Irish TV’s take on homegrown hip-hop
To judge by the domestic TV schedules, Irish hip-hop is having a bit of a moment. A few weeks ago, the first edition of RTE’s new arts show The Works featured a short report on some of those involved...
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Questions from the Phoenix Park
The story rumbles on. As any long-term observer of the Irish live music industry could have predicted with ease at the weekend, the usual suspects have joined the fray and jumped on the bandwagon....
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Time to stop talking about the Phoenix Park and do something instead
It was a classic Irish summer news story. Last weekend’s trio of shows in the Phoenix Park created headlines which had nothing to do with the fluff and froth which usually accompanies mainstream media...
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It wouldn’t be the Olympics without a row
It was inevitable, wasn’t it? The row, the spat, the dispute, the acrimony, the fuming, the huffing, the puffing, the high moral ground, the indignation, the crossed wires, the point-scoring. When it...
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All quiet on the Marlay Park front
You could hear the sigh of relief from SoCoDu all over the city on Saturday night. In the end, the world did not come to an end with mad-out-of-it David Guetta and Tom Jones’ fans rampaging through the...
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It’s good to talk
It seems that we’re in the middle of a talking boom. Over the last couple of years, talking shops of one stripe or another have popped up around the country as people seek out venues to chew the fat,...
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A is for Arthur, advertising and alcohol
It’s a blackout. This is what happens when you are a major drinks brand with a very large advertising and sponsorship budget and you want to brand a day as your own. Historically, days were named after...
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What Richard Did: sense and sensibility
A few months ago, What Richard Did director Lenny Abrahamson was one of the guests at a Banter session at the Earagail Arts Festival which looked at how Irish culture has dealt with the move from boom...
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Kicking some tyres at the Web Summit
The sound of the crowd at last week’s two-day Web Summit in Dublin? Sell, sell, sell. When you stand on the balcony overlooking the main room in the RDS and take it all in, the hubbub is impressive as...
View ArticleThis republic’s never-ending civil war
There’s an insightful post-US presidential election piece by Jonathan Chait in the new current issue of New York magazine. Chait’s review of the campaign saw him concentrating on how social inequality...
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Just how many musicians live and work in Dublin?
A few weeks ago, Totally Dublin decided to mark their 100th issue (and congrats to them for reaching that landmark) by asking 100 people for their views in 100 words about what Dublin will look like in...
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Smells Like Teen Spirit: the Irish music tribes
Fans of documenting music tribes and street styles will be interested in Shane Galvin’s four-part series which recently ran on Phantom FM. Smells Like Teen Spirit looks at the evolution of music...
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A weekend on the streets of Derry
It was a good 20 years since I was last in Derry. I can’t really explain why it has taken me so long to go back to the city – after all, I’ve been in Donegal nearly every summer over the last few years...
View ArticleTime to find out how festival fit the Irish music fan really is
This weekend, the runners and riders are really under starters’ orders as the May bank holiday weekend marks the traditional start of the summer music festival season. For those with an empty diary for...
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Bringing the Sir Henry’s sweatbox to life again
There are some club nights which were always destined to live forever. In an international context, clubs like the Loft, The Gallery and Body & Soul produced you-should-have-been-there tales which...
View ArticleWe need to talk about Arthur
Anyone working in the arts or culture will tell you that the most difficult aspect in getting an idea from A to Z is funding. Coming up with an idea is usually the easy part, but the cash that many...
View ArticleA question of food
You could call it a meme of the moment, but the issue of food is never far from the table. In this case, it’s about where we go to purchase this grub which is dominating the discourse. There was the...
View ArticleThe culture vultures come out at night
They’re queuing around the block to get into Meeting House Square for the Arena live radio broadcast. More people have probably turned up to see Jeanette Lowe’s Pearse House: Village in the City...
View ArticleThere’s no “warm, fuzzy feeling” about U2′s tax affairs
Tax is never far from the agenda when talk turns to U2. The band’s 2006 decision to move part of their business to the Netherlands to avail of lower tax rates has followed them around ever since like...
View ArticleOne for the road
It’s probably safe enough to return to the issue a week later for some final analysis. The backlash against the backlash has largely receded. The people who went around shouting “killjoys” and “dry...
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