Maria McManus On The TV, Books, Poetry, Film & Music To Discover Once You’ve Read Say Nothing 

Service95 Book Club’s Monthly Read for June is Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe’s immersive account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. If you’ve read the book and you’re inspired to learn more about the country’s culture and history, here Northern Irish poet and artistic director Maria McManus – who lived through the height of the conflict and writes movingly about its impact on her as a child – suggests the books, TV, films and music to discover. 

Short Stories 

Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine

This Train Is For by Bernie McGill

Poetry 

We Play Here by Dawn Watson

Gub by Scott McKendry

Irish Street by Damian Smyth

The Sun Is Open by Gail McConnell

The Full Indian Rope Trick by Colette Bryce

Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson 

Anthologies 

Impermanence edited by Neil Hegarty and Nora Hickey M’ischili

The New Frontier: Reflections From The Irish Border edited by James Conor Patterson

The Glass Shore: Stories By Women Writers From The North Of Ireland

Non-Fiction 

Peace Comes Dropping Slow, My Life In The Troubles by Denis Bradley 

Dirty Linen: The Troubles In My Home Place by Martin Doyle

Living With Ghosts, The Inside Story From A ‘Troubles’ Mind by Brian Rowan 

Inventory: A Family Portrait Of Derry’s Troubled Past by Darren Anderson

Children Of The Troubles: The Untold Story Of The Children Killed In The Northern Ireland Conflict by Freya McClements and Joe Duffy

 Bear In Mind These Dead by Susan McKay

 Fiction 

Milkman by Anna Burns

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen

Close To Home by Michael Magee

Proxopera by Benedict Kiely

TV 

Blue Lights, BBC 

Derry Girls, Channel 4

Films – Check out BFI Player 

Cal (1984)

The Crying Game (1992) 

In The Name Of The Father (1993) 

Mickybo and Me (2004) 

Good Vibrations (2012)

Documentaries 

Once Upon A Time in Northern Ireland (2023) – BBC iPlayer 

No Stone Unturned (2017)

Music 

Van Morrison, Astral Weeks 

The Undertones

Stiff Little Fingers

Horslips

Soak

Cara Dillon 

Una Monaghan

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