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Archive for 2010

Football; much better when watched in a pub?

Posted in Events, Football Articles, Miscellaneous, Social History, tagged , , , on November 15, 2010| 7 Comments »

The gem of a picture that accompanies this piece was spotted in Friday’s Metro by a good mate of mine. Now, I know the domestic season is over, the cup final done and dusted (with a deserved victory for Sligo Rovers, and their ex- Bohs talisman Joe Ndo) but this takes the biscuit, really pushing us as a nation of barstoolers to the limit. We often wax lyrical on here about the League of Ireland, no it doesn’t draw the masses, and no, its not always sexy. But its ours, and thats what counts. So seeing ads like this is a real slap in the face for the League- Football is not much better when watched from a pub, its much better watched from the steps of the Jodi Stand in Dalymount Park, or the shed in Richmond Park, even the bloody lego stand in Tolka Park is better than a pub.

Football is certainly not much better when watched from a pub. Photo credit, Ciarán Mangan

With the season over, I’ll miss the football. And considering our current predicament, this time next year I could be saying I’m missing Bohs. The thoughts of it are depressing. We are in danger but fans are rallying behind the club. Donations are coming in fast, and some very generous ones at that. Even a bunch of Sligo Rovers fans passed on some money on Sunday to go towards the €300, 000 needed for us to retain our license for next season. More of a reason to have cheered for the Bit o’ Red yesterday. I’ll do another piece on the subject later in the week but as well as the donations, there’s a fundraising night and a monster raffle being held in The Phoenix Bar, Dalymount Park this Saturday night, details here. I’d urge, not only Bohs fans but all LOI fans to drop in. I know we joke about “the league needs a strong Rovers,” but where would we really be without Dalymount Park? The original home of Irish Football, and a place that truly deserves National Monument status.

So that’s why when I was sent that picture above, a number of feelings stirred in me. Pity, for those who remain oblivious to their own national League. Contempt for the same people. Anger, at the short-sightedness of the advertisement. And sadness, that only if some of those the article targets made the effort to come to LOI games, clubs like Bohs, and Shams, Derry and Cork before them wouldn’t be in the situations they are/were in. You can stick your barstools where the sun doesn’t shine. Football is much better when watched from the steps of Block G.

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“Abnormal labour disturbances”, arson and collapsing tenement houses. Dublin Fire Department report for 1913.

Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged , , , , , on November 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

Below are some scans from the Annual Report of the Dublin Fire Department, as the service was known, in 1913. It details the work carried out by the fire service in 1913. The scans below offer some interesting insight into what was going on in the city at the time.

The report is signed off Thomas P. Purcell, Chief Officer. It was concluded on March 6th at Central Station,Tara Street.

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No more ‘beating off’ on the street!

Posted in Uncategorized on November 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

Well done MadamK, you’ve done it again.

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Fade Street: First Impressions.

Posted in Reviews, tagged , on November 12, 2010| 5 Comments »

This is the Irish economy between the time they came up with the idea for this show and now.

Jesus, those lads in RTE are going to be hard pressed for spots now. Shebeen Chic, Pygmalion and The Market Bar all featured in the first episode of Fade Street. This was more or less marketed as ‘The Irish Hills‘, but my reason for watching it was more an interest in how the city herself was presented, and not the four protagonists.

I’d told a couple of mates I was going to watch this with the aim of a little write-up, and the texts come in thick and heavy. One of the lads is such a student his gaff is tellyless, and he comes down hard on the whole thing. “It’s about as real as The Rock and The Undertaker having a scrap on top of a steel cage” he reckons. Another seems to like it. Facebook is divided.

They’ve done more than borrow a basic idea from The Hills, they’ve basically gone for the exact same plots. God forbid anyone worked in a shop, here we have a couple of interns that are living in a city centre Dublin apartment. Interning, as many students know all too well, is working for free.That ain’t gonna pay the rent. Montrose will.

This isn’t documentary, or mockumentary, but acting-passed-off-as-real-lifeumentary. “Do you want to come in and see the apartment? Sure, follow me” We follow them up the stairs into the new apartment. The cameraman is there before us, and films them coming up the stairs. Likewise, when the boss rings (from the style magazine), RTE have a camera set up in her office. Handy! There is very little ‘real’ about what you’re watching you think.

One thing I do like is the camera work. Dublin looks great here. I can see a good few ‘Come Here To Me types’ (we don’t refer to readers as ‘Come Here To Me types’, swear) watching it for this stuff alone.

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There’s a Tempest a comin’

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous, Music, tagged , , , , on November 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

With all this weeks madness keeping us busy, I neglected to plug the visit to Dublin of an exceptionally talented lyricist and rap artist, a woman who Scroobius Pip has lauded from the high heavens and who tore the Electric Picnic a new one with her performance last summer. I’m talking about Kate Tempest. Brought to my attention by my brother a few months back, I had a listen to a couple of her tracks on youtube and was blown away.

Kate Tempest visits Dublin this Sunday

Slam poetry is something that you either get or don’t. I never really got it until I heard a man by the name of Marty Mulligan stun The Stables in Mullingar into silence with a four minute piece sometime back in 2003 or 2004. So when I heard that himself and my brother were bringing her over, I’ll admit it and say I was f*cking chuffed.

Influenced equally by a love of hip hop and a love of great literature Kate Tempest is a rapper,… poet and playwright. She has performed consistently and comprehensively since she began rapping in battles at 16.
Since then she has continued to develop her skills as a writer and a performer, and has made a name for herself in the UK hip hop, spoken word and live music scenes.

She’s visiting Kelly’s in Galway at 8.30 tomorrow (Friday 12th) and The Stables, Mullingar at 10.00 on Saturday before making her way up to us here in Dublin on Sunday.

She’s hitting the new Grand Social (used to be Pravda, I look forward to seeing what they replaced the murals with) at 8.15pm for a half hour set before heading down to Block T in Smithfield where she’s onstage at 9.45. Trust me folks, you need to see this. I know it’s short notice but tell everyone you know… there’s a Tempest a comin’.

The Facebook event page is here.

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There are “many accounts by reliable witnesses of acts of unnecessary roughness and somtimes brutality by indiviudal guards…”

Posted in Dublin History, Social History on November 9, 2010| 3 Comments »

This quote is not in relation to last week’s police violence at the student demonstration but instead is taken from The Irish Times editorial of May 14, 1968. It is in reference to a Garda baton charge on 50 supporters of the Dublin Housing Action Committee, most of whom were students, outside City Hall the night before. The attack left three protesters needing hospital treatment.

The baton-charge on City Hall was the start of one of the most eventful weeks, in one of the most eventful years of radical student politics in Dublin.

A couple of days after, Gardai attacked around a dozen members of the left-wing group The Internationalists, outside Trinity Library, who were protesting against the visit of the Belgian King and Queen. The violence was prompted after the police took exception to the student’s banner which read ‘Lumumba – Killed by Belgian Imperialism’.

The sight of police beating students on campus along with the uninformed press coverage that followed prompted an almost spontaneous demonstration against police brutality. Over a thousand students marched on Pearse Street police station the day after. (This has to be one of the biggest anti-police brutality marches in Dublin’s history). After reading out a letter of protest, they marched on the Independent House on Middle Abbey Street to voice their anger at the way the Evening Herald covered the story.

The newspaper reports show an eerily similar rundown of events to what happened at the student protest last week.

“… a group of peaceful demonstrators, including students, were carrying on a picket when, without provocation, Gardai moved in and physically manhandled them. Many of these Gardai were without visible identification numbers. In the ensuing fracas is (sic) seems many Gardai used methods which would justify the use of the term ‘police brutality'” – Mr. Alan H Matthews (President, TCD SRC). The Irish Times, May 14, 1968 (Note: Alan is now a Professor of Economics at TCD)

“… But there are too many accounts by reliable witnesses of acts of unnecessary roughness and sometimes brutality by individual guards to make the most recent complaint seem frivolous” – Editorial, The Irish Times May 14, 1968

“Later in Grafton street students were again manhandled. We deplore as police brutality this needless use of force involving the striking of students and onlookers. We must further protest at the inaccuracy of the press reports.” – Labour Party, TCD. The Irish Times, May 16, 1968
 

If anyone has photographs or memories from this period of student protests, please get in touch.

These two articles may also be of interest:

+ A brief look at UCD’s radical history from 1968-70; The move to Belfield and the ‘Gentle Revolution’.

+ One activist’s account of student politics in TCD in the 1980s; http://anarchism.pageabode.com/andrewnflood/dublin-student-activism-tcd-1980s

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Dublin on a sunny Sunday morning

Posted in Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 7, 2010| 8 Comments »

It’s a rare occurence these days that I stay in Dublin on a Saturday night and am still able to get up bright and early on the Sunday morning. Having spent yesterday in a dark basement singing/ screeching with a guitar strapped to my back,  drinking someone elses beer (cheers Chris lad,) I decided to take a stroll around the city and take a few pictures, it being a lovely morning and all. A guesstimate on Google Maps afterwards worked out at 7.8 kilometres. Not bad for a mornings work.

Dublin on a sunny Sunday morning. Nowhere in the world comes close.

All the threat of floods, gale force winds and rain seem to be out by a day or so, there was no sign of it on my adventures…

Hadn't seen these before, up there with the new Bertie ones.

Political stickers are making a resurgence in Dublin, it makes for a change, lampposts that were once covered in stickers from obscure Eastern European Ultras groups now sport piss-takes of Bertie, Brian Cowen and the rest…

 

I love this one, from around the back of Shebeen Chic.

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Twatter.

Posted in Uncategorized on November 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

I don’t have a Twitter. Neither does Come Here To Me! actually. I don’t really ‘get’ it.

I’ve been loving the page of government T.D Paul Gogarty (Yes, that would be ‘f*ck you Deputy Stagg’ Paul Gogarty) lately however. For the last couple of days, he’s been engaging in a debate with students from the Free Education for Everyone campaign over events at the Department of Finance and all sorts of other things that take his fancy.

FEEE . You forgot the word ‘eejits’ at the end.

friend of the students, but not FEEE muppets who tried to get me to illegally interfere in Garda investigation lol

Oddly, Gogarty even came out in support of the Public Order Unit who have been the subject of over a dozen complaints to the Garda Ombudsman.

Send him a tweet. You’ll get one back. You can follow Gogarty over here.

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A Random Drop Inn: The Auld Dub

Posted in Pubs, Reviews, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Dropping into a pub like this (by which I mean any pub in Temple Bar) is always a risk. It’s no lie to say that you’d be very hard pushed to find a non- tourist frequenting them, Foggy Dew aside, and maybe that’s for a good reason. So, after a long day of work for me, and a hard days sticking it to the man for DFallon and mate Ois, we decided to head somewhere we’d never been before, and drink a pint to friends injured during Wednesday’s madness.

The Auld Dub

DFallon suggested The Auld Dub, and I agreed, having a mate that works there and being curious as to how the place fares up. The fare was up alright, a pint of Guinness costing €4.85, a good 60c dearer than Brogan’s only five minute walk away. No doubt they sell a good many pints at that price, though we wondered how many half pints of it the floor staff have to pick up at the end of the night. (Its always funny to see someone who has never drank Guinness before order a pint of it, take one taste and then ask for a Heineken instead, not being elitist in the slightest, its more a nod to the advertising power of Diageo; GUINNESS IN IRELAND IS THE BEST THING EVER.)

But anyways, the pub. Suprisingly un-kitsch for a touristy spot, the place looks great inside, a horseshoe bar dominating the interior with a staircase on either side, one up and one down to the (almost spotless, apart fron the “Love United, Hate Glazer” stickers) jacks. Pictures of visitors line the walls, and beside our table, a frame with a dozen or so of the Arthur’s Day beermats from last year takes pride of palce. The pint soured very quickly, I’m not sure why- it wasn’t that we were drinking slowly or anything, but by the time I got to the end of mine, I could have taken it or left it to be honest. So we didn’t stay long and decided to wander down and check out the banners on the Ha’penny and Millenium Bridges instead.

Just as we were getting ready to go, some live music started, a one-man-band idea, one bloke banging away on his guitar, everything from The Virgin Prunes to Green Day to Sting (Roxanne, and a group of what sounded like Swedish blokes seemed delighted, taking the oppurtunity to play the drinking game of the same name.)

Leaving the pub and heading out into the night, we stopped to have a gander at the mystery plaque on the ground outside. Ois had asked the barman if he knew the story behind it but alas, the mystery goes on…

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Student protest media coverage

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous on November 4, 2010| 3 Comments »

I’m still taking in all that happened yesterday. I’ll probably write my personal account of the day. Until then, here’s the various newspaper accounts of yesterday’s march, direct action and police violence. (The Irish Times article can be viewed here and The Irish Independent one here)

The Independent

The Mirror (1)

The Mirror (2)

The Mirror (3)

The Star

The Star (2)

The Sun

The Herald (2)

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The revolution will not be watered down.

Posted in Uncategorized on November 4, 2010| 1 Comment »

Some of you may remember me uploading this leaflet handed out to students on an anti-fees demonstration in 2008.

Shocking as that was, XXI Nightclub seemed hellbent on going one better. This image is from photographer Neil Frazer who was at the ‘Education not Emigration’ rally yesterday.

“Quote CLUNGE for free entry”

Morons.

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Under Clery’s Clock

Posted in Dublin History, Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 4, 2010| 7 Comments »

It is said that countless country folk have used it as a rendevous point, and that thousands of relationships, amorous and otherwise have been formed under it. Phillip Chevron of The Radiators even wrote a song about it. As landmarks go, it’s pretty, though rather unimpressive, but the saying “I’ll meet you under Clery’s Clock ” has been coined for generations.

The spot of many a life changing moment; Clery's Clock

Clery’s is an integral part of the social history of Dublin, as much as it is the actual history. It’s ties with the Imperial Hotel and the Martin Murphy empire, the lockout of 1913 and Jim Larkin, and the events of Easter week in 1916 are irrefutable. It was the scene, as has been mentioned here before, of Jim Larkin’s arrest for addressing the crowd at a rally from the upper balcony of the building while dressed in a priests robes and a fake beard.

But as I said, there is an important social history to be told about the building, and Media Arts Student Sinead Vaughan is looking for people to tell it. I came across this plea for help this morning while browsing the Dublin City section of boards.ie and thought it an excellent idea. So anyone with a story about meeting there, or especially anyone who was at the unveiling of the new clock in 1990, contact sineady_vaughan@hotmail.com

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