Come Here To Me!

The Occupy University timetable continues to throw up surprising speakers and guests, from Fintan O’Toole to leading trade unionists and also people from the arts. It’s certainly moved beyond the normal left-wing phonebook of contacts. This Friday sees Cait O’Riordan, or ‘Rocky O’Riordan’, one time bassist with The Pogues, join the list of speakers. Cait played on two of my all-time favourite albums, Red Roses For Me and Rum Sodomy and the Lash. The topic is ‘Protest music’.

Other talks this week include Joe Mooney on East Wall residents and the Spenser Dock development this evening at five, and Richard McAleavey on writing in the age of networked occupation tomorrow evening.

Read Full Post »

One of the most popular posts here in recent times was a quick look at the aesthetic and design of the posters being used by the Occupy Dame Street campaign, and it was noted by one of the designers that many of the posters were reworkings of posters from Spain and the United States, where some of the origins of the ‘Occupy’ idea are found.

This latest effort is worth posting, uniquely Irish of course! A very clever play on an iconic image of James Connolly.

Read Full Post »

Great snaps from the Workers Solidarity Movement Facebook page, showing the construction going on at the site of the Dame Street occupation.

If you’re wondering what you’re looking at, it’s a kitchen!

I dare say, it looks better than Sam Stephenson’s effort behind it no?

Read Full Post »

I’ve been doing a bit of work with the good folks at History Ireland in recent months on their Hedge School programme, designed to get historical debate out into a less academic setting than is the norm! From Electric Picnic to the Phizzfest there’s been a wide variety of locations and subjects. I was a panelist for the ‘Animal Gang’ Hedge School which you’ll find here on the site, and have been doing my bit to record and edit the other Hedge Schools for your listening pleasure.

The latest Hedge School up online comes from ‘Back To Our Past’ at the RDS and is entitled: Brian Boru and the battle of Clontarf: interpro or international?

Stick on the kettle and enjoy.

Read Full Post »

We’ve come a long way from the likes of Joe Duffy bravely risking prison for the student movement back in the day. Where are our teeth gone?

Read Full Post »

From Dame Street, view up alley towards Dame Court.

This is probably my second favourite little short cut in Dublin City after Crampton Court.

Though it technically has no name, it can best described as a continuation of Dame Court or, simply as, a thin alleyway off Dame Lane. The beauty of it is that you’d pass it without even noticing on Dame Street and I expect many people, especially tourists, do.

Perhaps it used to be as wide as Dame Court but at some point it was narrowed and reduced to only a small passageway. This 1848 map would suggest this is so. Though you can see it does narrow slightly, in essence the alley was once just a continuation of Dame Court:

By 1907, it has been reduced in size dramatically:

From a modern map you can see by scale just see how slender it is. Barely noticeable:

The entrance from Dame Street is particularly narrow and is marked only by a beautiful mosaic on the pavement for the Stags Head pub. No doubt they placed it here as a marker for lost tourists and the like. It’s perfectly positioned, like an ‘X’ marking the spot on a treasure map, pointing you up this dark alley to find the shining light of the pub. There’s also a barbers sign, with no visible barber shop, which is also a nice touch. (See first image)

Magnificent Stags Head mosaic on Dame Street at entrance to alley

This is view looking down with your back to Dame Street:

(c) infomatique

Finally, this is the view up the lane with your back to Dame Court:

(c) infomatique

Read Full Post »

Delighted to see Dole TV 4 up online, the latest effort from the good folks at DCTV. We’ve frequently linked to DCTV productions on this site, and the importance of a good independent community station has been shown for example through DCTV’s interesting engagement with Occupy Dame Street.

This episode focuses on the media. It includes an interview with Harry Browne, a former journo with the paper of record (The Irish Times for any non-natives 😉 ) and a lecturer in journalism at DIT. There’s also some great comedy as ever. Enjoy.

The Trinity ‘Dole Society’ piece is comedy gold.

Read Full Post »

Recently, we posted here about the economic difficulties Shebeen Chic on Georges Street found itself in. Today, it joins an ever-growing list of Dublin establishments which have closed their doors in recent times.
There are large ‘RIP’s painted on the front and back of the establishment.

Read Full Post »

Oh dear.

Read Full Post »

Unbelievably, Pats are in Europe.

Despite a fourth place League finish, and a dramatic collapse in the cup against Shelbourne, the fact that a top-three team have won the FAI Cup today ensures that we’re in on a technicality. ‘We’re all here on a technicality’ has long been a favourite chant of Saint Patrick’s Athletic supporters, and everything from others financial woes to others successes have sent us abroad.

Remarkably, the club shop even flogs t-shirts which boast of the fact:

I’m sure all across the southside of Dublin Credit Union books are being dug-out from behind the couch, a technicality will do once more.

Read Full Post »