Workman's Club examinership extended to July 10th after good progress to ensure survival
The High Court has extended the examinership of the Workman's Club Ltd in Dublin, part of the former Press Up hospitality and entertainment group, after hearing efforts to ensure its survival are progressing well.
Ms Justice Eileen Roberts said on Thursday she was satisfied to extend the examinership to July 10th following submissions from barrister Declan Murphy, for the examiner, Declan McDonald of PwC.
It seemed good progress was being made with a fully funded-proposal investor, the judge said.
As the examiner had expressed the view the company has ability to trade until July 10th, she would extend the examinership until then, the judge said.
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High Court confirms appointment of examiner to Workman's Club Ltd
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Mr Murphy earlier told the court that matters had proceeded 'more speedily than is ordinarily the case but we don't want to jinx it'.
If a successful scheme of arrangement is proposed and voted on, the examiner would notify the court and a date can be set for a hearing, he said.
The judge wished the examiner luck with his engagement in the weeks ahead.
Press Up was founded by businessmen Paddy McKillen junior and Matthew Ryan. It was renamed the Eclective Group last February following its take over and running by Cheyne Capital.
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Workman's Club heyday: Where we rubbed shoulders with Paul Mescal, Fontaines DC and Morrissey
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Press Up, at its height, operated some 50 bars, restaurants and hotels with 1,600 employees.
It now operates 12 Dublin venues, including Peruke and Periwig on Dawson Street, Doolally on Richmond Street, and the Workman's Club on Wellington Quay. It has 55 full time employees out of a total of 362.
When the application to appoint an interim examiner was made early last month, the court was informed the company has an excess of liabilities over assets and is unable to pay debts as they fall due.
In October 2021, the group was refinanced to the tune of €55.5 million by Cheyne Capital and deleveraging began with the selling off of the hotels in the group, the Dean and Clarence, the court petition stated.
Full deleveraging did not take place and Cheyne took over management in July 2024 when it says it discovered depleted stock levels, substantial arrears to suppliers, deferred maintenance and limited reinvestment.
It was decided four of its operating entities would enter receivership so the core business and a broader restructuring could take place, along with an injection of new money from Cheyne which took 95 per cent of the group's shareholding in a debt for equity swap and installed its own management team.
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Irish Times
21 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Inside Ireland's thriving cocktail scene: ‘We have some of the highest quality ingredients in the world'
In 2010, the Merchant Hotel bar in Belfast won the highly prestigious World's Best Cocktail Bar award at Tales of the Cocktail. Tales is the leading global cocktail conference, held annually in New Orleans , and recognition here carries weight. In 2015, Dublin 's Liquor Rooms scored a nomination for Best New International Cocktail Bar and with this news there was a justifiable feeling that Ireland's cocktail scene had arrived. Fast forward 10 years and Dublin's Bar 1661 recently scooped a nomination for Best International Bar Team, but a major international win has still to find its way back to Ireland. The feeling here is that our cocktail game has never been stronger, with some serious players blazing a trail. Meet the bartenders who have earned their stripes on both national and international stages. Ariel Sanecki, Pig's Lane, Killarney Originally from Poland , Sanecki spent time at the luxury Cliff House Hotel and Adare Manor before taking up his current role at Pig's Lane in Killarney . It's a relative newcomer to the drink scene, having opened in October 2023, but it is proving popular, currently serving around 800 cocktails on a Saturday night. Sanecki is passionate about Irish whiskey and has grown the Pig's Lane collection to about 360 bottles, of which 95 per cent are Irish. He wants to push that number closer to 500, purchasing some bottles new, with older editions sourced from collectors or auctions. He also loves to visit distilleries around the island, getting to know the people and stories behind the product. 'Americans love to learn about Irish whiskey so I have to know about it,' he says. READ MORE 'I see big differences compared to 10 years ago. Bartenders have much more knowledge now, with experience built up working abroad before coming home. There are new techniques and tools available which were previously only to be found in Michelin kitchens. Clear ice is one such tool. It makes a big difference to how a cocktail looks and how it drinks as it helps control temperature and dilution.' Sanecki believes good cocktails always start with quality ingredients. The bar team makes many components in house, using local products, including herbs and honey from the hotel garden. 'Ireland has some of the highest quality ingredients in the world and our new menu showcases all our suppliers. I was recently able to find an Irish cold-brew coffee liqueur to use in our signature drink The Black Stuff, making it even more Irish,' says Sanecki. 'I feel people are drinking less but higher quality. Sustainability is important. We are purchasing spirits in large pouches which are used to refill bottles. The spirit cost is cheaper plus there are savings in transporting and recycling glass bottles.' Dave Taylor, Bar 1661 and The Sackville Lounge Dave Taylor, The Sackville Lounge and Bar 1661. Photograph: Al Higgins 'I was working at The Shelbourne and, one day, an American asked for a vodka martini. I didn't know how to make it. I never wanted to feel like that again and that evening I spent several hundred euro on cocktail books. That was the start of my obsession.' Following time at bars around Dublin, Taylor moved to London where he learned how to run a bar in a completely different way. 'Everything was so clean; they had immaculate backbars,' he recalls. He brought these lessons home and incorporated them into 1661 and its new sibling, The Sackville Lounge. Taylor's attention to detail is everywhere. 'There are two freezers at each station in The Sackville. One freezer has glasses at -20 degrees the other has the pre-mixed martinis at -17 degrees. This allows for a martini which really packs a punch. The cold changes the texture; you feel it travelling down through your body,' he says. 'Overall, there is a big push on creative and original drinks. But no matter how complicated the drink, it has to be easy to talk about with customers. Just like chefs, bartenders have egos, but we don't want to alienate people who are just out to enjoy a drink.' The poitín-based Belfast Coffee at 1661 is already recognised as a true classic, so the pressure was on to create a whiskey-based Irish coffee for The Sackville. 'Owner Dave Mulligan likes to say that Irish coffees are our bread and butter, so we put the bread and butter into our Irish coffees,' says Taylor. Without giving away too many trade secrets, the recipe involves butter-washed Irish whiskey, toasted soda bread, stout and thick double cream. Taylor believes that the sign of a good bar is people sitting at the counter talking to each other. 'We are naturally good at hospitality in Ireland, but we can also improve. Every customer wants to be seen, to be acknowledged. Bars should be geared towards fun and a good atmosphere. Cocktails aren't needed for this, but they do help.' Andy Ferreira, Cask, Cork Andy Ferreira, Cask. Photograph: Miki Barlok 'I had a hard sell persuading the owners to make Cask into a cocktail bar,' says Andy Ferreira. 'They wanted to go for a wine or gin bar, but I'm glad they trusted me.' From day one, drinks at Cask have had a strong seasonal focus. Ferreira likens it to a restaurant, where chefs build relationships with suppliers and focus on local ingredients. Classic cocktails at Cask are made to standard recipes with standard ingredients but, as much as possible, Cask signature drinks only use ingredients grown in Ireland. This presents challenges such as no lemon or lime juice, which are key components of many cocktails. Instead, acidity is added via sharp fruits such as cooking apples and/or rhubarb, or through a home-made compound of citric and malic acids. The Cask signature menu changes regularly, showcasing new drinks and some old favourites 'One of our drinks from the first menu, the Man of Aran, is still on the menu. It uses Connemara peated whiskey and two types of seaweed to achieve its distinctive flavour. It's typical of how we construct drinks, where we pair a well-known spirit with a left of centre ingredient. This encourages customers to try something new,' says Ferreira. 'There has certainly been a shift to drinking less, but better. We all work so hard to pay our bills, but people don't mind spending a few quid on a good drink when they know that love and care has gone into it. We are in challenging times and bars need to be busy to succeed. They will only achieve that by listening to what customers want and by providing memorable experiences.' Ferreira sees bartending as a true craft or trade which has a duty to provide opportunity to smaller Irish brands. 'We can provide the experience, and we need customers to get on board with us.' Jack Weir, The Merchant, Belfast Jack Weir, The Merchant Hotel, Belfast 'I was working as a bar supervisor at another hotel, but when Covid lockdown hit, I found myself wondering 'What had I learned, where can I learn more?'' Weir secured a job at Belfast's Merchant Hotel, where he started polishing glasses. It was a step down from his previous role but he used it as a chance to address bad habits, and really learn how things worked in a top-class cocktail bar. From there he progressed to working the floor before finally making drinks as a trainee bartender. 'It wasn't easy. I was constantly challenged by the head bartender at the time. 'What's the history of this drink? What does it mean?' That's the standard that customers at The Merchant expect. Reading David Wondrich's book Imbibe changed everything for me and it was an insane feeling when I started to get it.' [ 'Masterpiece of Irish whiskey': Belfast hotel launches £1,000 cocktail Opens in new window ] Flavour is everything for Weir, who makes drinks based on what he calls 'hero ingredients'. 'In one of my latest drinks, I use the familiarity of raspberries to get people's attention, but mixed with tequila, natural yoghurt and apricot brandy to make a new drink.' Now head bartender at just 26, Weir is passionate about helping young people get into bartending. 'When I started, my father didn't see the long-term career opportunities and told me take up a 'real trade'. But now that I've taken part in big competitions and I've travelled, he sees the value.' Weir is a regular participant in bartending competitions, seeing it as a way to build up networks as well as skills. 'I make videos from my time in competitions, and from takeover events, to help teach young bartenders how to speed up service, build up drinks in the correct order and progress their skills. This is a real craft that can take you anywhere.' Oisín Davis, author and owner Great Irish Beverages Oisín Davis, author and owner Great Irish Beverages. Photo: Alex Sapienza A long-time industry expert and owner of Great Irish Beverages, a marketing and consultancy business, Davis is a well-known name in the industry. He's also the author of Irish Kitchen Cocktails, which offers tips and recipes for making great cocktails at home. Davis is a big believer too in cocktails here needing to be made with Irish ingredients. But back in the nascent cocktail scene, it was more important to promote good cocktails and raise the overall standard. In parallel, Davis gradually introduced bars to more Irish products. 'Quick ways to achieve this are through Irish coffees, or using an Irish vodka in espresso martinis. These are simple switches but cumulatively they can have a big impact.' He believes that hospitality businesses need to work more with Irish drink distillers and producers. 'Because of the range of spirits and ingredients used, cocktails bars can be a stronger advocate for Irish products than many higher-end restaurants. Bartenders just don't get enough respect for their continued support and commitment to Irish produce.' He points to the cocktail tasting experience at Dublin's Bar 1661. 'It's 28 drinks in total, which seems a lot, but it's well judged and the snacks are integral to the night.' Outside of the high-profile bars, Davis would love to see more regular bars offering two or three cocktails, but made really well using Irish spirits. 'With summer on the way, bars could offer a poitín Palomo, which is a really fresh, long drink, or focus on fully Irish G&Ts,' he suggests. 'For leading Irish bars to get international recognition, they need support and investment to get the judges from the big awards to come here. When they do I'm confident they'll love what they'll find.' Three cocktails to try at home Lady Róisín Lady Róisín. Photograph: Jo Murphy Named after Wicklow's greatest disco diva (Róisín Murphy, who is headlining Beyond The Pale this June), this is a party-style serve for four people that can be prepared in advance and topped up with the bubbly at the last minute. Ingredients (Serves four) 100ml Blackwater Wexford Strawberry Gin 1tbs of caster sugar and 1tbs of hot water The juice of two limes 400ml of chilled dry prosecco, champagne or cava Four fresh, rinsed Wexford strawberries Method Stir the lime juice, hot water and sugar in a 1 litre jug until the sugar has dissolved. Add the gin and stir for a couple of seconds. At this point, you can cover it and leave it in the fridge for three or four hours. When you're ready to serve, chill some champagne or coupe glasses with ice and add five or six ice cubes to the jug and give it a quick stir with a spoon. Gently add in 400ml of your bubbly of choice. For each individual serve, remove the ice from the glass, cut a little sliver in the bottom of your strawberry and place it on the side of your glass. Top up the glass and serve. Black Barrel boulevardier Black Barrel boulevardier. Photograph: Jo Murphy This can be batch made and stored in a 1 litre bottle in the door of the fridge. If you're a fan of a Negroni cocktail but also partial to Irish whiskey, then this is for you. Ingredients (Serves 10) 450ml Jameson Black Barrel 225ml Carpano Antica formula sweet vermouth or any sweet Italian vermouth 225ml Campari 100ml water Orange peels to garnish Method Pour the whiskey, vermouth, Campari and water into a jug. Stir for a minute or so, then decant into a clean 1 litre swing-top bottle. Label it with the name and date, and place in the fridge door to chill. As soon as it's cold enough to enjoy, give the bottle a quick shake and pour 100ml into an iced glass tumbler. Stir with a teaspoon for about 10 seconds, then garnish with a strip of orange peel. This mix will hold really well for up to two months in the fridge. After it's opened it, use it within one month, while keeping it stored in the fridge. Stonewell Cider spritz Stonewell Cider spritz. Photograph: Jo Murphy Ingredients (Serves one) 100ml Stonewell dry Irish cider 70ml ginger ale or ginger beer 35ml blended Irish whiskey, such as Jameson Lemon wedge garnish Method Fill a long glass with ice, pour in all of the ingredients, give it a quick stir with a teaspoon and garnish with the lemon wedge. And if you need to increase the amount, simply multiply the recipe by the number of guests, pour the mix solution into a large jug and serve from there. Recipes from Irish Kitchen Cocktails published by Nine Bean Row books. Photography by Joanne Murphy.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
12 must-see artworks at the RHA Annual Exhibition 2025
It is the largest and longest-running open-submission exhibition in Ireland, and the 195th RHA Annual features 422 pieces by academicians and artists old and new. It will also be the final Annual for Patrick Murphy, who retires as director of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts at the end of 2025. He took up the role in 1998, since when the RHA has regained its relevance in the Irish art infrastructure, revamped its Ely Place headquarters, elected its first woman president, revised its charter and celebrated its 200th anniversary. [ From surviving dissent and debt to celebrating artists: The Royal Hibernian Academy at 200 Opens in new window ] The RHA Annual Exhibition itself is selected by a committee of artists. Their choices, this year from 4,565 submissions, are made anonymously, and are exhibited alongside pieces from RHA members, plus 11 invited artists. Despite not including performance or site-specific works, the RHA Annual is often said to offer a snapshot of the state of art-making today. So with all that going on, where do you start? We pick 12 works on which to feast your eyes. READ MORE Abigail O'Brien: Susanna and the Elders I & II 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Susanna and the Elders I, by Abigail O'Brien. Photograph courtesy of the artist 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Susanna and the Elders II, by Abigail O'Brien. Photograph courtesy of the artist Coming from the Bible's Book of Daniel, the story of Susanna and the Elders has been a pervy staple in art history, as two fully clothed men stare lustfully at the semi-naked Susanna. Rubens had a go, but it took Artemisia Gentileschi to give a sense of how Susanna herself might have felt, when she painted it, in multiple versions, in the 1600s. Abigail O'Brien's large-scale photographs show a female display mannequin perched on a chair in a junk or antique shop from a pair of angles. More or less naked ('she' is wearing a hat and necklace), the images show the ludicrous proportions that have been manufactured to characterise female 'beauty'. While the setting may hopefully imply how outdated these standards are, the images also underline the continuing objectification of women, in commerce as well as in art. O'Brien is the RHA's first woman president in its 200-plus-year history; her preface to the exhibition catalogue sets out the gender inequalities that women artists still face. Despite greater parity in representation in the Annual, their work is still consistently undervalued, including by the artists themselves. Institutional inequalities also persist in our public collections. That said, we may be doing better than they are in Britain. O'Brien notes that the UK Royal Academy of Arts, in London, has been going for more than 250 years, yet only held its first solo show by a woman artist in its main galleries in 2024. As she writes: 'most of all, we need to keep talking about it.' Caoimhe McGuckin: Wellspring 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Wellspring, by Caoimhe McGuckin. Photograph courtesy of the artist While The Fall, a large architectural pavilion by Ben Mullen, Peter Maybury and Tom de Paor, initially grabs the attention as it eats up a large chunk of the upper main gallery, there are some very powerful smaller sculptural gems to savour. Áine Ryan's 'Go Make the Tea' He Said is a delicate pâte-de-verre trio of sculptures on a silver tray. What at first appear to be little biscuits are instead a pair of breasts. Serving up subversion with every sip? Alongside this, Caoimhe McGuckin's Wellspring is a cast-wax model of the human heart. Instead of aorta there are stubs of bright red crayons. It may bring to mind an idea of human creativity beginning at childhood, but it's also worth realising that the sculpture very strongly resembles a grenade. Elaine Byrne: Losing All Sense of Time 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Losing All Sense of Time, by Elaine Byrne. Photograph courtesy of the artist Elaine Byrne's sybaritic image of a swimming pool is photographed in vivid colour, as tanned families and loving couples disport themselves on fake rocks. So far so very escapist. But the pool is built out over the sea, which threatens to engulf the bathers on one side. Suddenly the thin fencing seems ludicrously fragile – as ludicrous, perhaps, as building a swimming pool at the edge of the ocean. While frequently beautiful, Byrne's work tends to have a political edge, so look closer still and see that the sea is a totally different hue of blue, and the real rocks edging into the picture are different again from their created cousins next door. The idea of sunbathing at the end of the world calls to mind Sun & Sea, the opera performance that came to Cork Midsummer in 2023, after winning the Golden Lion for Lithuania at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Bernadette Kiely: No Promised Land 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: No Promised Land, by Bernadette Kiely. Courtesy of the artist A highly accomplished painter, Bernadette Kiely has been increasingly focusing her subtle eye on the climate crisis . Her arresting oil painting No Promised Land seems as if it is literally saturated, as a bright-red delivery truck is swamped in the midst of a flooded plain. Conjuring all the nuances of greens and greys, and with a brilliant eye for composition, Kiely shows how easily our landscapes, and our sense of safety, can be obliterated by the power of natural forces. We can just make out roads, hedges and the tops of trees, but if we don't do something soon, the future could become a highly inhospitable place – even in Ireland's gentle fields. Ally Nolan: The Men/Na Fir 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: The Men/Na Fir, by Ally Nolan. Courtesy of the artist You'll need to go to the passage behind the RHA's reception desk to find this large mixed-media panel. Based on Thomas H Mason's photograph Four Aran Men, Inis Meáin, from the National Museum of Ireland , the artist has layered digitally printed organza, linen, wool and appliqué, complete with hand-woven embroidery. Nolan is an award-winning fashion graduate with a master's in art history, a background that tells in this richly complex work that brings the original black-and-white print to life. It shows the vibrancy of the layers of knowledge embedded in the legacies of craft, while underlining the craft embodied in some of today's technologies. Ronnie Hughes: Chromatic II 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Chromatic II, by Ronnie Hughes. Courtesy of the artist There is a joyful exuberance at this year's Annual not seen since before the Covid pandemic. This is not to say that artists are ignoring the panoply of problems the world is facing, but there is nonetheless a burst of colour, in painting particularly. A cluster of canvases in one of the upper galleries includes Tom Climent's Contour Lines, John Fitzsimons's Generation and Ann Marie Webb's Back Light. Chromatic II, by Ronnie Hughes, shows how the simple-seeming geometries of colour and line can make the eyes and mind dance. With none of the frenetic, brain-melting energies of full-on op-art, this work gets behind and beyond language to celebrate the power of colour in all its abstract glories. Cathal Carolan: Censored 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Censored, by Cathal Carolan. Courtesy of the artist In the Annual hang, the RHA's atrium is reserved for highly wantable small works, and this year there are plenty to shine. Conor Horgan's photograph of pinked-up oyster mushrooms comes from his Disco Vegetables series, Stephanie Rowe's Auction II captures a moment of intensity in jewel-like form, while Tara O'Reilly's Night Worker is a standout of a small portrait. Within this group Cathal Carolan's Censored continues to draw the eye. A headscarved woman is seated on a bus or train, looking away from the camera, her eye line bisected by a window panel. While this anonymising gesture is powerful in itself, what makes the work unforgettable is that this woman, out of context and perhaps even out of her home country, has all the qualities of posture and light of a Vermeer. Value and worth are curious notions, dependent entirely on the arbitrary whims of place and time. Pauline Rowan: Awake, Between the Gates 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Awake, Between the Gates, by Pauline Rowan. Courtesy of the artist There's a vast novel of story in this photograph. A baby sleeps while what we presume is its mother lies awake. It could be a moment in any new parent's life, yet the pair are on a mattress on a floor, the rumpled sheet not quite tucked in. Quietly heartbreaking, the image catches at homelessness, dispossession, determination and love. The work was actually made when Rowan moved with her newborn daughter to live in a house on grounds open to the public. When the work was shown at Photo Museum Ireland at the beginning of this year, the artist recalled that tourists would stand and look through the windows. Adding biographical narrative to understanding a work of art can sometimes expand but often limits it. You don't need to know the backstory to find this an unforgettable image. Agata Stoinska: Reverberations 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Reverberations, by Agata Stoinska. Courtesy of the artist Many artists have their eyes on nature in this year's Annual. Martin Gale imagines a return of wolves in a pair of paintings, while Tony G Murray's duo of Silent Forest prints leads you to imagine where myths of tree creatures may have come from. In this vein, Agata Stoinska's large-scale forest photograph brings you right to the heart of the emergence of legend, with a clever doubling device that manages to avoid becoming glib. Instead the mirrored trees create a portal, and everything is calling you to want to walk through. Rae Perry: Resolutions 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Resolutions, by Rae Perry. Courtesy of the artist The US-born, Dublin-based artist Rae Perry is largely self-taught, but her time in Florence, where she studied drawing, shows in her use of light and in the soft and rich Florence-school-inspired hues of her canvas. Nicely enigmatic, Resolutions is also tender and intimate. Amid the portraits crowding the exhibition – from Robert Ballagh's La Républicaine, to Emma Stroude's trio in An Acorn or the Sky, to the Portrait of Tony Strickland by Neil Shawcross – Resolutions stands out, quietly. Michael Wann: City Limits (Those Trees Will Have to Go) 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: City Limits (Those Trees Will Have to Go), by Michael Wann. Courtesy of the artist Adding a hint of red to his more usual shades of charcoal grey, Michael Wann gets away from the delicacies of trees, rural byways and rustic ruins with another way of looking at nature. Here the artist has collaged paper over canvas to lay out what looks like a much-folded cityscape – perhaps, in this imaginary world, looted from a planner's office somewhere, or salvaged from the chaos of some postapocalyptic future. [ Dorothy Cross: 'I don't think art is about talent really. It's about a route you take' Opens in new window ] Tower blocks reach for the leaden skies, while lower-rise civic buildings, and what might be edge-of-town sports or education complexes, come forward to meet the eye. As the city creeps beyond its limits, an area of vegetation is marked for destruction, reminding us of the Australian writer Tim Winton's comment that 'architecture is what we console ourselves with once we've obliterated our natural landscapes'. Vera Klute: Lustre II 195th RHA Annual Exhibition: Lustre II, by Vera Klute. Courtesy of the artist Extraordinarily versatile, Vera Klute is a renowned portrait artist. Her oil painting Slope, also in the exhibition, is a lush jungle of a canvas delving into the infinite varieties of our often overlooked riverbanks. Before you get to that, however, you'll have met her Lustre II, a marvellous sculpture in the RHA foyer that, depending on your perspective, imagination and predilections, could be a strange alien craft, a giant fuchsia or something slightly sexual. And that's the glories of art in a nutshell. The 195th RHA Annual Exhibition in association with McCann FitzGerald is at the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts , in Dublin, until August 3rd
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Walking Ghosts by Mary O'Donnell: An ambitious, dystopian and horny collection
Walking Ghosts Author : Mary O'Donnell ISBN-13 : 9781917453226 Publisher : Mercier Press Guideline Price : €16.99 The opening story of Mary O'Donnell's new collection sets a pattern for what is to come by depicting the Covid-19 lockdowns as an instance of paralysis in the Joycean fashion. Its protagonist struggles to live meaningfully in a world turned upside-down by 'that microscopic ball with the little cartoon feet', and many of the characters who follow experience a similar longing to shatter the nagging stasis of their lives. On one level these are the walking ghosts of the title but, on another, they are ciphers for the old-guard tropes of Irish literary writing – the contested field, the London abortion, and so on – which O'Donnell here seeks to reanimate and, in one or two cases, cast aside entirely. No surprise, so, that many of her protagonists are survivors of Ireland's literary-industrial complex (one rather brilliant tale, The Stolen Man, concerns a writing student succumbing to the seductive creative freedoms of Galway). Yet, after several stories content to probe the margins of suburban realism, O'Donnell suddenly delivers a jolt of genre energy halfway through The Space Between Louis and Me. It is the kind of story that makes you go back and re-read it from the start (to say any more would be to ruin the surprise). READ MORE Soon after comes The Creators, the most striking story here, which offers a reflective extrapolation of our contemporary climate crisis. Set in a future of 'fear and extreme heat' where Scotland's Hebrides have been transformed into 'Garden Isles', this is a deftly sketched portrait of desperation and desire, one worthy of inclusion on the eclectic shelf of insular dystopian fiction by Irish women (think The Bray House by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne or Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff). Walking Ghosts is a work of quiet ambition rich in standout descriptions ('He looks like a horse in a cubist painting'). Moreover, this is a horny collection, one happy to linger on female desire through chances taken – or not – on lost loves or intoxicating holiday acquaintances. Yet the most intriguing flirtation here is that of O'Donnell with speculative fiction. This paradoxically both elevates and anchors the proceedings. Because, yes, the future may be dire, but its calamitous potential may yet be dampened by the choices we make now.
