The Indiscernible Mother- Katy Thornton

Beth told herself she would wait until the sun came up, but it came up too quickly. She resolved to wait until the first bird chirped, and then until the third, and then until the sixteenth. By the time she got out of bed that morning, she had lost count – the chirping had turned…

A summer reverie- Varghese Joy

It was about 2.30 in the afternoon and I was sitting on the sofa in my living room. It was a hot and bright afternoon in Dublin. My little daughter was having a nap in her bedroom upstairs. The atmosphere was unusually quiet and serene. As I was sitting with my legs stretched, oblivious to…

Family Fortunes- Phil O’Kelly

‘And who do we have now, let me see... Kaylah, from Tallaght right here in Dublin! Come on down, Kaylah.’ Camera pans back and forth across the audience whilst spotlights flash on and off. The shot eventually settles on a young girl, fifteen years old, with black bangs, thick black eyebrows which have been plucked…

A Red Curtain Waved Out Through a Broken Window Frame.- Kevin McManus

James Madigan got out of the car and looked around. To his right he could see the imprints left where children had frolicked and carved out snow angels. The hollows left behind were starting to fill with fresh snow that whispered and capered as it descended upon the silent, frozen and calm earth. The flakes…

A Man’s Journey Into Darkness- Patrick Lynch

It was another day for me, just like it was yesterday, the day before that and the day before that, in fact one might say on looking at my life “there's a guy who's in one hell of a rut with a very mundane job”. Thing is they'd be just about right in saying that…

The Speed of Light- The Man in the Black Pyjamas

The speed of light is fairly fucking slow when you’re broke and wondering if the power’s been cut off. We usually went months without paying it, so when I came in from work in the evening the pause between the switch clicking and the bulb lighting up was long enough for me to realise I’d…

Ophelia- James Hutcheon

As I stood that morning at the sash window, tying a black tie and looking out on bare marshlands, a heron flew past, primordial, so close that if the glass were gone I could have snared its trailing legs with the tie loop. I watched the bird sail silently over the marsh. It looked to…

Unnatural Things- Niamh Crosbie

Her reflection glistened in the golden sheen of the chalice as she turned it over in her hand and polished the rim of the cup. The warped vision of her face gazed back at her, with eyeballs and cheeks that seemed to sink even further into her skull than they had the week before. At…

The Last Days of Albert Hicks- Patrick Hodgins

April is always cold. Albert Hicks had his mats and his cardboard and his old sleeping bag. The light was fading as he bunkered down in the shop. The irony not lost on him but here he thought he would be safe. He ate his sandwich, given by a passer by, drank some water, rain…

Blip- Mai O’Boyle

The phone fell from her hands through the air and landed with a gentle thud on the industrial carpeted floor in much the same way a low budget film does slow-mo. Ashen-faced, she bent down and picked up her phone, giving it a subconscious rub of her dusty pink blouse to remove the lint on…