Seanchaí: With Lydia Renfro

Unfortunately, before the documentary can be completed, he meets his demise—along with the entire crew—via a roving violent disinformed Capitalist mob of #MeMyself&I...

The fog was thick at half past three, so when I walked into the street, I imagined this was how it must feel to live in the ear canal of a giant.

He seems not to hear the rasping squeak of the screen door opening to produce two children who tread softly to stand immobile in the chemically green grass like lawn statuary, beardless garden gnomes in cartoon pajamas.

Strange how it’s the names of things, the nouns, that leak away. You’d think words that are some of the first we learn – teddy, milk, ball, hat – would be more embedded

They swayed to the beat and sent currents through the room, bumped us into each other, into dances that weren’t quite accidental but seemed that way.

'Had I not offered the Frisbee man my stare, the brief but unsettling vision of his feather-topped head in my fridge, then he probably wouldn’t have veered off course and found the Frisbee, and the perfect woman'

Get lost in this strange but compelling story from author Lloyd Rees.

Or did the photographer just use the slant angle on a whim, without giving much thought to its emotional effect?

I’ve lost the feistiness and determination I exhibited upon capture, screaming for my right to a phone call and demanding the prison phone number so family in Kiev could call back.

On cue I would appear on my trapeze high above the ice and spin about the bar as fast as I could go. Like a whirligig, or a blowfly in a cobweb, the rhinestones on my leotard flashing.

‘He was Adam, separate, oak and beech and hazel trees crowded him, squeezed him, they were pigs buckling and squirming and their flesh heaved against him, sizzled and withered to a crinkled brown mass of labyrinths that formed and melted, formed and melted, and the air was full of screams. His own.’

Charlie Gracie weaves a wonderful tale of a bothy and a border post.

Youth meets age in Frances Guerin's engaging short story exploring the pain of loss.

In this beautifully written story, Patrick Nevins' protagonist faces a past that might easily overwhelm her.

Alison Frank reminds us that, however spotless our record, we all quail a little while waiting in line at passport control.

While there is more than forty years of hostility between the two countries, Iranians take solace in the fact that once an American gave his life for democracy in Iran: Howard Baskerville

Michael K White's tale of a green beetle on a windshield is not quite what it seems...

Short fiction that goes to the heart of author ego.

Ivona Coghlan's story exposes the child eye view of dysfunction and the moments of realisation.

When Ella tells me what men want I think, not Alan. Alan wants magic eyes, he tells me they will be made of glass and have stars on them

Ann Erskine's short fiction explores the bonds of sisterhood and loyalty.

Flash fiction that could only have been written by a poet. Suspend belief and just enjoy.

Thad Rutkowski's fiction piece on the theme of conflict and what it stems from.

Wonderfully researched Flash fiction by Clare Morris.

A mother learns that the greatest gift is allowing her child to live her own life.

Flash fiction on the theme of taking leave.

Dave Kavanagh's Marble, the story of a how desire can change the nature of a man.

Fragile but harsh flash fiction translated from Arabic. A newspaper’s fate, a note from a sweetheart, a story of soil, a story of loss…

A relationship on the brink. Dialogue on a knife’s edge—who gets the first cut? Find out what’s in a half orange.

Flash fiction that reads like prose poetry in its consideration of the aesthetics of still water.

A poignant coming to age story that’s as beautiful as it’s relatable in its first person narration, catapulting us into the core of family, love, friendship and teenage life.

A miscreant boy learns a valuable lesson for the most unlikely of sources.

A powerful fiction based on truth. A child’s witness of racial injustice and the frightening capacity of mob mentality as it dehumanises a victim.

Dave Leys is the author of The Institute of Fantastical Inventions and its sequel The Institute of Fantastical Inventions II: Magnetic Attraction released by New Holland Publishers.

A short story by poet and playwright, Jim Ward.

June Hunter’s short stories appear in Second Chance – an anthology; and online with Mash, Flash Fiction Magazine, Reflex Fiction and Potato Soup Journal.

Hayley-Jenifer Brennan is an emerging writer from Cork, Ireland. She is currently working towards an MA in Creative Writing from UCC

Isioma Jemimah Okonicha’s works include fictional stories, motivational, and poetry.