As a pregnancy counselling agency in receipt of state funding, Life would appear obliged to offer non-judgemental advice to its clients. But does the organisation retain what is an essentially anti-abortion stance? Imogen Murphy investigates.
Choosing a contraceptive method you can be comfortable with will not only prevent pregnancy and/or disease but will also give your love life a boost as you feel more confident
Pro-life campaigners have been celebrating the closure of one of the few organisations in Northern Ireland which provided information on abortion. NIALL STANAGE gets the other side of the story.
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
When Jackie Hayden was enlisted to interview Sugababe Mutya Buena, little did he suspect that he would be loudly upstaged by another woman as he tries to get the lowdown on the Sugababes’ near break-up, Mutya’s concern over the sexing-up of their recent video, the effects of her pregnancy on her career and who ‘Push The Button’ was really about.
The Corrs hit paydirt with In Blue, an album of memorable pop songs that topped the charts in over twenty countries around the world. It gave them the breathing space they needed to re-establish their roots, to live a little and to reassess their purpose as a band. Now, with the release of Borrowed Heaven, they’re back in the music biz frontline – slightly older, considerably wiser, but still with the same hunger to make great and honest records.
For a few nerve-wracking days, it seemed that the good times might just have come to an end. But if things had bounced differently, what would she have done?
As social phenomena – teenage pregnancy, counterfeit designer clothes, weekend binge-drinking – rip through small towns like a cultural wildfire, it’s only fitting that there’s some comeback to the suburban suffocation.
If we care about the lives of Irish women, then a no vote in the march 6th abortion referendum is a must. Adrienne Murphy poses the questions and offers some answers
This is the Hotpress Student Guide 2002. We know that the last thing you want is a load of worthy and boring tips on how to be a good boy or girl. So instead, we thought we’d give you a little bit of help in the much more important task of being baaaaad.
A new book gives vivid voice to Irish women's experience of abortion. Here we publish Michele s story a harrowing account of the circumstances in which termination became one woman s choice.
In between attempts to appease her one-year-old daughter, Angeline Ball talks to Hot Press about her part in Bloom, Sean Walsh’s ambitious adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Rather than getting involved in penetrative sex, with all of the risks that entails, it makes sense for teenagers to experiment sexually by getting off with different people – and trying things out for themselves.
Maggie Gyllenhaal has ridden out controversy and kept her private life to herself while carving out an impeccably cool career in Hollywood. No wonder all the girls fancy her.
The Department Of Justice has denied asylum to Elizabeth Onasanwo and her four children, who are due to be deported back to Nigeria, where the two girls - Bolu aged 6 and Christina aged 18 - will face female genital mutilation, a traditional practice frequently resulting in death
Many inadequacies and injustices are coming to light in the practice of birth in Ireland. In the first of a two-part investigation, Adrienne Murphy explores the issues surrounding human reproduction, and the growing desire among women for the right to have natural births. Pix: CAthal dawsoN.
Film director Todd Solondz has a well-earned reputation for exploring the controversial issues his rivals studiously ignore. Tara Brady gets the lowdown on his new effort Palindromes.
Over the past ten years – no, make that twenty! – Irish society has undergone a transformation, casting off the shackles of the moral authority imposed by the church and embracing a more open, experimental and, let’s face it, downright horny attitude to sex and sexuality. The momentum towards change has been accelerated by significant advances in health care – not to mention the media environment – so that we are now more up for it than ever before.
Condoms are more expensive in Ireland than almost anywhere else in Europe – and the VAT rate imposed by the Government is to blame. Now a campaign to get rid of the tax is gaining momentum.
In her new collection award-winning Northern poet Leontia Flynn invites the reader on a metaphorical journey by car, plane and modes of conveyance more obscure.
With The Commitments, Black Velvet Band, Hothouse Flowers and a range of acting credits already to her name, MARIA DOYLE KENNEDY is finally releasing her debut solo album.
PETER MURPHY is charmed
Over 2,000 Northern Irish women leave the province every year to have abortions elsewhere usually in England. STUART BAILIE examines the many anomalies in the law on this subject, and talks to some of the people fighting to change it.
NIALL STANAGE talks to a six-months-pregnant DEIRDRE O NEILL of JUNKSTER, and hears all about the band s forthcoming album, sharing a studio with Axl Rose, and her reactions to journalistic brickbats.
A drunken lapse of reason the night before can lead to a horrible moment of clarity the morning after. Shagging under the influence is a perilous pursuit.
It was in KIERON DUCIE’s house that the model Katy French had the seizure that preceded her tragic death. Since then, he has been the subject of a campaign in the press which reveals the skewed news values of too many newspapers.
Tori Amos’ new album, the acclaimed Scarlet’s Walk, was inspired equally by her joyous pregnancy with daughter Natashya and the tragedy of September 11, which led the singer-songwriter on a musical quest to discover the true soul of America
Tanya Donelly has returned with a new album, Beautysleep, which features the cream of Boston's musical talent. But Peter Murphy discovers that the ex-Belly vocalist's pregnancy at the time of recording forced her to re-evaluate her singing technique
It ought to be one of the happiest moments of a woman's life – and for many it is. But for some women the birth of a child can be a traumatic, invasive and distressing event. Author Naomi Wolf tells Fiona Reid about the blues of the birth
Credited with being a pioneer in the field of confessional singer-songwriting, it is only now, at the age of 55, that JONI MITCHELL is able to talk openly about the private trauma behind the songs on such classic albums as Blue. On the occasion of the release of a new album Both Sides Now, that sees her revisit some former glories, the legendary Mitchell takes JOE JACKSON on a journey through her personal, and professional history.
This is part one of an exclusive two-part interview
THE CORRS' public image is one of unblemished beauty and soaraway success. But beneath the pop sheen lurk the darker lyrical themes of Andrea
Corr.
JOE JACKSON talks to her about the inspiration behind some of the Corrs' biggest hits, hears her anger at recent critical reaction and finds out what "Ireland's sexiest woman" really thinks about love, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and the whole damn thing.
The docking of the Woman On Waves ship in Dublin has not only highlighted the plight of Irish women who have to go abroad for abortions, but attracted the attention of the world’s press. ADRIENNE MURPHY reports on the furore surrounding its arrival
As many as 12% of Irish people are happy to have sex without even getting to know their prospective partner's name first. That's just one of the fascinating statistics to emerge in a Durex Sex Survey, commissioned to mark National Condom Week.
Having established himself with a number of juicy supporting roles – most of them opposite Russell Crowe – the very naturally blonde Paul Bettany is moving to centre court for Wimbledon.
In the second part of her investigation into the issues surrounding childbirth in Ireland, ADRIENNE MURPHY speaks to Jo Murphy-Lawless, author of a compelling book on obstetrics.
Bruised but unbowed by a turbulent campaign, the People s Coalition candidate, ADI ROCHE, discusses matters personal, political and presidential with JOE JACKSON.
With the laziest, most cowardly and most intellectually-flawed bills ever to pass into law in Ireland, the Government has criminalised countless thousands of Irish teenagers. It'd be a joke if it wasn't so horribly serious
Having amicably but firmly put the Cranberries behind her, Dolores O’Riordan found refuge in motherhood, but is now raring to get back on the road with her first solo album.
Motherhood has done little to diminish maria doyle kennedy‘s snarling rock chick attitude. Here, she talks about censorship, Chuck Palahniuk and how she’s managed to balance music with big-league acting.
It was 1985 when Bruce Arnold first wrote about the child abuse scandal in Ireland. In a powerful new book on The Irish Gulag, he is hugely critical of the efforts of the State as well as the Church, accusing them of conspiracy.
In his latest book, the high profile psychiatrist addresses the idea of masculinity in crisis. But is it fact or fiction? And how have his own experiences as husband, father and professional informed his views? Joe Jackson asks the questions. And, oh, is size really important. Doc Shots: MYLES CLAFFEY
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.
To Cian O Tighearnaigh of the ispcc, child abuse sexual, physical and emotional constitutes the single greatest scandal facing our country. Here he talks to Joe Jackson about the extent to which he believes the state has failed our children and why, in his opinion, mandatory reporting is an essential first step in putting things right. Pix: Colm Henry
DOLORES O'RIORDAN may have the highest profile but the others are also here to remind you that THE CRANBERRIES are a group. and with the release of their new album wake up and smell the coffee, a happier, wiser, less embattled group than ever before. “all you need is love,” they assure JOE JACKSON
Vid-phones, global warming, biotechnology, cyber-sex, extra-terrestrial intelligence, the abolition of race . . . Peter Murphy gets his crystal balls out.
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.
They toured the world throughout the ‘70s, earning rave notices from Bono, The Edge and Melvin Bragg, upsetting the clergy, terrifying the American public in the company of Blue Oyster Cult and the J Geils Band and out-glamming even Bowie with their flamboyant sartorial taste. With a new DVD on the way and much speculation about a possible tour, legendary Celtic rockers Horslips here talk to Hot Press about a decade of adventure, decadence and great music.
Masturbating for charity – it was a new one on us. So whose idea was it? What was the purpose? Who would turn up? And what would happen in real life, when the doors to the Wank-a-thon were finally declared open? There was only one way to get the real SP on what promised to be one of the most bizarre events ever mounted in London. Send for our man Tyaransen: he wouldn’t make his excuses and leave! Or would he?
This week sees the start of the first-ever national TV campaign on the issue of Violence Against Women under the banner End The Silence. Hot Press talks to a victim of domestic violence and a violent man, as well as getting the response of a leading expert working at the front line of the campaign against domestic violence in Ireland. Words Jackie Hayden
Niall Stokes: People would make an assumption that since The Corrs have sold millions of records, you ve already got it made. Does it feel like that to you?
Despite the controversies in which she has recently bee involved, when SINIAD O'CONNOR starts talking music it becomes evident why she ran away to join the rock'n'roll circus in the first place. Citing Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Van Morrison as her ultimate trinity, she discusses the spiritual forces that drive and inspire. Interview: BILL GRAHAM
Politician, law & criminology professor, activist, abortion information campaigner and labour party candidate in the forthcoming european elections… all this and Ivana Bacik once served a pint of vodka to Perry Farrell, shortly before he fell over on stage at Glastonbury.
Never met a dyke he didn t like! Joe Jackson boogies the night away with Zrazy, one of Irish music s most determined combos. 1993 saw this radical lesbian dance due release their debut album in the face of widescale indifference from the national media and here they tell of their struggle to assert their music and sexuality against overwhelming odds.
As host of her own show on Network 2, CLARE McKEON is no stranger to controversy. Here she talks frankly to OLAF TYARANSEN about abortion, drugs, motherhood and her legendary temper.
Never met a dyke he didn’t like! Joe Jackson boogies the night away with ZRAZY, one of Irish music’s most determined combos. 1993 saw this radical lesbian dance duo release their debut album in the face of widescale indifference from the national media and here they tell of their struggle to assert their music and sexuality against overwhelming odds.
Striking Gold and setting a new World record might be enough to satisfy some athletes but for Sonia O'Sullivan such exploits are merely a warm-up for the glories that lie ahead. Ireland's athletics superstar talks to Liam Fay about winning, losing and the personal sacrifices she's prepared to make in order to become the best.
Sex and sanctity, grit and glitter, penthouse and pavement, God and the Devil, and all conical points in between!
PETER MURPHY dials M for ADONNA, the pre-eminent pop icon of this and every other year
Will genetic engineering be a force for good or for evil? And since the genie is already out of the bottle, is even that profound question becoming redundant? GERRY McGOVERN delves into the worrying, wonderful and definitely weird world of genetics. The future starts here.
When Nirvana exploded out of Seattle with the classic grunge album Nevermind, they were hailed as modern primitives, punk upstarts whose hard musical edge and authentic street style were the antithesis of the dominant ethos of corporate rock. Two years on however, their reputation as Rock 'n' Roll rebels is somewhat less secure. Bill Graham sifts through two new biographies of the band, and talks to Victoria clarke, the co-author of a third which has been effectively surpressed by the Nirvana 'corporation'.
His father, the Rev. Ian Paisley, has been one of the dominant figures in Irish politics over the past 40 years. Now Ian Paisley Jnr is a Junior Minister in the new Northern Ireland administration. So how different is he from his father? And how does he feel about cross border co-operation, education, abortion and homosexuality?
He may have an image as a political bruiser, but even if he is prepared to engage Bertie in a head-butting contest, Michael Noonan would rather win over the electorate by the more gentle art of persuasion. Joe Jackson meets the Fine Gael leader to discuss public issues and personal traumas, and discovers why he's partial to drink and Bill Clinton but opposed to Sinn Fein, the Bertie bowl and tax breaks for sports stars.
Watching David Bowie on television recently one couldn't help but think of Neil Hannon. Not that he is a musical "chameleon"—to use the phrase most often applied to Bowie—but he does seem to be a person more comfortable presenting to the world a series of ever-changing poses designed to conceal rather than reveal his "real self", as in vocally situating himself somewhere between Barry White and Prince on the magnificent Charge, or satirising—while still relishing—his role as the eponymous sexist hero in Becoming More Like Alfie. Strangely enough, Neil confesses that he was thinking something similar while watching Bowie being interviewed
It's been a long strange trip and no mistake, one that describes a discernible line from
Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music through to the Handsome Family.
But there's even more going on beneath the surface. GREIL MARCUS, the music critic's music critic,
is PETER MURPHY's guide on a mystery train whose other passengers include Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, Mark Twain, Nick Cave, The Blair Witch, Bill Clinton, The Band, Siniad O'Connor, Beck, William Burroughs, William Faulkner and Bob Dylan. And that's just the first class carriage. All aboard
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.
From girls-next-door to super starlets, elvis presley had em all. Yet not all his relationships with women were consummated, and there are even those who claim that none ever replaced his mother in his affections. Still, The King found plenty of outlets for his wild and boundless physical appetites, as Joe Jackson reports in this investigation into The Secret Sexual History Of Elvis Aaron Presley. Part one of a two-part Elvis confidential special.
Ahead of their return to Ireland, Muse reveal they’re about to go through their U2 phase, talk about magic mushrooms and explain why, when it comes to conspiracy, they’re on Jim Corr's side.
He’s one of the last great orators in Irish politics. But there’s more to Joe Higgins TD than firebrand socialism. In this candid interview, the man once described as a ‘nitwit’ by an enraged Bertie Ahern talks about his childhood, the role of the church in his life and explains why the Celtic Tiger has let Ireland down
He’s one of the last great orators in Irish politics. But there’s more to Joe Higgins TD than firebrand socialism. In this candid interview, the man once described as a ‘nitwit’ by an enraged Bertie Ahern talks about his childhood, the role of the church in his life and explains why the Celtic Tiger has let Ireland down
Love, sex, filth, money, sex, abortion, politics, sex, family, marriage, sex – and the whole damn thing. The BRENDAN O’CARROLL interview by JOE JACKSON. Pix: Michael Quinn.
With a new tribute album to Gram Parsons on release, PETER MURPHY enlists the help of co-executive producer EMMYLOU HARRIS to recreate the tale of Southern Gothic that was the late singer s life.
Fr Shay Cullen, an Irish Columban Missionary priest, tells Jason O’Toole about falling in love, the battle against corruption in the Philipines, the scourge of western sex tourism – and why the Irish government isn’t doing enough to protect children from paedophiles.
The drink, the drugs, the fights, the sex, the loves, the hates, the hits and the Taoiseach's daughter - here are Ireland's most successful boy band as you've never heard them before.
Hearing their confessions: Joe Jackson
In the second and final part of his exploration of the Secret Sexual History of Elvis Presley, joe jackson describes the king s prowess as a peak performer, reveals the great loves of his life, and charts his sordid, sad and ultimately tragic decline and fall.
In the second and final part of his exploration of the Secret Sexual History of Elvis Presley, joe jackson describes the king s prowess as a peak performer, reveals the great loves of his life, and charts his sordid, sad and ultimately tragic decline and fall.
The future is here. Well, somehow it always is. And, as usual, it is both familiar and strange. Nothing seems to change, but one day you turn around, it is 1995, and you are cybersurfing on the internet, summer seems to last all winter, ambient-acid-techno is bubbling away on the radio, your fax machine shows up on the Antiques Roadshow and papa’s got a brand new drug.
A feminist wish-fulfilment fantasy with a heart to match its slyly cerebral qualities, you’d need to be a fiercely impervious piece of work not to swoon for Waitress.
We’re not talking about prostitution here, just the prohibitive cost of contraception. The fact is that gratis contraception would probably save the State a lot of money in the long run – so let’s hear it for free sex…
No, we’re not talking about swearing off sex, or even avoiding what others might think of as indiscretions at the office Christmas party. But safe sex - now that is a good idea!
It may pose difficult ethical questions, but the rise in the number of teenage pregnancies suggests that we need to make it easier for people to get contraception here.
As the war in Afghanistan grinds mercilessly on, it has become increasingly clear: the rules have long been forgotten, as much by the Americans and the British as by their Northern Alliance allies.
Ireland's position in all of this is, frankly, shameful
THERE IS a town in California called San Luis Obispo. I arrived there one rainy day to discover that smoking had been banned in all indoor places where the public gather, including bars, restaurants and hotels. Things got even worse, I learned, since that awful day in 1992 when a few of us lit up under a dripping tree on the sidewalk.
When Anne Sexton made the point in a recent Hot Press article that she always carries condoms, it provoked more than a bit of controversy over the airwaves.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: Well, in 2007, at least the choice is yours. Which is a bit of a change from 1977 when Hot Press launched. Back then, you couldn’t even buy a condom legally in Ireland…
Shakespeare fans, please draw a deep breath and count to ten: Ten Things I Hate About You, the latest dumb-ass Yank teen comedy, purports to be a modern-day remake of The Taming Of The Shrew.
A few weeks ago I had a lengthy chat with the A&R man from a major London-based international record company who was in Ireland checking out the talent and trying to prise demo tapes and CDs off me. During the conversation I asked him to spill the beans on what goes through an A&R man s head from the time he seriously considers signing a band until a decision is finally taken.
THERE ARE images from that televised week in the Dáil, and the radio programmes that swept up the debris, that will forever bear witness to the moment when a page of history turned. First among them must be the sudden switching from the Dáil to Maynooth, as RTE called on Cardinal Cahal Daly to account for himself.
Sexual freedom is a wonderful thing. But it isn’t just about saying ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes’. Men – and women – have to understand that ‘no’ means just that…
With The Panel set to return for a series of election specials, show regular Mairead Farrell discusses the state of the body politic, doorstep meetings with Bertie Ahern and her encounter with Bill Clinton.
IT was in many ways a good week in Irish political life. Within two days, two major reports were published and in both cases you d have to say that their authors did well.
As social phenomena – teenage pregnancy, counterfeit designer clothes, weekend binge-drinking – rip through small towns like a cultural wildfire, it’s only fitting that there’s some comeback to the suburban suffocation.
She had been with him for months now and sex had always been good. So what could it mean when an orgasm eluded her? Was this, perhaps, the end of the affair?
Darkness At The Edge Of Town was the album when Bruce Springsteen and his repertory of characters finally grew up. Which makes it a hard act to follow.
Suddenly, our sex columnist was forced to do without her favourite ‘tipple’. The experience made her think again about the nature of sexual desire – and why some girls want it more than others…
The major political event in the Republic was the abortion referendum. Hotpress made its position clear in the run-up to that particular farce, but the polls were telling us that it was going to be a Yes vote
Too many gardai with guns; the international role of the soldiers of bigotry; and a potentially significant advance in abortion law in Northern Ireland.
Prayer as the best remedy for pre-menstrual tension? So says one of Bush’s boys as misogyny stalks the US establishment. Plus: the passing of the great writer and activist Howard Fast.
It took some old duffer in the House of Lords last week to bring back to mind one of the great crimes of recent years – the deaths of more than nine hundred people when the roll-on roll-off car ferry Estonia went down in the Baltic at the beginning of October.
America may be a conservative place in many respects – but in fact we owe our modern sense of sexual freedom to great American pioneers, from Alfred Kinsey to Annie Sprinkle…
Continuing his occasional Bum Notes series of reminiscences on life as a musician, Peter Murphy fondly casts a nostalgic eye over the birth of his daughter and the, eh, interesting rock ’n’ roll circumstances that surrounded it.
