Terry Dunne takes us back to look at the riotous popular culture behind the façade of Georgian Ireland and at how resistance was shaped by borrowing from festive life, folklore and recreation.
MAO 68!
This was not the first time barricades had dotted Parisian streets, but what was different about 1968 was the immediate international coverage of events. To students elsewhere, it showed the way. In Dublin, the ‘Internationalists’ of Trinity College Dublin, a small Maoist student body with influence beyond their numbers, disrupted the visit to the university by King Baudouin of Belgium.
Gombeen #15: Conor Feckin’ Skehane.
Later he stigmatised one half of service-users and simultaneously pitted them against the other half by blaming the homeless for “gaming the system” to get social housing
AirBnb Goes Beyond The Pale.
The Government has recently seen fit to admit AirBnb is a massive problem with regards to the housing crisis. However, Eoghan Murphy has already claimed that any regulations will probably only apply to Dublin – this is even more shortsighted than you’d think. Patrick McCusker got looking at the facts to explore just how bad an influence AirBnb really is having outside Dublin.
Starring Dublin As Dublin.
Long-time readers of rabble will know we love to draw attention to Dublin’s architecture and great architects past and present. Therefore, when we found out that the IFI were running an event called Dublin Plays Itself alongside the Irish Architecture Foundation, we were definitely interested. Patrick McCusker caught up with Sunniva O’Flynn, one of the tour guides, to find out more.
Put It To The Testo.
There were splashes in the media last year about harm reduction advice being dispensed at Electric Picnic for the first time. Lazy hacks ushered a sigh of relief – here was a new element to add to well worn column inch filling codology about bog roll and fashionable wellies. Rashers Tierney looks at the need to encourage safer sessioning at festivals and chats to some pioneers in the field out foreign.
Mythbustin’ On Abortion.
Three Irish women made their way to an abortion clinic in London to hear firsthand from staff what it’s like there.
Connemara Cinema.
Bob Quinn is a filmmaker based in Connemara whose 1975 film Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire tells the story of a film shoot in a Gaeltacht where the actors rebel against their director. The original suggestion and support for making the film came from Eamonn Smullen, who was Director of Education, Sinn Féin The Workers Party.
Upon release, it was greeted as “the first completely native-produced movie that seems capable of holding its own with the best of the world’s new cinema.”.
After a long period during which the negative was feared lost, it was recovered and restored in 2010. Rabble caught up with Bob Quinn to talk about it.
The Social Fabric.
The banners represent key moments of change in history, from the evolution of the Women’s Workers Union in 1911 to recent responses to Brexit. They portray changing issues throughout Ireland and the UK including our present moments of Repeal the Eighth and wars in regions such as Palestine.
Get Into The Groove.
They say the past is another country, but in the case of Ireland – it’s probably more like a parallel fecking looniverse. Rashers Tierney caught up with John Byrne to talk about the strange land that gave birth to the utterly fantastic Quare Groove compilation.