Colours and faces swim past him as he readjusts to the light and tips out his cigarette with a hairless white arm. He glances at his desk, completely clean with a gilded leather finish replaced only this week reflecting the city lights outside. He has relinquished all forms of paper communication.
One Night In Skintown.
Following the publication of his highly acclaimed debut novel Skintown about rave culture in 1990’s Northern Ireland, Enniskillen actor Ciarán McMenamin talks to Eileen Walsh about drugs, protein shakes and orange marches. And with his book being hailed as the new Trainspotting, the film rights to Skintown have already been snapped up. watch this space. People in Northern Ireland are tired of hearing stories about the Troubles, people in the South … Read More
The Session Pixies #14
Taking a break from the post Tobacco Control Law lifestyle of scouring cigarette machines in suburban boozers for the last of the fabled 12.5 boxes of Amber Leaf, the Session Pixies return to rabble HQ to answer your whines and moans. Dear Session Pixies, The summer festival season has rendered my financial situation entirely destitute. I tried my best to minimise costs through cutting out unnecessary expenses such as shower … Read More
Hold The Line.
Author Enda Brophy has spent the past decade researching call centres. His book Language Put To Work chronicles how the industry has transformed the world of communications and looks at how workers fight back within it. Paul Dillon took his call.
We Speak In Code #7
Paddy Lynch continues his epic emotion tinged comic about lost youth…
The Chemical Generation.
Niall McCann is making a name for himself as a documentary maker that looks at creativity under neo-liberalism. His feature on Luke Haines got rave reviews from those lucky enough to see it at film festivals. His recent Lost in France is about the seminal Glasgow record label Chemikal Underground. Martin Leen sat down with him to chat about making art in these market-driven times.
Simms City.
The history of public housing in Ireland is, in many ways, a history of failure. Donal Fallon takes us for a trip in his De Loreon and introduces us to a champion of social housing who designed beautiful European art deco buildings for the city that still stand out as visionary models today. Regarded as a legacy of British rule, slumdom still defined much of the heart of inner-city Dublin … Read More
Taking On The Vulture Club.
Above: Illustrartion by Holly Pereira. Check out more of her amazing work at Hyperpictures. Last January, the Master of the High Court Edmund Hanahan warned that over the next five years home repossessions were to increase five-fold. Already this year there have been 517 cases lodged by companies affiliated with vulture funds against debtors, that’s a tenfold increase from the 53 cases recorded in the High Court last year. Sean Finnan looks at … Read More
Gombeen #14: The Regime’s Regina.
Who is the regime’s Regina? A blueshirt politician, a landlord, and a failed en-tra-pra-nure – she couldn’t be more the elite’s own if she tweeted where she was when Princess Diana died in a week when three homeless people died on the streets. Her failed consultancy firm Enhance Solutions didn’t keep its books in proper order – a criminal offence in itself. When it went into liquidation it owed over … Read More