Cheebah and all that - Limerick, Ireland

Eist V

• The Hannah Parr arrived from Norway, unintentionally staying in Limerick for 6 weeks back in 1868. Bock has a piece here and we did something as well a few years back. This Friday evening on Lyric FM artszone has a 20 minute audio documentary "great need was our only strength" which revisits and retells this uplifting yet poignant tale. More here
• Brian Cross arrived ahead of the entourage and did some interviews regards Brasilintime shows. He was on Dave Fanning and did well considering the scattergun questioning style Fanning employs. A much more relaxed and enjoyable interview followed that night when he joined Donal Dineen on Today FM. Candid and smooth, I think it really illustrated the passion which B has for this particular project. You can listen back here ( note if link doesn't work- right click- copy link location and open in a media player). Nice buzz building in advance of Sundays show. Be there.

Shane

James Connolly

Rascal Films have been preparing this biopic of Ireland's most famous socialist for a few years now. They have been raising funds in a number of ways, avoiding the corporate route a little bit like the Crude film which shane wrote about before. Now, Mackozer reports that the most realistic portrayal of turn of the 20th  century Dublin is to be found in Poland and Gdansk specifically. Thus the film is to be shot there. I'm sure if Connolly was around today he would be joining colleagues in SIPTU etc in organising the new Polish workers and hopefully this film went it arrives on our screens will awaken many, of all nationalities, to his message.

Bottom Dog

on the street

 
I have been photographing irish markets since the late 80s and always recorded some version of the JFK portrait that would be placed on various stalls, his saintly image often framed with an image of pope pius. There was something aspirational about venerating this american particularly in the late 80s and early 90s when emigration was almost compulsory. I don' t see that image in markets any more.

Paul Tarpey

Photo in Limerick market aug 2007.

Limerick Soviet

Clip on Limerick Soviet from RTE's Urban Tales.  Apparently somebody else was doing another film on this over the summer so more attention in the months to come.

Bottom Dog

Unity

Might be worth looking at 'Urban Tales' on RTE 1 this Tuesday 27th February at 7 pm as it features a piece on Limerick Soviet in 1919. Seems the piece might be short so hopefully might be suitable to put up on youtube, we will see. A very inspirational period for some of us, photographer Brian Cross talked about his project on it here and Aileen O Carroll has notes from her talk on this time in Limerick history here

Bottom Dog

tread no more: the crypt

(After the closure of the Boat Club there was an outpouring of grief as people lamented another lost place in which they could dance. We decided to invite stories of other such spaces and are now going to publish them on an occasional basis. If anyone else has a memory or place in mind that we should feature drop us a line. The first piece travels to the most unlikely of spaces- the basement of St Michaels Church on Perys Square and the crypt. Photo from Limerickslife )

Dancing at the Disco.

Dark winter nights.  The church stands proud at the top of the square, cloaking in secrecy and smothering the sound of the good times beneath.  The crypt, twirling disco lights, coke cans and cigarettes.

Moms and Dads driving 'cross town with cars jam-packed full of gorgeous giggling girls.  Red satin clad legs with pale cream pumps.  Saturday Night Fever was alive and well in Crypto. 

"See you later hon, have fun, stay together, no dark corners with boys".  Hands clasped over mouths, sniggers erupt into gales of laughter as girls fall over each other in the scramble to get out of back seats.

"Are you on the list? - Are you on the list?  The boy with a clipboard shouts over heads.  Pushing and shoving past those who are not lucky the doors close behind.

"We are family - I've got all my sisters in me" and the girls hit the dance floor.  Eyes casually glancing in the direction of the vaulted arches to see if he is there.  He is.

Girlfriends ditched - bike shed - kissing in the dark.
Running, running, running, mad tear out the church gates.  "Hi Dad". "Everybody in, seat belts on".  "Yeah best fun, best fun ever. 

Alice Woods.

Hannah Parr

The Lord Mayor of Limerick and the Norwegian Ambassador were both in the Belltable to open a special exhibition by photographer Deirdre Power on June 20th. The exhibition, which runs until July 9 ^th documents a collaboration between Island Theatre Company, St Marys Local Arts Group and  local children.

The project involved sixteen children working on a production. Four members of the local Arts Group who were learning how to teach drama assisted them. When it was discovered that Norwegian children had been buried in the grounds of St Munchins Church (pictured above)  where the rehearsals were taking place, the children decided to devise a show, which explained how these children ended up in Limerick.   
In 1868 a Norwegian ship, "the Hannah Parr" was caught in a storm mid Atlantic and forced to seek the nearest port for necessary repairs.   Thus 400 Norwegian refugees lay down their belongings on the Limerick docks for two months.  During this time several died and were buried in St Munchin's graveyard where Island Theatre Company have their headquarters.   Using historical records the children recreated the Norwegian's interactions with the locals.

The rehearsal process was documented by local photographer Deirdre Power. She attended months of rehearsals and took over 1,000 photos.

The young actors were further bolstered by messages of support and historical pieces of information sent by descendants of the ships passengers and crew. All recorded, these communications arrived in Limerick via email from places such as Minnesota, Florida and Norway.  Examples of the messages here.

Theatre practitioner Niamh Bowen who designed the programme says "the children's graves lie unmarked to this day but are now remembered posthumously through theatre by the children. The arrival of the ships passengers onto a foreign shore having neither knowledge of language or customs still has a resonance today"

Shane

Limerick Roots and Culture

Feature article of the day on Wikipedia today is an article on the history of Limerick which says  that

"Famous visitors have included ...Che Guevara and ...Haile Selassie I of Ethopia"
Well while we covered the first before here - we have never heard of the Emperor's visit although Arthur Quinlan the retired irish Times Correspondant seems to have written about it. Either way it is as good a time as any to announce that the reggae is arriving this summer in a brand new venue for us with very exciting line ups including the excellent rootical soundsystem and international guests. Keep checking back for more details. First night will be in May.

Shane

Rootical crew stacking up the speakers on their last visit to Limerick with Cheebah in Dolans

sin é an reggae

Shane McGowan once  maintained in an interview in Record Collector that
“There are a lot of musical connections between Irish music and reggae. A few old Irish tunes are very close to reggae rhythms, and there's a huge Irish influence in the Caribbean”

Maybe this is what helped many irish emigrants to be down with the West Indian sound. In his seminal work on the history of reggae "Bass Culture –when reggae was king", Dennis Bradley talks about the early blues dances (called after the gramophone not the music) in West London in the late 50s and how the only others to attend these illegal events along with the Jamaicans were the irish. In fact most of the venues they were held in became known as shebeens.

Tom Vague in “Getting it straight in Notting Hill Gate” outlines that when the British fascist Oswald Mosely ran for election in 1959, he addressed a meeting in Ladbroke Grove where
“he provided people with instant solutions; scapegoating theblacks and Irish, telling people that it was their fault that we had poor housing…”.
this didn't stop Mosely finishing last in the ensuing election.

However, Irish traditional music and reggae do not have a huge shared history on record. From the irish trad side of things Sharon Shannon had one album Out the Gap which included reggae musician Dennis Bovell. Not strictly on a traditional tip but Belfast band Breag have been recording reggae for over a decade now as gaeilge. They are part of a small but loyal reggae scene here- in the last month there is even an album of dub brought out by a Tralee bassist James Kennedy. More recently Sinead O Connor followed up her album of traditional irish material with well received album of roots classics with Sly and Robbie on musician ship duties. Limerick comedian Jon Kennys back in the 80s recorded a comic reggae version of ‘Spancil Hill’ which charted in Ireland. Some Irish traditional songs have also got the reggae treatment from Jamaican artists (fill me in on anything I’m missing via the comments section below)

As Irish cities go Cork once again will claim to be the reggae capital and for once it is a title well deserved. Back in the 80s the presence of Man Ezeke, on pirate ERI with a weekly show of reggae and calypso was an influence. Groups like Belsonic Sound incorporated reggae and venues like the Donkeys ears and Issac Bells all had big reggae nights. The Friday night dub sessions in the former were legendary as were some of the special once offs in Sir Henrys. In recent years Revelation sound and bellyman have kept the reggae flag flying. The latter has his own record shop roots records in Kinsale!

In the history of cork reggae however I think it is unlikely that anyone could have predicted the clash of cultures that occurred when eek a mouse visited last month. Visiting the Sin E, to celebrate his 50th birthday Eek a Mouse joined in on a traditional session that was going on. Thankfully someone taped it. More details here on blood and fire board.

At the time of writing after hundreds of downloads it has been removed however we have it up here for a limited time. Enjoy.  Thanks to Mick and Alphabet Set Collective.

Shane

Old stars for a New Ireland

An interesting article in the observer a few weeks back spoke of how Irish amateur boxing was been reinvigorated by the influx of new talent from in particular Eastern Europe  (can't find link- they musn't archive irish stories). It speaks of the possibility of a potential irish medal hope in the 2008 olympics coming from these new recruits.

At the same time I was reading an interesting book on Muhammad Ali called redemption song which deals with Ali very much from a political perspective and the climate of the sixties. Early on in the book the author refers to the first black challenger to the title of world heavyweight champion. Tom Molineaux, a freed slave form Virginia arrived in England and laid down a challenge to Tom Cribb who came out of retirement to fight him in 1810. The reason that it is referred to in the book is that the racism Ali and other boxers would face was just as virulent and vicious back then. Most reports of the fight agree that Molineaux would have won the fight in the 28^th round except for a ringside invasion which allowed Cribbs to recover from a knock down. With a little luck including Molineaux hitting his head off one of the stakes that held up the ring Cribb held on to keep his crown after 35 rounds.

What intrigued me from the book was a one line reference to Molineaux ending up dying penniless in Ireland in 1818. Well after searching for more information it turns out after some efforts at exhibition fights and training here in Ireland Molineaux fell victim to pneumonia and died. He is buried in St James Cemetry, Mervue in Galway. He had been cared for in the his final moments by the black bandsmen of the 77^th regiment stationed there (one of the soldiers who cared for him was Jamaican Charles Smart who had enlisted in Cashel!) . A radio play was written about the fight and broadcast on the bbc and the last section refers to him dying as an almost unknown in Galway. Maybe some historical journals in the Galway area have covered this before but I have never come across them. What better time for him to get recognition.

The Bottom Dog