Irish KC : A Blog

ETH in Kansas City

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 15:06:00 +0000

If I say Neil Dorfsman to you, what Irish music do you think of? Paul Brady, Solas? Okay very good, but as it happens I don't actually go around casually spitting out names as challenges to people.

So today is the day Enter the Haggis enter the Record Bar. The brand new album, Soapbox Heroes, as I told you, is not available for regular retail until July 18, but is being sold at gigs.

Reading around the blogosphere I've read of people absolutely loving this ETH tour and of the tracks from the new CD the boys are playing in the set. I don't have any links for you because the relevant blogs had huge convoluted entries (yes, more than mine) with ETH reviews too far buried to explain - so just trust me. Actually one person likened a new track to Marillion - and there was me talking about Genesis

When I was talking with Kirk of Seven Nations recently, I forgot to ask him about ETH, probably because he had me distracted with sordid tales of the road, and he actually made me write them down. So I did.

Singer and Guitarist, Trevor Lewington talks of this fifth album by Enter the Haggis:

For the recording of Soapbox Heroes, we lived in a house that was attached to the studio so we were isolated from family and friends. The only people we interacted with were ourselves, Neil, the studio employees and guest musicians.

The seclusion helped us to focus on the record without any distractions. It also meant that we didn’t have any feedback from family and friends until it was too late

I like people that lock themselves away from the world.

The studio man behind Casualties of Retail, Joao Carvalho is also responsible for mastering Soapbox Heroes, but the producer, according to ETH's label, UFO music, is none other than 4-time grammy winner, with music credits longer than the face of a girl an Irish barman in Kansas City once went out with, Neil Dorfsman.

See also:
     • Listen to Soapbox Heroes Track
     • Enter The Haggis on Irish KC
     • Kansas City Scottish Festival

Enter The Haggis

liam@liamdaly.com — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 04:23:00 +0000

Enter The Haggis at Irish KC

Celtic Folk Rock from Canada with a Scottish Twist

Enter The Haggis in Kansas City
Enter The Haggis & Soapbox Heroes - Listen
Chicago Gaelic Park Irish Fest

ETH New CD: Soapbox Heroes
Enter The Haggis Mixing New CD
Enter The Haggis Enter Britain
Celtic Music News Podcast #62

Compare with Seven Nations
ETH Signs with UFO Music
Milwaukee Irish Fest
Kansas City Irish Festival

Bono

liam@liamdaly.com — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 05:38:00 +0000

Bono Watch at Irish KC

Irish vocalist in some group or other

    • U2, a Tribute 2U Fran

    • Podcast interview with Bono in Mali
    • Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs
    • Encore: Another 50 Conservative Rock Songs
    • Bono Guest Edits the (RED) Independent

    • Bono: Beckett Blew My Mind
    • Bono's 46th Birthday at Lillies
    • Unique Irish Distinction
    • On Cattle & Cane by the Go-Betweens

    • On Liam O Maonlai
    • One: Britain's favourite lyric
    • Bono is in Africa
    • Songwriter of Year nomination same year as Andy White

    • Walks on Water
    • Runrig not as funny
    • Aggro! Cork picks blog fight with Dublin
    • Voxer & Christie: A Love Story

Kansas City Events

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:44:00 +0000

Events in Kansas City region

For the purposes of the Events, Lawrence, Kansas and Weston, Missouri are considered to be in the Kansas City region.

Please CONFIRM events are actually on before attending

Wednesday
May 31 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm
May 31 Enter The Haggis w/Kelihans at The Record Bar

Friday
Jun 2 Eddie Delahunt at Westsider 6pm
Jun 2 Wild Colonial Bhoys at O'Malley's 8pm
Jun 2 Bob Reeder at Kyle's Tap Room 8:30pm

Saturday
Jun 3 Children for Peace Fundraiser WJMcBrides OP
Jun 3 Wild Colonial Bhoys at O'Malley's 8pm
Jun 3 Bob Reeder at O'Malley's, Weston 8pm

Sunday
Jun 4 Little People Celebration Irish Museum
Jun 4 Bob Reeder at O'Malley's 3pm
Jun 4 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Tuesday
Jun 6 Eddie Delahunt at WJ McBrides KCK 7pm

Wednesday
Jun 7 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Friday
Jun 9 Eddie Delahunt at Westsider 6pm
Jun 9 Lucky Charms at O'Malley's, Weston 8pm
Jun 9 Bob Reeder at Kyle's Tap Room 8:30pm
Jun 9 Scottish Highland Games Riverside

Saturday
Jun 10 Scottish Highland Games Riverside
Jun 10 Tullamore at Governor Stumpy's
Jun 10 Eddie Delahunt at O'Malley's, Weston 8pm

Sunday
Jun 11 Bob Reeder at O'Malley's 3pm
Jun 11 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Tuesday
Jun 13 Eddie Delahunt at WJ McBrides KCK 7pm

Wednesday
Jun 14 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Friday
Jun 16 Eddie Delahunt at Westsider
Jun 16 Jed Marum at O'Malley's 8pm
Jun 16 Bob Reeder at Kyle's Tap Room
Jun 16 Bloomsday in KC Noon-midnight at Crestwood

Saturday
Jun 17 Bloomsday in KC 9am-? at Crestwood
Jun 17 Irish Ride to Weston KC Parade Committee
Jun 17 Jed Marum at O'Malley's 8pm

Sunday
Jun 18 Bob Reeder at O'Malley's 3pm
Jun 18 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Tuesday
Jun 20 Eddie Delahunt at WJ McBrides KCK 7pm

Wednesday
Jun 21 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Friday
Jun 23 Eddie Delahunt at Westsider 6pm
Jun 23 Easter Rising O'Malley's, Weston 8pm
Jun 23 Bob Reeder at Kyle's Tap Room 8:30pm

Saturday
Jun 24 2U: A Tribute to the Music of U2 at Record Bar
Jun 24 Easter Rising O'Malley's, Weston 8pm

Sunday
Jun 25 Uncensored Cinema Kemper Museum 2pm
Jun 25 Bob Reeder at O'Malley's 3pm
Jun 25 Eddie Delahunt at O'Dowd's Little Dublin 8pm

Roger Coleman and Joe Miquelon

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 11:29:00 +0000

The Kansas City Star today features an article on The Elders' keyboard player, Joe Miquelon, and Roger Coleman from midtown's Pilgrim Chapel. It's an interesting read, particularly on the evolution of Danny Cox’s Troost Avenue Blues.

See also:
     • The Elders at Children for Peace fundraiser
     • Joe Micquelon joins The Elders
     • All posts on The Elders

Top 50 Conservative Rock'n'Roll Songs

liam@liamdaly.com — Sat, 27 May 2006 07:11:00 +0000

Refreshingly, the National Review reminds us that not all Rock'n'Roll is Bruce Springsteen and Mrs McGrath. Yes, much of it is actually conservative - from the Crickets to the Beach Boys, the Beatles to the Stones, and the Sex Pistols to Metallica.

Encore: And There's More: Another 50 Songs

Two Irish acts make the list of the 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs. And of all time no less - though I don't see any from the 1340s. At #41 is The Icicle Melts, by Limerick's own Cranberries with vocals of course by the thinking man's crumpet, Dolores o'Riordan. That was thoughtless of me.

And unavoidably, U2 are in the top 10 with Gloria at #6, the latin doing the business for them. Of course they could've chosen dozens of U2 anthems, but NR said they were trying to cast their net wide. These right wing religious types are always laying it on with the fishing metaphors.

I've decided this time to not claim as Irish, the Beatles (Lennon and McCartney, I mean hey), the Sex Pistols (Where do you think Johnny Rotten learned to talk like that?), Led Zepellin (for influencing pipers, Irish and Scottish) or a group at #36 with Government Cheese. Yes it's Kansas City's own Rainmakers:

A protest song against the welfare state by a Kansas City band that deserved more success than it got. The first line: Give a man a free house and he’ll bust out the windows

See also:
   • Immigration: The Economics View
   • Irish Immigrants and Bad Birds
   • Irish Place Names and Illegals
   • Bobby Sands

Encore: 50 More Conservative Songs

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 10:11:00 +0000

Speaking of the National Review list of Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs of All Time (or the last fifty years, if you prefer), John J. Miller has listed, though alas without numbers we could fight about, fifty more conservative rock songs.

What was surprising about the original article wasn't the list itself, but that people were surprised. Miller clearly stated the songs were chosen based on what listeners felt defined conservative values for them; he didn't say that driving German cars into American residential swimming pools makes you a conservative rock group - though obviously it does.

This time Mr Miller does what he tried to avoid last time, by including five songs by Rush and The Kinks combined. I suspect it's just laziness following the impact of the initial list that has the net not being cast so wide this time.

From the Irish perspective we again have a song by U2, The Playboy Mansion from the much mocked Pop album. Of course because we're Irish we know that anything early when the boys were simultaneously attending prayer meetings and being rock stars would qualify.

And so would anything later when they had established they weren't your average rock stars interested in getting their rocks off. Beyond U2 we're pushing it. But hey, Irish KC likes to push it, so let's claim a couple more.

Elvis Costello, born as Declan Patrick MacManus, and sometime champion of The Pogues to the extent that he married their bass player for a while, Cait Ni Riordain (surely that's conservative?), is on the list with The Other Side of Summer.

Oh and This Night Has Opened My Eyes by that Irish band, The Smiths.

And really we shouldn't, because the sweeping epic rock ballad called Red Army Blues by The Waterboys predates their conversion to Irishness, and is back from the days when everything they did was sweeping and epic. But with their recent second Irish coming, I think we can now claim everything Mike Scott ever did as being Irish.

And this second Irish coming also reinstates The Waterboys as the ultimate Irish Festival band in existence - I mean, for god's sake they have an unending stream of Dubliners on Grafton Street wishing they were Fishermen. So I imagine having the masses of middle America wishing they too were out on trawlers should be no problem. Reason enough for a festival, I'd say.

Truth be told, from an Irish perspective we could make these lists until the cows come home, because we have a Traditional music scene, and for good measure we fuse it into Rock, Pop, and although it's criminal, Country.

I mean Step it out Mary, my fine daughter, Show your legs to the country man embodies a world of conservative values you could write a thesis on. Or a Testament.

See also:
     • Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs
     • U2: Dublin 1979
     • The Easter Bunny in Ireland?

Normal Service for Kansas City Irish

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 07:58:00 +0000

It's been a huge three days for Irish KC, with thousands of visitors due to the Celtic Block Party, the Ken Loach Cannes win, and especially the National Review article.

Throw in the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend here in the States, and even more important family commitments, and perhaps Irish KC has seemed a bit out of whack. Normal service should now resume. What normal service is, I have no idea.

If none of this means anything to you, ignore it and go phone somebody you haven't for over six months. Tell them you were thinking of them.

Related(ish):
     • About Eolaí gan Fhéile
     • Post #500 on Irish KC
     • First Ever Irish KC Post

Irish Conversations

liam@liamdaly.com — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 03:06:00 +0000

Irish Conversations in the American Midwest

#11 - Jimmy
#10 - European Food
#9 - Scenery
#8 - Dublin Accent
#7 - Five Pence
#6 - African-Americans
#5 - A Sensible Person
#4 - Leaves changing colour
#3 - Someone from Europe
#2 - Impossible to understand
#1 - Don't say you're not American

Irish Conversations in the Midwest of the Mind

  • Hoffenpurpenburger Day
  • Irish Prison Interview with Philo
  • Voxer & Christie: A Love Story
  • The Driving Range

Irish Conversations in a Dublin Pub

#14 - Safety Pin
#13 - Divorce
#12 - Lost
#11 - Nothing
#10 - Rain
#9 - Men
#8 - Chicane
#7 - Wind
#6 - Questions & Answers
#5 - Cats
#4 - Rommel
#3 - Disparaging Remarks
#2 - Dollymount
#1 - Having a Pint

Kansas City Phone Calls to Ireland

#1 - Banking 365

Irish Conversation in the American Midwest #11

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 08:54:00 +0000

-Where are you from
-Ireland. Dublin
-Ahh, Jimmy
-Jimmy?
-Yes. I have a friend called Jimmy. He is from Dublin
-I see
-Do you know him?
-Jimmy?
-Yes
-Jimmy from Dublin?
-Yes
-He lives in Dublin?
-Yes
-Just Jimmy? Like Elvis and Madonna, no last name necessary?
-Everyone just knows him as Jimmy
-Sorry, I don't know him
-You are from Dublin?
-Yes
-Everyone knows him. Jimmy

See other conversations:
     • Cats
     • The Driving Range
     • All Irish Conversations

Bubble Hits: Irish Music Channel

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 03:06:00 +0000

Bubble Hits is a new Irish-owned TV music channel that will broadcast to over 8 million homes in Ireland and the UK starting this summer.

Owned by two young Irish buckos in their early twenties, Bubble Hits is planned as a 24/7 music channel with no commercial breaks - such is the power of viewer interaction via SMS, MMS and the web.

There will of course be sponsorship and 'integrated advertising', nevertheless it is this commerical-free format that has attracted interest from cable stations worldwide.

So perhaps Bubble hits is bound for American air space some time soon then, and since the future of television is probably not television (if ya know what I mean), that's likely to speed when that date might occur. I mean if albums are now being released by mobile phones, should Irish TV stations not be viewable on your American cooler?

Can't help thinking about the name though, especially for a business embracing new technologies. Does anyone remember what happened the Dot Com Bubble, often referred to these days as Bubble 1.0?

See also:
    • Irish Radio: 1993
    • Paddy Rock Radio Top 25 CDs
    • U2, That's A Tribute 2U Fran

Lunasa: Sean Smyth Interview

liam@liamdaly.com — Wed, 31 May 2006 03:42:00 +0000

Although this interview with Lúnasa's Sean Smyth is in advance of a prestigious concert in Ireland, and not one in Kansas city or the Midwest, Lúnasa will be touring the US in September and October 2006, and including venues in Tulsa, OK and Boulder, CO.

Smyth is a native of Mayo and an All-Ireland champion on both fiddle and whistle, and in the interview talks a lot about what constitutes traditional Irish music from the Lúnasa perspective:

I came through Comhaltas myself, and it was a very fine organisation in the way that it introduced me to music in lots of respects. But I've never had anyone come up and say that we are destroying traditional music!

We are very true to the times and the music in that way that it was written. We don't do jazz improvisations within the form of the music, and we are playing on instruments that form part of that tradition.

The music is very much about melody and rhythm within the tune, and that's what Lunasa is trying to achieve. We try to focus on the melodies and on the harmonic variations and all that kind of stuff, but it is still the melody which is foremost, plus the rhythm which I would say is the soul of the music.

That gives it its attractive hypnotic feel. Even though we've been called very modern we're probably as traditional as you'll ever see

It's a great interview with distinctions between the kinds of audiences Lúnasa get on the Theatre circuit in the US contrasted with their Irish & Music Summer Festival audiences, and the story of being given a tune backstage at a gig in Portland, Oregon, which was to ultimately feature on the current album, Sé.

Lúnasa seem very much in the tradition of The Bothy Band, and Irish Traditional Music praise doesn't come much higher than that.

See also:
    • Irish Choral Music and Celtic Underpants
    • Song Sung Traditional: Hold On
    • Seachtain na Gaeilge : Ceol '06

Children for Peace in Ireland

liam@liamdaly.com — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:38:00 +0000

Are you looking for:
The Children for Peace in Ireland fundraiser
Gig on June 3? click here

The Children for Peace in Ireland 7th Annual Auction takes place in Lenexa, Kansas this coming Saturday, May 6, 2006.

There are over 150 auction items, including:
• 1-week stay in 4-bedroom, 3 ½ bath home in Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland
• 1-week stay at a golf/beach resort
• Ride in an open cockpit WWII Trainer Plane
• Irish Crystal • Sports Memorabilia • Hotel Stays

Doors open at 6pm. Pre-auction entertainment by Irish Balladeer Rob Gavin. Food & Beverage by WJ McBride's Irish Pub of Overland Park. Silent auction begins at 6:30pm. Live auction follows.

$25 Admission includes food & beverages

Tickets Available:
WJ McBride's Irish Pub - Overland Park, Kansas
Doherty & sullivan Irish Goods - Lee's Summit, Missouri
Sheehan's Irish Imports - Kansas City, Missouri

Venue: Lenexa Community Center, 93rd & Pflumm, Lenexa, KS

The Children for Peace in Ireland is a project by the Ancient Order of Hibernians Padraig Pearse Division, and you can read all about it and donate here

Feast or Famine: Emigration Assistance

liam@liamdaly.com — Tue, 30 May 2006 08:48:00 +0000

Once upon an unemployed time, I ran out of Unemployment Benefit and was thus applying for means-based Unemployment Assistance. The Benefit that had run out was based on the social-welfare contributions you made while employed.

Or, you got a lot less on Assistance, and formulas applied to calculate your amount were secret (read: arbitrary). Luckily you could appeal if you disagreed with the amount. You just had to give a basis for appeal.

On this occasion it was determined my weekly amount received would be seven Irish pounds. My basis for appeal went something like this:

I wish to appeal the amount you have determined I am to receive as being sufficient to live on while seeking employment.

I cannot afford to live off the seven pounds you have given me, so I have decided to emigrate to seek work. The cheapest way to leave the country on a one-way ticket is by ferry and train. I should be able to get to England for forty-one pounds.

However because I have to get the bus to town (and back) each week to collect my seven pounds, the bus fare reduces my weekly amount to five-fifty. I could walk the four miles to Werburgh Street, but that would make me hungry and chips from Leo Burdock's are really good but not that cheap. And there'd still be the four miles walk back, so it wouldn't save much.

Anyway, eating anything during the week would only eat into savings for the ferry ticket, so it would likely take longer than eight weeks to save to emigrate. As such I'd like to appeal your determination of seven pounds, and ask that you increase the amount so I can buy a ticket to leave the country

Several weeks later I received the Appeal Officer's decision. My weekly Unemployment Assistance was increased from seven to forty-one pounds. Now why would anyone leave a country that great?

Speaking of emigrating rather than staying and suffering through it, the replica of the famine ship Dunbrody, sets sail today from New Ross for Dublin.

See also:
     • Seeking Employment in Dublin
     • Illegal Irish Immigrants in the USA
     • Interview with Failed Migrant Worker

Seachtain na Gaeilge : Ceol '06

liam@liamdaly.com — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 07:12:00 +0000

A newspaper that used to pop in my letterbox in Dublin when I lived in Ireland was the Dublin People, with its Northside and Southside variants. There's a letter of note for Kansas City in there at the moment, from Seán Ó hAdhmaill, asking for More Irish Language Please:

On writing this letter we are in the middle of Seachtain na Gaeilge, the main Irish language festival.
It's a festival that boasts literally thousands of events worldwide and many which are held in Dublin.
As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge, a double CD, Ceol 06 was released, featuring artists such as the Corrs, the Saw Doctors, the Revs, the Waterboys, Kíla and many more.
All proceeds go to Concern and at the time of writing it is doing extremely well in the charts.

Actually Seachtain na Gaeilge (literally Irish Language Week) was celebrated over the two weeks of March 4-17, and the full line-up of Ceol '06 CD (Ceol means 'music') is: The Corrs, Luka Bloom, The Frames, The Waterboys, Mundy, The Saw Doctors, The Frank and Walters, Kíla / Oki, The Revs, John Spillane, The Pale, Autamata, Lisa Hannigan, Emmett Tinley, Rónán Ó Snodaigh, Roesy, Ger Wolfe, Q, Traic, Susan McKeown & Róisín Chambers, The Mongrels, The Fuchsia Band, Morgan the Bouncer, Conor O'Tuama, Ross Breen and Ian Whitty.

Along with KC Irish Fest performers Luka Bloom, John Spillane and The Fuchsia Band singing their first composition Grá dá raibh!, it also includes The Frames who last played in our region in a scintillating gig in Lawrence two years ago supporting Damien Rice. And singing, amazingly as always, with Damien that night was Lisa Hannigan, who also appears on Ceol '06.

Last year's project was called SnaG '05 and included KC Irish Fest 2006 headliner Liam Ó Maonlai of the Hothouse Flowers

A few hours ago was I talking to The Fuchsia Band man Máirtín de Cógáin, down at the Oak St Coffee Shop at 63rd and we were chatting about the gig to launch the CD. Sounded like a great night at The Village in Dublin by my old stomping ground.

If you have a subscription you can read a review of Ceol '06 in the main Music Magazine in Ireland, the Hotpress. Or you can just get on with it and buy this Irish Language gem for charity direct from Concern. I'm hoping my sister gets me a copy.

See Related Posts:
     • Máirtín de Cógáin: The Fuchsia Band Man
     • Luka Bloom: Not Just an Irish Singer
     • Liam O Maonlai on Toumani Diabate

English Conversations in the American Midwest

liam@liamdaly.com — Tue, 30 May 2006 07:15:00 +0000

Speaking of things British, you know what I miss leads me to celebrate conversations, well Kansas City based documentary-maker Roldy has been having his own Conversations in the American Midwest. And not once, but twice. Everyone should do this.

See also some Irish Conversations:
     • Leaves Changing Colour
     • Don't Say You're Not American
     • Wind

Bloomsday Under Threat

liam@liamdaly.com — Tue, 30 May 2006 05:51:00 +0000

Bloomsday, June 16, 1904 - the date of the setting of Ulysses, and celebrated for about seventy years - might be getting a new holiday for a neighbour.

In Britain, Chancellor Gordon Brown recently called for a new day for their national identity, saying the UK needed a day to celebrate "who we are and what we stand for".

In a surprise result of a poll conducted by the BBC History magazine, the anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta has been chosen as the best date to celebrate Britishness.

Chosen by 27%, the anniversary of the Magna Carta proved more popular than the Second World War dates of VE Day or D-Day, or even anything to do with British military history. That constitutional rather than something jingoistic is preferred is as brilliant as it is startling

Magna Carta is a collection of papers which in theory limited the power of the monarch and gave ordinary people rights under common law. It doesn't matter any more that they were largely copied from a charter 100 years older, or how much has been repealed since.

What matters is the date - 15 June, 1215, because by some considerable time this predates the Union that is the United Kingdom, in all its forms. Is it possible when pushed on the question of UK-ness, that its citizens don't actually know who they are and what they stand for?

And because I live in a region of the world infected with a work ethic that causes most of its holidays to be celebrated on the nearest weekend rather than a school night, the date means before heading off to indulge in a keg of fine American beer, while I'm trying to visualize how many thousand miles it is to the nearest snot-green sea, I'll likely have to answer questions on why I am (or am not) celebrating the history of due process and the Bill of Rights.

It's enough to put you off your kidneys.

See also:
     • St George's Day
     • Kansas City's Bloomsday Books
     • Bloomsday in Kansas City

Flannigin's it is, so

liam@liamdaly.com — Tue, 30 May 2006 06:10:00 +0000

Speaking of women cavorting alone on beds - speaking to myself you understand - I was thinking of everyone's favourite woman of Joyce, Fionnuala Flanagan. And what was I thinking?

Her surname. That's the standard anglicized spelling of the name, and even in America, give or take doubling the 'n', it's the only spelling I've seen. So what?

Well Cameron Russell, guitarist and vocalist, has confirmed that the band you saw at Stumpy's before The Elders are called FLANNIGIN'S Right Hook:

Actually,it's Flanagan's Right Hook, but everyone on the message boards spells it Flannigin's Right Hook, so since that's what most people are going with we switched over too, so Flannigin's Right Hook it is. And I'm gonna give somebody a right hook if they misspell it again. P.S. might even throw in a left hook too

And why the confusion? Blame the masses, the people, and thank FRH (wish I'd thought of that before) for their expediency.

Ken Loach: The Wind That Shakes The Barley

liam@liamdaly.com — Thu, 18 May 2006 21:56:00 +0000

The Wind That Shakes The Barley WINS Palme d'Or

When Mairtin & I swapped a couple of emails when he told me he was going to Cannes, I was very excited. Because Ken Loach is a hero to Ireland. And he's a hero for Britain.

• Articles on The Wind That Shakes The Barley
• The BBC Shakes The Barley
• Cillian Murphy is not Irish Actor
• The Irish Gay Icon Who Shot Michael Collins

The late eighties in Ireland were ugly. It was a long time since Pope John Paul II had begged on his knees in Ireland to the men of violence. And the hunger strikes and the dignity of Bobby Sands were years past.

Nobody knew the Republic would be experiencing a tiger economy in a matter of years, or that the ceasefire to end all ceasefires was on the way.

Instead Sinn Fein were gagged. On television you heard actors' voices, if you heard anything, and public debate involving their elected representatives did not freely take place. I recall one comedy sketch which had a Sinn Fein representative being interviewed but before answering each question he would inhale helium from a balloon.

Talking with Sinn Fein, let alone attempting to represent their views, would bring abuse to you in heaps. John Hume was villified for talking to Gerry Adams in attempts that were ultimately to kick start the 'peace process' and lead to the 1994 ceasefire, and a Nobel Peace Prize for Hume

We'd been used to all kinds of obscenities when it came to violence, but the late eighties took us past so many former taboos. Memorial services and funerals were no longer off-limits. I spent a couple of those years in England, and routinely received abuse and discrimination because of my accent.

In response to the Ango-Irish Agreement of 1985 Loyalist groups killed more than Republicans but the outside world and the British all clamoured for the IRA alone to stop. Meanwhile the SAS summarily executed whoever they deemed guilty before crimes were even committed, and the RUC continued with the aid of British intelligence to wage their own war of terror.

Deputy Chief Constable John Stalker of the Greater Manchester Police was removed from his position in charge of the inquiry into the shoot-to-kill policy. And of course he was pilloried by the British press. And so the obscenity of the pretence of law and order continued.

From this mess of whispered questions came Ken Loach to make a movie. Ken Loach had an impeccable pedigree in television grounded in social realism, and had made possibly the greatest british movie ever in Kes, the story of a boy and a kestral in the working-class north of England.

Hidden Agenda dealt with Ireland and its politics when neither Ireland nor Britain would talk about Ireland and its politics, nor even allow talk about it. Frances McDormand and Brian Cox star in an excellent film about collusion between the security forces of the state and sectarian murder gangs.

Loach suffered for making this film, and yet as the ongoing controversy over the murder of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane shows, Loach's political thriller was always on the money.

And now Ken Loach has made a film about Ireland's War of Independence and following Civil War. And again he gets abuse in the British press for daring to represent a view that disagreed with that of British governing.

Loach makes great films, as the British BAFTA awards recently recognized, and he does them from the ground up. Social realism might mean he does not enter the world of Frank Capra's fantasy, but watch Kes and tell me it's not an absolutely magical evocation of childhood, all the more so because of the realism.

For the British who don't pay attention, they might finally learn something albeit 85 years too late. And for the Irish who revise history to say we had a Civil War over the partition of Ireland, they might be reminded that we didn't - we had a Civil War over connections to the Crown. The Wind That Shakes The Barley is likely to tell a true tragic story of a people and those who would govern them, that we still feel the reverbarations of today.

See also:
    • US Irish Film Office, Cannes, and The Tudors
    • Irish Tax Movie Breaks Approved by EC
    • Magical Movie Music Moment

Handy Irish Phrase: Is í an dias is troime is ísle a chromas a cheann (The heaviest ear of grain bends its head the lowest)

The Hairdressers Guide to Information Technology #5

liam@liamdaly.com — Mon, 29 May 2006 08:02:00 +0000

HGIT #5 - gruaig : hair

See More Of:
The Hairdressers Guide to Information Technology
Conversations (Like cartoons, just no pictures)

HGIT: The Hairdressers Guide to Information Technology

liam@liamdaly.com — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 08:48:00 +0000

HGIT: A cartoon. Ireland crashes into America. Hairdressing crashes into I.T. And words crash into each other.

#1 - cibé : no matter what

#2 - beoir : beer

#3 - bád : boat

#4 - madra : dog

#5 - gruaig : hair

Loach Irish Film Wins Cannes Big Prize

liam@liamdaly.com — Sun, 28 May 2006 19:45:00 +0000

Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes The Barley, the film about the Irish War of Independence and following Irish Civil War, has won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d'Or.

Previously nominated seven times for the Palm d'Or, British director Ken Loach has won with what he describes as 'a very little step in the British confronting their imperialist history'. It is for the likes of this that I have maintained Loach is heroic when it comes to making movies.

Focusing on the smaller details rather than, for example, who shot Michael Collins, Loach continues to ground his films in the social realism he has used since before even the fabulous Kes. Reviews on The Wind That Shakes The Barley all have it as even less of a sweeping epic than Loach's excellent Spanish Civil War movie, Land And Freedom

Friend of Kansas City, our Fuchsia Band Man Mairtin from Cork of course had a small part in The Wind That Shakes the Barley with Loach as ever largely favouring relative unknowns. Cillian Murphy is the biggest name in TWTSTB.

The two favourites were Almodovar's Volver, and Inarritu's Babel, which won best screenplay and best director respectively, but the Cannes Film Festival jury has a history of not matching critics' predictions.

As the Cannes Grand Prize winner, will The Wind That Shakes The Barley really not be shown in North America?

See Also:
    • Ken Loach: Movie Making Hero
    • Articles on The Wind That Shakes The Barley
    • The BBC Shakes The Barley
    • Cillian Murphy is not Irish Actor

    • The irish Gay Icon Who Shot Michael Collins
    • US Irish Film Office, Cannes, and The Tudors
    • Irish Tax Movie Breaks Approved by EC
    • Magical Movie Music Moment

Irish Conversation in a Dublin Pub #14

liam@liamdaly.com — Sun, 28 May 2006 14:58:00 +0000

-You're doing things different this time
-I know, I even wear shoes most of the time
-But you keep your trousers fastened by a safety pin
-That's to keep my feet on the ground

See also:
     • Rommel
     • Hoffenpurpenburger Day
     • Questions & Answers

Part-time Irish Rock Star Learns Piano

liam@liamdaly.com — Sun, 28 May 2006 07:08:00 +0000

Speaking of Irish singers and Bamoko, there's a podcast interview by Larry Elliott, the Guardian's economics editor, with Mr Bono over in Mali at the moment.

Following last year's Live 8, Bono is checking on, not just the donations from the North, but what the recipient countries in the South are doing with it. He's been getting around on this trip and is largely impressed:

Lesotho - the Mountain Kingdom is a beautiful country that fails to market itself. Yes, don't give a man a fish, give him a fishing rod, but then let him sell you the fish, and teach him to market his fish to you.

Rwanda - blew his mind, not in the way that Beckett did, but because Kigali is a spotless city where people excercise a civic duty to clean their streets. And 995 of the electorate voted. Bono met a Boston entrepreneur who is installing broadband all over the country, which means it will have better coverage than Ireland I imagine.

Tanzania - magical, magical landscapes with an ancient people moving towards a modern era albeit slower than Rwanda. Tanzania makes cotton but would like to be a nation of apparel makers. 1.6 million people are now going to school because of the first round of debt cancellation.

Mali - is also a cotton grower but desperately poor so what hope? Sharp intake of breath because 85% can't read, and very few go to school. Some breaks are happening but not quick enough. 300,000 are working in cotton which affects 3 million, but the country is overwhelmed by fluctuations in the world market which is flooded by American heavily-subsidized cotton. Bono believes the future for Mali is in its relationship with its neighbours.

Nigeria - I.T., along with textiles is the other great industry for the future of Africa. Bono's group brought people from Motorola who want to build, not assemble, build phones in Nigeria. Textiles and Technology are important because they point to the success of India and China

Bono reckons product (RED) will never replace the movement, because it is activism that will change the structural aspect of why 6,500 Africans die every day of a treatable disease.

But what of U2 and music?

Hello, my name is Bono, and I'm a rockstar is how he introduces himself to African kids. For kicks mostly. In reality Bono says he's a part-time rock star, but full-time musician and writer.

Like his teenage days when he worked on a garage (gas station) forecourt filling cars with petrol but dreaming of Saturday and rehearsals with the band, now his activism has him valuing his involvement in music more than ever. Music defines Mr Bono. He is part of the family that houses The Clash and Marvin Gaye.

His daughter's piano teacher has been giving Bono lessons and every lesson he writes a new song. Says he has quite a few, and the lads should be meeting up for the U2 thing they do sometime in June or July.

It's quite a nice interview, so it is.

See Also
    • U2, A Tribute 2U Fran
    • Bono Guest Edits (RED) Independent
    • Voxer & Christie: A Love Story

Governor Stumpy's Celtic Block Party

liam@liamdaly.com — Tue, 02 May 2006 17:27:00 +0000

The 4th Annual Celtic Block Party at Governor Stumpy's takes place on Sunday May 28, making the outdoor Irish music event at the popular Waldo Irish restaurant, a major event on the Irish calendar

Together with Shamrockin' in Westport, the Celtic Block Party fills the Irish void left on Memorial Day Weekend by the amalgamation of the Brookside and Westport Irish Festivals into the festival at Crown Center on Labor Day Weekend.

Music Schedule:
(NOTE: All times extreme estimations)
3:00pm Jim Cosgrove (aka Mr Stinky Feet) for the kids.
4:00pm Fireside
5:00pm Tullamore
6:00pm Flannagin's Right Hook
7:00pm The Elders

A benefit for St Vincent's Operation Breakthrough, the Celtic Block Party is jointly presented by Locks & Pulls Inc and Governor Stumpy's.

Tickets are $10 on the day, but Governor Stumpy's is selling tickets in advance for just $5

Governor Stumpy's is at 321 East Gregory on the corner of Oak, especially perfect for the people of Waldo and Brookside. They have a whoppin' big car-park (parking lot) that slopes gently making a natural outdoor music venue.

Time: 3:00-9:00 pm

Governor Stumpy's Kevin Ryan is a true Irish gentleman and his Celtic Block Party always has a lovely atmosphere with Music, Food, Drinks, Celtic Shopping and a Children's Area.

See other Festivals and more:
    • Children for Peace in Ireland fundraiser gig
    • Kansas City Scottish Festival
    • What Impresses You Most About The US?