Sean Walsh

Saint Francis Hospice… A room en suite soon to be a Departure Lounge.   At her bedside, Wee Four: Siobhan and Joanna, daughters, a sister, Patricia… mise…   ‘Reaching… touching cold hands, limp on bedding. ‘A beaker of water to dry lips, ‘sipping… declining. ‘Distraught at our very helplessness: her shallow breathing… straying words. Relieved, betimes, by morphine. My  voice...

Dear God Enlighten what is dark in me Strengthen what is weak in me Mend what is broken in me Bind what is bruised in me Heal what is sick in me and lastly, Revive whatever peace and love has died in me…

My Latest! Travels with my Dad. Amazon: ebook and Paperback “Just wonderful – and full of wondering!.. I wallowed in it with smiles and joy and admiration…” – Bernard Farrell. Scribe.

Oh, and one night there during the week when you were away, didn’t I walk into the front room thinking it was empty.   And what do y’know, Mammy and Maggie sittin’ behind the lace curtains at one of the windows looking down at the crowds going past in Park Street and across at the neighbours…   And when I...

EN ROUTE   Nearing the end of a long life I begin to live – a bit… Away with the countless, half-lived Yesterdays! Trudging the Wastelands, soured by my very discontent. Not knowing… unaware… of Him… No going back! No, nor looking back! Now! Now is all that – ‘Aware I am on a direct line – forward at a...

august 7. ’22. At last! After weeks of trial and error… edits… inserts… rewrites… it is ready to put “out there…” Tomorrow I go back over the file one last time… from start to finish… before pressing Publish… Then, all going well, I will begin to promote my wares… this time in earnest. Selling a must… otherwise it just disappears...

"Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly - even though you're feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days... Lightly, lightly - it's the best advice ever given to me. To throw away your baggage and go forward... Lightly, my darling." – Aldous Huxley....

Lockdown turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise for me. Church building locked, ongoing: no Mass, no sacraments, no shared Word… I began to withdraw from the all too familiar… dwell instead on the concept of an ever present God. I turned anew to Matthew 6.6 “… but you, when you pray, go into your room, close the...

EASTER BLESSINGS “On this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry — old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling – and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no...

On impulse, I lately began to video myself, using my iPad. There I was on screen, warts and all! Rough, you might say. Quite lacking  the finesse of a professional photographer/studio. Agreed. But still… Maybe, I reckoned, the vocal would compensate fot the visual?! And so, over the last week or so, I came to record some of my choice...

Fifty years a religious, Sister C. ‘Calls for a celebration, no? My wife and I among the favoured few. Several days before the event the good lady handed me a page or two of typescript. Would I read it aloud in place of the communion verse at the celebration Mass? Of course I would. . . ‘Read it… mulled over...

I climb the stairway to the attic – clear day, dimlit night – into an empty room full of Might Have Been…   ‘Cross to the slanted ceiling, lever open the window, look out across slated roofs, dull bricked chimneys, towards Dublin Bay, the  Migrant Way…

Me. Like an old Ford, rusted Volkswagen… Starting, stopping… coughing… breaking down ever so often… thinking – about writing, creating on paper, striking chords, in a language (Hiberno English) that Everyman might readily understand… This Sean Walsh who lives – and dreams – in Dublin, Ireland, has many irons in the fire, some hotter than others… And there’s the rub:...

Click and click again – you now have a POSTER! When I finished work on the text – it didn’t just happen, I had to make it happen! – I posted it to Andrew Brown and he returned the finished product, as above. Leave it as it is and move on, or do as I have done – first to...

‘Tells a wonderful story through a series of well-crafted, beautifully written and humorous letters, which will draw in all who read them. You will find here the odyssey of a soul that will call forth fellow travelers. His letters to ‘Michael’ are addressed to us all. The work has the vibrancy of great letter writing. Take and read. – Fr...

  CLICK TO EXPAND… “Go into your room… close the door… and be with your Father…” “Social distancing does not cut ice with Jesus Christ. No way!”

The Innkeeper to the Carpenter: “What? A bed for the night? You haven’t a hope! We’re full, booked out!.. What?.. Your wife is..? Oh. Oh, dear… Well, look – round the back – the stables… At least ye’ll be in out of the weather…” dfw-sw-christmas_poetry2.pdf

December, 1950. Franciscan Novitiate. The Friary, Killarney.  Christ Mass  Dear Michael, The chap who wagered that I would be back in civvies before Christmas has lost his bet. ‘Verging on the New Year and I am still here! Stronger than ever, at that. In my resolve, determination… The “old Man” has ceased to complain about the strict life, I am...

Here’s the Thing! I began to put words on paper during lock down… to veer away from Church as building, liturgy, religious rites – become more and more attracted to the idea of Presence… of the Divine with us wherever, whenever… Draft after draft followed… as I strove to get it as ‘right’ as I could. When, eventually, I published...

When she took off I gave her a month, ‘month at the outside… She’ll be back, I’ll take bets on it. Down at the mouth, sure, but glad to be home for all that: safe, secure, shelter… Oh yeah, London’ll cure her cough.   Oh, Jenny, Jenny!.. What are you at, a tall a tall, daughter mine?.. I didn’t give...

Written and spoken by Sean Walsh… 1587 hits on You Tube – so far! Just over 5 mins. Have a listen, see for yourself…      

dfw-sw-christmas_podfw-sw-christmas_poetry2etry2

‘Past the inn with ne’er a vacancy, raucous revelry, receding…   Around the back to the stables. Animals stirring… breathing warmth in cold night air.   Aloft, a movement of wings.   In a makeshift crib on a bed of straw under a thousand stars, a new-born babe…   Gentled to her breast by a young Jewess…   And by...

“How can we fail to realise the need to stop this rat race and to recover the personal space needed to carry on a heartfelt dialogue with God?..”   Pope Francis. Gaudete et Exsultate.   (Para 29)

Father Richard mentioned her passing at the 11 mass in Gardiner street on Sunday last (Oct 4) but the penny didn’t drop until Ann reminded me. Yes, of course! Mags! The wee woman always in blue. Many and many a Tuesday at 1 pm Mass, she would be there at my elbow, ready to share as a Minister of the...

I was not at all happy with certain parts and passages of Mark One. So I got down to make amends – to you, the reader and to my own ego, doubtless – about mid summer. I’ve been at it, on and off, ever since. Edits, rewrites, add-on’s… Moving a blog here, another there… Lifting a passage from one part...

The Friary, Killarney. October 1950. Dear Michael, Yes, they are, too! Well, how would you like to walk ten miles in open sandals?! Eh-hh?.. To fill you in: last Thursday we set out from the Friary – twenty of us, walking two by two. With the open road in front – and the Novice Master behind – we walked to...

Hail Mary… Hi…  Hello…    Are you there – or are you on your travels? ‘Above – or beyond in Yugoslavia?   I, I’m never too sure when I have you, to be honest. But then, you’re a female. So I don’t find it all that surprising…   There was this shrine, as I recall. Oh, well known it was,...

The Friary. Killarney. Dear Michael, Here I am – in the Novitiate, in brown and in the best, oh the very best, of form. This morning, at the end of an eight-day Retreat, we were received – all twenty of us – into the Franciscan family. But I am way ahead of myself and so much has happened during the...

The Friary, Killarney, winter, 1950. Dear Michael,  Many thanks for your letter. It was good to hear from you. So how do you find Pre-Med? “Doctor Michael …” It sounds well. Oh, by the way, if you come across a cure for sleepiness in your studies let me know without delay, won’t you? Even as I write I have an...

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Matt 6: 6) Unseen - but there for all that... Stay in, stay safe. Wash your hands - the all-too-familiar diktats of the Pandemic. Now here’s a thing: social distancing does not cut ice with Jesus Christ!.. He is having none...

Once started I could not stop… It is an amazing piece of work that defies classification. It is so many things in so many wonderful ways, in so many creative forms, with so many challenging time-shifts, emotional-shifts, narrative shifts – all explored, developed and drawn together in a sweep of literary magic. The writing is at times poetic, ever beautiful...

Flash being the operative word! Back to the Future Mark Two. A return to the Gospel narrative signals the way forward… If you read nothing else today… reflect on this: https://international.la-croix.com/news/closed-churches-are-foretaste-of-the-future-warns-tomas-halik/12290 Do… please. Ad Excelsior! Sean.

Centre Circle, Asunder, Three for Calvary, Dead Man Talking, Playback, The Dreamers, Pilate Under Pressure, Veil My ebooks on Smashwords.com FREE download to your device from now until the end of May. Get one, get ’em all! Binge! You could do worse!

Fresh from Design for Writers.com (Andrew Brown), the cover of my new ebook soon to be published “out there.” Soon now, soon… the finishing touches to the text… interior… I sense success beyond measure… Climbing mountains that have never before been climbed…

Collegio Sant Isidoro, Via degli Artisti, 41, Roma 2. Dear Michael, An assurance has settled upon me since last I wrote – the assurance that I have arrived, made it, got there.  Realising that I am a priest is not at all as easy as I had imagined: for days on end after ordination I found myself coming up with...

CONCLAVE, the new, shorter, tighter, faster-moving version is now available on Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Smashwords.com etc. And all the better for my editing during the past several weeks – even if I say so myself! Set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday, the storyline is uncannily familiar – and relevant: the High Priest, Caiaphas, and his Inner Circle meet behind closed doors to...

(Carlo Carretto, an Italian monk who died in 1988. For many years, he lived as a hermit in the Sahara Desert.) How much I must criticize you, my church and yet how much I love you! How you have made me suffer much and yet owe much to you. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need...

 So long ago?.. ‘Seems like yesterday. Even now I close my eyes and re-live, re-call the noise, bustle. clamour, the sights, sounds, aromas, the stunning coloratura of Rome in the mid fifties…   Rome.  Ah, yes. The Eternal City. Citadel of Pius the Twelfth, Pontefex Maximus. Rome of the Latin Ritual and the Strict Observance, of sanctity and sin, devotion...

Las Ramblas was something else! A never ending boulevard of shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, caged birds, floral displays… A brilliant violinist backed by a throbbing orchestra… Row upon row of vendors, noisy locals, incessant smokers… ‘Finishing line at the harbour.  To Montserrat – by vertical bus!  Up, up and up again!   Don’t look out, Ann! Down! Beware vertigo!..  ...

Re THE CIRCUS, my four-hander which has now happily morphed into a six-hander, 125 Valium Valley: The late Bill Morrison, an accomplished playwright in his own right and – for a time – Drama producer, BBC Northern Ireland, read the script and enthused about it. So much so that when he settled in Liverpool to join Chris Bond, Willy Russell and...

I’m asking myself how do I write to a man who is so gifted with words? Your book, Notes on the Past Imperfect, spoke right to my heart. I cried a lot reading it but also smiled at parts. The one thing that came across powerfully to me was your deep love for Jenny and her love for you –...

IN FRATERNITATE… Paris. Circa 2010. In a bistro near Notre Dame, Jim and I meet up: pasta, wine, coffee – and talk, talk!.. And when I mentioned – shyly, reluctantly – an idea for a drama that was, as yet, very much in embryo his eyes lit up and he became an instant fan! Then questions, questions! And in striving to...

By Robert Mickens. Some five years ago I was invited to speak at the City Club of Cleveland, Ohio. * The topic of my talk was the Vatican implosion and, as a result, the long and gradual collapse of the Catholic Church’s monarchical structure of governance and ministry. I argued that as the last absolute monarchy in the West (and...

They stared at him a long moment, then one of them said, Where do you live? He tilted his head, gesturing – Come and see… So they left their nets and followed him…   Jesus. The Galilean. The Nazarene.  The one who ate and drank and broke bread with sinners…  relished every greasy moment of the communal dish.   Looking...

A four-letter word – with a punch! Reviewing Veil a final time before Publishing, it suddenly came to me: see how this word occurs from time to time, Sean…   At the end of the very first scene, Azarias cries out to Yahweh: “Give me back my son!.. Give me back my son!..” And at the very close of the...

MOLLY UPDATE   After the initial shock, Siobhan and Benny faced up to the crisis very well – I formed this impression after speaking to Benny yesterday by phone and likewise with Siobhan (more than once.) She is now coping very well, considering… They have a camper bed in Molly’s room and take it in turn to spend alternative nights...

"A long walk down a short corridor into a circle of strangers... Emma across from me, strangest of them all..."

Tackle Clericalism first – then reform the priesthood. Peter Daly.  If the priesthood is to be reformed, we must tackle the disease of clericalism. It won’t be easy. Clericalism is so deeply ingrained in our structures and way of thinking that we almost can’t imagine how things could be otherwise. In his 2018 “Letter to the People of God,” Pope...

Many Catholics are overwhelmed, shocked, appalled, traumatized by the sex abuse crisis that is tainting their Church. And so am I. But what can we do? Above all, we must express our compassion and empathy for the victims, whose suffering is much greater than ours. This crisis demands that we transform the Church, which is made up of us all....

The weekend we took off for a break, leaving her in charge… Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth and her promising she’d lock up, switch on the alarm, share with Ciara in Carsons until we got back? Sure we were hardly gone – treading Friday afternoon traffic – when she was on the phone, ringing round, spreading the word: Jenny’s...

There was this shrine, as I recall. Oh, well known it was, locally… We walked the three miles, there and back. Out the country. ‘Summer’s day… Me still in short trousers, ‘boots that needed mending. Six miles in all. A killer…   ‘Knelt for the Rosary. Nudging, gawking around, stifling a giggle… Every bead a penance…   ‘Grass trodden underfoot...

May 1980. A phone call from Tom Walsh, my nephew, to say my mother was poorly and would I like to share the journey with him to Ennis to visit her. Oh yes, of course! He planned to leave Balbriggan, his domicile north of Dublin, on the morrow and would pick me up in Dublin at a specified time and...

Back row, centre aisle.   A tangible stillness in an almost empty Church… Elders moving slowly – genuflecting, kneeling, standing – making their way to Calvary, treading their very own, plaster statued, Via Dolorosa…   Re-living the Greatest Story Ever Told in reparation for their own sins and the sins of the whole world.     Jesus is condemned… the...

I climb the stairs to the attic – ‘clear day – moonlit night – to an empty room full of Might Have Been… ‘Cross the floor to a slanting ceiling, lever open the Velox window, look out across Joycean rooftops towards Dublin Bay and London… so far away…        

I doubt you will come across an angle on the story of Jesus’ passion and death which even remotely reflects what is to be found in this play. It is truly sui generis, one of a kind.

“For me the true gift of theatre, the real benediction of all art is the ringing bell which reverberates quietly and persistently in the head long after the curtain has come down… That sacred song is the only momentary stay we have against confusion…” – Brian Friel.   January 29, 1929 – Oct 9, 2015  

This from a Face book friend who lives in Canada when I posted about Pilate Under Pressure… He describes himself as self educated, works with his hands, and has not only read P U P but also my other scripts set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday: Three for Calvary… Veil… Conclave.  (All on Amazon.)  – S W...

So long ago?.. Seems like yesterday. Even now I close my eyes… re-call, re-live the noise, bustle, clamour, the sights, sounds, aromas, the stunning coloratura of Rome in the mid fifties…   Rome. Ah, yes. The Eternal City. Citadel of Pius the Twelfth, Pontefex Maximus. Rome of the Latin Ritual and the Strict Observance, of sanctity and sin, devotion and...

Autumn, 1949. Franciscan (open) college, Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath. Me in sixth year. The start of my first – and last – year as a boarder… A few weeks later work began in earnest on the annual Christmas play; as it happened, the friar in charge of production, Father Arthur Jordan (gone to God), had decided on an abridged version of...

B A C K A four-letter word – but with quite a punch! Reviewing Veil, Mark Two, getting it ready for publication – finally – it suddenly came to me: see how this word occurs from time to time, Sean… At the end of the very first scene, Azarias cries out to Yahweh: “Give me back my son!.. Give me...

At the lake shore, calling men who would deny and desert him... to be fishers of men... At a marriage feast in Galilee, his mother giving him the elbow - "They have no wine..."

Sifting through the bits and pieces of a long-ago past I came across a letter from my Dad, recognised immediately his unmistakable hand and noted the date, 30/9/1951. So long ago! My first year as a student – Arts and Philosophy – at Galway University.   I had barely settled in when Dad wrote me; a few paragraphs in and I knew...

"There is someone - something - in there but it is not our Misach!.." "Who are you?.." "We are... the Cold..." "He speaks - but not with the voice of my son -" "We speak with many voices - we are many..."

   INVITE:  To the launch of my book, Notes on the Past Imperfect, at the Writers’ Centre, Parnell square, on Wednesday, May 16. at 6.30 p m. A taste of wine, drop o’ water, bit o’ craic and a signed copy if you’re good – good at forking out… Sean. www.sean-walsh.me   “I was really struck by the sheer originality…...

  May 1980. A phone call from Tom Walsh, my nephew, to say my mother was poorly and would I like to share the journey with him to Ennis to visit her. Oh yes, but of course! He planned to leave Balbriggan, his domicile north of Dublin, on the morrow and would pick me up in Dublin at a specified...

‘month at the outside… She’ll be back, nothing surer. Head hanging, glad to be home, safe shelter. Oh yeah, London’ll cure her cough…   Oh, Jenny, Jenny!.. What are you at, a tall a tall, daughter mine?.. I didn’t give you a hope – how could I?..   Sure I knew the time would come when you’d want to fly...

Clerical Bullying… The appalling behaviour of the institutional church has been responsible for creating the darkest possible cloud which now overshadows every-thing else about our Catholic Church… And another ingredient should be added to the destructive mix that has so diminished our Irish Catholic Church – the bullying of the people by some clergy played a greater role in Catholic...

"He speaks - but not with the voice of my son!" We speak with many voices - we are many..." "Who are you? "We are - the cold..."

"Lord Lord! We didn't know! Aye, well yis know now!.."

The College Chapel at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, has 454 carved oak stalls for seminarians and priests. They run in serried ranks down the length of its nave, making it the largest choir chapel in the world. The church itself is a masterpiece of Gothic Revival, and the ceiling of the church offers a kind of visual catechism, taking worshippers...

Taken by a young Parisienne, passing by. I caught her eye, offering my camera and she duly obliged. Lovely. I was about to, to… when her boy friend appeared from nowhere. She frowned – I swear she frowned – shrugged… turned away… I followed her with my eyes as she walked beside him – noting poise, balance, curvature… Then turned...

Pilate:: "Do I hear you aright? They want me to send soldiers under my command to guard a tomb? A tomb! Why, I would be the laughing stock of the Empire..." "Thank you for your play - It was so different..."

A glimpse of hidden turmoil that historians will need By Sean O’Conaill:  25 October 2015 Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase This play shows why art is needed – to go where history cannot: in this case into the internal impact of a ‘defection’ from the fortress church of Irish Catholicism in the 1960s. Xavier, a monk, has disappeared, but why – and what will...

CONCLAVE, the new, shorter, tighter, faster-moving version is now available on Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Smashwords.com etc. And all the better for my editing during the past several weeks – even if I say so myself! Set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday, the storyline is uncannily familiar – and relevant: the High Priest, Caiaphas, and his Inner Circle meet behind closed doors...

Years ago when I worked in RTE as a Drama producer, a young and very shy Corkonian, Kieran Slyne, had just begun to work as a Sound Effects man in Studio 9. (Drama suite.)  I sensed his insecurity… softly, softly… we got on well…   Some time later he transferred to TV and we lost contact, went our different ways....

At the start of the year, Pope Francis on clericalism. Celebrating Mass in Santa Marta… He cited the return of the sorrowful Judas to the Sanhedrin – and the coldness with which they received him… No good shepherds, they… Their attitude the very antithesis of the Lord’s ever forgiving… Their preoccupation with minutiae, the precepts of the law, in sharp...

Ireland of the late 70’s, early 80’s, recalled…   A man looks back, re-lives his boyhood years – not so much A Voyage Round my Father as Travels with my Dad… memories elicited by a psychiatrist to whom he submits as part of an attempt to extricate himself from the debris of a sundered marriage…   And in the frame,...

Me warm and secure and proud as Punch, beside him in the Standard, chugging along at forty, knowing he’d get us there and home again, safely… Out by Ravensdale and Riverstown to Carlingford of the Norman castles. Lemonade and biscuits in O’Hare’s pub, me on a high stool… The Railway hotel in Greenore; herrings and mash in O’Meath…   And...

I worked in RTE’s Drama Department for some 16 years in the ’70’s,’80’s – directing, producing, scripting, editing. During that period I wrote and produced some of my own plays – well received and reviewed for the most part, they were subsequently broadcast by the BBC and, in translation, on European networks. Later… some years into my (early) retirement… it...

When she took off I gave her a month, ‘month at the outside… She’ll be back, nothing surer. Head hanging, down at the mouth, sure – but glad to be home, for all that: safe, secure, sheltered. Oh yeah, London’ll cure her cough…   Oh, Jenny, Jenny!.. What are you at, a tall a tall, daughter mine?.. I didn’t give...

All 4: The MacMaster Piece. Wee Nudge. Pen Pal. New Leaf. COMMENTS: “I just watched “Pen Pal,” “New Leaf,” “Wee Nudge” and “The McMaster Piece,” and I really think they are amazing. Moving and engrossing. I could listen to you for hours tell stories. The filming, production, and delivery are first-class, really really impressive. “The McMaster Piece” is especially poignant...

  Here is a play that while set in the context of the passion of Jesus belongs to any and every age. A group of men used to power work to ensure that they remain in power and that an individual who threatens their power is eliminated. They are so committed to their own version of the truth that they...

"Many a time and oft on the Rialto..." I kept at it until I had it be heart. Though I didn't know it at the time, it was a way of trying to stretch to the far ends of the earth, keep him in mind... I could do a fair take on him as Shylock...

Awesome… In the real sense of the word… How very nicely you have touched on Christ’s humanity, and the centre of the Gospel message. Thanks for sharing your heart. You sound as though you have experienced much loving kindness… – Dave Armishaw. (Canada.)   “I have just had the most unexpected, brief, immersive encounter with language and storytelling that I’ve...

http://www.lastampa.it/2016/11/24/vaticaninsider/eng/the-vatican/if-clericalism-isnt-rich-in-terms-of-money-then-it-is-in-terms-of-pride-n4fdpDRamYSyc3cQilqLUM/pagina.html The jesuit Pope speaking to (fellow) jesuits… Love it… If I get a chance I will copy, edit, highlight… Manna!

CAIAPHAS Yes?.. What is it? JUDAS I, I come to return your bribe. I - I have sinned in betraying the blood of an innocent man... CAIAPHAS What is that to us? It concerns you only. JUDAS You will take back the money you paid me. CAIAPHAS No, we will not! JUDAS But you must... CAIAPHAS To what purpose? Alleviate...

CONCLAVE, my new, shorter, tighter, faster-moving version is now available: Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk etc. And all the better for my editing during the past several weeks – even if I say so myself! Set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday, the storyline is uncannily familiar – and relevant: the High Priest, Caiaphas, and his Inner Circle meet behind closed...

Mark One published, 2014. The third in my trilogy: the Passion from a Jewish perspective… I then moved on to other ideas, writing projects. Fast forward to Autumn, 2016. I had forgotten Conclave to the point where I was able to look at it anew, objectively… Much of it was still to my liking but I quickly decided there was...

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/6239/0/cardinal-sarah-presents-counter-vision-to-francis-as-he-launches-new-book Well worth a read. Pope Francis has his critics… The reference to silence caught my eye… Indeed… Even a pause ever so often during celebration would be a step in the right direction, no?    

Department of English, Queen’s University, Belfast. 1966. “The idea of approaching the significance of the Passion obliquely, through the experiences of those who might be regarded as enemies, is good theatre; and the actual denouement is all the more dramatic for not taking place in the presence of the Saviour. In fact, the reality of the Incarnation seems to me...

A terrific script in search of an audience! Amazon paperback and Kindle.    

‘When Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and prostitutes, it was not a duty. It was utter delight in their company, in their very being. When he touched the untouchable, it was not a clinical gesture, but a hug of joy. So it belongs to us as priests that we rejoice in the very existence of people, with all...

Into the final stretch – 125 Valium Valley re-visited, revised… A bigger typeface for one thing, better layout. I have never been really happy with the Amazon paperback, Mark One. Hopefully this new, updated version will hit the bull’s eye… Even as I worked on the script – a four-hander morphing into a six-hander – THE CIRCUS becoming 125 VALIUM...

I was pressed to write a comedy so I did – albeit a black comedy!.. In two acts. Much about it in the Introduction – how it came to pass, how a four-hander morphed into a six-hander. Not for me to say it is quite hilarious, especially in the second act! Suffice to say that when I was writing, re-writing...

Behold! A terrible beauty is born! Last year (’14) what I thought was a stage play in the making – title – THE RECKONING – has now this year (’15) become a film/TV Drama script – title – The Search for Xavier. Not without pain, searching, editing, cutting back, re-writing… trying to hear and see – not just hear. (As in...

My suggestion, working closely with Andrew Brown (Design for Writers): miniature covers of all four publications on Amazon with relevant quotes from each… Click to enlarge. Striking, don’t you think?  

My trilogy of plays set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday. Now on Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk et al. Only came to me gradually… The three plays, each set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday, as an entity, a paperback trilogy… Quite an undertaking. I worked at it right the way through Autumn, ’14 into Winter, ’15… finally published...

Out Next Week! Drama set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday. Jerusalem. At the house of the Hugh Priest. Behind closed doors. The Inner Circle – chosen members of the Sanhedrin – gather round their leader, the High Priest, Caiaphas, to plot and plan a strategy – how to protect their power base, defend their security, destroy the...

PENNY FOR YOUR TRAVELS ‘Available on Amazon Kindle. Amazon.com   Amazon.co.uk Also on Smashwords.com Also, the fifth chapter, Notes on the Past Imperfect. Paperback, Amazon. ‘Caused quite a stir when broadcast on RTE Radio One in the early 90’s. ‘Carried by Clive Geraghty. What a performance! I couldn’t have asked for better! Got the local accent to a T. And his...

Dad?.. Can we go home now, Dad?.. I’m frozen!..  Said I… easing a cold hand into a pocket of his overcoat…  Here, boy! Here, Rusty!.. Come on, fella!.. Rusty?!.. Ah, that a boy!.. Back into town, downhill. Passing traffic. Anglias and Austins, Standards and Morris Minors… The occasional pony and trap. By the Railway station, the terraced, red-bricked houses forming...

Drama in 2 acts, parts. A play for Yesterday and Today… Set in a Dublin friary more than half a century ago… “What a play! What a play!..” Why the 60’s? A modern audience will be able to look back/look into the Church as it was at that time; the strict regime of “the old days” had only just begun...

“Oh, what kind of man do we hold in chains! What manner of Messiah is this?!.. Look you: this, this pretender consorts with whores, publicans, sinners. One of his so-called Twelve is a tax collector, in the pay of Rome. Another sells him out for thirty pieces of silver – the price of a slave. All flee from Gethsemani even...

“DECLAN I’m sorry for calling you out of Choir, Father – MARK     What is it, Brother? DECLAN     Well, like, Father Xavier’s down for to say the seven. MARK        I know that. DECLAN It’s just that when I went to call him – well, he’s not in his room. MARK Oh? DECLAN ‘No answer...

A PLAY IN TWO ACTS/PARTS: An insider piece: set in a friary in Dublin, Ireland, in the late 60’s. A play centred on friars living in community – in poverty, chastity and obedience – in the immediate aftermath of Vatican Two but before the effects of that Council have really begun to take effect… Inside the cloister, behind closed doors....

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. A so-so movie that had its moments. One scene in particular made me sit up: the Greek doctor (John Hurt) and his daughter (Penelope Cruz). She speaks not a word, acts with her eyes, facial expressions, listening to his advice, taking in  his words of wisdom. Because she is wordless all the more reason for the viewer...

A family unit in Jerusalem 2000 plus years ago… Mum, Dad, son, daughter… Into this sunny household, a dark cloud… Cold… Misach, the son, is suddenly possessed. The family now confused, disturbed, torn apart… Then a ray of hope: Veronica, the daughter, gets wind of a prophet from the North who has come to Jerusalem – a man of prayer...

At the Praetorium... A play in one act set against the backdrop of the first Good Friday… written by Sean Walsh…  Will be performed by the local drama group in the parish church, Maynooth, on the evening of Palm Sunday (8 pm), April 13. Directed by Gabriel Martin. Veil... Drama stemming from the legend of Veronica… written by Sean Walsh…...

And I didn’t even know I was pregnant!.. VEIL now available on Amazon – Kindle and paperback… So?.. Gestation time… I began to mull over the trilogy of one-act plays I had previously published on Amazon: AT THE PRAETORIUM… The third play is simply a marriage between the first two – a happy and lasting union, as it happened! Then...

I lived a lot in my head, as a lad. Like, I was the last in the – brothers and sisters well ahead of me. They were stretching their wings while I was still in the nest – if y’know what I mean…   I didn’t know them. Not really… And my Dad was away a lot and my mother...

What better way of reliving the first Good Friday than by Drama? And yet I recoiled from the conventional Passion plays I had come across from time to time over the years. I wanted something else. Different. Down to earth. And new, hopefully original. A fresh look at an old story… Good Friday revisited? Indeed…  I set myself the task...

A two-hander in one act by Sean Walsh. Set in a grotty bedsitter in the London of the late 60’s, early 70’s, THE DREAMERS centres on two Irish immigrant labourers, Shay and Liam: the former a maturing tree, the latter a mere sapling…  They have much in common, little in common… Both are dreamers of dreams: as the piece progresses...

On pay night, a pub. Pint of bitter your only man – only man I could afford at the time (late 60’s). West Kensington, Wandsworth Common – wherever my local happened to be… The public bar. A cheaper pint. A dart board. Dominoes. An open fire keeping body and soul together. And Irish, dozens of Irish. Paddies from the west...

At the Praetorium by Sean Walsh Amazon: paperback and Kindle. We know the Good Friday story all too well – or do we? In “At the Praetorium” Walsh views the trial and crucifixion of Christ through another prism – the eyes and feelings of the “minor” characters in the story, thieves, servants, soldiers, Pilate’s wife. In doing so, he moves...

Mary Lappin. Her radio column in the Irish Press, May 8, 1982: (The home station: RTE One.) I had the foresight to ensure that I wouldn’t let slip what I adjudged would be the major broadcasting event of the period: the first airing of Veil, a play written and produced by Sean Walsh. (You’ll remember that his Assault on a...

Beginnings… Early plays… London sojourn… And on pay night, a pub. Pint of bitter your only man – only man I could afford at the time (late 60’s). West Kensington, Wandsworth Common, wherever my local happened to be… The public bar. A cheaper pint. A dart board. Maybe dominos. And Irish, dozens of Irish. Paddies from the west and south...

Set in a grotty bedsitter in the London of the late 60’s, early 70’s, THE DREAMERS centres on two Irish immigrant labourers, Shay and Liam: the former a maturing tree, the latter a mere sapling…  They have much in common, little in common… Both are dreamers of dreams: as the piece progresses we come to realise that their foremost dream...

  Back row, centre aisle. A tangible stillness in an almost empty Church… Elders moving slowly – genuflecting, kneeling, standing – making their way to Calvary, treading their very own, plaster statued, Via Dolorosa… re-living the Greatest Story Ever Told in reparation for their own sins and the sins of the world.   Jesus is condemned… the weeping women… Falls...

ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS I’ve worked and lived in communications all my life: journalist, subeditor, editor, actor, director, producer, preacher – here in Ireland and abroad. I fell in love with Hiberno-English a long time ago – English as it is spoken and written in my country – and have been in love with it ever since. My scripts have...

Published on National Catholic Reporter Bishop diagnoses the institutional disease.  Review by Tom Roberts. Jun. 19, 2013   FOR CHRIST’S SAKE: END SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH … FOR GOOD. By Bishop Geoffrey Robinson Published by Garratt Publishing, AU$t7.95 The title might lead one reasonably to expect a kind of pamphleteering campaign against abusers and a tick list of...

God, but she was a gorgeous child… I can just see her!.. Pig tails flying in the wind, freckles framing a ha’penny nose as she hop-hop-hop scotched with the other children, safe on a tarmacadam road, secure in a quiet cul-de-sac in snug suburbia… I eased into second gear, swung round the corner, pulled up at our semi… I was...

1974. I started work in RTE as a Producer, Radio. One of my first assignments was a series of half-hour programmes called Personal Choice scheduled for Sunday night listening. Guests were invited to choose their personal likes in music, poetry, prose. One such was Seamus Heaney: a young man who had recently come to live in a Wicklow cottage with...

When she took off I gave her a month, ‘month at the outside… She’ll be back, nothing surer. Head hanging, glad to be home, safe shelter. Oh yeah, London’ll cure her cough…   Oh, Jenny, Jenny!.. What are you at, a tall a tall, daughter mine?.. I didn’t give you a hope – how could I?..  Sure I knew the...

                                        C B S                                                Dundalk, Co Louth, Ireland.                      ...

“And to tell you the truth, Dad, I know it’s a lovely piano but I’d sooner be out with the lads and I dread Missus Glass going over me scales with me and The Robin’s Return gives me the pip – there’s times I could drown him, the same robin! And anyway, Mister Van Dessel says I’m not too musical...

Out of rich soil many healthy shoots spring up – Ancient Celtic proverb. Well, no, actually. I’ve just made it up!  Where rubies and diamonds go to make up a priceless crown, there also will be clustered rarest gems and pearls – Ancient Oriental Proverb. Well, no, not quite. That one’s mine, too. By way of an Intro to what is...

Good Friday revisited? Indeed… I set myself the task of telling it from the prisoners’ point of view… and as the Colonizer might have viewed it… No Jesus, no disciples, no saints or angels, no pharisees… ‘Can be performed on a conventional stage or In the Round, in modern dress or as costume drama… The parallels with today’s world would...

Some years ago when my eldest daughter, Siobhan, was in her second year at Dublin’s Trinity College (Theatre Studies) she came home one evening and presented me with a framed photo/card: in the far distance, an old man, stooped and wearing a bowler hat on bowed head, struggles with baggage; while near at hand a man with protruding ears sits...

Noon. Tuesday, October 23… I clear out the contents of the drawer in the Sacristy marked ‘Newsletter’ and move back into a Church that is now a haven. The peace is almost tangible. Muted music enhances the tranquility. Fresh flowers adorn the newly-dressed altars. Candles flame and splutter. All is swept, clean, polished… A lone suppliant stands before the statue...

Heart wrenching to read, assuredly difficult to write, the author has fashioned an extraordinary story from his imperfect past with great courage and honesty. An amazing achievement to forge a unity from the six stories and to do it while remaining true to the monologue/dialogue format with such consistency. I found Penny for Your Travels particularly moving and beautifully told....

When you’ve written something, you haven’t – you’ve written only the first draft. THEN the work begins in earnest. Writing, re-writing… draft after draft… editing, shaping, deleting… Whenever I give a Creative Writing workshop I begin with this basic tenet, repeat it, end by repeating it a final time. I am always amazed at the numbers who look askance at...

Blessed art thou amongst… Are you there – or are you on your travels? Above – or beyond in Yugoslavia? I, I’m never too sure when I have you, to be honest. But then, you’re a female. So I don’t find it all that surprising… My mother was always there and me growing up. When I got home from school...

Sean Walsh. 480 words.  I was into plays and all like that at school. ‘Won a medal once for Debating. And the Brothers knew it. One day Brother O’Toole walked in – I was in Fifth Year, taking it easy – and called me out. I was sure I was in for it but it wasn’t that at all. There...

Ah, years ago, now. The doctor passed me on to a specialist and he said – “We’ll have you as good as new in jig time…” Oh, nothing major. Still, a general anaesthetic is a – well, it is! I checked into an inner city hospital: Gaunt, red-bricked, Victorian. Creaking all the way from Main Entrance to X Ray, Reception...

ON THE NIGHT OF March 27 at All Hollows, Dublin 9, the curtain came down on the third and last performance of At the Praetorium. (Last but hopefully not final!) Later, Sean Walsh reluctantly agreed to a Press Conference. (He is quite shy, really, hates beating his own drum…) So there he was, on the rostrum, mineral water to hand,...

“But Oh! The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one’s deepest – as well as one’s most foolish thoughts – come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort – the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person – having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but...

Some years ago when my eldest daughter, Siobhan, was in her second year at Dublin’s Trinity College (Theatre Studies) she came home one evening and presented me with a framed photo/card: in the far distance, an old man, stooped and wearing a bowler hat on bowed head, struggles with baggage; while near at hand a man with protruding ears sits...