Thanks to Martin on The Atrix Facebook page for taking a high-quality photograph of his original poster for the Carnsore Point anti-Nuclear festival in August 1978.
The free festival was attended by thousands of people who wanted to express their opposition to the proposed first nuclear power plant in Ireland. Entrance to the three day festival in the South West corner of County Wexford was free and entertainment on offer also included exhibitions, workshops and theatre productions.
The cream of the crop of the Irish musical scene provided their services. They included traditional legends like Christy Moore, Clannad, Andy Irvine, Liam Weldon, Donal Lunny, Paddy Glackin who were backed up by soulful rock group Stagalee and Dublin New Wave bands Sacre Bleu, The Atrix and The Sinners.
Christy covered the event in his 2000 autobiography ‘One Voice’:
It was my first time to become directly involved in a political campaign, and I was to meet many people who became lifelong friends and a few who became somewhat less than that. The festival was a huge success and opened my eyes to the potential of people power. It was a wonderful collective and to this day I still try to carry the message of Carnsore Point in my everyday life.
Political speakers at the 1978 festival included Petra Kelly (1947-1992; German Green Party), John Carroll (vice-president of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union) and Dr. Robert Blackith (1923-2000; Trinity College lecturer).
Not everyone on the radical Left was onside though. The pro-Unionist Marxist-Leninist group British and Irish Communist Organisation (BICO) picketed the festival as they believed nuclear power was was necessary to achieve socialism in Ireland!
There were further festivals in 1979, 1980 (with U2 on the bill) and 1981. The campaign was ultimately successful and a number of wind generating stations were opened on the headland in 2003.
There’s a second poster from the returning year; “Back to the Point”. I have it at home. Will take a photo later … 🙂
HI, I was wondering if you have a good image of the poster from the first Carnsore point concert? I’m doing an exhibition and digging in the archives from these events. interesting times! thanks
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Hi there. Email me at cooties at mac {.} com and I’ll send you the two high-rez shots that I have.
http://photopol.com/language/language.html#nuclear
I have the 1979 poster at home (“Back to the Point”) – the match to this one. I’ll get a shot of it later and post it here 🙂
As promised, here’s the second poster in the series. This one belonged to Jim “Doc” Whelan, author of The Ballad of Nuke Power.
I have a super-clear copy of the first one here, too. It’s hanging beside it 🙂
HI, I was wondering if you have a good image of the poster from the first Carnsore point concert? I’m doing an exhibition and digging in the archives from these events. interesting times, thanks !
Nice one, thanks for taking the time to do that. Great design too!
It’s not every day you see BICO mentioned.
Can anyone name some of the songs performed at any of these–other than the ones on the single, which I already have? Many thanks!
There was a CND one day festival in St Anne’s Park in 1984, August I think. Moving Hearts headlined it.
Should have gone ahead and built it. Didn’t Christy sing be was “doing it wrong all his life”, he was wrong this time anyway. It would have been better to preserve the boglands of the centre of Ireland and go with nuclear power.
With nuclear power it would have been economical to keep Irish Steel going and develop other smelting industries and other power intensive manufacturing.
Should have gone ahead and built it. Didn’t Christy sing be was “doing it wrong all his life”, he was wrong this time anyway. It would have been better to preserve the boglands of the centre of Ireland and go with nuclear power.
With nuclear power it would have been economical to keep Irish Steel going and develop other smelting industries and other power intensive manufacturing.
[…] of the first and most successful anti-nuclear campaigns in the world. To defeat the building of a nuclear plant at Carnsore point, Co. Wexford, whole swathes of Irish society bonded together for a common […]
[…] first and most profitable anti-nuclear campaigns on the planet. To defeat the constructing of a nuclear plant at Carnsore point, Co. Wexford, entire swathes of Irish society bonded collectively for a common […]
[…] the first and most successful anti-nuclear campaigns in the world. To defeat the building of a nuclear plant at Carnsore point, Co. Wexford, whole swathes of Irish society bonded together for a common […]
[…] of the first and most successful anti-nuclear campaigns in the world. To defeat the building of a nuclear plant at Carnsore point, Co. Wexford, whole swathes of Irish society bonded together for a common […]