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Michael Costigan

Michael Costigan was the executive secretary to the Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Justice, Development, and Peace.

Michael Costigan reviews 'Collateral Damage' by Geoff Page

July 1999, no. 212 01 July 1999
As with the dozen or so collections of Geoff Page’s poetry that have preceded it over almost thirty years, Collateral Damage can be opened at random with the certainty that something impressive will be there. One of the most striking characteristics of his published work is its consistent high quality. A feature of Collateral Damage is the immediacy of the social comment in a number of the poem ... (read more)

Michael Costigan reviews 'The Big Ship: Warwick Armstrong and the making of modern cricket' by Gideon Haigh

December 2001–January 2002, no. 237 07 July 2022
New Year’s Day 2002 marks the centenary of Warwick Windridge Armstrong’s Test cricket début for Australia. At the age of twenty-two, the promising all-rounder carried his bat in both innings on the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Archie MacLaren’s English side. Almost twenty years later, a much heavier and more famous Armstrong, then aged forty-one and nicknamed ‘The Big Ship’ because ... (read more)

Michael Costigan reviews 'New Selected Poems' by Vivian Smith

May 1995, no. 170 01 May 1995
In his 155-page essay on Australian poetry in The Oxford History of Australian Literature, Vivian Smith modestly makes only one passing reference to his own work, noting that he, with a number of other modern poets, had been influenced by university education. It is likely that a more independent commentator would have given a little more space to the contribution of Vivian Smith, placing him amo ... (read more)