. “The Cowboys”, written and directed by Peter Trant, is a dramatic and highly entertaining play set in a fictional town somewhere along the border. It tells a complex, darkly humorous tale of love, betrayal and revenge. After many years, away, the protagonist, Bobby Courtney, returns to his hometown for his father’s funeral. Old animosities between him and his nemesis, Johnny Murtagh, the Meat Factory Manager, bubble ominously to the surface. Two Meat Factory Workers, Sonny and Phil, observe it all. At first this duo, with their laugh-out-loud humour, appear to be outside the action, almost like a Greek chorus, but we soon realize that they are, in fact, central to events as they unfold. Behind their banter, oblique clues hint at horrors past and to come. A sense of menace permeates the action right from the beginning and tension builds inexorably as the plot moves to its shocking climax.

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These are my initial published thoughts on the terrorist attack I and my partner survived and endured 17th August 2017.
Fadó Fadó, long time ago, when many more readers came to this corner of the internet, I published a series of articles in reaction to a terrorist attack on Madrid, the 11th of March 2004. I promoted a simple design back then, to my surprise the idea found traction and was accepted by countless people. i had thought my suggestion was easy to reproduce and helped people express collective mourning, to show publicly their fellowship with a community in shock. My design was a black ribbon, one which was easy to knock up variations upon and print out. I admit the ribbon idea was based on my much younger years when I had worn a green ribbon in support of a complex idea back then : the inclusion of political prisoners in a tentative British Irish peace process. Am I turning some off the provenance? OH talk to me about my youth why not? The idea of a black ribbon took off the weekend of March 11th, 2004, whilst the then government of Spain falsely attributed an attack by Salafists in the ambit of Al Qaeda on Madrid by blaming the Basque armed seperatist group ETA. IT was a few days before a general election. An estimated 80,000 people took to the streets of Spain and the Spanish state and camped out in front of government offices and the offices of the ruling party demanding the truth... I was one... the ribbon was a moment in my life... I never wanted to see it used again In the last hours the city of my home where I have lived almost 20 years has been victim of a long anticipated terrorist attack. Even google now puts a black ribbon. I return to indymedia ireland to indulge POV reflections. read full story / add a comment