User Preferences

  • Language - en | ga
  • text size >>
  • make this your indymedia front page make this your indymedia front page

Blog Feeds

Cedar Lounge
For Lefties too Stubborn to Quit

offsite link That rotating Minister debate 17:47 Fri Mar 19, 2010 | WorldbyStorm

offsite link This week from the Irish Election Literature Blog 08:26 Fri Mar 19, 2010 | WorldbyStorm

offsite link Seán FitzPatrick? lest we forget? 17:59 Thu Mar 18, 2010 | WorldbyStorm

offsite link Postmodern Paddy?s Day 12:04 Thu Mar 18, 2010 | Garibaldy

offsite link Analysis of the 2009 Local Election Results in Dublin 08:16 Thu Mar 18, 2010 | WorldbyStorm

Cedar Lounge >>

Dublin Opinion
It's a group blog. What more do you need to know?

offsite link SO MUCH FOR ME LUCKY CHARMS? 14:06 Fri Mar 19, 2010

offsite link THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ADVISERS WRITE YOUR SPEECHES 00:50 Fri Mar 19, 2010

offsite link ALEX CHILTON, 1950-2010 10:38 Thu Mar 18, 2010

offsite link Edward Horgan, Irish Activist, Rendition Critic Has US Visa Revoked 15:57 Wed Mar 17, 2010

offsite link Beyond the Classroom - The Communities -Ep2: Tallaght 04:30 Wed Mar 17, 2010

Dublin Opinion >>

Irish Left Review
Joined up thinking for the Irish Left

offsite link Taking Sides| John Mearsheimer | London Review Blog Fri Mar 19, 2010 15:25 | donagh

offsite link Haiti Liberte: Hebdomadaire Haitien / Haitian weekly Fri Mar 19, 2010 14:25 | donagh

offsite link Look! Is My Mate! Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:05 | Manuel Estimulo

offsite link Still Relying on Outsider?s Eyes Thu Mar 18, 2010 19:32 | donagh

offsite link Radical Social Responses to the Right to Housing Thu Mar 18, 2010 00:38 | Illan Rua Wall

Irish Left Review >>

MediaBite
A shot at bias in the media

offsite link 'Balancing' the Climate Consensus - Part 2 Sat Mar 06, 2010 22:44

offsite link 'Balancing' the Climate Consensus - Part 1 Sat Mar 06, 2010 22:36

offsite link Favouring the Rich - A Media Prerogative? Wed Dec 16, 2009 17:30

offsite link Right turn ahead Thu Sep 10, 2009 13:38

offsite link Iran vs Honduras - A subtle difference Mon Aug 10, 2009 18:22

MediaBite >>

Conor McCabe - 14:06 Fri Mar 19, 2010

Conor McCabe - 00:50 Fri Mar 19, 2010
The video from the Irish Labour Party below is only three years old, but it might as well be a thousand for all the insight and relevance it carries. The message, ‘are you happy?’, was aimed at what the party’s policy advisers saw as the real concerns of the Irish people: prosperity was here to stay, [...]

happy.jpg

The video from the Irish Labour Party below is only three years old, but it might as well be a thousand for all the insight and relevance it carries.

The message, ‘are you happy?’, was aimed at what the party’s policy advisers saw as the real concerns of the Irish people: prosperity was here to stay, but the pace and direction of life was getting us down. We weren’t fulfilled in any way.

On top of this existentialist angst, the policy advisers saw education and crime as other areas of our lives where we just. weren’t. happy.

The government wasn’t doing anything about our general feelings of unhappiness, nor anything about criminals or schools. It was bad management, and what the Irish Labour Party could offer in coalition with Fine Gael was good management.

Nothing about the systemic problems in the economy, in the banks, in the political system itself - things that Irish left-wing bloggers were writing about on a weekly basis at that time.

I actually think the video is a brilliant piece of work for its superficiality and utter lack of any knowledge of the very real fault-lines in the Irish economy, which at the time this video was made were only 12 months away from breaking out from behind the haze and slap bang into our lives.

Something tells me, though, that while the Labour Party’s analysis has been completely discredited, the policy advisers who came up with this complete and utter shit are probably still calling the shots, still giving moronic advice, and still justifying their insights with the same level of bull as before.

Enjoy.

Conor McCabe - 10:38 Thu Mar 18, 2010
I first heard of Alex Chilton from Seán Baite, who is more qualified to write something on Chilton than myself. By way of tribute though… [Sonofstan left a comment on Chilton here.]

I first heard of Alex Chilton from Seán Baite, who is more qualified to write something on Chilton than myself. By way of tribute though…

[Sonofstan left a comment on Chilton here.]

Conor McCabe - 15:57 Wed Mar 17, 2010
This comes via Democracy Now! (headlines clip, 17 March 2010, 12:05mins). “A prominent Irish peace activist says he?s had his US visa revoked without explanation. The activist, Edward Horgan, is the co-founder of ShannonWatch, which has documented the use of Ireland?s Shannon Airport in the US kidnapping practice known as ?extraordinary rendition.? Horgan is a former [...]

This comes via Democracy Now! (headlines clip, 17 March 2010, 12:05mins).

“A prominent Irish peace activist says he?s had his US visa revoked without explanation. The activist, Edward Horgan, is the co-founder of ShannonWatch, which has documented the use of Ireland?s Shannon Airport in the US kidnapping practice known as ?extraordinary rendition.? Horgan is a former UN peacekeeper who has also served in the Irish military. He is currently scheduled to speak at North Carolina?s Duke University next month about his opposition to ?extraordinary rendition.”

More on this story here.

Conor McCabe - 04:30 Wed Mar 17, 2010
As part of the ongoing relationship with Aontas. It was suggested in mid 2008 that DCTV and the Aontas ? Community Education Network would be a good fit to explore a production project. This series, supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland sound and vision scheme is the most visible result of that partnership [...]

As part of the ongoing relationship with Aontas. It was suggested in mid 2008 that DCTV and the Aontas ? Community Education Network would be a good fit to explore a production project. This series, supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland sound and vision scheme is the most visible result of that partnership and seeks to bring the techniques, principles and potential of community education fully into view.

All of this material will be broadcast on Dublin Community Television and will be made available for other community television stations both within Ireland and abroad. Thanks to the support of the Broadcasting Authority and Aontas, a production crew and director were able to engage with the community education sector over an extended period and develop not only an awareness of the story of community education but also the importance for community television of the practice and principles the sector had developed.

From the development of television as a learning tool and the transformative potential in our work to the very real yet important insistence of using circular studio designs as opposed to the simpler to shoot yet less inclusive designs we had been using previously, the nearly two years work on this series has been profoundly influential on DCTV. We think that these ?innovative, creative, critical, educational, and entertaining programmes that focus on real people and communities? that form the Beyond the Classroom series not only capture the spirit of community education but also point a way for community television as it too is transformed by these important concepts.

In the second story Tallaght drugs activists talk about working with An Cosan.

Beyond the Classroom - The Communities -Ep2 from DCTV on Vimeo.

Conor McCabe - 03:56 Wed Mar 17, 2010
It’s 5pm and I’m walking down James Street, heading towards DCTV’s warehouse studio where there’s a launch reception for a series of programmes on cycling and the city. I’m hoping to catch the station manager to ask him about the next round of programme funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and to take part [...]

james-st-view.jpg

It’s 5pm and I’m walking down James Street, heading towards DCTV’s warehouse studio where there’s a launch reception for a series of programmes on cycling and the city. I’m hoping to catch the station manager to ask him about the next round of programme funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and to take part in an audience discussion on transport. As always, I get there early - the idea of being late for anything stresses me out, which, along with the fact that I don’t drink, I swear makes me Irish in passport only - and I hang around drinking coffee and picking at the Mannings sandwiches laid on for the event. It is cold and I’m a little tired, but I get to talk to the manager for a couple of minutes before he’s subsumed into preparations for the evening’s shoot. I sit down and finish my sandwich, and while I’m there looking around the tiredness moves up towards me and places its hand on my shoulder. It has been a long day, even though it’s only 6pm, and I don’t think I’m up for hanging on. So, reluctantly, I make my excuses, head over to the exit, and shuffle off out the door.

(more…)

Sean Baite - 13:03 Tue Mar 16, 2010
Shellshock Rock Pt 1 A chance find on YouTube - appears to have turned up not long after I did this post on Belfast / Norn Iron punk. Somebody FedEx a case of vintage Buckfast to saintly Japanese person heyohkubo3 and put it on DO Tower’s tab please. Links to the other 5 parts of the [...]

Shellshock Rock Pt 1

A chance find on YouTube - appears to have turned up not long after I did this post on Belfast / Norn Iron punk. Somebody FedEx a case of vintage Buckfast to saintly Japanese person heyohkubo3 and put it on DO Tower’s tab please.

Links to the other 5 parts of the doc below :
Shellshock Rock - Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Sean Baite - 13:53 Mon Mar 15, 2010
[ De Jemser that time he didn’t go down too well Upstairs in The International / Photo Ottacaro WEISS pinched from www.istrianet.org ] Conventional as Joyce’s poetry is, we have to at least give the man credit for its musicality. Syd Barrett spotted this and gave us his wonderful version of ‘Golden Hair’ [...]

jj_1915_weiss.jpg

[ De Jemser that time he didn’t go down too well Upstairs in The International / Photo Ottacaro WEISS pinched from www.istrianet.org ]

Conventional as Joyce’s poetry is, we have to at least give the man credit for its musicality. Syd Barrett spotted this and gave us his wonderful version of ‘Golden Hair’ from Chamber Music on his Madcap Laughs LP. By chance I learn from French radio that Barrett’s album is as old as myself this year and that as a tribute Mojo have put together an album of covers. On the programme I heard, they played REM’s version of Dark Globe and Hope Sandoval and the Warm Attractions’ take on ‘Golden Hair’. I think I would be able to listen to Sandoval’s voice for hours even if she was working as a talking clock - I suspect Joyce would be of the same opinion if the strains of it could get down to him into the ground there in Zurich.

(more…)

Conor McCabe - 02:03 Mon Mar 15, 2010
My obsession with this show is reaching Trekkie levels, I know. At the end of episode twelve, season four Dukie is told that he’s moving school and there’s a scene where he’s sitting at the computer and looking around the classroom, knowing that it’s the end of what had become a safe haven in his [...]

Dukie the wire

My obsession with this show is reaching Trekkie levels, I know.

At the end of episode twelve, season four Dukie is told that he’s moving school and there’s a scene where he’s sitting at the computer and looking around the classroom, knowing that it’s the end of what had become a safe haven in his life. For a split second the camera falls onto the PC screen before Dukie turns it off, but the entire shot is too quick for us to notice anything. We always see Dukie at the computer, but we never observe what he is doing, so we presume he’s just been on the internet or playing games.

One pause button and screenshot later, and we can see that Dukie has been working on a classroom newsletter.

Given Duckie’s story in The Wire, it’s a heartbreaking piece of detail.

Conor McCabe - 19:01 Sat Mar 13, 2010
[Photo taken from CPI website. Mick O’Riordán is front row, third from the left.] Another tape that was recently passed onto me, this time of an Anna-Livia (now Dublin City FM) radio interview from 1993 with Mick O’Riordan, then general-secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) and Spanish Civil War veteran, who passed away in [...]

spanish-civil-war-501-x-360.jpg
[Photo taken from CPI website. Mick O’Riordán is front row, third from the left.]

Another tape that was recently passed onto me, this time of an Anna-Livia (now Dublin City FM) radio interview from 1993 with Mick O’Riordan, then general-secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) and Spanish Civil War veteran, who passed away in 2006.

A brief biog is provided by RTE’s obituary, published 18 May 2006.

Born in west Cork in 1917, Michael O’Riordan was a member of the Fianna and of the IRA, and joined the Communist Party in 1935.

A year later he went to Spain where he fought with the XVth International Brigade and was wounded at Ebro.

Shortly after his return to Ireland in 1939, he was interned in the Curragh camp until 1943.

A bus driver and active trade unionist, he was a candidate in the Cork Borough by-election in 1947, and on moving to Dublin he stood in five general elections as an Independent.

He was active in the Dublin Housing Action Committee in the 1960s, and later in the campaign to free the Birmingham Six.

His 1979 account of the Irish who fought on the government side in Spain, ‘The Connolly Column’, was reprinted recently.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the International Brigades Commemoration Committee have paid tribute to Mr O’Riordan.

Mr Ahern described Michael O’Riordan as ‘a fearless fighter for the labour movement throughout his life.’

The IBCC said he was a leading figure in the fight for social justice and that he will be missed by many in the Labour movement. “

A biography of Mick provided by the CPI is here.

By far the best site on the Irish and the Spanish Civil War is here, entitled, appropriately enough: Ireland and the Spanish Civil War.

Dublin Opinion >>

© 2001-2010 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy