Carlow's Alanalda capivated the audience with their twist on folk rock, The Citizen from Clonmel were nigh on perfect and Chaplin rounded off the night with fresh delights.
"The idea that they exist to serve the customer is not part of this lot’s world-view: each and every citizen is a nuisance. The city, they seem to think, would be so much neater and more orderly if they could just get the people out of it"
Sinister psychological experimnets and political subterfuge are at the centre of Jonathan Demme’s intriguing new remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Luckily for us however, the film’s star Liev Schreiber happens to be an amiable, erudite ex-New Yorker with a degree in semiotics. Oh, and some nice cheekbones.
FLApes have been disappointingly M.I.A. recently while they crack the UK market, but they're back to play several Irish dates this month, including a one-off show in Tower Records.
As the title may well indicate, Harold and Kumar Get The Munchies is a stoner movie. Not just any old stoner movie mind, but quite possibly the Citizen Kane of the entire addled milieu.
In an exclusive interview, LARRY SANGER - widely credited as co-founder of Wikipedia - takes issue with a number of comments made by ex-colleague Jimmy Wales in Hot Press recently, and explains why his new online encyclopedia, Citizendium, will eventually conquer cyberspace.
With the countdown to the general election now officially under way, the most important aspect to remember amid all the hype is that the right to vote is both a privilege and a responsibility.
2003 was a year of reinvention for the Irish dance scene, as dance recession which had been the talk of UK dance mags in 2002 finally had some effect over here.
The books of author PATRICK McGRATH depict insanity and psychological breakdown with a detail and accuracy that are second to none. LIAM FAY meets the mental hospital worker-turned-writer to discuss the very particular nature(s) of madness. Pic: CATHAL DAWSON.
Manu Chao may not be able to change the world, but he’s certainly conquered it with his unique fusion of musical styles. Fresh from a sell-out show in The Point, he talks to Danielle Brigham about journeying to the North Pole, trashing Argentinian TV studios and “Mr. Bush, the number one terrorist.” Photographs: Cathal Dawson.
In fiercely conservative Jerusalem, few crimes are more unforgivable than a homosexual relationship between a Palestinian and an Israeli – as Ezra Yitzhak discovered.
The books of author PATRICK McGRATH depict insanity and psychological breakdown with a detail and accuracy that are second to none. LIAM FAY meets the mental hospital worker-turned-writer to discuss the very particular nature(s) of madness. Pic: CATHAL DAWSON.
Going back to the deep-seated roots of music is the route taken by THE PALACE BROTHERS on their stunning debut album. GERRY McGOVERN goes to meet them at the crossroads where cultures collide . . . well, The Baggot Inn actually.
The Ministry of Defence will have to come out of its hiding place declared Eilis MacDermott QC for the family of Bloody Sunday victim Patrick Doherty, at the Saville Inquiry. Here we reproduce the bulk of her powerful and hard-hitting opening address
The Centre for Public Inquiry is a new Dublin-based and privately-funded organisation recently established in Ireland to monitor aspects of public importance in our political, public and corporate spheres. Frank Connolly, the investigative journalist given the role of the Centre’s executive director, helps Jackie Hayden with some inquiries of his own. Photography by Cathal Dawson.
Russian born, New York reared, Regina Spektor writes songs that seem to inhabit their own dark little world. No wonder she’s been compared to both Tori Amos and the anti-folk movement.
Bosnian ex-pat Aleksander Hemon has found modern resonances in the century-old tale of the murder of Jewish immigrant Lazarus Avenbach by the then Chicago chief of police.
The auld fellas of Ireland are a dying breed, says award-winning writer Declan Lynch, who has written a new book in defence of our curmudgeonly senior citizen.
Snow Patrol‘s Gary Lightbody waxes eloquent about burnout, creativity, exotic fowl, and why David Healy should be made First Citizen Of The Republic And Overlord Of The Universe.
As the first ever Green Party member in The Mansion House, Dublin’s current Lord Mayor, JOHN GORMLEY, is certainly unique. However, dismissed as a novelty by some and derided by others, the substance of his views as a politician have often been completely overlooked. Here, the capital’s number one citizen is unchained. Interview: JOE JACKSON. Pix: COLM HENRY.
He’s just knocked Lady GaGa off the top of the UK charts with his banging new single ‘I’m Not Alone’. So why is CALVIN HARRIS so worried about sounding like an oldie chasing after his fading youth?
The Sun broke new ground recently when Claire Tully appeared as the newspaper's first Irish topless model. As it turns out she's also planning to do a PhD at Oxford.
In his most revealing interview yet, Dick Roche explains why he doesn't trust Libertas' Declan Ganley and shares his thoughts on the use of Shannon airport by US military.
And our wombs. Under the cloak of so-called free trade agreements, and using genetic engineering as a weapon, a small number of corporations are not only seeking to control and exploit the global market they have also begun to establish a patent on life itself.
Report: Adrienne Murphy
29-year-old director Jason Reitman might be the scion of Hollywood royalty, but the success of his satirical skit on the tobacco lobby, Thank You For Smoking, is all his own work.
Advertising maestro, Warhol/Burroughs associate and portrait photographer BRUCE WEBER talks about his re-released biopic of jazz lost-boy Chet Baker, Let's Get Lost.
Driven out of India while filming her latest film. Water, Deepa Mehta talks about protests, effigies and the controversy that follows her wherever she goes.
Cecilia Peck, director of music documentary-political travelogue Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing reminisces about her Dingle childhood and explains what it’s like being part of a great Hollywood dynasty.
It’s a literary high wire act with a difference. Dubliner Colum McCann talks about his 9/11 meditation Let The Great World Spin and the challenges of mastering the New York idiom.
As well as being a rising actress and Playboy cover girl, Dumplings starlet Bai Ling has at least eight spirits currently inhabiting her body, one of whom is so shy it insists she has sex with the lights off. Alrighty then.
PETER MURPHY reports on the bureaucratic traps and social hysteria confronting Ireland s tiny immigrant refugee population of 4,000. And he interviews the founder of Immigration Control Platform, Aine Nm Chsnaill.
This year’s Convergence Festival in the heart of Dublin promises a scintillating feast of events celebrating sustainability and cultural transformation. Adrienne Murphy takes a bite
Or how to stare apocalypse in the face and still keep smiling. Liam Fay talks to Ute Bellion, the German-born chairperson of Greenpeace International and a woman who remains optimistic despite the scale of the environmental problems with which she daily grapples.
He’s triumphed at comedy venues all over the country, and was a firm favourite with the blue-rinse brigade as ultra-naff country star Eoin McLove in Father Ted. Now Louth stand-up Patrick McDonnell has turned his attention to hoodwinking unsuspecting members of the public in RTE’s surreptitiously filmed prank-fest, Naked Camera.
Bruised but unbowed by a turbulent campaign, the People s Coalition candidate, ADI ROCHE, discusses matters personal, political and presidential with JOE JACKSON.
He's reputed to be one of the toughest interviewees in music. But RAY LAMONTAGNE is slowly learning to chill out and, if not embrace the limelight, then at least live with it...
Allegations of racist literature and links to the British National Party have once more brought the activities of the immigration Control Platform into focus. Peter Murphy reports
So you thought the Religious Right had all but disappeared? Wrong! NIALL STANAGE gets that sinking feeling as he witnesses the Dublin leg of Human Life International s Call To The Nation Tour. Photographic Evidence: CATHAL DAWSON
Frank McBrearty Jnr. is the victim of what may well be the greatest miscarriage of justice ever in the Irish State. However, having been exonerated by the Morris Tribunal, he has more on his mind than mere compensation.
CHRIS BARRY's attempts to free himself from his FM104 contract have resulted in one of the messiest and most ill-tempered court battles seen in Ireland for a long time. STUART CLARK analyses the proceedings so far and profiles some of Barry's shock-jock contemporaries across the water.
As the turbo-charged economy he helped create teeters, Charlie McCreevy talks about medical cards for the aged, the Eircom shares debacle, explains why he wouldn't swap places with current Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.
Regarded by most sane citizens as an irrelevant safe haven for pompous political windbags, Seanad Eireann is really . . . an irrelevant safe haven for pompous political windbags. Why then, is the decidedly sane TCD academic, ivana bacik, so anxious to get elected to Dail Eireann s Upper House? liam fay finds out.
The inhabitants of Mostar in southern Bosnia-Herzgovina have lived together in harmony for more than 700 years. Now, shelled daily by Croatian forces and suffering nightly sniper attacks, this unique city has seen its population decimated and its ancient architecture destroyed. GERRY McGOVERN talks to EMIR STRANJAW.
Kim Porcelli investigates Speakers’ Corner, the “forum for public discourse” currently running in Temple Bar each Sunday. The brainchild of Kila’s Rossa O’Snodaigh, the event promises all manner of political and social debate. But are the people of the Republic actually all that bothered? Photography Cathal Dawson
The reclassification of cannabis in Britain was a good day for the UK’s estimated five million users. But not a great day. A drug that is much less damaging than alcohol or tobacco remains illegal in most parts of the world, including Ireland, a situation which criminalises the user and benefits only the criminal gangs. It’s high time for a change, argues Olaf Tyaransen.
In the second and final part of an extensive interview, director Jim Sheridan discusses his troubles with Gabriel Byrne and Noel Pearson, explains why he could marry Daniel Day-Lewis but would fail to measure up against Richard Harris, and suggests the best way forward for the embattled Irish film industry. Plus: the ouija board prophecies which seem to have shaped his life. By Joe Jackson.
One of the government’s most vocal and effective critics, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte could well be the next Tánaiste. He talks about iPods, happiness, gay marriage, breaking the law - and Enda Kenny’s hairdo.
Hot Press favourite prelate, bishop michael cox of Cree, Co. Offaly, would dearly love to stand for election and if he succeeds in breaching the gates of Leinster House, he promises to banish the Rainbow like St. Patrick banished the snake . The one big obstacle in his way is a lack of funds. Ben Dunne never threw me any money, he tells liam faY, but I wouldn t say no.
The Walls and The Jimmy Cake do their bit for European unity by bringing their music – and an insatiable appetite for the craic – to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Our reporter Danielle Brigham survives to tell the tale.
Seventeen years after his second book was banned and he lost his teaching job, John McGahern's reputation as one of Ireland's most gifted writers has been underlined by the critical acclaim accorded his latest novel That They May Face The Rising Sun. Yet McGahern remains a somewhat enigmatic personality, tending his farm, refining his prose and observing a vanishing world from his Leitrim home. "The rather nice thing about writing is that it makes everything else a pleasure,' he tells Hotpress
The Mexican-Canadian Dark Angel starlet Jessica Alba gets all grown up with a lasso and leather bra in the Rodriguez/Tarantino directed film adaptation of Frank Miller's neon noir Sin City.
The Waterboys are back, with arguably their most complete record yet, Book Of Lightning. In this remarkably open and honest interview, Mike Scott talks about his songwriting genius, about relationships, his family, his boozy years in Galway - and turning U2 onto Greenpeace.
Avuncular Belfast-born writer brian moore may continually encounter difficulties in getting people to pronounce his name correctly, but one thing he s never had trouble with is the quality of his literary output. His latest effort, The Magician s Wife, is yet another effortlessly elegant concoction of seamless prose. Interview: liam fay. Pix: Cathal Dawson
Ahead of the reformed Pistols' Electric Picnic set, we caught up with the guitarist, Steve Jones, who spoke about kicking heroin, his dislike of Malcolm McLaren, his on-air confrontation with Jerry Lee Lewis, and why he'd love to do an album with Cliff Richard.
FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINAL Huey Morgan offers stuart clark a guided tour of the rotten apple, detouring occasionally to take in topics such as California Mist, London gangsters, Tricky, Ian McCulloch and Tony Bennett, as well as his high-profile relationship with Jerry Hall’s daughter. And, let’s see now, there was one thing . . . oh yes “every American’s inalienable right to have nails hammered through their scrotum if they want”.
The release of Born may confirm that hothouse flowers are back to their blooming best, but as john walshe discovers, liam, peter and fiachna have a few vinyl skeletons in the closet. Readers of a nervous disposition are advised to proceed with care.
Recently returned from a visit to Baghdad, MICHAEL D. HIGGINS calls on Ireland to take a lead in demanding an end to sanctions against Iraq, arguing that Saddam Hussein can never justify the deaths of children and the use of long-suffering civilians, as tools of opposition to his regime.
The release of Born may confirm that Hothouse Flowers are back to their blooming best, but as John Walsh discovers, Liam, Peter and Fiachna have a few vinyl skeletons in the closet. Readers of a nervous disposition are advised to proceed with care.
Abortion hasn t gone away, you know; rather it s Irish women,
some 6,500 a year, who have to do the travelling while, back home,
the pro-life movement continues to insist that It Can Never Happen Here. TONY O BRIEN of the Irish Family Planning Association believes it s
well past time tht we got to grips with a problem whch, time and again, has dominated public debate while leaving women in the
throes of crisis pregnancy to fend for themselves.
Interview: Siobhan Long. Photography: CATHAL DAWSON
Michael D. Higgins may have been disappointed by Labour’s decision not to contest the Presidential election, but he has confirmed his credentials as a statesman over the past few weeks in no uncertain terms.
As editor of the Daily Mirror and News of The World Piers Morgan was one of the most powerful men in Fleet Street. He cultivated an influential circle of friends and enemies, among them Tony Blair, Naomi Campbell and -oh yes- Sinéad O'Connor.
STUART CLARK meets man-of-the-moment NORMAN COOK (aka FATBOY SLIM). On the agenda - tabloid intrusion, drugs, his love affair with Zoe Ball, and The Housemartins.
having debuted with sex, lies and videotape, director Stephen Soderburgh was widely tipped as hollywood's next big thing. instead he spend almost a decade in the wilderness before returning to the mainstream with hits like erin brockovich and ocean's 11, and a fruitful new working relationship with george clooney. now, in advance of his latest movie, solaris, Tara Brady asks: where did it all go right?
They were one of the most successful – and dysfunctional – bands of all time. Now THE EAGLES are aging gracefully and packing out arenas across the world, with Irish gigs on the way.
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
Former cop, private eye and the only man on the Presidential ballot paper, derek nally is the dark horse candidate who could yet shake up the race for the Park. Here he holds forth on low standards in high places, how Sean Doherty almost destroyed the gardai , the foul treatment of Albert Reynolds, the case for the decriminalisation of prostitution and why he wasn t surprised by J. Edgar Hoover s penchant for frocks. Interview: liam fay.
Pix: Cathal dawson.
You wanted the best, you got GENE SIMMONS. Here, the motormouth frontman of KISS, the world s greatest showband, talks about sex and women at length (quelle surprise), discusses his Jewish heritage, explains why Kierkegaard and Nietzsche obviously never got laid, and announces to an increasingly bemused JOE JACKSON that he Gene, that is possesses the world s smallest penis.
Not since the death of Elvis has the passing of a music legend so gripped the world. As fans and detractors alike struggle to come to grips with the sad, strange end of Michael Jackson we assess his legacy – as musician, celebrity and enduring icon and talk to some of the people who knew and understood him best.
With the opinion polls predicting a tight finish in the upcoming General Election, there is an increasing likelihood that the Greens will play a part in the next Government. So what is their leader Trevor Sargent really made of?
From song contest to presidential contest, the most unlikely candidate for Aras an Uachtarain continues to face down her detractors in RTE, in Hot Press and elswhere and give voice to what she believes is the forgotten silent majority in this state. dana rosemary scallon interviewed by joe jackson. Pix: colm henry.
It is an old Republican principle. But it could also be applied to the attitude the authorities have taken to Ireland’s longest serving political prisoners, Paddy McCann and Colm O’Shea. Jailed for the killing of two Gardai during a bank raid in Roscommon in 1980, as the peace process reached its final stages they were asked to sign up to the Good Friday Agreement. They subsequently put their names on the dotted line. That was ten years ago. So why have they not been released in the meantime, like dozens of other former Paramilitary activists? In an extraordinary, confessional interview, PADDY MCCANN makes his case against the State.
He is one of our highest profile broadcasters and journalists. Now in his new book, Last Word host MATT COOPER looks at the rot and corruption that festered beneath the surface of the Celtic Tiger. He talks about the sense of anger he feels over the mismanagement of the economy, the damage wrought by the Bertie Ahern years and the apparent unwillingness of RTE to give him any publicity
As the dust settles on the Northern Peace deal and Sinn Fein gears up for an election in the Republic, Gerry Adams talks about his journey from political outcast to statesman, Bono's knighthood and what’s on his iPod.
There is a political dimension to what most development agencies refer to simply as ‘famine’. Here mary van lieshoUt of Oxfam outlines the critical issues which must be confronted if the brutalisation and exploitation of the developing countries is to be adequately addressed.
In a presidential nomination field virtually devoid of candidates of real calibre and charisma, the name of ex-Boomtown Rat and Live Aid hero BOB GELDOF has cropped up again and again. Despite his outright denial that he will run for office, the rumour refuses to die away. Here, in an interview with LIAM FAY, he gives his assessment of Mary Robinson s seven years in the job, and his hopes for the future occupants of Aras an Uachtarain.
From A to Z, Paul Nolan and Ronan Fitzgerald introduce all the runners and riders for Punchestown – throwing in a baker’s dozen of acts who are not to be missed * along the way
NIALL STOKES takes a very personal journey back through the music and memories of a friendship with a man he was proud to have known
THE DRIVE to Cork was a lonely one. Ry Cooder on the deck, that sweet slide guitar shooting off tracers: the memories, stacked up like a vast
rack of on-line CDs, kept slipping in and out of the engagement slot. No need ever to press the play button. Now and then I had to hold back the
tears as the music of past friendship flooded the car and, with it, a terrible awareness of all the things that might have, but hadn't, been done.
The news of Rory Gallagher s tragic death has sent seismic shock waves through the music world. Here was a man who managed to combine the gift of being an authentic creative genius with the even rarer gift of being a genuinely decent, honourable human being. Over the next six pages, Hot Press pays tribute to both the legend and the person, with contributions from the stars, friends, fans and colleagues who were touched by the Gallagher magic, and takes a trip through the backpages of an extraordinary career.
In late 1990, shortly prior to her election as President of the Republic of Ireland, MARY ROBINSON gave the following interview to this magazine, which we reproduce here as a Hot Press Greatest Hit to mark the occasion of her retirement from the office. It turned out to be a clear and definitive statement of her manifesto, which she ended up carrying out virtually to the letter. At the time, it was described as the longest suicide note in political history , by the Irish Press seven years on, her comments make interesting and often provocative reading. Tape: LIAM FAY.
Neil McCormick embarks on a verbal showdown with Hollywood's most famous drug store cowboys and discovers that 1994 was the year in which the hot shots traded in their smoking guns for a pill called Prozac.
He's been described as the 'intellectual powerhouse of Fianna Fail'. As the party goes into electoral meltdown special advisor to the Taoiseach turned Junior Minister Martin Mansergh talks about George Lee, the Government's unpopularity and the prejudices faced by a member of the Anglo-Irish community who dared go into politics.
Winning an oscar was a culmination of a life-time's struggle for GLEN HANSARD. But success extracted a heavy toll on the singer, plunging him into self doubt and leaving him feeling confused and adrift. As The Swell Season prepare to release their second album, he talks about the long road back to sanity, his romantic break-up with songwriting partner MARKETA IRGLOVA and why, having derided Ireland in the press, he’s now proud of his home country
again. Plus Irglova talks about the end of their love affair and the challenges that fame and Fortune bring.
Ciaran Cuffe [right by Mick Quinn] doesn’t look much like a typical Teachta Dala. So little so, in fact, that when the Green Party TD comes out to greet photographer Mick Quinn and myself in a guarded reception area in Leinster House, we simply don’t recognise him. He just doesn’t look the part.
Returning from an extended hiatus, Manic Street Preachers are in stridently upbeat form. In a revealing interview, they reflect on their enduring cultural imprint and talk about long lost Manic Richey Edwards.
The outlaw loved by the in-law, Willie Nelson can draw 4,000 people outside Dublin virtually by word of mouth. But it ain't all middle of the road: as befits a veteran of the honky-tonks who had done battle with the IRS and the law, the country music legend can still get in touch with the dark side of Hank
It’s been a tumultuous few years for Josh Ritter. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Swiss Alps, he talks about his number one fan Stephen King, recalls the day he met Bob Dylan and explains why it’s never a good idea to drink before a show
In his first major interview, Aengus Fanning, editor of the Sunday Independent, discusses how he manages the most successful paper in Ireland and the death of Veronica Guerin.
Journalist, essayist, atheist, author and, above all, agent provocateur, Christopher Hitchens has not shied away from controversy over the last 30 years. But in his new book, the writer takes on his biggest adversary to date – God.
OUT FROM BEHIND THE GREASE-PAINT THAT ADORNS HIS FACE ON THE COVER OF ‘SPIKE’, ELVIS COSTELLO EMERGES TO TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC THAT RUNS IN HIS FAMILY FROM BIG-BAND TO SPEED-METAL, HIS MUCH-TOUTED IRISH CONNECTION, WORKING WITH PAUL McCARTNEY, HIS CONTEMPT FOR MUCH OF TODAY’S POP MUSIC AND THE FEELINGS THAT INSPIRED HIS DEATH-WISH FOR MARGARET THATCHER.
Niall Stokes draws on his best-selling book Into The Heart: The Stories Behind The Songs Of U2 to offer a unique insight into the way in which some of the greatest songs in the history of popular music came into being.
More lo-fi indie/electro from this intriuging Warp signing. ‘Citizen’ could be a slightly more folky Interpol – maybe – with its slow-building chorus and dark undertones. Also check the warmer, Four Tet-y ‘We’.
Having worked their way through hundreds of demos, the judges have selected the 12 acts who’ll be slugging it out in this year’s Bank of Ireland National Student Music Awards.
An online petition has been launched calling for Cork International Airport to be renamed Cork Rory Gallagher Airport in honour of the city’s favourite adopted son.
Newly signed to Universal, the Duke will release his new 'Sweet Sweet Kisses' single next month, followed by a nationwide tour taking in no less than 12 counties.
An extremely belated comeback from Paper Moon and Last Picture Show director Peter Bogdanovich, who had Hollywood at his feet about a quarter-century ago, The Cat’s Meow is a textbook case of over-reaching ambition. Eminently missable stuff.
An extremely belated comeback from Paper Moon and Last Picture Show director Peter Bogdanovich, who had Hollywood at his feet about a quarter-century ago, The Cat’s Meow is a textbook case of over-reaching ambition. Eminently missable stuff.
I HAVE to say that I have always loved Christie Hennessy’s material. Perhaps more than any songwriter working today, his stuff is the real deal, with no attempt at artifice or concealment. But that is not to say that his songs are not insightful, for he deals with a wide range of issues in his material, from loneliness to mental illness, and always with a sensitive hand.
Music Review | Live
24% | 26 Sep 2003
Tanya Sweeney
Long may he continue to endear Irish audiences with his tales and songs lovingly crafted in the key of life.
The Dead can be a purposely stifling affair, a chamber piece that leaves you gasping for air. Even the magnetic Anjelica Huston, playing Gretta with no little aplomb, seems unworldly.
AFTER THE IRA ended its war, I watched the Last Night Of The Proms, that great musical celebration of all things British past and present. Well, more past than present, since the Empire is gone.
Essentially a brilliantly produced heavy metal record with lots of strange moments, Origin Of Symmetry will undoubtedly propel Muse further upwards in their quest for stardom
This is easily the most eagerly-awaited film of all time - which is another way of saying we have been asked some 500 times when it would be coming out.
With election year fun and games already underway, the fear persists that a large number of people have been disenfranchised by the redrafting of the electoral register. However, no one need be left out of the party.
Initially meant for a Japan-only release, Com Lag 2+2=5 has been made available over this side of the world to satisfy demand from Radiohead’s hugely loyal fanbase.
She may not be a native but Carol O'Beirne, Red FM chief executive, has fallen head-over-heels in love with her adopted home town of Cork. Here, she shares some of the city's secrets with us.
Hot Press have teamed up with Concern for a special creative writing competition, where you can tell us what you would write to US President Obama on one of several global issues. Entries are still welcome, but hurry – the closing date is coming up!
Craftily low-key, tartly bittersweet and divinely arch, Sideways is surely a lock for official Unlikely Hip Movie Of Zero Five, but unlikely is something of a speciality with this filmmaker.
There's a girl who, over the past few months, has taken to sleeping in the doorway of our offices here in Trinity St. It's hard to tell what age she is she looks all of fourteen years, though she claims to be older. In the morning on the way in, when she's there, you step over her sleeping body. It's a moment that's always fraught with a feeling of dread. It seems somehow heartless, walking past and literally over her prone body as if she wasn't there. And yet there is also a genuine sense that you feel that you should tiptoe by, in case you might waken her before she is ready to face the world. Let her rest, you
"Reinvigorated by lightweight digital technology the master craftsman goes back to the drawing board and unleashes the undead into our streets as if for the first time."
The disgraceful spectacle at Shannon Airport last Friday was the final straw. It was a humiliation too far. How much more can this tiny little nation take?
It was far from edifying, watching Bertie Ahern attempt to slug it out with the Mahon Tribunal. Now that it's all over, maybe we can get down to some real politics...
SOME people s spirits may have been lifted by the news that a British general election is likely to take place on May 1st, but not mine. Is there no way that anyone can engineer the termination of John Major s appalling government sooner than that?
WHAT AN excellent idea it was for the Tory Party to introduce its Back To Basics policy! Certain commentators, and quite a few of the pillocks in their own Party, seem to have misunderstood certain aspects of this gloriously conceived and beautifully executed campaign.
Our resident expert on everything, controversially argues that it is vitally important not to decriminalise dope if we are to make any gains in the war for drugs
Okay, enough is enough. The bastards have gone too far this time. Thus far and no further shall they encroach upon my personal liberties. It is time to take a stand. And if that doesn’t work, Sam Snort will take up arms and blast the whole bloody lot of them off the face of the earth. Then they’ll really find out just how bad smoking can be for your health.
Of all the films in all the theatres in all the world, Casablanca is the single biggest fluke of the lot; a shining testimonial to William Goldman’s supposition that, in movies, nobody knows anything
I KNOW that there are more important things going on in the world than car clamping like, for example, the grotesque murder of the former IRA man Eamon Collins. But what can we say about that monstrous deed that adds to the sum of human insight, knowledge or happiness?
After the London bombings, the Muslim community in Britain is feeling isolated, angry and under siege from new ‘anti-terror’ measures and anti-Islamic racism.
AS you all know, I have always been of the view that popular culture is useless. Rock music is a tuneless, repetitive irritant, recorded by people who can t play and listened to by people who can t hear. Cinema is a playground for perverts and fools. And as for cartoons? Nothing could be more puerile and irrelevant.
As well as improving his word power, the admirable Reader’s Digest gives Barry Glendenning some indigestible food for thought about the place of Ireland in europe
The way they’re building apartments nowadays, the walls really do have ears. And that means that your wilder sexual cavortings can be heard by all and sundry – as our intrepid reporter discovers when her brother and his girlfriend move in.
There had been a working assumption that, in the thirty-plus years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, we had just about seen it all. But last week proved otherwise
The fact that he’s incapable of giving a simple answer to a simple question is the least of the many reasons to want George Bush out of the white house.
2 weeks ago in Dublin, the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the conviction of Paul Ward [pic left courtesty of The Star] for the murder of Veronica Guerin. It is no disrespect to the murdered journalist to say that this was a good day for justice in Ireland
The joys of poetry: Abby Oliviera enlivens Pride Week with a little ditty about her Highness's oral expertise. Are you sure Willy Wordsworth did it this way?
Of course Cathal O Searcaigh should be whipped off the Leaving Cert. And every other degenerate writer from the past and the present, along with him...
Garda corruption resulted in a Donegal publican’s false imprisonment under horrifying circumstances. But the input of Republican vigilantes in the framing of an innocent man should not be forgotten.
Female guppies are so sick of being pestered by their sex-crazed male counterparts, they often prefer to take their chances in dangerous predator-filled waters. Another Saturday night in Temple Bar then. Also: our columnist is mobbed by Boss-obsessed anoraks.
I’m sorry to hear of an old acquaintance, John Eddie McNicholl, taking a hit from the Bush regime, and even sorrier to note the reaction of an influential element of Irish-America.
The horror of Rwanda shows how hatred between people can be contrived with murderous results, says EAMONN McCANN.
Politics | McCann
20% | 6 Jan 2004
Eamonn McCann
Eamonn McCann reflects on a tumultuous twelve months in which anti-Bush sentiment reached unprecedented levels of intensity, Dr. David Kelly’s suicide opened a can of worms, and, at home, the stem-cell debate swung into full flow .
The last untouched institution of State has finally come under media scrutiny", the Sunday Tribune told us on April 4th, apropos the Philip Sheedy affair.
The Corrib gas project has long been a source of controversy, with allegations of intimidation and Garda man-handling of anti-Shell protestors. The arrival of the pipe-laying ship The Solitaire sees things taking an even more dramatic turn, as local fisherman Pat O’Donnell and his son Jonathan prepare to make a stand.
Kevin Myers' use of the word bastard may have been pernicious – but it was not the most offensive aspect of his attack on unmarried mothers. Plus: the death of the great Hunter S. Thompson.
