IN the year that the Cork writer Patrick Galvin died, my own Patrick Galvin was also in his final days. My father wasn’t distinguished or a man of letters: he had worked in the factories of Coventry from his early 30s, as a machinist, been widowed young and raised two daughters.

HIGHLIGHT of the Cork International Short Story Festival (Sept 18-22) will be a reading by, and public interview with David Constantine, winner of the 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award at Triskel Christchurch on Sept 22.

The Red House

Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun today scooped the world’s richest literary prize for a work published in English.