What's my favourite record? Writers and music figures make their selections
Punks Listen editors Niall McGuirk and Michael Murphy, at the Cork launch of the book at the Boole Library in UCC. Picture: David Keane
It’s not that Niall McGuirk and Michael Murphy are reluctant book publishers, but given that the three books they have compiled together on their Hope Publications imprint have been in response to a global crisis — Syrian refugees, Covid and now Ukraine — you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d rather not be doing this.
“Each one was a response to a problem,” McGuirk agrees, “so I would love for there not to be a next one.” Nevertheless, 2017’s In Concert: Favourite gigs of Irish music community, 2020’s Great Gig Memories from Punks and Friends, and the latest, Punks Listen, are joyful celebrations of music fandom and have proved to be enormously positive experiences for Murphy and McGuirk.
