Michael Duggan

Jan 2, 2025 | clarechampion.ie | Michael Duggan |Derek Dormer

Horses don’t know what price they are is a well-worn cliche in racing circles. Cliche or not it certainly was the case in Leopardstown last week where Jeannot Lapin – trained by Clarecastle native Gearoid O’Loughlin – won the Beginners’ Chase at the massive odds of 150/1. Having his first start for Wexford-based O’Loughlin. Jeannot Lapin – who ran three times in point-to-points for Tipperary handler Sam Curling – proved a sensation as he lowered the colours of some better-fancied rivals.

Oct 6, 2024 | thecritic.co.uk | Michael Duggan

Why have critics been ignoring one of the novelist’s most important themes? Intermezzo, the new Sally Rooney novel has arrived and we all know what to expect —  complicated love lives, fractured relationships, sex, Dublin, smartphones, Trinity College, extreme bookishness, and all the messy compromises of living under late-stage capitalism.

Sep 27, 2024 | spectator.co.uk | Michael Duggan

The war that neither side wanted began this week in earnest. After last week’s exploding pagers and walkie-talkies reportedly injured 1,500 members of Hezbollah’s military forces, the Israeli Air Force began a broad campaign of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, assassinating several senior leaders of the group while targeting long-range missiles hidden in warehouses

Sep 20, 2024 | irishexaminer.com | Michael Duggan

Precipice  Robert Harris ‎  Hutchinson Heinemann, €16.99 At the outset of , the new novel by Robert Harris, the characters — without their knowing — are ensnared in a bitter historical irony. It is July 1914 and the implementation of the Home Rule Act has Herbert Asquith, the Liberal prime minister of Great Britain and Ireland, and those around him, staring into the abyss of civil war. In reality, however, there is not one precipice looming, but two.

Aug 31, 2024 | thecritic.co.uk | Michael Duggan

How did one honorific colonise our language? “Guys, please have any loose items ready to place in the tray…”“Only join this queue if you are eligible for priority boarding, guys…”“Guys, please follow the yellow lines when exiting this area…”Airport users will be familiar with hearing and obeying such instructions. We rustle, shuffle, stop, start, sucking up the inescapable prelude to airborne freedom, our inner eye fixed on the journey’s end.