look-back-at-the-writings-of-bob-quinn/
An Essay in the Irish Times
This weekend the Irish Times has published an essay I wrote about my father. Read the full piece here: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2025/01/16/the-phone-would-ring-and-it-would-be-mike-scott-from-the-waterboys-or-bono-from-u2-everyone-wanted-to-talk-to-my-father/
Writing About Music – Criticism, Journalism & Professional Development – Maynooth University Micro-credential
This spring I will be teaching on this new course at Maynooth University: Writing About Music – Criticism, Journalism & Professional Development.
See full details here: https://journalofmusic.com/listing/22-11-23/maynooth-university-micro-credential-writing-about-music-criticism-journalism
Catherine Martin Swept Aside the Old Excuses for Not Supporting the Arts
When Catherine Martin was appointed Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht in June 2020, three months into the pandemic, those working in music and the arts had become accustomed to low expectations.
Continue reading‘Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn’ to be Published in February 2025
Next February 2025, I will publish a collection of my father’s writing, titled Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn.
Find out more here.
Toner Quinn 