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Alright Santa, any chance?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on December 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

The best present ever given in my house cost nothing. Sitting over the telly, it is an excellent drawing of my old man which the brother spent a long time putting together. The detail in it is incredible, it was clearly a labour of love. Such presents are quite simply priceless.

I’ve been thinking about this Christmas a bit lately.

A lot less money will no doubt be spent by us all than in previous years. Running a Dublin life and culture site, I got to thinking: What are a few nice little Dublin related bits I’d like? Here are a few.

1: The Southside (or Northside) Screenprint.

–From the folks over at Grand Grand.

Fergus O’Neill was no doubt on a winner with his ‘Keep Going Sure It’s Grand’ parody on a classic British World War II poster, but these have really grabbed my attention. The screenprint above is on the list.

‘Which Side Are You On?’

2: Keep Sketch Pencils

Is he coming?
Is who bleeeedin’ coming?
Múinteoir Sean.
Can’t see him.
Well, keep sketch will ya?

Alex Synge , well done. Amazed nobody thought of this before. They’re available from the Irish Design Shop, Dublin 2.

3: John Conway Art

The sacking of Balbriggan.

I really like John Conway’s work on the revolutionary years. I’ve got a few of his art cards upstairs, including a great image of James Connolly inside the General Post Office. You can purchase a set of 16 art cards for €6.99 from his website. From Kilmichael to Croke Park, Conway’s images of the revolutionary years are excellent.

(more…)

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Feck sake.

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

We still get a good bit of google traffic from people searching ‘Pygmalion half price Sunday’. The Powerscourt Shopping Centre boozer was always quite expensive, but had a habit of filling up on a Sunday. At one stage, I’d made six sessions in a row.

While there was always a certain amount of ‘Polaroid App on my iPhone’ to the place, to be honest you couldn’t really care less if you were coming back with change for a tenner on four drinks now could you?

Well, the worst financial news since Brian Lenihan and Oli Rehn sat down together has reached us here at the blog. Half price Sunday in Pygmalion is no more. Now, it is 40% off.

40% off!? How awkward can you get. This, coupled with too frequent cameo appearances in Fade Street mean perhaps our Sunday evenings will be spent elsewhere. Won’t somebody think of the economy?

Is the Legal Eagle the last of the ‘Free In, Half Price’ Sunday pubs?

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“The hero of the European Parliament is a Trotskyist.”

Posted in Uncategorized on December 3, 2010| 1 Comment »

A bizarre but fascinating read this, from the UK Telegragh. It comes from David Hannan, a Tory MEP since 1999. He seems to be a fan of Dublin MEP Joe Higgins. Who thought you’d see the day a British Tory praised an Irish socialist in the UK media?


” It would be stretching things to call him a friend. Indeed, he refuses to talk to me or to any other “neo-liberal”. As far as I can make out, he holds me in particular contempt even among neo-liberals.”

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We’ve been left in the cold.

Posted in Uncategorized on December 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

*cheers Freda, excellent!*

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Snow joke so it isn’t.

Posted in Uncategorized on December 2, 2010| 4 Comments »

Blanch youth send a Garda running. Apparently we’ve a few more days of this ahead.

Update: Shame on you YouTube, get a sense of humour!

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Two cups of coffee, one wrecked commuter.

Posted in Uncategorized on December 1, 2010| 1 Comment »

Took me three hours to get to Palmerstown from Maynooth today. It involved a delayed train, a packed luas and a lift from Kylemore Road at snails pace. At Connolly Station, I bought two coffees and decided I’d hand the second one to the first homeless person I spotted. I was hardly off the escalator before it was gone. Incredible to think people are on the streets on a night like this one. Let us all have some perspective, my three hours was nothing.

Got a laugh out of this, enjoy.

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It wasn’t always Oxegen and the Bernard Shaw

Posted in Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 1, 2010| 9 Comments »

"A man’s ambition must be small to leave his name on a shithouse wall.” Maser lad, this doesn't apply to you.

By now you’ll have noticed that we’re fans of street art, and in particular a figure that goes by the name of Maser. We’ve covered pieces of his that have appeared around the city in the guise of his project with Damien Dempsey, his pieces at the Bernard Shaw and appearances at Oxegen. So I couldn’t help but grin when I spotted this in The Hophouse on Parnell Street the other week. I’m not sure if he is still tagging on bathroom walls, but when you consider Banksy pieces are selling for millions worldwide, with councils knocking end walls off houses with murals on them to flog to American arthouses, maybe I should have pulled this jacks roll dispenser off the wall. Could be worth a bomb some day…

The Hophouse. An institution in itself.

Himself and Damo might like this next pic, someones birthday cake from last week, I’m sure he won’t mind me putting it up here. All I can say is, his parents have great taste.

Love your cake today

http://www.maserart.com

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Jim Larkin he ain’t.

Posted in Uncategorized on December 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

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Will St. Leger takes the initiative…..

Posted in Uncategorized on November 30, 2010| 1 Comment »

Nice to see an eviction notice on the front of the Dail. It’s the work of Will St. Leger, who has previously brought us fake dosh featuring the mug of sports journo Bertie Ahern, the excellent ‘Famine and Byrne’ piece and more besides.

“It’s time we evict to lot of them, take back Leinster House and turn it into a hospital.”
Amen.

On the subject of street artists, this spraypainted message in Ballymun looks great with the words of Damien Dempsey and Maser towering over it. The city is awash with stencils, stickers, slogans and anger.

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1986/2010.

Posted in Uncategorized on November 30, 2010| 4 Comments »

Workers Party protest, Belfast 1986. Image from Belfast Telegraph.

And she’s back! On display in Dublin, November 27 2010. Image from Lookleft Magazine Facebook.

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I’m sure Damo and Maser would be honoured

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 27, 2010| 3 Comments »

You took what was not yours,
went against your own bible,
you broke your own laws,
just to out do the rivals.

Damien Dempsey, Colony

"Greed is the knife and the scars run deep." Print from the recent Maser/ Damo collaboration at today's demo, as spotted by Comrade O'Carroll

Whilst the lyrics of the Damien Dempsey’s “Colony” refer to imperialist colonisers like England, Portugal and Spain, the above lyrics may just as well refer to our own dear leaders. Poisonous and clueless shower the lot of them.

With one third of CHTM nursing a bad headache from his birthday last night whilst on a plane to the Basque country for some football tourism, it was up to the remaining two thirds to take to the streets today, alongside an estimated 100,000 others. Irish media are using a figure of 50, 000 but I defy that, the ICTU demo last year had 120, 000 and this certainly came close to that. From my viewpoint, it took approximately an hour for the march to stream past before I joined in the left block towards the back. Impressive showing it has to be said. Lets get the same outside the Dáil on budget day.

(kudos to http://www.aaocarroll.org for the pic!)

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ICTU demonstration tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized on November 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Remember when we marched TO the Dail?

Some interesting odds and ends today ahead of the demonstration in Dublin tomorrow against the austerity plans and the upcoming budget.

The Garda statement is available to read over here.

Recent experience has shown that while it is possible for thousands of people to assemble and march through the streets of Dublin in a dignified and civilised manner, there are individuals and groups who seek to exploit such events for their own ends. I want to reassure the community that Gardaí are both alert to and prepared for this possibility. While our policing plan is primarily focused on crowd safety, it will also aim to prevent any disruption of tomorrow’s demonstration. In addition we will gather evidence of any unlawful or criminal behaviour which might occur with the intention of bringing those responsible before the courts

ICTU, those not-so-great followers of Connolly, have produced a video calling on people to march. Connolly would have marched us miles away from the Dail it seems.

The Irish Times report on the demonstration gives a good idea of the route and plan.

Those taking part will assemble at 11.30am on Winetavern Street, Dublin and proceed along the north quays to the GPO on O’Connell Street where a rally will take place. There will be a programme of entertainment and speeches for about one hour. The master of ceremonies will be Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole and artists such as Christy Moore and Frances Black will perform.

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