The good people at Foggy Notions continue to bring some of the best to our shores. I’ve played the Dum Dum Girls to death recently, and loved The Guardian’s description of their music as “bubblegum pop put through a shredder.”
I’d lost hope in Sub Pop Records a while back, but I Will Be from the Dum Dum Girls restored some faith. A tip of the hat to the great girl bands of old and the original punk rockers, I look forward to this one. It’s the noisiest piece of girl-band revivalism out there at the minute!
Dum Dum Girls- I Will Be.
Dum Dum Girls- Jail La La.
Dum Dum Girls
Whelans
Fri 01 Apr 2011 19:30
€17.50 from tickets.ie
I got a text from hxci to tell me he was only about to upload that great image of the Irish Womens Workers Union when he saw I’d used it on Sunday in another post. It reminded me to upload this image of Delia Larkin, members of the IWWU and male trade unionists who made up the Jacobs Strike Committee on the steps of Liberty Hall. It’s obviously from the same day, and is a wonderful image that doesn’t show up as often.
One of the first women to come out in sympathy with the men was Rosie Hackett, a young messenger for the company, who had joined the Irish Transport and General Workers Union in the previous year. Two weeks after the successful Jacob’s strike, Rosie was one of the founder members of the Irish Women Workers Union, set up to protect women in the face of the appalling conditions in which many of them were expected to work.
In August 1913, when the tramworkers struck, Rosie and her fellow workers from Jacob’s again mobilised in support of the pickets and they gathered in O’Connell Street on 31 August for a rally against the employers. She was in the crowd that was baton charged by the police, resulting in the terrible injuries to the workers that made the day infamous as ‘Bloody Sunday’. On the following Saturday, three Jacob’s workers were sacked for refusing to remove their ITGWU badges and Rosie was one of the organisers of the supporting strike which began immediately afterwards.
The steps of Liberty Hall were a favourite place for the trade union movement to be photographed! The image below shows the men and women of the Irish Citizen Army at Liberty Hall in 1917, a year on from the insurrection. James Connolly’s secretary Winifred Carney is clearly identifiable in the front row on the left, next to the streetlight. It’s another great photograph on the steps of Liberty Hall.
Can you identify some of the women in any of the pictures? Leave a comment!
I went down Moore Street last week for the first time in a while, as I was in the company of a returning friend who has been away in Germany. He wanted to see how things were up there, in terms of attempts to move the street traders on and buy out all the remaining premises.
I was pretty surprised to see that in the middle of the street, near to 16 Moore Street itself, there were numerous new business premises in the forms of cafes. Obviously these are on short term leases, but it is excellent to see a bit of life pumped into the street again. On both sides of the street, stalls indiciated that market life has continued on too.
With property developer Joe O’Reilly well and truly NAMA’d, is Moore Street safe for the forseeable future?
I found a few old copies of An Phoblacht recently along with all sorts of other stuff and thought this piece on the issue of street-trading in the capital worth scanning up:
This outstanding exhibition, largely drawn from the International Brigade Memorial Trust archive at the Marx Memorial Library, tells in words and pictures the inspirational story of the 2,500 British and Irish volunteers who joined the fight to defend democracy in Spain against internal and international fascism from 1936 to 1939.
The exhibition will be on display at the Irish Labour History Society museum and archives in Beggars Bush from Monday 16th to Friday 27th of May from 10.30am – 4.30pm daily.
U2’s baby The Kitchen is set to re-open after a nine year hiatus.
Launched in 1994, essentially marking the end of the DIY acid rave scene and the beginning of club culture as we know it today, The Kitchen is perhaps best known for its influential Thursday night club Influx, the brainchild of Johnny Moy.
Is Dublin crying out for The Kitchen? Time will tell.
Hot Press has laid out the club details of The Kitchen 2.0.
Thursday
Take Back Thursdays with Two Many Cooks man Lorcan Mak and guests including David De Valera, Colin Perkins, Niall Dunne & Two Charming Men.
Friday
DubWar, a drum ‘n bass ‘n dubstep session featuring the likes of Hostage, Slum Dogz, Jazzstepa, Funk Case, Serial Killaz, Chasing Shadows, Document One and Flux Pavilion.
Saturday
Parliament, the funkier flavours of disco and electronica ranging from Chic to LCD Soundsystem.
Sunday
The Kitchen’s Sauce, deep and sexy funk and disco house with returning Kitchen resident Richie Rock.
(c) Kelly Steenlandt
Blast from the past. Flyer for The Kitchen's Influx. (c) Johnny Moy
Blast from the past. Flyer for The Kitchen's Influx. (c) Johnny Moy
I did a brief post on Saint Werburgh’s Church (On Werburgh Street, opposite Burdocks) here before, but today I came across these images I’d taken of the church late last year and thought them worth sharing.
Saint Werburgh’s Church has, most unfortunately, fallen on hard times. It is difficult to disagree with the observations of Fiona Gartland of The Irish Times who noted in an August 2009 article for the paper that paint work inside the church was cracked and peeling, plaster work crumbling and that stucco detail in the church was badly in need of repair. In the article, the Dean of Christ Church the Very Rev. Derek Dunne noted that the once glorious church had “…been neglected for decades” and that “Saint Werburgh’s is not ours, it is in the ownership of Dublin. The work needs to be done, it is almost too late.”
Thankfully, there is a massive restoration currently underway at Saint Werburgh’s. The small church is now closed to the public, with sections of it completely off-limits during the restoration. Yet one must feel a sense of relief that the final resting place of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and indeed the spot were Jonathan Swift was baptised, finally seems safe for the long-term future.
I thought it worth sharing some pictures of one of my favourite buildings in the capital. Its beautiful sandstone facade is unlike anything else in the city, and I often admire Saint Werburgh’s from the upper-floor of the Lord Edward across the road! As good a spot as any…
Some amazing television from RTE there. If you missed The Naked Election, click here.
Highlights would include Leo Varadkar literally looking into his microwave while his two-minute dinner goes around in circles, and Paul Gogarty telling us he likes The Human League and used to wear make-up, but rest assured “I’m not gay.” Cheers for that Paul, cheers for that. Paul also told us he wants to record an album, which is a pretty terrifying proposition.
Plenty of doorstep shouting, abusive tweets (Gogarty reading out some of the tweets people sent him after he lost his seat was worth the licence fee) and count centre drama.
On top of DFallon’s earlier post on what hes up to this week, I’ve just found out about the gig below for Saturday night- two great bands for the sum total of FREE.
Bats & Ten Past Seven FREE GIG.
U:Mack Presents:
BATS+ Ten Past Seven
The Button Factory,
8:30pm, Saturday March 12th
Followed by club – Ragin’ Full On
‘In Flags or Flitters – Pictures of Dublin’ was made to celebrate Dublin’s year as European City of Culture in 1991. The phrase “in flags or flitters” is taken from ‘Finnegans Wake’ by James Joyce, Dublin’s greatest writer, and a rare recording of his voice is used in the film. It is made from archive footage shot in the thirty years between approximately 1960 until around 1990, now preserved in the collections of the Irish Film Archive/Irish Film Institute and RTE. The documentary, which is not chronological and has no narrator, deals with the look and the built environment of the city (and county) of Dublin as well as its influence on art and artists.
My uncle John uploaded this great documentary about Dublin onto Youtube today. It features, amongst others, Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan, Austin Clarke and Christy Brown.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
