Sydney School of Arts & Humanities
Helping writers to write and publish their work
IMPRESSIONS MAGAZINE
Issue No.4-2019
HARD BORDER
by Gerdette Rooney
Brexit has been dominating the airwaves for the past three years and talk of hard and soft borders bandied about in a willy-nilly fashion. Few understand what the terms actually mean for Northern Ireland and Ireland, and what effect it will have on people’s daily lives on the new UK EU border on the island. The following is an account of how it was for me and my family growing up in Monaghan during the 1960s and 1970s with a ‘Hard Border’.
I was eight years old in the early 1960s when my smuggling training commenced. My mother was an expert at it and her excitement at evading the customs officers and saving some housekeeping shillings was contagious. For my brothers and me, it was our weekly adventure going to the wee North and meant treats of milky ice lollies and Opal fruits – made to make your mouth water. This was our payment for helping her out in illegal operations, doubling her butter quota, and keeping our mouths shut.
LUKE SLATTERY DOES JUSTICE TO 'MRS M'
To Slattery, the story of early colonial Sydney is a still-relevant social experiment, so much so he wrote two books about it. His latest, Mrs M, is a fictionalized story of emancipist Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth. Read more
Issue No.3-2019
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?
Our first Impressions article for the year – and with it an acknowledgement of the great legacies left by writers who have influenced our lives and our ideas so significantly – and, so often, unobtrusively.
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Issue No.1-2019
SEEKING HARMONY FROM COMPLEXITY
Nicky Gluch's memoir, just published, is set in Israel in 2013-14. It will explore how the experience of living and studying there led Gluch to pursue a musical career. Read more
Issue No.4 2018
BANKING MISCONDUCT: JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE In a fresh approach to the snags for the unwary being uncovered by the current Royal Commission into the financial services industry, one group of Economics thinkers has proposed an innovative proposal. Read more
Issue No.2 2018
CREATIVITY, ART & LIFE
Viewing the extraordinary artistry of sanctioned graffiti on a recent trip to Valparaiso in Chile, I was struck again by one version of the concept of geomancy. Is the formation of hotspots of creativity in time and space random? Read more
Issue No.2-2019
A COMMITTED LEFTIE
A Committed Leftie Scholar, writer and book reviewer, Michael Wilding chats with Italian journalist, Rossella Venturi, in her last Author Interview in a series she's working on. Read more
Issue No.5-2018
TOM KENEALLY: LOVE, LIFE, WRITING
Australia’s great grand patriarch of writing, Tom Keneally, remains as ‘common man’ as ever in his outlook on life, regardless of so many honours bestowed and worldwide glory gained. Read more
Issue No.3 2018
WRITER'S DREAMS, EDITOR'S KNIFE AND SELLERS RACK A candid interview with the Director of Sydney School of Arts & Humanities, Dr Christine Williams, by South Indian poet and academic, Syam Sudhakar. . Read more
Issue No.1 2018
