IT IS no secret that homeless figures in the capital soared with the Goverment's brilliant 'care in the community' initiative. Supposedly intended to reintegrate long-term psychiatric patients back into society, all that seems to have been achieved is the closing down of hospitals and an increase in the numbers of bewildered people living rough, denied the only security they have ever known.
From strange days coming second in a yoghurt-sponsored competition and playing awful gigs sandwiched between boy bands, Damien Dempsey, with a little help from Shane, Sinéad and Christy, has survived and thrived. Eamon Sweeney meets a rap balladeer with a hit album, a social conscience and more than a few stories to tell.
Like Dinsdale Piranha in the old Monty Python sketch, Cathal Coughlan uses sarcasm. Sometimes with a sledgehammer, elsewhere with a stiletto - but he never stoops to the tender, poisoned compliments of polished English irony. Cathal Coughlan is no member of the loyal opposition.
