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
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
Abortion Ship Doctor Slams Irish Policy.
News broke over the weekend that a woman was forced to bear her rapist’s child having been denied an abortion after going on hunger strike. Tracy Brown Hamilton chatted to Rebecca Gomperts of Woman On Waves about how Ireland’s laws are failing women. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, 47, is the founder and director of Women on Waves, an organization that, among other things sails a ship to countries where pregnancy termination is prohibited and offers … Read More
#rabbleReels: Secrets And Children.
Sinead O’Shea’s stark documentary for Al Jazeera investigates the number of children who died in the state’s care during the 2000’s and the neglect and abuse faced by children in its care services. “I think that the HSE is essentially a busted flush in dealing with children’s services. The HSE has been a grossly dissfunctional agency right across the health service. It’s been a disaster in the childcare area.” … Read More
Limerick Celebrates Its Counter-Culturalistas.
Making the Cut looks at the legacy of counter-cultural youth and those that dared to break with conformity in Limerick City during the heady late sixties and early seventies. It takes place as part of a whole raft of events under the EVA International 2014 banner, an art event dancing around the term ‘agitationism’ as a thematic pivot. Making the Cut jumps back to look at how the global sixties counter culture rubbed off … Read More
All’s loud on the Christian Front
In the 1930s a number of religious anti-communist organisations emerged in Irish society. Donal Fallon profiles the Irish Christian Front, a short lived but influential body. In recent months there has been major debate on the role of religious organisations in public life and discourse, though there is nothing new about conservative Catholic organisations attempting to influence decision makers here. If there was a monster under the bed for … Read More
#rabbleReels: Gralton, Grabbers and Gramophones.
As Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall makes its way through cinemas, here’s a little known doc that recalls the dances, politics and classes that took place in the hall. Apparently it had one of the first gramophones in the country. One Youtube commentator, Edwina Guckian recalled how she showed the documentary to her 95 year old grandfather who grew up around Effrinagh: He was at Drumsna mass that day Fr. Cosgrove … Read More
They Called It Acieed.
Rashers Tierney chats to Piers Sanderson. He’s the director of a documentary about the early 1990’s Blackburn rave scene that saw a generation find wholly new uses for warehouses in the hard hit North of England. The presence of Thatcherism hangs heavy in your trailer for your doc. Tell me what life up north was like under her Iron fist? Was rave a political response in a sense or more … Read More
10 Tunes For Marvin Gaye’s 30th Anniversary.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s murder in California. Ronan Burtenshaw gives us a run down of his best tracks.