DarrenByrne.com

Mr Doyle,

If you have 30 minutes to spare from your hectic schedule, you’re gonna love this: 30 minutes of 90’s Cartoon openings. Dude, Tailspin! Bonkers!

Also, which of us is Pinky and which of us is Brain? Narf!

Note: There’s an 80’s version! Transformers – need I say more?

Hey, where’s Teddy Ruxpin? Here he is…

Andrew has written an excellent piece on the situation is Zimbabwe. I urge you to pop over and read it. It’s a shocking piece which focuses on the human element and the effect of Mugabe’s regime on the individuals in the country.

You would have to made of stone not to be deeply upset by this image. This is Blessing Mabhena, an 11 month old boy, whose legs were deliberately broken by Robert Mugabe’s thugs in order to punish his father for being an opposition councillor in Zimbabwe. You can read the full story here. I found myself just staring blankly at the computer screen for about ten minutes after reading this story, unsure of what to do next.

He also points to Bryan Mukandi’s new blog on IrishTimes.com, which is also worth checking out for his post on Zimbabwe.

I am just home from the Doctor and apparently I have a classic case of Gastroenteritis. It’s an awful sounding word for an awful affliction. I have pills and some odd sachets and I’m not allowed eat until tomorrow. I’m hungry, I’m in pain and I am feeling very sorry for myself.

Blah!

Back again is the Jameson’s Movies on the Square season. Last years event brought Terminator, Donnie Darko, Shawshank Redemption and Psycho, among others, back to the big screen and this year looks to be just as good.

I’m sadly going to miss The Commitments (with a live band) tonight – it will be showing tomorrow evening too (bandless). But I will really be trying to catch Annie Hall on the 19th July and Some Like it Hot on 2nd August (my birthday, by the way). I’m most looking forward to the closing event though – Monty Python’s Life of Brian – on 22nd August.

(any excuse to play some Monty Python)

Each movie will be screened on Meeting House Square in Templebar and the tickets are…wait for it…FREE!!! They must be pre-booked and are available at the Temple Bar Cultural Information Centre at East Essex Street, Temple Bar.

Here is the full listing as according to Templebar.ie:

Opening Gala
Friday July 4th, 9.30pm
The Commitments and live music from one of Ireland’s best known contemporary bands
Tickets available from June 28th
Please note that the Gates will open at 9pm.

Saturday July 5th, 10.30pm
The Commitments (118m)
Alan Parker (1991)
Jimmy Rabbitte has a plan…to bring soul to Dublin.
Tickets available from June 28th

Saturday July 12th, 10.30pm
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (84m)
Larry Charles (2006)
Kazakh TV correspondent Borat is sent to America to report on the greatest country in the world. However, Borat becomes more interested in the whereabouts of Pamela Anderson. High Five!
Tickets available from July 5th

Saturday July 19th, 10.30pm
Annie Hall (93m)
Woody Allen (1977)
Alvy Singer, neurotic New York comedian falls in love with ditsy singer and photographer, Annie Hall.
Tickets available from July 12th

Saturday July 26th, 10.30pm
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (94m)
Jay Roach (1997)
A 1960’s secret agent is brought out of cryofreeze in the 1990’s to oppose his arch-nemesis, Dr Evil. Bringing his own brand of free love to the ‘90’s, Austin Powers is anything but subtle. Groovy, baby!
Tickets available from July 19th

Saturday August 2nd, 10.30pm
Some Like it Hot (120m)
Billy Wilder (1959)
When two musicians witness a mob hit, their only way out of the state is in an all female band disguised as women!
Tickets available from July 26th

Saturday August 9th, 10.00pm
Stranger Than Fiction (113m)
Mark Forster (2006)
An IRS auditor suddenly finds that his entire life is the subject of narration only he can hear. Harold Crick isn’t ready to go. Period.
Tickets available from August 2nd

Saturday August 16th, 10.00pm
Little Miss Sunshine (101m)
Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (2006)
The dysfunctional Hoover family take a cross country trip in their VW bus, chasing 7 year old Olives dream of being crowned ‘Little Miss Sunshine’.
Tickets available from August 9th

Closing Gala
Friday August 22nd, 9.30pm
Life of Brian (94m)
Terry Jones (1979)
Brian is born on the original Christmas, in the stable next door. He spends his life being mistaken for the Messiah. A motion picture destined to offend nearly two thirds of the civilised world. And severely annoy the other third.
Tickets available from August 16th

YOUR FREE TICKET INFORMATION

All Jameson Movies on the Square events are FREE TICKETED events.

Tickets can be collected in person from the Temple Bar Cultural Information Centre at 12 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

Temple Bar Cultural Information Centre opening hours
Mon-Friday 9am – 5.30pm
Saturday 10am- 6pm
Sunday 12noon -3 pm

Wednesday night was both fun and educational. Fun, because I was around friends who did not judge my intelligence (or lack thereof) and educational because I learned so many new things.

Firstly, did you know that there was a major footballing tournament on last week? Me neither! It seems Spain beat everyone else in Europe to win the Euro2008 World Championship Football Cup. Well done to them.

Also, I was pleased to discover that, including Wednesday, there have been 184 days in this year so far. Although this knowledge was very useful two days ago and was reasonably relevant yesterday, I think from today onwards the information becomes a little extraneous.

It was an important lesson for everyone at the table to find that the word deface and defecate are not synonymous – as in “Lottie, stop defacing the answer sheet” is somewhat different to “Lottie, stop defecating the answer sheet”. Thankfully, she soon stopped doing both.

Table Quiz

On Wednesday night, we were at the Diet of Worms Table Quiz in the Garda Club. They promised a night of fun and they delivered. The night began as most of my nights seem to do, with a few beers and odd chatter. Why on earth we were discussing the evolution of a bogger into a metropolitan is beyond me. Hosted by the very funny Orla and Vincent of Dublin Stories, the evening kicked off with the General Knowledge round. Having spent the past week researching the history of the Irish Army, I was very disappointed to find out it was not that type of General of which that knowledge was required. We didn’t do supremely well in that round. Although, they did give a bonus point for each email address we put on the top of our answer sheet. We discovered later that there was only a maximum of four bonus points available for this though.

Rounds such as Current Affairs, Sports and Comedy had us scratching our heads. We were slightly better at the Music round and the TV and Film round.

All in all, Anthony, Lottie and myself had a lot of fun and I’d like to wish Diet of Worms all the best in their journey to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

If you want to see the Wormery before then they’re doing three FREE preview shows upstairs in Doyle’s on the 16th, 17th and 18th of July at 6.30pm each night.

The group blog, For Nine Pounds, was one of the first blogs I frequented when I began my blogging journey less than four months ago. The great advantage of the group blog format is in the variety of opinions it offers up, the diversity in the posts and in the instant feedback from other members. The group happily discuss anything and everything, from politics to TV, from new jobs to concerts they’ve attended. There is rarely a day goes by without some new topic to entertain and excite.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to be part of 49£ and while it is an honour to be greeted so openly by them, I’m not really sure what I can add to the group. I’m going to try my best to add something lively and interesting to their discussions and we’ll see if they let me stay. 🙂

Feel free to drop on over to 49£ and leave a comment if there’s anything that grabs your interest.

Urf is a planet where strange things happen. Created by Phil Selby (The Rut), Mike Jacobsen (the awesome See Mike Draw) and Adam Burke (blogless), it’s a combined cartoony thing and it’s damn funny.

Check out some more here.

According to the Devious Theatre Company:

The Devious Theatre Company was formed in May 2006 by some theatre loving Kilkennyians who had a desire to bring fresh and different works to the local stage.

After our first meeting, our objective was crystal clear: Accessible and alternative theatre for young people. And by young people, we meant the people who frequent cinemas, pubs and gigs on the weekend and who mightn’t even consider heading along to catch a piece of theatre. The people who consider theatre to be a little academic or a little too boring or even too expensive, coonsidering you could spend that money on a few pints. We wanted to show how exciting theatre could be, how worthwhile an endeavour it is and most of all, how entertaining it is.

And as for the people who already loved theatre? Well, we wanted to stage productions that would excite them. Productions that are new, fresh, different and, well, devious.

Last week, they staged a highly ambitious version of Irvine Welsh‘s novel Trainspotting, which looks at drug use and depression in the poverty stricken Scotland of the 1980’s. When I first heard that Devious Theatre were putting this on, I was both excited (at the prospect of seeing one of my favourite movies transfered to the stage) but also very nervous (I didn’t see how they could possibly pull off some of the more harsh and difficult to watch parts of the novel). I was concerned about how they were going to get around showing people shooting up, I was worried about the scene in which a baby dies, I was terrified of the prospect of seeing Spud throw his faeces covered sheets open to the room. I made sure to book tickets and gather a group to come with me.

A couple of people in our posse had never seen Trainspotting before, nor had they read the book, so I was curious to see how they would perceive it too. Thankfully, we were all completely overwhelmed by the production. The clever set (the repeated use of one couch, moved around the stage to change the seen, worked brilliantly) was not too sparse but not heavy on props, which helped the audience to focus on the actors. The lighting was very effective, a tribute to the excellent Watergate Theatre and to the lighting director, Gerry Taylor.

The music was one of the most impressive things in the show, however. As important and pivotal as it was in the movie, Devious Theatre have put their own slant on it and made it integral to the success of the show. Three moments of perfection stick out. The introduction of uber-drugdealer Mother Superior to the Beatles’ Happiness is a Warm Gun ensured the character was seen as epic and near iconic (as he was to Renton and his compadres). The brilliantly frightening scene when Begbie drags Renton out of his rehab malaise singing Talking Heads’ Road to Nowhere (incidentally, this song seems to be following me this week. It was playing in the bar on Thursday evening; it appeared during our 90’s music night; then it was in the play and again at the aftershow party. Yesterday it was on the radio at some point in the afternoon. Strange!). Probably my favourite scene in the entire play was the moment Tommy shoots up for the first time. It’s sad, it’s depressing, contained in one tiny corner at the front of the stage. All the while Portishead’s Roads is playing, punctuating the loneliness of the moment.

Music, direction, set design, lighting – all this aside, the true measure of this play’s quality was in the acting. These supposed amateurs deserve a multitude of awards for their performances. A cast which shared some roles, the eleven strong troupe, directed by Niamh Moroney and John Morton, were nothing short of brilliant.  Morton, in addition to his acting duties, played Sick Boy. Stephen Colfer played a quirkily pathetic Spud, while the iconic Mother Superior was played by Paul Young. Maria Murray, as Alison, had one of the toughest moments on stage where she lost her child during a drug fueled stupour. Tough to watch, it pulled the heartstrings.

But the three performances which stood out were Niall Sheehy’s Begbie, Ken McGuire’s Tommy and Ross Costigan’s Mark ‘Rent Boy‘ Renton.  Niall‘s performance was nothing short of terrifying. As the addicted-to-violence Begbie, he scared everyone he met. When he moved into the audience shouting (not singing) Road to Nowhere, it was one of the high points of the play. As I said above, Ken, in the role of Tommy, was the focus of my favourite scene of the play. It was depressing to see this formerly healthy sporty guy descend into a drug addled and then disease addled junkie. Very sad.

But the star of the show was Ross as Renton. He is in almost every scene and nails every moment. His dialogue is tough but he delivers it perfectly, especially the famous ‘Choose Life‘ speech which actually made my hairs stand on end. His incredible mix of brutal emotion with stark comedy epitomised Welsh’s novel. Ross, my hat goes off to you – you are too talented. Here he is, in character, after the play:

An incredible night overall, it’s is just a shame it didn’t have a longer run. I would have returned and I would have dragged dozens of people with me. Well done to everyone who was involved and I’m already looking forward to Devious Thetare‘s next production, an original piece, by John Morton, chronicling life in Kilkenny. See you in Kilkenny in August.

My hectic social schedule continued unabated this weekend. I had a day off work on Friday which helped in my recovery from Thursday night (Jay Z concert in the RDS and random blogger drinks). Or should that be Thursday morning? Andrew and myself, listening to 90’s tracks from some old Now! albums until four in the morning, clearly needed some time to recover.

Friday was a little less frenetic, but we did get to see Wanted. A very modern action thriller with Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McEvoy, Wanted has a brilliant mix of original action and surprisingly effective acting, for a throw-away actioner. But, of course, like many Hollywood movies today, they aren’t pitching a one-off throw-away, they are sowing the seeds of a franchise. Personally, I loved the movie and, while there were plenty of questions that remained unanswered, the essential story played out perfectly to conclusion and I don’t really see how a sequel could add anything to the mix. For a fun, intelligent action movie, give Wanted a go.

Saturday saw us hit Kilkenny again (for the second time this month and the second time in my life). We seem to have fallen for the town. It’s big enough to lose yourself in it’s winding streets and ample bars, but small enough that the natives are pleasant and friendly and you can keep your feet firmly on the ground. From its funky hostel to its endless number of live venues, Kilkenny is a town that rivals Galway for a fun night out.

Apart from finally grabbing a few drinks with Mr Ken and Rossa (for the first time since meeting them at the Blog Awards), the main reason we were down was to see Devious Theatre‘s production of Trainspotting in the Watergate Theatre. I’ll try to post my review later today, but, in short, we were blown away – they staged an amazingly professional production, with solid acting, clever set use and perfectly utilised music. I would have gone down just to see the play alone.

After the show, we hit the infamous Cleere’s for a few beers, some cheers and there was no fear of it being too dear with four beers a mere score and furthermore we let out a roar as more was poured, which struck a chord and no one was bored. From there the night soared.

The ‘we’ of the piece was Lottie and I, Anthony, Mary, Andrew and Tanya, but we wasted very little time in adding to our group, recruiting from the cast of the play.

We left the bar and trekked to Ken’s house for a house party like no other. Every room in the place was crammed with cast, crew and friends. Music blared (strangely a lot of old 90’s tracks were heard first – perhaps Ken was on a similar 90’s nostalgic trip to myself and Andrew). We befriended Begby, from the play, also known as Niall (apparently pronounced Neil) and danced the night away. Niall’s air guitar skills are unparalleled.

I may have mentioned it before, but I really do love meeting new people – it borders on being a hobby. So many unique points of views and opinions on everything, so many differing personalities, so much variety in how people react to different situations. In the space of two minutes on Saturday night, I found myself going from head banging away with a few randomers to listening to one of the sweetest voices ever from the Maggie Gyllenhaal lookalike, Jess (a member of Devious Theatre Group) as she serenely played the piano at the back of the sitting room.

One of the sadder parts of my weekend: I broke my camera. I really loved that camera. 🙁 But, I did manage to get a few nice photos of Tanya and Lottie before it broke:

Sadly, I managed to get  similar picture of Andrew:

We were still going at 7am 8am 8.30am before heading back into the city to get 45 minutes sleep. Although, we did manage to add to that 45 minutes when we went for food and hair of the dog…

This is probably the most important area when discussing the origins of Irish Values, and also the hardest one to write about without giving a very biased view. I have a sincere loathing for the Catholic Church. I have a long list of bad experiences with priests and the  Church (not that type of bad experience, don’t worry) and the simple fact that the Irish Church is, for many, synonymous with abuses, paedophilia, lies, conspiracies and power-mongering surely points to the Church as being a generally bad influence on our lives.

That is, of course, not entirely true, because nothing is ever black and white, is it?

At the Dublin Writers Festival, Lean, one of the coordinators, was eager to remove the question of Catholicism from the floor. She wondered why, firstly, other religions weren’t being discussed – the broader Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc. – but also why the panelists were reluctant to look at values beyond the religious divide – those of Atheists or those of people who are simple not religious. It is true Catholicism is the major religion in Ireland – the last census revealed 87% of the population considered themselves Catholic (the second highest religion was Church of Ireland at only 2.85%). When we look at those born in Ireland only, the figure rises to 92% (Church of Ireland at 2.35%). So, it is understandably important to spend time looking at Catholicism, but when other surveys reveal regular mass attendance in stark decline, we must wonder what influence other religions and cultures are having on our nation, we must ask how many of those Catholics truly have faith or are they simply marking an X in a box because they were raised Catholic.

These are not irrelevant questions but they are questions I can’t fully answer. I will attempt to look at the influence other cultures and beliefs are having on our society though.

What did the Roman Catholic Church ever do for us?

(any excuse to play some Monty Python)

Figuratively speaking, they did indeed build our aqueducts and roads. They paved the path of Irish education and pumped money into the fledgling Irish healthcare system at a time when Ireland was horribly impoverished.

On a grander scale, and bringing us back to morals and values, I spoke about the Ten Commandments and other guidelines handed to us (or perhaps foisted upon us) by the Church in my opening post on the topic; the Church gave us the basis for our moral code. We were told to live good lives, love our neighbours (not their wives though), be good Samaritans, be generous and charitable. When Catholicism first came to Ireland around the fifth century, the priests believed they were guiding beacons, ready to tame the savages. And to some degree they may have been right. Churches were built and communities and parishes grew around them. People would gather and pray and community spirit developed. The Church infiltrated ever aspect of our lives and this continued to be true right the way through to the encroachment of Protestantism on Irish life. Priests would hold mass in makeshift churches in forests, with rocks for altars, and many would still cling to their beliefs and the comfort and guidance the Church would provide.

So, at some point, did things just go wrong, or were there always questionable practices at the core of the institution?

The Papal Visit and What Went Wrong?

In 1979, Ireland saw its greatest ever mass gathering – when Pope John Paul II visited our country. It is odd that from this pinnacle moment things began to change. Mass attendances declined, the number of people entering the seminary dropped dramatically and, of course, the scandals began to break.

Allegations of child abuse, sexual abuse, cover ups, enslavement and cruelty began to surface publicly in the 1980’s and came to a fore in the 90’s. There are supporters of the Catholic Church who will say that these were mainly isolated incidents. I refute this – compensation payouts to date exceed €1billion (only €128million of this being paid for by the Church), this does not point to isolated incidents; mass cover-ups from high ranking member of the Church do not point to isolated incidents; the revelations of the Magdalene Laundries and other institutions are not isolated incidents; and the Ferns Report (and the Church’s efforts to block it) make it very clear that these incidents were widespread in the Church and were well known about among the upper echelons of the administration.

Is it any wonder people are turning away from the Catholic Church in their droves? The disappointment people must feel in an institution that has been a guiding light for Ireland for so so long is magnified because the Church was our moral compass and when our compass is in such a broken state, we are asking ourselves how we will ever find our way again. So we look to new religions, so we look to new outlets, so we look to the West in search of answers and guidance.

I remember reading about the replacement of religion with ‘fashion culture’ and consumerism and this makes sense. For many of today’s youth, communities are built in the shopping malls and guided by Hello, OK, Glamour and Cosmo. It is not surprising that many people look to The OC, One Tree Hill and Hollyoaks as a basis for a values system. I’m not saying it is right (quite the opposite), but it is not surprising.

Does the Church Have the Right to Interfere/Intervene in Our Lives Anymore?

In short, absolutely not! I would argue that it should never have been in that position of power in the first place. The good things that stemmed from the Church are still evident in our lives today, but those good deeds should never have elevated the Irish Catholic Church to such a position within our society, where today they still influence political opinion.

The Church long ago gave away their right to preach about morals, about values. Today’s Ireland has moved on. Many of us ‘live in sin’ everyday of our lives and to hear that priests offer marriage guidance classes in this day and age is a disgusting act of hypocrisy. Even the Church has conceded that it needs to take a step back from our educational system, something that should have been addressed many years ago. This is the fault of the government rather than the Church, however.

The Future

In 1979, Pope John Paul II said “Be what you are, and you will set the world ablaze…Rather than conform to the world, the world will conform to you”. Well, I apologise for distorting his words, but by continuing on its current course, rather than set the world ablaze, it will see its world burn down around it, and by not conforming to a modern world, the world will simple move on without it.

In 2012, the International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Ireland for the first time since 1932. Bock talks about it here, and Twenty here while Dublin Blogs looks at it in a slightly less emotional way here. The 1932 gathering reportedly saw 25% of the Irish population attend at some point. I find it hard to imagine today’s Ireland (easier as it is to travel now) managing a fraction of this attendance.

In the 1970’s more than 90% of Irish Catholics said they went ot mass once a week. Now trhe nuimber is 44% (and this includes a strong Polish immigrant contingent). Although this is a dramatic drop, the level is still high amoung Western nations. It will be interetsing to watch how swiftly that numbere declines further.

Á la Carte Catholicism is also maintaining a certain amount of followers where the ban on sex before marriage is ignored, where contraception is the norm. Other practices, such as confession, are being dropped while the likes of marriage, christenings and communions still play a huge part in the lives of Iriah people.

160 priests died in 2007, while 9 were ordained, and 228 nuns were lost being replaced by a mere 2 new nuns. This is further exacerbated by the some highly publicised moves by some Catholic Priests to Protestantism, the Church of Ireland. Rev Dermot Dunne, a former Catholic Priest, became Dean of the Church of Ireland’s Christ Church Cathedral and made a point of kissing his wife while standing on the steps of the cathedral as he took up his new post.

It is predicted that the current number of priests, over 4,700, will drop to less that 1,500 by 2028. Father Eamonn Bourke, director of vocations in Dublin, said “some priests are even reluctant to offer priesthood to people as a valuable way of life. It will take a long time to increase this confidence”.

Conclusion

The days when almost everyone was a church-going Catholic, when the parish Priest was revered and when Church doctrine was central to public policy and private life are no longer. Catholicism is a relic of the past. It’s outdated and it’s obvious that few are devoted to it anymore; if people were truly interested then they wouldn’t have manning shortages in the priesthood. Perhaps if they updated the religion they could attract new followers, but their death-grip on traditions is what has them in their current state. If they don’t modernise to keep-up with modern society then the Church will not survive the ever-growing generation gap.

Once responsible for forming the communities in Ireland, the Irish Catholic Church is now in search of a community of its own.

In this post I have discussed the role of the Catholic Church in Ireland, but I have been lighter on the subject of Irish Values. Towards the end of my series of posts I will try to nail down our Core Values and discuss, among other things, the Church’s part in defining them.

Update: In my next post on the subject, I hope to talk about New Communities, New Cultures, New Ideas and New Values, with an emphasis on how the Internet and other technologies have changed both Irish life and the global landscape.

Courtesy of my friend Stella:

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Repo! is one of the movies I’ve most looked forward to in years. I mention it now because there is a new trailer just released.

Repo! The Genetic Opera is a new musical from the director of three of the Saw movies, Darren Lynn Bousmann. The gist: A worldwide epidemic encourages a GeneCo, a genetic engineering company, to launch an organ-financing program similar to getting a loan for your car. However, the repossession clause is a killer. Mwahahah!

Starring the incredible Tony Head (of Buffy fame) as the Repo Man, his voice is just one of the many things this film has to offer – I can’t recommend his album, Music For Elevators enough. Sarah Brightman is marked for repossession and Paul Sorvino plays the head of GeneCo. Paris Hilton also appears in the movie, but don’t let that put you off too much – she’s been getting good reviews.

It looks to be a kind of cross between The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Saw and I am dying to see it.

Released in August in the US, there is no release date for this side of the world yet, but hopefully it will be around the same time.

You want more?

We’ve been hankering for a decent table quiz for a while now and we’ve finally settled on one.

The Diet of Worms are a comedy troupe (known for their series of shorts, Dublin Streets) and they are raising funds to bring them to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and will be hosting a Table Quiz on Wednesday 2nd July a 7.30pm.

Tables of four are €40 and they promise a night of fun, hilarity, surprises and prizes, prizes, prizes. It will be in the Garda Club on Harrington Street (near the Bleeding Horse pub). Lottie, Niamh, Anthony and I are going and if you fancy giving us some competition check out their blog or drop an email to dietofwormscomedy@gmail.com.

Or if you want to know more, watch this: