On The Record »

• We all protested

  January 23, 2012 @ 9:03 am | by Jim Carroll

  After the parties come the protests. In the last 12 months, you were no-one if you didn’t get out there, do some fuming, shake your fist and say that you were as mad as hell and were not going to take this anymore. Students, old age pensioners, the residents of Ballyhea and Clontarf, the various Occupy banner-holders, the Vita Cortex and La Senza workers, hospital patients, Dubs with bins, rural dwellers with septic tanks, well-heeled dog-owners and everyone else seemed to get annoyed, irked, unhappy, cross and raging (and even a mite dirty, in the case of the bins and septic tanks). People who don’t normally protest, really. We all protested.

  In some cases, the protests had the desired effect. A massive nationwide unhappiness with what happened towards the end of 14 years of Fianna Fail-led governments resulted in the Irish electorate turfing out the FF dynasties and failures last February to replace them with a Fine Gael and Labour government.

  Within six months, though, we were protesting at that FG/Labour government and the measures they were taking. The house never loses, but the government of the day who end up having take unpopular, unpalatable decisions which were agreed with our new paymasters under the previous regime and which never formed part of their raft of election promises can never win. It’s the reason why we don’t protest at the opposition all that much. Suddenly, the bet that FF will be back in power after the next general election doesn’t look as much of a wildcat punt as it did a year ago. We’ll probably protest about that too, if it happens because we vote for it, with those politicians whose default setting is protest (probably protesting at the fact that they’ll never get into power) leading the way.

  But while protests are a handy guage of popular anger about an issue of the day (or the issue of the day which gets the oxygen of a Liveline outing), you have to wonder what gets changed in the long-run. We’ve had the protests, but what’s next? Sure, there are short-term victories – for instance, Clontarf residents will point to the lack of a big wall blocking their houses from the sea as a victory, though none of them were getting too exercised about this three or years ago when it was first mooted – but such victories are more kick-the-can-down-the-road affairs. What will happen the next time that Dublin Bay decides to sweep across the Clontarf Road? Will every closed-down shop now mean worker sit-ins like La Senza before they get wages and payments to which they’re legally entitled?

  The bigger issues remain as constant as they’ve always done, yet our failure to tackle those issues is never quite addressed because we’re too busy fuming about other stuff. Take that well-worn, right-on political meme about the need for reform. Most of us pay lip service to this, but the truth is that we know full well that turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. The people who can make the move on political reform are the politicians in power and we all know how that one goes. Political reform is a great aul’ argument to throw out when the chattering classes need something to chew over, yet the public appetite for it just isn’t there no matter what we think. If it was, movements like We (Some of) the Citizens would have greater strength and support. It’s a big issue, it’s an important issue, but it’s not an immediate issue so it gets kicked down the road.

  It’s easier to protest about stuff other than the stuff which really matters because we know in our heart of hearts that we haven’t got the will or the way to change the bigger picture. The big issues, the economic and political stuff of the nation, remain the same from one protesting or accounting period to the next. It’s as if we fear what might really happen if these were to change. We will fume and fumigate about the austerity budgetary measures being taken and extra taxes being applied to allegedly get this country out of the economic mess it’s in. We cheer when a couple of lads from various troika organisations who are sent out to answer a few questions get Brownebeaten on TV. We give it all a dirty look and let that pass for protest. You see, despite what we might think, we still have too much to lose to go hell for leather down a road which leads to the kind of change we think we’re for.

  It’s when you’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain that protest really works. Look at the changes in the Arab world in the last year. Look at the chances and sacrifices and blood, sweat and tears it has taken to transform countries which many though would never change. From Egypt to Libya, the protests happened and changes, in one way or another, occured.

  In 2012, there will be many more protests in this little country. More taxation and punative measures to pay for the high jinks and gallivanting of the 0.5 per cent will mean more anger, but probably little resolution or change. At some stage, though, the question needs to be asked: we’ve all protested, so what the hell is next?

• On the Polls: it’s a wrap

  November 1, 2011 @ 9:34 am | by Jim Carroll

  Michael D Higgins: there can be only big winner in a presidential race and it was the man from the west who triumphed on this occasion. Aside from one outburst on the last weekend, Labour’s man ran a dignified, positive campaign. He largely kept out of the rough and tumble and attracted punters in the end who had flirted and ran the rule over rival candidates but decided that they weren’t going to vote for David Norris or Sean Gallagher after all. It says a lot that the only slights which could be landed on the veteran politican had to do with his height. The president-to-be’s greatest triumph? Persuading the Irish electorate that a man with a lifetime of dues paid to the Labour Party was actually independent. But while Higgins’ victory does mean you could say that the Aras is back to being a retirement home for old politicos, we can safely expect Michael D not to do a Paddy Hillery on the job. Add this to the Dublin West win for Patrick Nulty and it was a huge weekend for the Labour Party. While we won’t see any repeat of that Gilmore-for-Taoiseach gale which was blowing for a few weeks at the start of the year, it might mean a week or two when people won’t be looking so askance at some of the party’s big wigs’ less than brilliant performance in government to date. Potential downside to the upside? The arrival of Michael D in the Park may sadly mean a revival for The Sawdoctors – and let’s hope that he resists the temptation to stick the usual suspects on the Council of State.
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• On the Polls: last night changed it all (they really had a ball)

  October 25, 2011 @ 8:37 am | by Jim Carroll

  The problem with the presidential campaign is that we haven’t had enough nights like last night. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re getting to the end of the campaign and the seven would-be Aras dwellers are probably sick and tired of the sight of each other given the amount of time they’ve spent together between TV, radio and non-media debates, but last night’s debate on The Frontline was more than the usual set-piece of cliches and proclamations. Punches were thrown, hard questions were asked, true colours were seen: it was what a debate in a race like this is supposed to be like. Forget the excuses that it’s hard to get a good show going with seven candidates; it comes down to the host (Pat Kenny was superb again – that’s why he gets paid so much, folks), a lively audience (yes, there were probably plants but every candidate had their chance to get their man or woman in the stalls) and some cracking questions which got to the heart of the matter.
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• On the Polls: the heat is on

  October 12, 2011 @ 9:22 am | by Jim Carroll

  There are probably many potential voters out there in their twenties and early thirties who have never voted in an Irish presidential election before who are wondering “is it always this eventful?”. The race for the Aras is turning out to be one hell of a campaign, but much of this is down to the fact that you have seven runners in the race and they have to work hard to get our attention. Thus, we have the stunts where the candidates act the maggot, interviews where individuals lose the rag (hello Dana!), debates where super-diva Vincent Browne brings his entire library with him, clashes with turf-cutters and questions about US passports (hello Dana again!). Like I said, one hell of a campaign.
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• On the Polls, the presidential issue

  September 28, 2011 @ 9:27 am | by Jim Carroll

  Barring a late, late entry by Vladimir Putin before noon (a man who truly loves the office of president), we now know that there will be seven lads and lasses on the ballot paper on October 27 competing for the honour of living in a big house in the Phoenix Park for the next seven years. It’s the election to find the next President of Ireland and the excitement is only mighty! It is, isn’t it? We’re not just imagining it, are we?
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• The art of acting presidential

  August 17, 2011 @ 9:56 am | by Jim Carroll

  You’d miss the traditional silly season. Once upon a time, August was a month when nothing happened so we made up stuff to pass the time, fill the pages and occupy the radio hours. It was great fun altogether and then, September would come and we’d go back to business as usual.

  But there is no need for such fripperies this year. Riots in the UK, Eurozone turbulence, continuing unhappiness in the markets: this has been an august month in every hard news’ sense of the word. Perhaps it’s because the financial world’s A teams are on bucket-and-spade holidays with their families in the Hamptons, Tuscany or Courtown leaving junior numpties in charge of the desk, but August is no longer much of a silly season because real stuff happens which can’t be ignored.

  However, there is one exception to this rule and that’s the continuing presidential palaver in this little country which has a strong silly season odour to it at present. I bet Ben Frew, David McRedmond and the lads in TV3 are bucking that they didn’t take up our TV show idea last year. After all, there’s nothing in the pitch for Celebrity Áras which sounds far-fetched given what’s currently happening.

  Last week, Gay Byrne declared an interest in stepping into the race for the Park and, after his family probably told him to quit that aul’ nonsense and go back to washing his car, stepped back out again. This week, it’s venerable retired RTE GAA’ broadcaster and man of many flowery words Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh who is sniffing the air with a view to taking a walk. Next week, it will probably be the turn of another former RTE name (our money is on Brendan Balfe or Val Joyce) to take their turn talking to Aine Lawlor or Claire Byrne. It’s a good job for the prospective celebrity candidates that Sean O’Rourke is on his holidays. And we thought that the days of sticking a retired old duffer into the job were over?

  The presidential campaign does seem to have accidentally become a reality TV show. Even David Norris seemed to acknowledge this, with his final campaign speech outside his Dublin home talking about “great journeys”, staple jargon for any reality TV show contestant. But surely we, the plain people of Ireland, can see this for the aul’ sideshow it has become. We can see it for a distracting sideshow, right?

  There is certainly a mood afoot for a non-political president to tie in with our alleged collective desire for widespread reform and all of that, hence why we have the strange gallery of public names flying kites. It’s a new mood – after all, no-one was pitching Michael O’Hehir as a would-be president back in the day (and he was a better commentator than Ó Muircheartaigh) – and one which is welcome in some senses. The office of the president shouldn’t just in the gift of the political parties and a presidential election is a very good idea.

  However, we seem to forget that the last two inhabitants of the big gaff in the Phoenix Park, the two who are widely acknowledged to have been the best presidents we’ve ever had in the modern age and who changed our perception of the office, had political form. Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese may not have been frontline clientelist politicians in the traditional Irish mode, involved in getting free travel passes for pensioners or sorting out potholes on the street leading to the church, but they knew their way around the system and knew all about potential knives in the back from friends and enemies. They were battle-hardened and experienced. They weren’t newbies attracted to the bright lights and glamour, like some of those pitched for high office in recent weeks. They knew the score.

  The problem with mooting celebrity, non-political names is that all of them seem to see the gig as something it’s not. As Vincent Browne puts it again this morning, the president has two powers and that’s it. Yes, he or she also has a nice house for seven years and they’re the top dog (in a manner of speaking), but they also need to get permission from the government to leave the country. And the president is not the one who can change this state of affairs. If it was down to the inhabitant of the Áras, don’t you think that the current and previous incumbents would have done so over the last 20 years?

  All the talk in the world about what the would-bes would do – and there will be a lot of it between now and October – doesn’t matter a damn because the role of the president is pre-defined. Sure, there’s wiggle room to do stuff, as the previous two holders of the office have shown, but it’s not a job where initiative and innovation are part of the job description. And yet, to judge by the amount of uninformed and widely off-the-mark speculation to date, you’d think this was something where the successful candidate gets to decide what it’s all about. Question: how many of the would-be celebrities for Prez have actually read Bunreacht na hÉireann from cover to cover? Now, that’s something to ask the applicants for the gig.

• The rocky road to the Áras

  June 13, 2011 @ 9:44 am | by Jim Carroll

  No-one said getting to be president of this great little country was ever going to be easy. Of course, it was different back in the day when seven years in the Park was seen as a reward for being a good ol’ boy. The 1990 victory of Mary Robinson changed the game and now, the presidental gig is something else entirely. The problem is defining what that “something else” is, especially as most of the definitions don’t appear to chime with the job description you’ll find in this little document.

  If you ask any of those currently hoping to be revamping the soft furnishings in the former Viceregal Lodge by the end of the year why they’re going for the job, you’ll get a plethora of different answers. The job of president may be largely ceremonial – meeting and greeting your foreign peers, occasional outbursts of ribbon-cutting, much tea-drinking and the provision of soothing, dignified words for the nation when the need arises – but every would-be Prez has a different handle on what the job would mean beyond these rituals.

  In the last week, we’ve had flowery language from Gay Mitchell on how reaching the Áras would mean he could gaze at the floodlights of the C.I.E. Works across the park (no sign of that particular wish fulfillment in the Bunreacht). Then, we’ve had David Norris saying he has been acting presidental since March 14 so he can live up to the high standards of the office. That was a Monday, by the way.

  Those boyos are not the only ones with lofty hopes for the Park. We’ve seen prospective campaigns revving up on the runway from – take a deep breath - Pat Cox (provided he can get the Fine Gael lads and lasses on side), Mairead McGuinness (a third European parliamentarian yearning to come home and be clutched to Fine Gael’s collective bosom), Mary Davis (the lady behind the hugely successful Special Olympics event in Ireland in 2003 has an eye on making it three Marys in a row), Niall O’Dowd (Yankee-Irish publisher looking for a change of scenary) and Sean Gallagher (one of the businessmen from the Dragons’ Den TV show).

  We will know next week if the Labour Party are throwing their weight behind Michael D Higgins (the party’s grand old man has been prepping for this role for years), Fergus Finlay (dude needs to update his Twitter page) or Kathleen O’Meara. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and the Green Party to give someone the thumbs up so we can also make snarky comments about them.

  While it looks like a crowded field at the moment, many of the above won’t make it to the starting line. There can only be one Fine Gael candidate, for example, and it will be quite remarkable if more than one independent gets the required endorsements from county councils and non-party TDs and senators. In addition, given that there have been grumbles about the cost of the campaign, it remains to be seen if Fianna Fail will actually run anyone, even if Brian Crowley is gagging for a chance (he did, after all, kick off his campaign on the Saturday Night with Miriam TV show back in 2009). FF could, of course, co-opt a would-be Prez from that list of indies above or, like they did in 1997, throw a Mary McAleese into the mix with a few weeks to go. They could also sit it out, though we’d probably miss them. By the way, there is still time for someone to green-light OTR’s bright idea for a TV show based on a celebrity race for the Áras.

  Even though all the would-bes, wanna-bes and may-bes listed above are eagerly parading their credentials for the job, one candidate above all has been hogging the headlines. This is Senator David Norris, a man whose campaign for the park has been on the tracks for longer than anyone else. In the last few weeks, though, Norris has seen some old interviews of his (one from Magill from 2002 and one from the Daily Mail last year) dusted off, republished and re-examined, leading to much media coverage of the senator and his views on a wide range of social issues.

  This coverage has lead to a lot of shouting about conspiracy theories from all sides: one theory has it that the media haven’t been doing enough about the matters raised in these interviews, while another theory is that there’s some sneaky black ops behind these interviews re-appearing at this time. Neither theory seems to acknowledge or remark that Norris actually did these interviews in the first place and, in response to questions posed by journalists, made those remarks and expressed those opinions. The words are his, the opinions are his. What is strange is that he and his campaign team didn’t realise that such interviews are always likely to be revisited in the context of a race like this. You can bet your bottom dollar that interested parties (or “sneaky black ops”, who I imagine to be a bit like Stephen Rea’s character Gatehouse in The Shadow Line) will be combing through the past words and opinions of whoever gets to suit up for Fine Gael and Labour too. Nasty, underhand and undignified to be sure – but this is politics, not a game of croquet.

  Norris became incredinly tangled up in his own prose on the back of having to explain himself, leaving the one brilliant line, “you are not running for election in ancient Greece, you are running for election in modern Ireland”, to be uttered by Aine Lawlor during her interview with him on Morning Ireland the other day. As it has rumbled on, Norrisgate has featured shout-outs for ancient Greece, Plato, Socrates and pederasty. These are, you will admit, not the normal stuff of a pitch to win the hearts and minds of the Irish people who eat their dinner in the middle of the day. We assume, though, that other candidates will have to tell us their views on pederasty now that it’s become a campaign issue in the Race for the Áras 2011.

  Can Norris survive this refocus on opinions aired before he decided to become all presidental on March 14? In his analysis in Saturday’s paper, Harry McGee pointed to the fact that even though Norris has a “well-organised and professional campaign” who’ve been in the field for quite some time, he’s still up against it when it comes to the getting the necessary nods to get a place on the ticket. But even if he does make the cut, it remains to be seen if Norris can really take the country by the scruff of the neck and persuade the masses to vote for him. Is he what the Irish people want in a president? Actually, what do the Irish people want from a president (surely not another woman called Mary)? Do we even need a prez?

  Remember that while the candidate might well be the number one choice for those in and around the liberal beltways to represent them in the Áras, it’s a different game beyond these particular constituencies. The campaign will get dirty if there is a momentum behind Norris, with rival camps pushing as many alarm buttons about him as they think they can get away with. When the going gets tough and the mood music changes, we may find out that Ireland is not the tolerant, liberal, bigot-free place some of us think it is.

  The other factor which will have an even greater bearing is who else will be on the ballot paper and especially how they’ll pitch themselves to the electorate. It’s all very well to hone in on the Norris campaign, but we don’t have a clue who he’ll be competing with and what they’ll bring to the table which is why there is so much focus on him. It may well feel as if this race has been going on for yonks, but the fun and games are only just about to begin.

• What’s next for los indignados?

  May 31, 2011 @ 10:05 am | by Jim Carroll

  There is nothing like the sight of a bunch of riot police armed with batons and rubber bullets wading into the middle of a peaceful protest to change public opinion within 24 hours. All was quiet on Thursday afternoon at the protest camp at Barcelona’s Placa Catalunya, with a couple of hundred “indignados” at most present. Some simply sat around chatting to oneanother. Others handed out leaflets, put more posters on the ropes which crisscrossed the square, dozed in the afternoon sunshine under the canvas and plastic awnings which had been put up in the square, worked in the communal kitchen or tidied up the camp. It may not be what the local tourist chiefs wanted to see in the city’s main square, but it was a peaceful, good-natured protest. It didn’t look or feel like a hotbed of angry anarchists hellbent on taking down the government.

  When you talked to some of the protesters about why they were there, you got a variety of answers. It would probably have been the same list if you spoke to the protestors in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol or any other square in any other Spanish city which currently features one of these camps. They wanted jobs (44.6 per cent of Spain’s under 25s are unemployed). They wanted changes to how the government was running the country, especially change in the austerity measures introduced to deal with Spain’s economic problems. They wanted better standards of living. They basically wanted a better country to live in. They had seen the mess which the existing parties had created and they wanted something else. Hence, the protest, the tent cities and the anger.

  Like I said, it really was a small protest. While the protesters occupied the centre of the square, normal life went on all around Placa Catalunya. Tourists wandered into the Hard Rock Cafe, shoppers headed to the El Corte Inglés department store and taxis waited for business on all sides. A typical day in Barcelona, albeit with a ragtag camp in the middle of the main square which people seemed to be tolerating.

  By Friday afternoon, there was a much different mood in Placa Catalunya. Earlier that day, riot police had moved in to dismantle the camp and the protest. The local authorities said they wanted the square to be cleaned ahead of the Champions League final on Saturday night and were not seeking to evict the protestors, but it looked like an ham-fisted attempt to end the camp. Nearly a hundred people were injured as the riot police did what riot police are supposed to do. As we’ve come to expect in 2011, the heavyhanded police actions were filmed and on the internet within minutes, leading to more and more people arriving at the square. Everyone was an indignado after watching those videos. By 7pm that evening, there were thousands of people protesting.

  At the time of writing, the camp is still in place with protestors in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain deciding to continue their sit-in for now. It will be interesting to see how the Spanish authorities deal with this. As we saw with the Barcelona camp on Friday, any attempt to break up the sit-ins using the police will only lead to a huge outbreak of public support for los indignados and see the protest get more oxegen. Leaving the camps in place and hoping that the protests peter out and the protesters leave is probably a better option, though there are probably many city chiefs who shudder at the thought of those “eyesores” remaining any longer in the middle of their cities.

  What los indignados themselves are going to do in the medium term is equally unknown. There are undoubtedly romantics amongst them who hope that their protests will emulate the popular uprisings which occured in Egypt and Tunisia earlier in the year and there’s certainly a lot of public support for their aims. But Spain is a democracy and it takes a great leap of imagination to imagine a situation where public protests would change this. Los indignados have made their point, but it remains to be seen if there is anything else to be done beyond making that point.

  Some of the protesters hope that other European countries will follow their lead. Indeed, many of the people I talked to in Placa Catalunya wondered why the Irish weren’t also on the streets. After all, as was pointed out to me a few times, the Irish austerity measures are just as bad as what the Spanish are experiencing and yet, the Irish are not protesting, even though it wasn’t the Irish people who created the mess in the first place. I should have pointed them towards Laura Slattery’s excellent post about why the Irish are not like the Spanish in this regard. Laura lists a bunch of reasons why Irish indignados are not taking over Stephen’s Green or Eyre Square and most readers will probably agree with her list. One other reason I’d add to her list is that while the Spanish protest on the streets and squares, the Irish form of protest is to emigrate. Or talk to Joe. That’s really where you’ll find the Irish indignados.

• The Irish Times’ Culture podcast

  May 25, 2011 @ 9:17 am | by Jim Carroll

  This week’s Irish Times’ Culture Podcast was hosted and presented by arts editor Shane Hegarty and features Hugh Linehan, Sinead Gleeson and myself yakking about Queen Elizabeth, Barack Obama, Irish media coverage of these visits, Primavera and summer festivals. Have a listen to what we have to say here.

• That queen and this country

  May 18, 2011 @ 9:36 am | by Jim Carroll

  During yesterday evening’s news, RTE reporter David Davin-Power made an interesting observation. Talking about the huge security presence which meant that the streets were not thronged with onlookers, Davin-Power reckoned that the streets would have been empty anyway, even if the city hadn’t been on the kind of lockdown usually seen in films involving an invasion of mutant aliens. There was never really going to be thousands of happy Dubliners wearing Union Jacks at Queen Elizabeth as she drove in her jeep up and down O’Connell Street.

  On the flipside, there was also never going to be thousands of angry-as-hell Dubliners protesting at the visit and waving their fists at the royal cavalcade. Capital city citizens have better things to do. The antis were always going to be largely represented by the usual hooded and masked coterie who come out on occasions like this. Dissidents and dissenters will be with us forever and will enjoy “sneaking regard” support from certain elements of the community. They’ll exist and get publicity and attention and enjoy the right to protest, but they’re a minority of a minority of a minority.

  However, there was never really going to be a huge public fuss over this visit. Nice old lady who is head of state of big country next door to Ireland comes to town. Nothing really to see here, bar 10,000 gardaí and Defence Forces personnel standing around, whinges on Twitter about problems getting around the city and complaints on The Frontline about the cost of it all. Life goes on.

  Of course, I’m not denying that there is huge symbolic importance to this visit and carefully stage-managed appearances at the Garden Of Remembrance and Croke Park because it puts the cap on the normalisation of relationships between the two countries. Yesterday’s wreath-laying ceremony and bowed heads were greatly significant, as every talking head on the radio and TV kept saying, and acknowledge what happened in the past, but it’s time to move on. The vast majority of those who live in this country (and on this island to boot) have long moved on.

  The normalisation of relationships between us and them happened a long time ago and in the simplest and most unpolitical of ways. It happened through culture, sport and the general yin and yang of everyday life. We watch British TV shows, we follow British football teams, we listen to British music. There are over 110,000 folks who consider themselves to be British living amongst us, according to the 2006 census. Some of us may even be married to them. We’ll still rib the Brits and their national sports teams and sportsmen when they wobble and lose their bottle in major tournaments, but that’s just inter-country japery. Once it’s over, we’ll take down the Jamie Oliver cookbook and prepare a nice supper.

  No doubt, the peace process in Northern Ireland helped matters too, but nornalisation was in train long before that long, tortuous process from terrorism to the ennui of everyday politics began. The biggest effect of the peace process for many of us in the Republic is that it means we can stop pretending that we care about what happens up north. We rarely voice that opinion, but deep down, the North is way down our list of priorities.

  Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth will get on with her visit. She and her husband will head to Croker and the horses and the Rock of Cashel and Cork, like any other senior British couple on a midweek break to Ireland. There will be a couple of boring dinners and probably some muttered complaints between the pair of them over breakfast about the springs in the bed in the guest bedroom in Farmleigh. It’s a state visit. Nothing really to see. Time to move on.

• Cheering on the homebirds

  April 19, 2011 @ 9:53 am | by Jim Carroll

  There are several moments which stick in your mind from a performance of “I’m A Homebird (It’s Very Hard)”, which closed its run at Dublin’s Project on Saturday night. There’s the Nadine Coyle love-in, the championing of the Girls Aloud hoofer by Homebird writer and performer Shaun Dunne. There’s the ease at which the three onstage flit from monologues to choreographed dance moves. There’s the non-stop rush of ideas and notions and thoughts which come out in a flood of emotion, just as they would in real life when you’ve a bunch of twentysomethings discussing whether they should stay or go.

  But there was one line towards the end which was still running in my mind the following day: “there’s a fucking renaissance going on”. That comes in the middle of Dunne’s final speech before the stage goes black, as he talks about the reasons why someone should stay in Ireland rather than joining the thousands who’ve already left or are planning to depart for London, Germany, Australia, Canada and other places out foreign. Homebird is about that choice, but that particular line puts another iron in the fire.

  There’s no blame game in Homebird. As the notes which go with the show put it, “it is not about guilt or judgement on those who have have to leave; the reasons are completely understandable”. You only have to look at the headlines of a morning to see the extent of Ireland’s economic woes and you don’t have to be an economist to work out what this means for the generation of kids who are about to start or who have been looking for work. No-one is asking why these kids are leaving instead of staying. We know the reasons all too well.

  But Homebird is about making a very deliberate choice to go against the grain and then standing up for that choice. Not everyone is leaving, not everyone is taking the road which Irish Times’ letter writer Cian Caffrey described the other day, where you take “your skills, your education and your work ethic and apply them in a country where you are appreciated” (in his case, Australia). Instead of doing that, Dunne is making a stand for those who are vehement about staying here and making a difference, about taking their skills, their education and their work ethic and applying them in a country where they are needed, instead of seeking appreciation elsewhere. Again, from the show notes, “we have the choice to make things better, to redefine what we have here, to be both realistic and more idealistic about how we can begin to build Ireland again”.

  While it’s clear that Homebird doesn’t play the blame game about those who have left, it does baulk at those who sneer at those who remain and the Ireland they left behind. We’ve seen this aspect of the emigration game again and again in the last couple of years and it’s understandable because those who left are bitter about why they’ve had to leave. Yet, as Dunne points out, such an attitude is infuriating to those who remain. There’s a job of work to be done and it requires people with new ideas, fresh thinking and innovative methods. You don’t get that amongst the lads and lasses in the Dail, that’s for sure. But many of those with the ideas and will to change things are leaving and trash-talking the country as they do so. It’s easier, after all, to give out than contribute.

  Dunne’s enthusiasm for a renaissance isn’t just some sort of dramatic trope. There is a change in the air and there are people (the kids that Dunne’s work is aimed at, mostly) doing new things in art, theatre, music and performance. These endeavours are happening well away from the mainstream because that’s the place where you can go to develop and finetune your work at your own pace. It’s also happening there because those involved don’t really want to have any truck with the mainstream for now and the mainstream certainly is in no great hurry to embrace them either.

  Homebird makes you think about people we don’t think about all that much. When people talk about the lost generation, they’re usually refering those who’ve left this country and have no firm plans to come back. Sure, changes in technology and transport means they’re in constant contact with the country and can come back here at the drop of a hat on a cheap Ryanair flight. But there’s also a significant proportion of that generation who haven’t gone anywhere and have no plans to go anywhere. Perhaps it’s high time we concentrated a bit more on those who’ve stayed here, and like Dunne says, cheer them on. After all, it’s these homebirds rather than any diaspora-in-waiting overseas (who think virtual ballot boxes are the way forward) are the only ones who can help us get out of the mess created by our elders and so-called betters.

• The people have spoken

  February 28, 2011 @ 9:58 am | by Jim Carroll

  That’s democracy. You cast your vote on a Friday and they count your vote and everyone else’s vote on a Saturday. There’s a different kind of democracy in some constituences like Wicklow and Laois-Offaly where they’re still counting your vote on Monday and may well be still at it a week from now in the case of the former. I know there’s an argument for electronic voting to speed this malarkey up, but I prefer my democracy to be slow-burning with a sideplate of drama. And boy, there was some drama this weekend.
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• On the Polls: tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár

  February 17, 2011 @ 9:58 am | by Jim Carroll

  An bhfuil cead agam dul amach anois?: while we wait for the leaders of the main political parties to debate their policies and plans in the new national languages of Polish and Chinese (have any parties reached out to immigrants who live and pay their taxes here, by the way?), fans of political discussions in other languages will have to make do with last night’s leaders’ debate on TG4 in Irish. The debate reminded me of an oral Irish exam: you learn the answers off by heart, you hope the right questions come up and then you wait for the English translation. The fact that the debate was not broadcast live because they had to translate the answers into English says quite a lot about the majority of the country’s engagement with the first official language. The winner of the debate? Presenter Eimear Ní Chonaola, who was a far better – and tougher – chairperson than either Pat Kenny or Vincent Browne were in their respective jousts – and she managed to get the three party leaders in the one room.
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• On The Polls: “she’s looking down on you now”

  February 8, 2011 @ 10:02 am | by Jim Carroll

  Canvasser of the Week: Olivia O’Leary accompanied a “rueful…languid, laid back, self-deprecating” Minister for Children Barry Andrews as he roamed Dun Laoighaire looking for Number Ones. It may be worth remembering that Andrews is a brother of comedian Dave McSavage because what happens on a doorstep in one estate reads more like something from The Savage Eye. “A soft-spoken woman at the door said her mother, who had died in November, was a real Fianna Fáil supporter. ‘‘I don’t think she would want me voting for anyone else,” she said. ‘‘So do it, then,” said Senator Geraldine Feeney gently, ‘‘for your mum.” ‘‘She’s looking down on you now,’’ smiled Barry.” JMJ.

  The reform paragraph: there was a lot of talk and guff about the need for political reform before the election was called and, indeed, yesterday was reform day with the main parties throwing policy documents about the need for same at the media. Fianna Fail also contributed to this, which is rich considering they had nearly 14 years in power to do something about it. Anyway, maybe this is why reform is getting such an outing at the moment because it sure as hell isn’t on the mind of most of the electorate. Down in the small print of last week’s MRBI opinion poll for this newspaper, reform was in the also-rans when it came to what the general public thought was the most important issues facing a new government. The pole positions were taken by jobs (51 per cent), public finances (23 per cent) and health (10 per cent), with reform scrapping in the single figures along with political accountability. FYI Green Party TDs: no-one was talking about plight of the mink, directly-elected mayors for Dublin or any of your other much touted policies.

  Posters: is it just us or are there much less posters on the poles this time around and that was before the gales started blowing? Maybe the parties really are strapped for cash.

  The leadership debate and missing the point: tonight, two men in dark suits will gather in a room and there will be a lot of hot air about one missing man in a dark suit. Does anyone bar the spin-doctors on either side really think a leadership debate is what we need right now? Reading Elaine Byrne’s column in Friday’s paper, you really do feel as if this election is akin to sticking all the kids in one room to squabble amongst themselves while the adults are elsewhere sorting out what really matters. As our heads are turned by Enda, Eamo, Micheál’s mojo and Baron Gerry, the IMF and ECB wait for everyone to notice that they haven’t gone away.

  Dylan Haskins: we’re mentioning the young fellow running in Dublin South-East mainly because he turns out to be the only prospective member of the 31st Dail who has been previously interviewed in OTR. Haskins is running an interesting campaign which has gained a lot of online traction, though turning those clicks into votes is going to be quite a task (by the way, everyone is at it, though calling it a “twolicy” is a mite Peppa Pig). Is it possible? Well, in the 2007 general election, the Dublin SE quota was 6,769 and John Gormley made the cut with 4,685 first preferences. Haskins will attract transfers from all over the shop so it could be possible. Certainly, I’d be putting a wager on Haskins to make it to Kildare Street before I’d bet on Gormley or indie Mannix Flynn (Haskins taking a lot of the soft floating votes which would have otherwise went Flynn’s way). One interesting question, though, is if Haskins will hang around in politics if he doesn’t get elected or if this is an one-off thing. You can catch Haskins, Gormley, Flynn and other Dublin SE candidates discussing Climate Change, The Incinerator and Me at the Unitarian Church, Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 next Monday at 1.10pm

  More election coverage: check out the paper’s Live Blog now running for the duration of #ge11. You’ll also find all the paper’s election coverage here.

  #vinb vs #rte11: RTE have flexed their muscles and have put up The Eleventh Hour to take on the might of Vinnie Browne and his feral eyebrows. It’s not really working chiefly because presenters Keelin Shanley and Daire O’Brien are simply not Vinnie B. How the hell can you compete with Browne when he’d on the late-night tuts-and-sighs circuit for years, perfecting those asides, miscues and bizarre conversational twists (see last week’s interview with would-be Wexford TD Mick Wallace)? The Eleventh Hour does have some good ideas – last night’s panel discussion with Alastair Campbell giving an outsider’s view was the best yet and a droll Liam Fay has been a good addition to the ranks – but the presenters (especially Shanley) are still very unsure of themselves, the show is not long enough and the comedy is cat. When you turn over to TV3 to see Conor Lenihan in full-blown Comical Ali mode again, you know you can’t compete with the original and the best. And then, something like this pops up on the screen.

  

• When Michael Lewis came to town

  February 3, 2011 @ 9:43 am | by Jim Carroll

  It may be an idea to print off Michael Lewis’ article from Vanity Fair and keep it by the front door for when a canvasser from a government party calls by over the next few weeks. After visits to Iceland and Greece, Lewis decided to have a look at Ireland. To be honest, there’s probably nothing in the piece you haven’t read already. There are interviews with economists like Morgan Kelly and David McWilliams and politicians like Brian Lenihan and Joan Burton and the obligatory visit to a ghost estate or two. Irish readers may find some of the colour angles in the piece a little too green – the fairy forts, the local driver, Achill Island et al – but remember that this is for a much different audience.

  But makes the piece really resonate at the moment is how Lewis clearly and calmly points out the madness of what happened here in September/October 2008 with that bank guarantee scheme. Under the outgoing government’s watch, we, the Irish taxpayer, took the hit for a private gambling spree. There’s one line in particular which really needs to be thrown in the face of every Fianna Fail, Green Party and independent who ever supported the government (yes, that’s you, Messrs Lowry, Healy-Rae, McGrath Tipp South and McGrath Dublin North-Central): “across the financial markets…people who had made a private bet that went bad, and didn’t expect to be repaid in full, were handed their money back—from the Irish taxpayer.” It was the equivalent of going on a gambling spree on the craps and blackjack tables in a Las Vegas casino and getting your losses back as you stumbled out the door.

  As it happens, I’m reading Lewis’ The Big Short at the moment and it’s a great yarn. As he showed in Liar’s Poker and The New New Thing (I’ve yet to read Moneyball, but I’m hoping that Kenny Dalglish will give me a lend of his copy soon – can’t wait to see how Moneyball justifies spending £35 million on Andy Carroll), Lewis has a great knack for brilliant narratives which can explain complex things. In The Big Short, he takes us back to where the banking crisis began and how maverick financial outsiders like Michael Burry realised what was going on in the sub-prime housing market long before anyone else. As the bubble grew, Burry and a couple of others realised the lunacy of what was going on and bet against the house, so to speak. When the bubble collapsed and Americans started defaulting, well, we know what happened next.

  I’m already looking forward to Lewis’ next book. It’s called Boomerang: Travels In the New Third World and it’s based on his travels in Iceland, Greece and little old Ireland. We’re box-office, baby.

• Introducing: On the Polls 2011

  February 2, 2011 @ 9:53 am | by Jim Carroll

  And they’re off. After a lengthy preamble, which saw candidates and prospective candidates chomping at the bit, doing a spot of neighing (or harrumphing in the case of Conor Lenihan and Joan Burton) and a few false starts (that would be Democracy Now, who got as far as the stalls and then backed out), the steeplechase for the 31st Dail has begun. Between now and February 25, it’s general election 2011 all the way all the time on all channels. Get used to it, people. As you looked out your window this morning, a would-be TD probably stared back at you from the nearest ESB pole, though the postering hasn’t quite got underway in earnest yet. Maybe they haven’t got the cash for the posters and cable-ties to embark on the madness of old?
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• TV gold: Tonight With Vincent Browne

  January 25, 2011 @ 9:55 am | by Jim Carroll

  There’s only going to be one winner in the forthcoming general election and that’s the grumpy Limerickman with the weird eyebrows who locks up the TV3 studio most nights of the week and leaves the key under the mat for the early arrivals the next morning. Over the next month, more and more TV viewers are going to discover what many of us have known for a very long time: Tonight With Vincent Browne is TV gold. It’s provides more ROFLOL moments than Fade Street, the All-Ireland Talent Show and Xpose (without Paul Galvin) combined. When you have TDs like Conor Lenihan (last week) and Joan Burton (last night) blowing up live on air, you know you’re on something good. Or maybe there’s something other than water or tea in those mugs the guests continuously slurp from during the show.

  TWVB is certainly a far better prospect when it comes to political coverage than anything RTE TV have on their schedules at the moment. Look, which would you prefer, Vinnie raising those feral eyebrows to heaven or Pat Kenny fuming on The Frontline and coming across as a third-rate Joe Duffy imitator? There’s speculation that RTE are considering putting on a show to rival TWVB during the election, which has as much chance usurping Vinnie as the choice of late-night TV junkies as I have of togging out for Tipp this summer. A show presented by Keelin Shanley versus a grumpy Vinnie? He’d eat her alive, without salt and pepper. Charlie Bird in the RTE hot-seat? Riiiight….

  There are a ton of reasons why TWVB should not work. It’s on TV3, for God’s sake, a channel not exactly over-endowed with great shows or great ideas (unless they’re imported from the UK). Vinnie has been around the block more times than Enda Kenny and is not exactly what TV people fancy when it comes to presenters. The show comes live and direct from an industrial estate out in the wilds of suburban Dublin, which is not a great attraction to on-the-make politicians and media folk.

  Those arguments, like all the others, have been blown right out of the water. TWVB is proof that every TV channel eventually hits gold. It’s also proof that it’s the old dog for the hard road and everything TV producers and directors think they know about perfectly groomed presenters is really hogwash. And while a show like TWVB won’t be busting The Late, Late Show’s chops for viewers any time soon, it’s still a huge draw for the right constituency to warrant those politicians, pol corrs and pundits to risk a taxi ride to the westside.

  What makes the show work is a potent combination of presenter, politician and pantomine. While Browne does occasionally let people off the hook (Joe Higgins in the early stages of last night’s show is a case in point), he will lay into most guests with great curmudgeony gusto. Other presenters have different methods – Richard Crowley is fantastic at the softly-softly approach which allows the subject to snare themselves on the hooks – but Browne just sighs, tuts, groans, grimaces, smirks and snorts away until he annoys, irks, irritates and goads the politician into making a fool of themselves. Then, he plays with them like a young greyhound chewing on a rabbit. As we’ve seen over the last few days with Lenihan and Burton, even experienced hands fall for it. It’s a method which also exposes politicians for who they are – look at the smug behaviour of (soon-to-be-ex) Senator Dan Boyle last week, for example. Or maybe the senator is always like that?

  What we should hope for is that party leaders will have a collective mad rush of blood to the head and agree to appear on TWVB over the election period. Now, that will be something to behold. Certainly, if I was a Fine Gael or Sinn Fein handler, I’d be making damn sure Enda Kenny and Gerry Adams were let nowhere near a microphone, never mind the TV3 studios around the midnight hour. As anyone who heard Adams on Morning Ireland earlier today knows, the numptie is again trying to talk about the Irish economy and coming across as someone who has just mastered the art of multiplication. Every time people have a look at Pearse Doherty and see him as a bright, reasonable, energetic politician, Gerry comes along the next day to remind us of the real Sinn Fein and that a vote for Pearse is a vote for Gerry.

  Put Adams, Kenny and the others on TWVB for a night and you’d surely have something to behold. No easy rides (we hope), no pulled punches, no rambling. Just lots of raised eyebrows, upturned lips and strange glances at the camera. Just like this. Watch all the way to the end.

  

• The men in the pinstripe suits

  January 19, 2011 @ 10:05 am | by Jim Carroll

  We don’t get the government we deserve; we get the government we collectively vote for. Look at them. Go on, take a good hard look at the last lot we voted for and sigh. Then take a look at what these men and women who we elected to represent us actually spend their time fretting over. And despair.

  Case in point: the amount of time spent over the last week discussing, debating and disecting the internal machinations of the fourth most popular party in the country. As Fianna Fail’s men in the pin-stripe suits (and assorted Marys – I’d welcome a gender quota if it meant we’d never see such geniuses as Hanafin, Coughlan and O’Rourke again, but I fear we’d just get more of ‘em) argue about whether Bert or Ernie should lead them into the promised land of opposition, the country continues to slump in the economic emergency ward which can’t even afford a stretcher.

  There’s a real job of work to be done, but Fianna Fail and their friends in the Green Party continue to shirk this at every opportunity. Over the next few weeks, we will see those two parties putting their heads together to try to get as many acts of cronyism done before they have to call an election. This will mean putting forward legislation which will do nothing to get us out of the economic emergency ward and everything to do with vested interests (do we really need a directly elected mayor for Dublin?) and putting as many FF and Green arses on State bodies and bodies as is feasibly possible.

  That’s politics in Ireland 2011. Never mind the hundreds of thousands who are unemployed who no fault of their own or the thousands of people who gave just given up on this place and are heading for foreign shores. Never mind the number of community bodies around the country which are gagging to do some good in their local area, but haven’t been given any funds, encouragement or infrastructural aid to do so. And, just to show that OTR leans right as well as left, let’s also have a shout out for those small and medium-sized businesses which are closing down every day of the week which might -just might – have survived if there was a more pro-active approach to dealing with their troubles at a governmental level.

  But no, when it comes to jobs, this government are only interested in foreign multinationals and retail jobs. Better to issue a press release about a couple of hundred new part-time jobs at a new Tesco than work at a grassroots’ level with new, emerging enterprises or community bodies. The former can be done by a handler with a handle on the language of snakeskin oil salesmanship, but the latter takes commitment, intelligence and imagination, qualities which many of our elected reps shake off as soon as they put on their pinstripe suits. It could be argued that they never had those qualities to begin with.

  Good news: they’ll be asking for your vote in a matter of weeks and you’ll have the chance to have your say. Already, you’ve these institutionised men in the pinstripe suits talking about “their” seats. Cork North-Central TD Noel O’Flynn was on last night about “the O’Flynn seat” as if it’s a well-upholstered armchair with a Cork accent which has been in the O’Flynn family for generations. Limerick East’s Willie O’Dea (the TD, as opposed to the Rubberbandits’ DJ) was on Morning Ireland this morning talking about his seat. Funny, I thought they were elected to represent us, not keep a grip on a piece of furniture.

  Of course, the same slings and arrows may well be directed in time at the opposition parties who are seeking to usurp them. For all the talk of political reform, it’s going to be the same gameplan in the next session. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

  But political reform is absolutely no use whatsoever if you’re simply replacing one set of men in pinstripe suits with a younger set of men in pinstripe suits (or the female equivalent) with the same outlook, attitudes, values and ambitions. Active politics is attractive to a certain constituency and the ones who get elected are the ones who have mastered that game. For all our talk, blogs (like this one) and tweets about the failings of our political masters, we keep electing the same shower. They might have different names and different tribal allegiances, but they’re the same caste at heart. And then we complain about it until the time comes to elect another shower.

  It will be fascinating, then, to see if the next election will bring any change to this. Elaine Byrne wrote an interesting column a few weeks ago about the possibility of this election showing a generational shift in Irish politics. As we know, a lot of old warhorses in pinstripe suits are getting out while they can still get the pension. We’re going to see a whole new set of faces in the next Dail so we’ll see if younger, fresher faces will really bring a different perspective to our parliament. And remember, we get to cast that Dail when we cast our votes. Maybe for once, we’ll elect some politicans who are not the men in pinstripe suits. See, I can be optimistic when I want to be.

• Putting a shape on 2011

  January 5, 2011 @ 8:59 am | by Jim Carroll

  There are some traditions which you shouldn’t mess with. With the fourth estate, it’s customary to spend December looking at the year that was and January looking at the year that’s ahead. Seeing as I’ve spent the Christmas break adhering to other seasonal traditions (ie horsing into chocolate kimberleys like they were going out of fashion), I’ve decided to stick with the crowd on this one. It will be one of the few times when my peers and I agree on anything.

  Let’s start with the tips, as much a part of this time of year as lofty resolutions. In last Friday’s Ticket, my fellow music writers and I put our collective necks on the line to highlight some acts we think might do some sort of business in 2011. I remarked last year that it remains to be seen what’s the new definition of “doing the business” and this remains the case going into 2011. It’s unlikely that many names on the various lists will provide surprises for regular OTR readers, as most of the acts mentioned have already been profiled here in our regular New Music slots.

  Similarly, the BBC Sound Of 2011 poll, which is currently making its way through the final stages of the wash-cycle, contains names who were covered extensively here in 2010. That should be our new motto: if you want to know what’s on the BBC Sound of 2012 poll, make sure you read OTR in 2011. I’ll get the marketing bods on it ASAP.

  There’s also a list from the NME of the 20 acts you’ll be reading a lot about in 2011. Worringly, Oasis revivalists and self-proclaimed neanderthals Brother feature here and elsewhere. Do we really want to see a return to lumpen mad-for-its? I would think the jury’s still out but Geffen would not agree having signed ‘em up. At least, there’s some glowing, artful minimalism ahead from James Blake and Nicolas Jaar (whose forthcoming “Space Is only Noise” release was my most played album over Christmas) to counteract all that misplaced bravado. If you want more on what might face these bright new things, check out this piece.

  I hope that music from home will provide as much eating and drinking in 2011 as it did last year. It will be interesting to see, for instance, if the momentum produced during the most prolific and high-profile 12 months ever for Irish music continues. Over 200 Irish albums were released in 2010 but, seeing as the vast bulk of those acts won’t be putting out new albums in 2011, will the numbers at year’s end be as high? Actually, footnote alert, wasn’t there a few predictions over the last five years about “the death of the album”? That seems to have been a prediction with as much credence as “the death of blogging” or “the death of Bebo”. If artists keep on making albums, we’ll keep getting albums. When artists stop making albums, you can write that obituary.

  Really, vast cellars of salt should be be supplied along with all predictions. Remember that no-one was predicting in January 2010 that we were on the cusp of some sort of golden age for acts with Irish passports. And while we might wonder what’s next, there are inevitably a bunch of acts already warming up on the sidelines with albums ready to go, just as there are probably also a bunch of acts who’ve been buzzed up by last year’s attention and want to go to work.

  It will be telling to see how many of the Irish Class of 2010 go on to take their variation of the noise out foreign. I know, this is a particular bugbear of mine, but walk with me a little on this one. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with sticking to the home patch, acts with any sort of serious ambition for a long-run need to look further afield. This is a small wee island and it’s nigh impossible for a band keen to do this full-time to survive on income from here alone. Taking the noise out foreign doesn’t just mean hassling the bejaysus out of the last remaining major label A&R men in the world, but rather coming up with smart, bespoke ways to turn homegrown buzz into something with international legs. This will take time, patience, largesse and a large degree of luck, but it can be done if the will to do it is there.

  There already have been some inroads (mentions here, tours there) to go with what Villagers and Two Door Cinema Club have done and are doing, but there should be bigger splashes to come. I’m curious to see what James Vincent McMorrow, for one, will do elsewhere this year, especially as he seems to have now sorted out his live show.

  There are quite a few new-ish Irish acts I’m looking forward to hearing more from in 2011. Seven albums I’m looking forward to hearing in 2011 are those which are hopefully coming from Squarehead, Cloud Castle Lake, Daithí, The Casanova Wave, Jennifer Evans, Niamh de Barra and Krystal Klear. At least, I assume those albums are coming. Each of those acts demonstrated huge smarts in the last 12 months which auger well for what they might well do in 2011 and beyond.

  On the business side of the music business, you can expect a lot of the stories which grabbed the headlines in the last few years to continue to play out again and again (and again). This means that we’ll be writing about ticket prices, Ticketmaster, gig turnouts, record labels, Spotify, streaming, retail, IRMA, piracy, new solutions, festivals, radio and unforeseen circumstances. Sorry about this in advance, but this is the way of the walk on the music business patrol and will be for some time to come. That much needed reset will be some time in coming.

  Like Fianna Fail, these issues are not going to vanish overnight. Ticket prices won’t fall and Ticketmaster will continue to vex ticket buyers, when that ire should really be directed at the acts (and promoters) who use Ticketmaster as a handy whipping boy. Gig turnouts will range from good (especially for the big arena and stadium shows) to pathetic (especially for new visiting acts where the promoter has done sweet FA to promote the show – hands up those who saw Jamaica or Boy & Bear play in Dublin last year?). Record labels will still hang around (the bad ones) or morph into newer models (the good ones). Spotify will work it all out and become a global streaming jukebox. Retail will continue to be something old people like me sigh and tut about, while young ones wonder what all the fuss is about (and the slide will continue – look at this morning’s news from HMV with 60 shops to be closed and Christmas sales down 10 per cent). IRMA will spend even more money on lawyers. Piracy will become an issue talked about by people who don’t realise that that particular battle is long over. New solutions will be provided at least eight times a week. We will see even more micro and niche festivals in Ireland over the summer months. For radio, see retail (especially if advertising revenue continues to slide). And some clever buck in a promoter’s office must surely come up with a new way of saying “unforeseen circumstances” this year. In fact, we should offer a prize for this.

  Me, I’m looking forward to 2011. In my strange, mixed-up, slightly warped, illogical head, odd years trump even years every time. I’m as eager as ever to come across some amazing band I know nothing about who will knock my socks off. I’m gagging to hear an awesome tune from some bunch of unknowns which has way more resonance than the fourth forced album from some bunch of Irish has-beens who should have stuck with the day-job. I’m hoping to come across a return to form from some act I’d written off ages ago to show that I’m (occasionally) wrong. I’m patiently waiting for new development on the music business beat which means we can stop having to write about the current gallery of self-serving, smug, clueless, uncaring, feckless wasters who’ve done absolutely nothing other than protect their own neck for the last decade (this can also apply to the Fianna Fail/Green government). Despite the fact that I should know better, I’m optimistic. Hey, it’s going to be a great year.

• So, we’re here….

  November 29, 2010 @ 10:10 am | by Jim Carroll

  So, we’re here. I suppose when we were told repeatedly that “we are where we are” that this is where we were heading. The day after a march which attracted 50,000 people to Dublin city-centre, the Irish people, through our democratically elected government, signed up to a bailout which contains enough zeroes to cause your eyes to boggle and enough conditions to ensure we’re up the creek without a canoe or even anything which we could use to build a canoe for years to come. We could, I suppose, borrow some more cash from the IMF to build a canoe. Wonder what interest rate they’d charge for that?
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