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Your evening longread: Author Paul Auster on the question 'why write?'

We bring you an interesting longread each evening to take your mind off the news.

EVERY WEEK, WE bring you a round-up of the best longreads of the past seven days in Sitdown Sunday.

And now, every weeknight, we bring you an evening longread to enjoy which will help you to escape the news cycle. 

We’ll be keeping an eye on new longreads and digging back into the archives for some classics.

Why write?

Paul Auster asks ‘why write?’ and answers using examples from his own life.

(The New Yorker, approx 16 mins reading time)

He had to have been all of twenty-four years old, but I couldn’t bring myself to pronounce his first name. His response to my question was brusque but amiable. “Sure, kid, sure,” he said. “You got a pencil?” He was so full of life, I remember, so full of youthful energy, that he kept bouncing up and down as he spoke. I didn’t have a pencil, so I asked my father if I could borrow his. He didn’t have one, either. Nor did my mother. Nor, as it turned out, did any of the other grownups.

Read all the Evening Longreads here> 

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:05 PM

    Don’t cut their pay, completely remove the DUP’s pay. Let’s see how long they want to sit on the sidelines when they are flat broke. They can have sectarianism or a salary, they can’t have both.

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    Mute Gerard McConnell
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:53 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: Rumours are rife that the DUP said yes for the first time since the Old Testament, they say God and country are important but cash is king.

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    Mute Joe Johnson
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:01 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: And make Brandon Lewis redundant too.

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    Mute Stephen O'Neill
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:15 PM

    @Seán Ó Briain: their pals in the UVF could spot them a few quid from their drug money. Removing the protocol would be a giant carrot for them.

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:30 PM

    @Gerard McConnell: Always said: Loyal to the Half Crown.

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    Mute Geoff Scargill
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:12 PM

    Why ‘soon’? Why not now?!

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    Mute Pat Duggan
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:42 PM

    I heard that interview where Brandon Lewis said that Jews were being prevented from practicing their faith. What kind of interviewer let’s him get away without explaining that.
    We are allowing politicians and media influencers of all shades to make daft claims without being called to account.

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    Mute Stephen Walshe
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:59 PM

    @Pat Duggan: and orange one

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    Mute Pat Duggan
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:09 PM

    @Stephen Walshe: This is just one example of the influence being wielded by probably less than 20% of the population. People with media influence capability are being allowed to convert the other 80% who do not use their critical powers to test the accuracy of what it being promoted. It used to be called propaganda.

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    Mute Niall Power
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:16 PM

    Why is the Journal repeating the lie that the protocol is preventing the jewish community from practicing their faith? This has been proven to be untrue!

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    Mute sean o'dhubhghaill
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:21 PM

    @Niall Power: Never heard that! What is meant to be the reason?

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    Mute Sean D
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:21 PM

    @Niall Power: Had a few have you?

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    Mute E.J. Murray
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:27 PM

    @Niall Power: — They’re only quoting Brandon Lewis’s lies above, but they should actually point out that he’s blatantly lying through his teeth, which seems to be on a par with most of the Tories in high office. They all spout real howlers, like Suella Braverman, who announced that NI is way behind the rest of the UK in the trade and economy area, which is the complete opposite of what the situation really is. The problem is that a lot of people believe the nonsense they come out with.

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    Mute Noel Doherty
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:29 PM

    @Sean D: a few Jews??..

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    Mute Niall Power
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:32 PM

    @Sean D: I don’t drink!

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    Mute Niall Power
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:33 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: lack of access to kosher foodstuffs.

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    Mute Lina Stein
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:35 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: Most of the Kosher goods came from the UK however, the shops and community have since found EU suppliers to deliver.

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Jun 26th 2022, 6:54 PM

    @sean o’dhubhghaill: there is a community of 75 Orthodox Jews who are facing DELAYS on kosher foods from uk. Yet there is an orthodox Jewish community in Dublin who are not having issues sourcing produce from uk. Hardly an insurmountable issue.

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    Mute Stephen O'Neill
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:23 PM

    @Niall Power: sure look it, anyone who has an IQ in double figures know that anything coming out of a Tory/DUP is likely to be BS

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    Mute David cotter
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    Jun 26th 2022, 7:15 PM

    Haha the DUP will prove they are far more loyal to the half crown …then the crown

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    Mute Patrick O Connell
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:26 PM

    @David cotter: all parties up there take the queens shillings. Cash is king for them all

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    Mute Bramley Hawthorne
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    Jun 26th 2022, 8:11 PM

    The DUP won’t play “in protest over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol”. Also because they lost the election to the Taigs.

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    Mute Richard Ahern
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    Jun 26th 2022, 7:29 PM

    Proper bloody order! About time too. We’ll done Brandon Lewis.

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