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Archive for 2011

Don’t be giving it all that!

It should interest more than a few of our readers to hear the Bionic Rats, residents every Sunday in the excellent Foggy Dew establishment in Temple Bar, will be taking to the stage Friday night in Sin É at 9pm.Any chance to see this band is worth taking, bring your dancing shoes and make the short-trip across the Liffey.

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Interesting news today, in that it appears Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, is on his way to Dublin.

The Jewish Chronicle online was among the first news websites to run the story, it’s report noting:

Nick Griffin has been invited to speak at a Trinity College Dublin event.

A university spokeswoman confirmed that the British National Party leader is set to appear at a Philosophical Society meeting on October 20.

According to a post on the personal blog of the party’s media officer Simon Darby, Griffin was invited along with a “BNP delegation” for a debate titled: “This House Believes Immigration Has Gone Too Far”.

The university did not confirm if there would be any other outside guests at the event.

Mr Darby said: “Let’s all hope the students in Dublin hold their nerve against the inevitable, liberal fascist onslaught against free speech.”

Yet, we needn’t be worried by Nick. As far as he’s concerned, we’re more than welcome to pop over and back to the ‘mainland’ when we feel like it.

‘We are certainly not going to shut the doors to the Irish, because the Irish, as far as we are concerned, are part of Britain and fully entitled to come here.’

This could get interesting.

Update 1: There is a Facebook page in opposition to Griffin’s appearance at Trinity College Dublin over here.

Update 2: This great article on student activism in Dublin in the late 1980s includes information on previous controversial appearances from the far-right at Trinity. It’s well worth a read.

The previous year a provocation by the organized right in TCD also badly backfired when their invitation to David Irving resulted in hundreds of people blockading and then trying to storm the building where the debate was to take place. Again there was co-operation from campus unions, importantly security refused to cover the event leaving it up to a couple of senior academics to try and enforce discipline on the night. At this point in time we had the confidence to simply ignore them.

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This Is Dublin!

A nice nod to both the capital and The Clash from de’brudder, the ever-talented Luke Fallon. If only he’d update his own blog. I couldn’t design a birthday invitation myself, never mind anything else…..

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Anyone know anything about this banger? The List, from Northwall,is a piece of Dublin inspired-techno I landed on by accident over on YouTube earlier. I’d welcome information on this, and wonder if our own in-house musical connoisseur jaycarax might know a bit more. Not every day a tune mentioning the Progressive Democrats, Youth Defence and Lillies Bordello pops up.

YouTuber fpittion, who booted this onto Youtube, noted: ‘Was given this back in 98-don’t know anything about it Funny lyrics in it-Anyone know who did this? I presume it is from Dublin’

'Romantic Ireland is dead and gone...'

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Mary Aikenhead House (1940)

Recently we picked up a copy of the Lord Mayors Guidebook for the year 1942. It’s a piece likely to appear here time and time again, a treasure trove of classic Dublin advertisements, history, war-time precaution and more besides.

One of the real gems comes from an article entitled The City’s Housing Records. The piece notes that ‘since the Housing Acts of 1931 and 1932 became law not less than 17,000 new dwellings have been built within the city boundaries by the Corporation,by Public Utility Societies and by private enterprise’.

The below piece on Mary Aikenhead House is fascinating. It notes that the buildings were the first in the city to be provided with specially planned Air Raid Precaution basement shelters. Did any other flat complexes follow? Are the A.R.P shelters there to this day? Notice too that the front balconies are said to be “large enough to take single beds for sleeping in open air”, a reference to the T.B problems of the day?

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Spotted this doing the rounds on Facebook, Anto Social with a new one. Tongue very much in cheek here. Neilstown, Ballyfermot and more besides get a look in too, as well as the glorious Palmerstown I call home.

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Making our way from a house party in Rialto to Ruta Live for daytime tunes on Sunday afternoon, the ever enlightening Paul V. and Davey brought me down to Ormond Square to see a plaque to Johnny Giles that I did not know existed.

The plaque itself is concealed in a low wall, opposite the house he was born in, and you would certainly miss it if you were not looking. The web tells me it was unveiled in July 2006.

All the time we were in Ormond Square, a bunch of young kids were playing football on the same green which was great to see.

Giles plaque, Ormond Square. (c) Jay Carax

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Culture before debauchery

I’m looking forward to checking out the launch of the ‘This Space’ Open Exhibition tonight at the The Little Green Street Gallery, just off Capel Street.

As the Facebook event says:

Little green street gallery will be opening its doors this Friday september the 9th at 7pm for everyone to have a little taste of what the irish art scene has to offer. We have received so many inspiring submissions from various established and emerging artists across ireland and were proud to offer our walls to these people.

If you can’t make it down today, the exhibition itself will be running till September 14th with the gallery being open from 10-6 Monday – Friday and 12-3 on Saturday. I’ll let you know what’s it like anyway. 😉

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1829.

Two lovely new prints from Maser for the Dublin Contemporary exhibition at Earlsfort Terrace. I popped along to have a look on Monday and must say it was three hours very well spent, get along and enjoy. Maser’s Daniel O’Connell piece on the ground floor is excellent and worthy of a look.

The below will make sense after you visit the exhibition.

This piece pays homage to The Liberator, Daniel O’Connell.
I left my apartment off O’Connell street, heading towards Drury Street when I noticed a sign I’ve seen for years
“Why go bald”.
It’s my favourite neon sign in Dublin.
It’s message inspired me.
It made perfect sense.

To the mother stuck in an abusive relationship.
To the self consious teen I once was.
To the employee who hates their job.
To the addict who thinks there’s no hope.

Condition your mind. “Emancipate Yourself”

-Maser

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Who saw that coming? Not us.

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Cheers to my friend Chris Bond for snapping this one and sending it in earlier, a great snap from one of the tourist information outlets just off Grafton Street. Retailing for a little bit more than it should be, this Ireland ‘jersey’ leaves a lot to be desired. A clear knock-off of the FAI official kit, if the crest isn’t bad enough check out the poor attempt at copying an Eircom logo.

Just like Eircom, I wouldn’t be buying shares in the crowd behind producing this one.

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It’s Phizzfest time.

Phizzfest, one of my favourite community festivals, is just around the corner. Last year we were on hand to assist with the History Ireland Hedge School on Dublin’s punk and new wave scenes, and this year I’ve intentions of popping along to some events too.

Here are some highlights from the 2010 events:

Some events of note for 2011 are below.

In the mid-90s, half the interesting bands in Dublin seemed to live in Phibsborough. In the summer of 1997 they descended on The Hut every Saturday night, in various states of repair, to sing songs.

(more…)

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