Irish Grand National 2025 LIVE RESULTS: Templegate's 1-2-3-4 tip as Haiti Couleurs races home to win the Fairyhouse race
THE Irish Grand National is here as punters cap off their Easter weekend with the Fairyhouse showpiece.
Willie Mullins had saddled two winners in the English and Scottish editions of the National in recent weeks, but could not make it a famous hat-trick as Quai De Bourbon was pipped by winner Haiti Couleurs and second-best Any Second Now.
Trainer Ted Walsh confirmed the retirement of 13-year-old Any Second Now following his performance in today's Irish Grand National.
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Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Should family history, however painful, be memorialised forever?
Be under no illusions: this is not a food memoir. Chopping Onions on My Heart is a linguistic exploration of belonging; a history of the Jewish community in Iraq; and an urgent endeavour to save an endangered language. Above all, it is a reckoning with generational trauma. The subjects of Samantha Ellis's previous books include the life of Anne Brontë, heroines of classic literature, feminism and romantic comedy. She is the daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, and the language she grew up around, the language of her people and culture, is dying. Judeo-Iraqi Arabic 'came out of the collisions of Hebrew-speaking Jews and Aramaic-speaking Babylonians, and then absorbed linguistic influences from all the other people who conquered Iraq'. Ellis is irrepressible in the way she talks about her mother tongue, calling it 'earthy, sinewy, witty, excessive, wry, noisy, vivid… Hot, where English often seems cold. Mouth-filling, where English seems empty. Patterned, when English seems plain.' Jewish people first came to Iraq in 586 BC. At the community's height in the 1940s there were 150,000 Jews living in the country. At best guess, by 2019 just five remained. Most left in the decade following Farhud, the pogrom carried out against the Jews of Baghdad over two days in 1941. More than 180 Jews were murdered and countless raped and injured. Ellis's father's family left for Israel, while her mother's stayed on for more than 20 years. But both her parents eventually ended up in London, where Ellis was born. She was raised speaking English, 'but all the gossip, all the stories, all the exciting, forbidden grown-up life happened in Judeo-Iraqi Arabic'. She quietly absorbed the language, but as she grew up, lost it. Now, as an adult and mother, she is acutely aware of the consequences for herself and her son. The mass exodus of Iraqi Jews in 1950-51, and their assimilation into adopted countries, meant that the language was marginalised, and speaker numbers dwindled fast. Ellis's early investigations are urgent, panicked, motivated by a combination of incredulity and guilt that a language that informs her heritage, but that she doesn't speak, isn't being preserved by someone else: 'I raced to my laptop to find out if anyone was saving my language. Someone had to be!' She begins language classes, visits museums and consults relatives. She attempts to trace the history of her people. She cannot accept that the reason languages become extinct is because second generation, non-native speakers 'didn't value or care for them, that we were recklessly letting them die'. She realises that 'there was always violence somewhere in the vanishing of languages. There certainly was in mine'. The mother tongue is 'earthy, sinewy, witty, excessive, wry, noisy, vivid…Hot, where English often seems cold' The psychological effect of being brought up by families who have experienced war, discrimination and displacement is what makes Ellis both neurotic and determined not to pass on that inherited fear to her son. When he garbles the history of how they came to Britain, Ellis decides: 'If I was going to unmuddle him, maybe I had to try to unmuddle myself first.' But how does one preserve the stories of a culture's past without also holding on to the pain that imbues them? In her search for home and belonging, she finds solace in cooking her country's traditional dishes. But this is not a tidy personal narrative that finds resolution in a comforting stew or finishes with a glorious homecoming wrapped neatly in bread dough. Ellis is wary of simplifying the past and making it more palatable through food. The problem is not Iraqi Jewish cuisine; that's the easy bit. It's the gnarly, traumatic parts that are harder to engage with. So, no, this is not a food memoir. And if at times it doesn't seem to know quite what it is, then isn't that sort of the point? Unpicking, extricating different facets of heritage is near impossible, compounded by the conflicting motivations of a second generation immigrant. What begins as a shapeless mass, a grey cloud of uncertainty, slowly morphs into a full-colour, defined picture of a more confident, peaceful acceptance of Ellis's duality – of being Judeo-Iraqi, but not in Iraq, of belonging to two places at once, even if one place cannot be visited. Like her identity, Ellis's book contains multitudes.
Spectator
2 hours ago
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No escaping mother: Lili is Crying, bv Hélène Bessette, reviewed
'Everyone has a mother, but we don't all smash up our lives for her sake,' we hear in the first few pages of Lili is Crying. It's a sensible message, but one which seems suited to an entirely different book. Hélène Bessette's 1953 debut novel – translated into English for the first time – is a tale of bust-ups, mistakes and life-ruining decisions in a fiery, fickle relationship between a mother and daughter. Charlotte and her daughter Lili live in Provence, and the novel jumps between the 1930s and 1940s, from Lili's 'ribbons and Sunday dresses' to her first freighted dalliances with boys. Charlotte runs a boarding house from which Lili longs to escape – and nearly manages to, with the same young man who tries to convince her not to destroy her life for her mother. His honesty is his mistake, and Lili fails to leave for him – eventually 'going off' not with 'the man I do love' but instead 'with the man I don't'. Her flight ends in failure – there are disappointments and a backstreet abortion – and it isn't long before she is back with Charlotte. The two stay together while Lili's husband, a Slav, is interned in Dachau for the duration of the war. Bessette's prose is prickly and snappy, with short lines and speech introduced by dashes. On the page it looks more like verse than prose, an effect which matches Bessette's take on the 'poetic novel'. Yet the style is even less defined than this suggests. The action is narrated by everyone and no one. Even the house in Provence has a voice, resentful, complaining: 'Naturally, they slam my doors. What do they care if my doors are damaged?' There is also a mysterious, ever-present shepherd. The effect is one of a verse drama, with a mocking chorus in the wings. People's ages change and remain the same, defying chronology. This is a novel with no regard for anything as stuffy as the traditional passing of time. In 1953, Bessette – a 35-year-old divorcée and teacher at an école maternelle – was hailed as someone radical. Gallimard signed her up for a ten-book deal; Marguerite Duras called her the very definition of 'living literature'. Yet the early acclaim failed to sustain her career. When she died in 2000, all 13 of her novels were out of print. Perhaps Lili is Crying – a story of unachieved dreams and the pain of continuing to hope – will be the one to revive her reputation.
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Scots Language Awards officially launched for 2025
The Scots Language Awards — organised by Hands Up For Trad, a group that promotes traditional Scottish music in the mainstream media — was launched for 2025 on Thursday and will take place in Cumnock Town Hall, Ayrshire, again on 13 September. The annual ceremony aims to recognise figures and organisations that encourage use of the Scots language in wider society, and categories will include business, literature, community work and more. READ MORE: Home and half an island owned by famous Scottish shark hunter up for sale Simon Thoumire, Scots Language Award organiser and Hands Up For Trad creative director, said: "The Scots leid is gaun fae strength tae strength, and we're thrilled tae see the Scots Language Awards return tae Ayrshire, hame tae sic a rich cultural heritage. 'This event isn't jist a celebration o the wunnerfu talents in Scots music, literature, an community endeavors, but a recognition o the leid's vital role in oor Scottish identity. 'We can't wait tae bring the Scots language community thegither again, and wi' new initiatives lik the Scots Hoose school sessions, we're ensuring the next generation can share in the pride an passion for oor mither tongue. It's set tae be a nicht tae remember, an we cannae wait!' The launch coincides with 'Gies a Scots Poem Day' 2025, an initiative created by the Scottish Poetry Library, which aims to promote Scots language poetry in all of its forms, including Doric, Shetlandic and Dundonian. READ MORE: Deacon Blue issue update as bandmate 'seriously ill' in hospital East Ayrshire Provost, Claire Leitch, said: 'I'm awfa chuffed that the Scots Language Award will return tae East Ayrshire this year. I'm looking forward to gaun along, celebrating the talented performers and aw the folk fae across Scotland who are dedicated who are encouraging us to use oor 'mither tongue'! It's gonnae be another stoater o a nicht! 'For me, there's nuhun more important than staying true to who we aw ur, and encouraging oor communities and weans to use and celebrate the Scots language. 'Definitely get yersel a ticket quick. As Jack fae Still Game says - "He who hingeth aboot getteth heehaw!' Hands Up For Trad are also partnering with learning resource Scots Hoose to deliver Scots language lessons in schools across the country. A range of musicians and poets will perform at the ceremony this year, including Edinburgh Scots singer Amy Leach and local Burns purveyor Wullie Dick. Scots Language Awards nominations will be open from July 28 until August 10, with voting for shortlisted nominees taking place from August 25 until September 7. Further information regarding ticketing will be available on the event's website soon.
