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4 March 1999 Edition

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New in print: Voices of resistance

by Ned Kelly
Sticks & Stones by Rosaleen Walsh
With Felonious Intent by Eamon McGurk
Aiming Higher by Micheal Gallagher & Rosaleen Walsh
All 1.50
Glandore Publishing
Springhill Community House,
6-7 Springhill Close,
Belfast BT12 7SE
Tel: (01232) 326722

At a lively evening complete with readings in the Felons club in West Belfast on Tuesday night three new books - Sticks & Stones, With Felonious Intent and Aiming Higher - from the ever growing Glandore Publishing stable were publicly launched. All three writers, Walsh, McGurk and Gallagher from the Felon's Writers Group read their own works with passion and not a little humour.

Beyond the value and talent demonstrtated by all three, Danny `Bangers' Morrison, the night's MC, expressed the shared belief of many republicans when he said, ``being prepared to put it down is a brave step and no-one else is going to write these stories about this community. To create a culture where writing is acceptable creates a background for others coming through. It is about that resistance.''

Walsh, reading a collection of poems and plays allowed a glimpse of the frailty of love, for partners and for children against the background of the unrelenting, all-encompassing assault on the republican community. And in the hilarious `Holes in My Knickers' she deftly captured the audience with her questioning. Firmly rooted in the oral tradition her reading of `My Beautiful Wild Child' was impassioned and expertly paced.

The poetry of McGurk in `Mick', `Kippers' and `Arrogance' showed a strength of purpose and the adept use of language and rhythm to wrap the contradiction of tradition and past around the realities on change, loss and decay.

In Gallagher, the youngest of the three, the myriad of images and ideas merge full of originality and a grand use of language. In `Silentwood' and `Young men at Dream' he hints at a deep love of life.

All three are well worth the read. Each different, each inviting you in to share in the personal world of three very different but talented people. The politics is both literal and profound.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland