It wasn’t with much regret that we waved goodbye to Sean Brady. Throughout his long reign of church cover ups he withstood one resignation call too many before finally handing in his notice to papa bear in Rome. Brady was a proud chink in the rusty chain that the church has wrapped around the uteri of Irish women. In 1975, it was with zeal that, rather than inform the authorities, … Read More
What’s the Story Buddh? The Tale Of The Dharma Bum.
What could possibly make one of the first Westerners ever to become a Buddhist monk so disreputable that he would be airbrushed out of history, despite being famous in his day and featured in US magazines and the Sunday Independent? Laurence Cox takes up the story for us. Being a white man who took off the shoes and hat that set Europeans apart from Burmese in 1900, picked up the … Read More
#LookUp: Raising The Standard.
Phibsboro Shopping Centre is one of Dublin’s most domineering buildings. Rashers Tierney writes about the fortress of pre-cast grey concrete that haunts the horizons of D7. One of the advantages of this towering behemoth of late 1960’s brutalist architecture is how it frames the old village of Phibsborough in partnership with the lights of Dalymount. So, it’s near impossible to get lost or misdirect eegits home. You see those … Read More
Forty Years Of Fighting.
This looks like a fascinating and timely exhibition tracing four long decades of struggle for reproductive rights in dear old Ireland. It’s been hauled together by a broad coalition of groups ranging from The blurb for the event goes: “Over four decades women in Ireland have been subject to repression, shaming and criminal sanctions in their attempts to express their sexuality and reproductive rights. Women’s bodies have been the subject … Read More
Alan The Anarchist.
Alan Mac Simoin is a long time Dublin anarchist with a rapturous wit and way of telling stories that has made many the traditional post-meeting pint a real pleasure for this writer. Here he’s interviewed on camera for the *takes a deep breath* Irish Republican Marxist History Project. From the acrid splits in republicanism after the Civil Rights movement, to the battle of Carnsore Point that rid Ireland of nuclear … Read More
The Road To Nowhere.
Between various rabble crew being on holidays or sessioning it up at Boomtown in Winchester last weekend we’re a bit slow when it comes to blogging and news aggregation right now. As a result we totally missed this slice of hip hop protest from Captain Moonlight about continued ructions in Kilkenny over the construction of a new road. Moonlight’s a rabble favorite and the protest ditty features his usual dogged wit and vocal … Read More
#lookUp8: Murray and Sons Tobacco Factory.
Believe it or not, before vaporisers folks used to actually smoke something called tobacco?! Peg Leeson takes a look at a nasty habit, a factory that used to produce it and the women who worked there. Of course we still have folks getting sacked for trying to start unions but hey who chews tobacco anymore?! Look up out the back of the Victoria Train Station, no not the multi-storey atrocity … Read More
The Missionary Position Or How The Irish Learnt To Have Sex.
Whilst the rest of the western world was in the midst of the STI-swapping frenzy that was the sixties, Ireland was on its knees waiting outside a confession box. Sheila Lafferty, gets under the covers and gets to grips with Irish sexual cluelessness. A sordid mix of Victorian neurosis and Rome rule meant that sex in 20th-century Ireland was a silent taboo that only happened behind closed doors, under blankets, with … Read More
#rabbleReels: Conventos De Vergüenza.
Conventos De Vergüenza is a documentary produced by French filmmakers in 1998 with a title that translates as convents of shame. It reveals through interviews with survivors how tens of thousands of ordinary young women and girls were condemned to exile within their own country, Ireland. Most of them were ‘unmarried mothers’, many others orphans. In the eyes of the Catholic Ireland of their time, they were sinners. One of the interviewees, a woman called … Read More
Back In The Day.
Interested in the origins of hip hop culture, fashion and street photography? Then this is for you. As a young man, Jamel Shabazz documented the street style immortalized in early hip hop. His website is chockerblock with vintage shots of Brooklyn hood life. It’s a bit slow loading, but worth a look. Talking about the sort of folk he put on film, Fab Five Freddy said: These were the heroes, these … Read More