limited edition - £350

A book of poems and drawings by Ulster artist Paul Yates - first published 31 years ago - has re-emerged as a collector's item. A copy of A White Cat With A Human Face, along with two sketches by Yates, has just been snapped up at auction for £3,200.It first appeared in a limited edition of 500 in 1974.The copy that came under the hammer at Major's Fine Art Sale in Cambridge was bought by an anonymous American. Jenny Major of the auction house explained: "The book, signed and numbered, is in good condition. "The early works of Yates, including another of his books, Sky Made Of Stone, have been translated into Danish, French and Russian, and have attracted global acclaim."But his early works are hard to find today and he is a painter who produces relatively little compared with other visual artists."

Yates' new limited edition, Mourne, is published by the Tom Caldwell Gallery at £350."I'm not surprised that Yates is of interest to collectors," said gallery owner Chris Caldwell. "Mourne is an extraordinary tour de force."

source - http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=656903

“MOURNE” Published by the Tom Caldwell Gallery

“MOURNE” is a collection of poetry by Paul Yates with images by Basil Blackshaw. It is available as a paperback and also in a limited edition featuring additional images and poetry.The hardback comes in a limited edition of only 395 copies with slipcase; each is individualized with its own unique line of poetry, hand written and signed by the poet himself.This version also features an additional long poem and three extra images, and is further enhanced by the inclusion of a signed lithograph by Basil Blackshaw.

“MOURNE” is an extraordinary tour-de-force of words and images by two of Northern Ireland’s most original and compelling creative forces. The poems constantly surprise and delight with their sheer raw power to portray the spirit of Mourne in everything from a single snowflake or an old enamel bucket to the lofty mightiness of the mountains and the vast mystery of the ocean.The images by Basil Blackshaw also reveal an artist at the height of his powers; knowledgeable and intuitive observations are portrayed with verve and a deftness of touch resulting in quiet masterpieces that, like the poems, surprise and delight throughout.

“This is a beautiful production and..... really quite astonishing.”

(Brian McAvera, Irish Arts Review)

“MOURNE” is available from the Tom Caldwell Gallery. If you would like to purchase a copy or require further information please contact us or call into the gallery.

LIMITED EDITION (including signed Blackshaw lithograph) - £350

PAPERBACK - £25

source - http://www.tomcaldwellgallery.com/mourne.asp

Paul Yates Poet/Painter, Film-Maker.
Selected Key Dates

1954 Born in Belfast.

1970 Yates’ poems chosen by Sam Hanna - Bell for broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster.

1972 Yates sells his first painting to Tom Caldwell and has his first solo exhibition at the Tom Caldwell Gallery. Belfast.

1972/73 Yates collaborates to produce limited edition poem prints with the painter, Jack Pakenham.

1974 A WHITE CAT WITH A HUMAN FACE published, poems and drawings,in a limited edition of 400 copies whose sponsors include the poet John Hewitt, the painter Gladys Maccabe, and Jim Gracey, founder of the Blackstaff Press.

1975 HEAP a dramatic monologue written and performed by Yates at QUB Festival Fringe.

1976 SKY MADE OF STONE published by the Appletree Press, war poems and drawings. Translations in French, Danish and Russian.

1976 Paul Yates and Samuel Beckett engage in a ‘ dialogue by exchange of postcards’ between Paris and Belfast.

1976 Yates’ poetry inspires Festival of Ulster Poetry at ICA, London.

1976 Yates has first London solo exhibition at ICA, London.

1977 FRAGMENTS television script written and performed by Paul Yates for BBC 2 and published by BBC Books, abridged version published in The Listener magazine.

1977 PENTA group show at Octagon Gallery Belfast Paul Yates exhibits a photographic collage-assemblage in the form of a mock theatre and chalk drawings on floor. [ The other members of PENTA were Jack Pakenham. Malcolm Bennet, Graham Gingles and Jane Miller.]

1977 NEEDLE and BALLOON limited edition poem prints. [ N.B.This edition destroyed in the bombing of the Appletree Press premises on Dublin Road, it is thought that fewer then seven proofs survive.]

1978 Clue of Threads published by William Derraugh under Pendragon imprint.

1978 Yates reads his long poem Triptych on Western Man from Clue of Threads on BBC World Service.

1978 CATAPULT a dramatic poem published by William Derraugh under Spitfire imprint.

1989 LEVITATION AND THE UNFAITHFUL SENTRY published by ABSAagreement with The Potcheen Company. Poems and songs.

1992 Masters of the Canvas, Yates’ international award winning film collaboration with Peter Blake and Terence Donovan for BBC 2 Arena.

1994 Images of Nagasaki collage limited edition poem - print accompanied with an introduction by Peter Blake.

1995 DUNADRY BANKS limited edition poem and prints with Basil Blackshaw on behalf of UNICEF.

1998 Images of Nagasaki [Moving picture poem/ video art work.]

1999 Suite of video art works commissioned by Manako Corporation, Japan.

2000 SHAPE-SHIFTER Caffe Casa commission of painting and suite of photographic stills based around Yates’ observations of scarecrows.

2001 EAST publication of dramatic monologue based on Yates’ childhood memories of East Belfast with accompanying audio tapes performed by James Ellis.

2002 AUTUMN WINDOWS, painting commission Kings College, Cambridge.

2003 Angels Sculpture commission, Staffordshire.

2004 Art in the 60’s Tate Britain, special screening of Masters of the Canvas, with Paul Yates and Peter Blake answering questions from an invited audience afterwards.

2004 Chantrey Vellacott commission of a suite of SNOWHEAD paintings.

2004 Purchase of SNOWHEAD painting for UTV collection.

2005 Caffe Casa commission SNOWHEADS, suite of ceramic images, liquid sculpture and video art work. [ Winner Best New Café in Ireland Award.]

2005 TATTIE – BOGLE, Yates’ children’s story recorded by Gail Porter on CD.

source - http://www.tomcaldwellgallery.com/artist_display.asp?ArtistID=130

Basil Blackshaw

Born in Glengormley, Co. Antrim in 1932, he studied at the Belfast College of Art. His rural background informs much of his painting on topics such as horse-racing, dog-breeding and cock-fighting. Other subject matter includes Travellers, nudes, landscapes, and abandoned countryside buildings.

His first major exhibition was at the Donegall Place Gallery, Belfast (1952), and was followed by many group shows, including the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (1958-61, '75); Tate Museum, London (1958); and Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (1965).

Solo exhibitions include CEMA Gallery, Belfast (1956, 61); Studio 25, Belfast (1962); Northern Irish Arts Council Gallery, Belfast (1964, 74, 81, 83); Bell Gallery, Belfast (1970, 71); Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast (1973, 75, 77, 81, 85, 92); David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin (1987); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (1990).

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland organised a major retrospective of his work in 1995, which travelled from Belfast to Dublin, Cork and many galleries in the U.S. From 1986 to 1990 he also designed posters for the Field Day Theatre Company in Derry.

His many portrait commissions include Archbishop George Simms, Archbishop Armstrong, Brian Friel (for the Abbey Theatre), Jennifer Johnston, Douglas Gageby, Vincent Ferguson, Ted Hicky and Michael Longley.

source - http://www.artscouncil.ie/aosdana/biogs/visualarts/basilblackshaw.html

the written word

Paper will "promote unionist and loyalist views"
About 200 people, including loyalists, have gathered in Larne for the launch of a newspaper to "promote unionist and loyalist views". The organisers of the "Love Ulster Campaign" claim they will deliver 200,000 copies of the special edition of the Shankill Mirror across NI.
The campaign has the backing of victims' groups and loyalists. Orange Order grand master Robert Saulters said he hoped members would support the campaign. "When you look back at the victims within our institution we have grieved 304 members, and half of those weren't involved in security force work," Mr Saulters said. "I would welcome and hope that if we can get the whole Protestant, loyalist people together, that this will be given a great go because we need to stick together." Ashley Graham, whose father Kenny was murdered by the IRA in 1990, also voiced her support. "We feel the IRA have gotten away with it. They can get on with their lives but not a day goes by without us having to remember," she said."People in our situation are angry and feel something should be done."

source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4195186.stm


The SDLP has slammed a new loyalist campaign which claims the British government is about to ditch the North. The party said the so-called "Love Ulster" campaign that began today was a disgraceful attempt to spread fear and a sense of crisis.
Tens of thousands of free newspapers were delivered in unionist areas of the North today as part of the campaign against perceived nationalist dominance of the political process.The organisers of the “Love Ulster” campaign believe moves like the establishment of the Parades Commission and the disbandment of the British Army's Royal Irish Regiment are harming unionist culture.
Allister McDonnell of the SDLP described the campaign as “phoney”. He said that it was a disgrace that the Orange Order endorsed the campaign.Loyalist paramilitaries were involved in handing out today's newspapers.

source - http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=154166396&p=y54y67yxz


Newspaper Will Spread Message Ulster-Wide
A newspaper, posters and website are to be the foundation stones of the Love Ulster Campaign.It is understood that a large part of the inspiration for the initiative stems from what the organisers believe is a need to counteract republican propaganda on a global scale.They also feel that the written word is the modern weapon in the struggle between unionism and republicanism - and unionism has been losing the battle.
The first newspaper, headlined "Ulster At Crisis Point" - is 16 pages long and incorporates the views of people and groups who feel disenfranchised and under threat.It is a free paper, published by the Shankill Mirror, which will be collected by vans and cars at Larne and distributed to cities, towns and villages across the Province.It will also be available to read at http://www.loveulster.com the website will be a soapbox for ideas and a forum for debate, as well as a place offering information. These, it is envisaged, will be the building blocks for a long-term people's campaign.
A spokesman said: "The unionist community has called out for a strong, united voice and we have answered that call. This newspaper, together with http://www.loveulster.com , provides that voice free from political, social or economic influence.It is for the people, by the people and will reflect the true feeling of our community. Ulster Protestants now have a chance to speak out and let the world listen as the website is a global soapbox for our opinions, ideas and aspirations.
Both the newspaper and the website will become outlets for our culture, our history and our analysis of those things. They will unite and give unfettered voice to the stories of suffering and survival that have gone unheard for too long. They will link isolated and suffering communities across our land, bringing town and country, rich and poor together.A free Press is one of the foundations of any democracy, and we aim to defeat terrorism and the political puppeteers who permit it so that democracy may thrive in this part of the United Kingdom.Our success in this venture depends on you - the people of Ulster.The website will carry regular news and campaign updates".
The spokesman appealed to the public to "log on, register and add fuel to that vital debate".Future Province-wide issues of Shankill Mirror "will reflect the views of the Ulster people, as the current Belfast freesheet reflects the views of the Greater Shankill community".

source - http://www.newsletter.co.uk/rssstory/22327

a wealth of Irish talent

Aspects 2005

ASPECTS literary festival returns to the Heritage Centre in Bangor for its 14th consecutive year and brings a wealth of Irish talent, covering all tastes and age ranges. From razor sharp political documentary, heart felt teenage angst, languorous poetic outpourings, the best cuisine in regional Ireland, to a secret “off the beaten track” tour of our own land, then taking us as far a field to the colonial sufferings of a Native American tribe. Add to those themes, the acclaimed pedigree of the presenting artists, and a gem of a festival, with the elite of this year’s Irish literary feast, is at your doorstep.

ASPECTS 2005 opens on Wednesday 21 September at 7pm with An Evening with Dr. Garret FitzGerald. The former journalist/ politician, who turns 80 next year, will take us through the highlights of his varied and high profile career in a fascinating autobiographical talk in the perfect setting of the Council Chambers. BBC Northern Ireland’s Mark Carruthers will formally introduce Dr FitzGerald.

Another political highlight of Ireland’s only literature festival includes Belfast-born Denis Tuohy, who famously interviewed Margaret Thatcher, reading from his new memoir “Wide-Eyed in Media-land”, a compassionate and good-humoured account of his journey through our turbulent times, on Thursday 22 September at 1.15pm. Former Festival Director Kenneth Irvine introduces two Dublin-born authors later that evening at 7pm; Niall Williams, previously short-listed for the Irish Times Literature Prize, reads from “Only Say The Word”, a lyrical novel of love and literature while Ferdia MacAnna reads from his latest memoir, “The Last of the Bald Heads”, published earlier this year to great critical acclaim.

One of ASPECTS favourite poets returns in the form of Sinead Morrissey. The award-winning Armagh bard reads from her latest offering, “The State of the Prisons”, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for 2005. Billed alongside Sinead is Dennis O’Driscoll, considered one of the finest poets of our times and whose talent Seamus Heaney has acclaimed, reading from his “New and Selected Poems.” Galway based writer, Fred Johnston, introduces both poets on Thursday 22 September at 8.15pm.

More music has been introduced to the festival with local ladies Janet Holmes and Juliet Turner. Belfast-born Janet, who has recorded various sessions and concerts with UTV and BBC Radio Ulster, presents highlights from her latest country/ rock tinged cd, “The Road to the West” at her concert on Thursday 22 September at 9.30pm. Omagh-born Juliet, who has supported Bob Dylan, Sting, U2 and Bryan Adams, to name but a few, stumbled into making music and writing songs. She brings her sweet, yet quirky, sound to the Heritage centre on Saturday 24 September at 9.30pm.

On Friday 23 September an array of Irish talent will perform at a series of events throughout the day. Conservation expert, Robert Scott brings a breath of fresh air to the festival with his tribute to those who established the vast number of public parks and playing fields in Belfast at 1.15pm. North Down Heritage Centre Manager, Ian Wilson, introduces Dublin-born playwright Philip Davison, whose works have been produced by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and RTE Radio, who leads a screenwriting workshop with places limited to fifteen at 3pm. At 7pm, Martina Devlin, who appeared at ASPECTS 2004, introduces two exceptional young Dublin based novelists, Karen Gillece and John Boyne, who talk about their very different experiences of becoming writers. Trained lawyer Gillece reads from her first novel, “Seven Nights in Zaragoza”, which became a best seller in February this year, while Boyne’s strong academic links with the University of East Anglia, where he studied Creative Writing and now has a Writing Fellowship, inspired him to create his fourth work, “A Certain Abdication”, from which he reads.

Festival Consultant Paul Perry presents two award-winning poets at 8.15pm. Leanne O’Sullivan, one of poetry’s brightest new stars, shares the deeply felt personal experiences of her tender years, from her first collection, “Waiting for my Clothes”. Joseph Woods, Director of Poetry Ireland, presents from his recently published, critically acclaimed, second collection, “Bearings”. Paul Perry then rushes off to the Royal Hotel for 9.30pm on Bangor’s sea front to introduce two diverse talents performing together, finishing off Friday’s events of the Festival. Belfast performance poet, Gearóid Mac Lochlainn’s bi lingual works in Irish and English have earned him glowing critical acclaim. Gearóid performs from his new book “Rakish Paddy Blues” set to the beautiful, haunting sounds performed by 19-year-old Jarlath Henderson, a former All-Ireland Uilleann Piper. A versatile musician, Jarlath, who has both taught and performed at a number of piping festivals on television and radio, also plays classical and traditional whistle, flute and guitar.

On Saturday, events kick off with “A Ginko” nature walk led by Gilles Fabre, head of Haiku Ireland, which starts at 10.30am through the Wildlife Trail in Castle Park, Bangor. Haiku follows the ancient Japanese art of writing nature-inspired poetry. The Ginko workshop at 3pm gives participants the opportunity to discuss their creations. At 1.15pm, Éamonn Ó Catháin, creator of Ireland’s award-winning cuisine guide, “Around Ireland with a Pan – Food, Tales and Recipes”, indulges us with his mouth-watering anecdotes and the best regional Irish dishes around today.
At 4pm, Young Aspects Showcase, supported by Bloomfield Centre, gives young people the opportunity to present their own poems and stories on the main stage in the Castle Garden Room to family and friends. Intrepid climber, bi lingual writer and broadcaster, Dermot Somers, who has presented on RTE and TG4 will talk about his adventures and cultural encounters worldwide, while reading from his own writings in Irish and English at 7pm after which, poet, travel writer and reviewer Rosita Boland takes us on a journey closer to home, with readings from her new book, “A Secret Map of Ireland”.

Two well-travelled females, American born Molly McCloskey and Nigerian born Órfhlaith Foyle are invited by writer/ reviewer Evelyn Conlon to discuss their latest issues at 8.15pm. Molly’s first long novel, “Protection”, has been acclaimed as “a comic dissection of contemporary Ireland” by fellow novelist Colum McCann, while Órfhlaith’s first novel “Belois” has been described as dark, rough and funny.

On Sunday at 3pm, BBC Northern Ireland’s Seamus McKee introduces Anglo-Irish journalist/broadcaster Mary Kenny, who will discuss “Allegiances”, a dramatised account of Michael Collins’ meeting with Winston Churchill, and “Germany Calling”, a personal biography of Lord Haw-Haw. Robert Welch, University of Ulster’s Dean of Arts, formally introduces the final event on Sunday at 4.45pm, presented by esteemed columnist and drama critic, Fintan O’Toole whose fascinating new book “White Savage: Sir William Johnson and the Invention of America”, follows the story of a white fur trader who marries an Iroquois native with treacherous consequences.

Aspects Booking Office
The Heritage Centre,
Town Hall,
Bangor,
BT20 4BT
(028) 9127 1200.

source - http://www.northdown.gov.uk/news_detail.asp?id=71&area=4&aName=Council

Capture, Converge, Create

Hey ya'll. I've decided to start a separate travel blog for my month in Belfast. I probably wont have time to cross post, so if you wanna know what's going on, the address is

http://mcalka.iweb.bsu.edu/northernireland.html

source - http://www.livejournal.com/users/firesetterninja/

The summer school has participants of all ages (18 - 60+) and from varied backgrounds. Students are administrators, teachers and professors as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students and those who simply have a passion for Irish history and culture. Lectures and seminars are given by internationally-acclaimed scholars on various aspects of the study of Ireland, including history, politics, anthropology, film and theatre, language and literature. An exciting new partnership with the Seamus Heaney Centre for poetry provides students with the opportunity to take 3 days of poetry, fiction and script-writing workshops.

source - www.qub.ac.uk/iis/courses/ss-about.htm


Orangemen, Guinness, and Heaney: A month in Belfast:

From July 11th- August 7th, I will be in Belfast, Northern Ireland for my cultural immersion. This is a required component of my Master's program in Digital Storytelling at Ball State University.

Capture the power of technology.

Converge your skills with new media technology.

Create a storytelling experience like no other.

The Department of Telecommunications' master of arts in digital storytelling program lets you explore the rich process of story creation for digital media.The program prepares communication professionals to have the multidisciplinary perspectives to effectively produce and manage content for a variety of digital media.

June 2005

The packing list has been made, itineraries checked, travel guides read; I am ready to go! on July 10th I'll leave from Indy airport, fly to New York, and from there I'll fly at 8 PM to Belfast to arrive at 7:30 AM. That makes it roughly a 7 hour flight, which isnt so bad.

michelle

source - http://mcalka.iweb.bsu.edu/2005_06_01_archive.html

July 2005

Disarming, but not disbanding. I hope this works. Today was "politics in northern ireland today, which began with 3.5 hours of lecture on Irish political history 1830-1916, a discussion on the Belfast Agreement, and an overview of the various unionist vs. loyalist parties and paramilitary groups. The SLDP, UVF, LVF, PUP, IUP, UDA, UDP, DUP (not to be confused!) UUP, UPNI, UKUP, etc. It's an alphabet soup here. and that's just ONE SIDE of the conflict. The easiest way to think of it is as a bunch of mob groups.

Tomorrow may well be a historic day for NI. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) is expected to make their statement, hopefully announcing their formal disbanding and decommissioning.

Today we toured Stormont, the parliamentary capital of NI, which has currently been suspended since October 2002 by the British gov't because it didnt appear that they could get their act together. We got to meet with a DUP and Sinn Fein representative, separately, and ask questions. I resisted asking about the velocity of an unladen swallow

Yesterday was by far the best day here yet. We took a field trip up the Giant's Causeway and proceeded home via the length of the Northern Irish coast, which was just awesome. Did a good bit of hiking at the causeway, led by our 91 year old tourguide, who is the foremost geographer and geologist in the area. I hope I'm that spry when I'm old. There's something unsettling about being outpaced by a 91 year old guy. But really, the whole trip was really informative.

A bit of hame Yes, home is deliberately misspelled as "hame" in the title, in the tradition of the Ulster-Scot language. Tuesday was a trip to the Ulster American Folk Museum which was pretty interesting. It's one of those outdoor living history museums, and we were there WAY too long. It's sort of set up to mimic the emigration process.

I realized yesterday the third prong of apartheid in NI.On the surface, it seems to be about politics- those who want to join the Republic of Ireland and the Loyalists who want to stay with Britain.This happens to coincide with the religion factor; in general, Loyalists and Protestants and Catholics are Republicans. This is the cause of riots in integrated areas. I have yet to understand the role the Anglicans play, who switched from Catholicism to keep their land during the Ulster Plantation, but are really just a baby step away. The third thing worth fighting over, it seems, is football. You know, soccer, not American football. These people are nuts about football. You think Big 10 fans are bad? Anyway, football, it seems, is also directly correlated to religion and political affiliations, mostly related to the Glasgow Rangers (Protestant Loyalists) and the Celtics (Republican Catholics). In the staunchly Loyalist area that I live, I've seen many, many people with RFC (Rangers Football Club) tattoos. The rivalry is so strong that in most bars in Belfast, besides the very sectarian, it is forbidden to wear football garments of any nature. I was actually given my own rangers scarf from a couple of Scots the other night, which was nice, and I promised to wear it in America. I certainly wouldnt put it on here though. I'm trying to avoid all of that, because even wearing a sports item automatically brands one as a sectarian. Weird, isnt it? The Irish have made football something worth fighting over.

It's quite sad really, and quite fascinating how events of the 17th century are seen as COMPLETELY RELEVANT to what's going on today. At least I havent yet met anyone that liked Bush or Blair. So they've got that going for them, which is nice.

Eureka Street I just finished the novel "Eureka Street" by Robert McLiam Wilson, which was on my summer reading list for the Irish Studies program. The book was instantly likeable- tight prose, empathetic lead characters, and an amazing look at working class Belfast during the end of the Troubles. The second half of the book starts out in an incredibly disturbing fashion, and veers the story in a whole new direction, nearly losing its narrative flow. The cast of secondary characters is so large it's hard to keep track of, and I agree with some critics that the female characters are stereotyped and a bit underdeveloped. Even a secondary male character such as the abused street rat Roche are distinct and clear.Belfast is much more than a background for the story; it is the story, and this narrative could not happen anywhere else. The city tells its own story, and Jake and Chuckie, the Catholic and Protestant best friends, are really just channels for that story. I feel like I understand the city and its conflict so much better now. I'm so glad this book was recommended.Okay, so i dont love the ending. it's a little sappy. But the novel as a whole is amazing, if you're interested in Northern Ireland politics or society.

michelle

source -

http://mcalka.iweb.bsu.edu/2005_07_01_archive.html

August 2005

Back to Muncie After a frustratingly long trip across the pond and a nearly missed connection to chicago, I am back in Muncie. Oh boy, I didnt miss this place. I hate thinking of all the work I have to come back to, especially when I'm this tired. I guess it's still the jetlag. Im still processing everything that happened- but all the same, i want to write that paper while the experience is still fresh in my mind.

For now, it's back to the montony of the midwest. Not much seems to have changed while I've been gone. While I am different now, and I believe the trip was a wonderful experience.So yes, I am home, and this blog will probably not be updated anymore.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading and sharing this experience with me. Cheers!

michelle

source -

http://mcalka.iweb.bsu.edu/2005_08_01_archive.html

fighting for the rights of Norn Ireland's favourite bun

The Traybakes are on us! ...
Oh, and Morag is allowed in Free*
The Traybake Intimidation League presents
Folk Off Ulster
A Comedy Sketch Show
Belfast 27/07/05 -The Traybake Intimidation League today announced the premiere of Folk Off Ulster, its new quick-fire comedy sketch show featuring the sort of characters you hope won't sit next to you on the bus. Performances begin 8th August and run through to 20th August at 7:30pm at the newly reopened Southside Venue, 117 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh.
The Tray Bakes are a fast emerging Belfast comedy team, who having cut their teeth on home turf, now make their Edinburgh debut. Included in the cast of two men and two women is Helen Madden, who became an Ulster icon for her adroit handling of the hit children's TV show "Romper Room" at the height of the troubles.Among the characters featured are the denizens of a late night Taxi rank, where Belfast night life is laid bare and where the art of conversation is honed to bluntness.Also on stage is community poet Billy McGonagall from the mean streets of east Belfast. Words are his weapon, which leaves him unarmed in the literary jungle.The Maze prison camp has been decommissioned. Why not use it as a nudist camp? But Ulster being Ulster, will the old sectarian adages, "Not an Inch" and "What we have we hold" still apply?
Finally, if you manage to get there early enough, the audience will be rewarded with free Tray Bakes, but intriguingly, if you are called Morag and turn up at the venue you are entitled to free admission on the night.
"We have never met a Morag we didn't like and our ambition is to do a show with only women called Morag in the audience" says Tray Bake member John Bradbury.
source - http://www.traybake.co.uk./release.html

Folk off Ulster is a sketch show from the newly formed Traybake Intimidation League. After an early first run at the Old Museum Art Centre in Belfast and a fundraiser in Reno's, the troupe have hit the ground running by going straight to the Edinburgh Fringe. John Bradbury, Niall McSperrin and Peter Welsh wrote the sketches.
I was delighted to discover that the 'one hour photo lady' is Helen Madden, who for people of a certain age will always be 'Miss Helen' in the old UTV children's show, Romper Room Like all shows in this format, the sketches are a bit of hit and miss. There's the one hour photo lady who puts her own spin on 'quality control', the Belfast taxi controller, the Belfast bar, the Dutch tourists visiting the 2010 top tourist attraction - a cross-community nudist camp in the Maze, the unhelpful new Samaritans counsellor, the hostage negotiator and best of all, Billy McGonagall (Robert McGregor), the Poet to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Billy's doggerel makes you cringe, squirm and laugh as he addresses the Phoenix Women's Centre and a George Best testimonial at the Cregagh Leisure Centre. Not too much emphasis on the Ulster troubles either.
Sadly, the company's intention to distribute free traybakes to the punters had to be scrapped owning to health and safety regulations. They might have contained nuts! This setback notwithstanding, it was great stuff! The Hole in the Wall Gang may look to their laurels as the new kids on the block have arrived.
Cast: Robert McGregor, Darren Leckey, Dawn Mullen, Helen Madden.
Writers: John Bradbury, Niall McSperrin, Peter Welsh.
Reviewed by David Kerr

source -http://www.altculture.org/ccult/ccult608.html


John Bradbury is a tutor, journalist, charity fundraiser and author. His most recent work is "Celebrated Citizens of Belfast". John writes a column on business matters in the locally distributed Community Telegraph and has written, produced and directed radio programs



Niall McSperrin is a solicitor with an interest in creative writing and screenplay. He is a judicial assistant in the Northern Ireland Court Service




Peter Welsh is a qualified solicitor who after twenty years as a solicitor has decided to seek new challenges. Among his many irons in the fire, he is in demand as an after dinner speaker where his command of one liners ensures a memorable evening


source - http://www.traybake.co.uk./trakbakewriters.html

The new rude, crude Miss HelenHelen Madden ('50 plus and old enough for you to know not to ask') a mother of two, from Holywood is known to Ulster children of the 1970s as Miss Helen from the Romper Room. Currently appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe in a comedy written by the Traybake Intimidation League, she tells Judith Cole about Do Bees, living with MS and why she became a humanist celebrant

17 August 2005

So, Helen, I see you're fighting for the rights of Norn Ireland's favourite bun by joining the Traybake Intimidation League. Do you get together and plan pro-bun marches? Er, no. It is a creative team formed just over a year ago which concentrates on a number of writing projects, the current one being 'Folk Off Ulster', a sketch show about characters you wouldn't want to meet on a bus.The writers John Bradbury, Niall McSperrin and Peter Welsh knew me from Miss Helen days and asked me to join their team. I laughed at the name and thought it sounded fun. It was also an opportunity to participate in a very funny sketch show and, not only that, but take it to the Edinburgh Fringe. We've had a lot of help from our sponsors BuzzUK.com, an international recruitment agency.An Ulster sketch show.

We've seen that before... Humour in Northern Ireland is often full of clichés but our show is not. It's like Cheers or Frasier and what the people like about the show is that there isn't a cliché in it. The humour, while locally-based, has a universal appeal. Us four actors play out scenes in a bar, a courtroom or taxi rank, and create comedy. The show started off as a small but perfectly formed 15-minute sketch at the Old Museum Arts Centre in Belfast last year and was very well received so we decided to take it further. We had another successful night in June at Reno's, also in Belfast - the place was packed out with our friends so we were wondering how it would go down in Edinburgh. We needn't have worried: the venue was full and we got a wonderful reception. Afterwards, we gave out sheets to the audience to see what their reaction was and they all loved it. Two guys from New York were in the audience on the first night and they said we were funnier than the New York Comedy Store.

Tell us about your character? One of the characters I play is a very pass-remarkable lady who works in a photograph development shop and says things about customers' photos you wouldn't want to hear like, "Love, there's a spot on that photograph there, just at your thigh. Oh, sorry, that's your cellulite." She's always on about quaaality control, quaaality control, and won't let a photograph out of her 'shap' until she's 'chacked' it. Another character is a Dutch tourist who gets to go to the Maze prison which, after so much discussion about what to do with it, has been turned into a nudist camp. I get to be rude, crude and socially unacceptable, which is probably why I enjoy it so much.

You're so cool, performing at the Fringe. It is such fun. It's also interesting that, while a lot of people in Edinburgh are young student types, we are a mature group. So much entertainment today is aimed at youth and here we are with a very funny show. It has been a new lease of life for all of us. This is the first time I've been to the Fringe. My children and my friends have been, so I'm delighted I've finally made it. It's wonderful and I think the only way to do the Fringe is to become part of it.

But acting is only one aspect of your trip. What else have you been doing? We are standing on the Royal Mile every day handing out flyers, persuading people to come to our show. So as you can see, we're a multi-talented acting-marketing team. Also, we have to get in and out of our venue in five minutes as there are acts on before and after. When we arrived we said to each other, "Why are we not sitting at home in Belfast having a cup of coffee and watching the world go by?" But we wouldn't miss it for anything.

You're doing more acting now than ever. How much are you enjoying it? When I was young and a student I didn't want to take the risk and do acting full-time as I was worried about not making a living, but now I just don't care! Once I stopped caring, all these lovely parts started arriving on my doorstep. It's very encouraging and I'm also very touched that I'm being offered this work .I did a short film with the Belfast Film Council recently called Wake, written by Graine McGuinness and directed by Stephen Pettigrew. And I was on the inaugural tour of the Marie Jones play Women on the Verge of HRT, which was a really great experience and very character-building.Many great moments, then.

What has been the highlight of your acting life? When I was young, it was probably winning actress of the year after studying drama at Stranmillis and then teaching for two years. Through that I got into radio and television.I was offered the job in UTV's Romper Room and I wondered whether to take it or go for acting, but I made the decision then to take the TV job. Sometimes if you wait you get what you really want in life. I'm acting now and, although it is many years down the line, dreams do come true.And now that I'm older the highlight comes every night when you recreate your character. It might be the way you do a sketch which makes someone laugh and you get wonderful satisfaction. The joy is in just turning up, doing your job, having a job to do and being part of a creative team. I'm grateful and very fortunate to have it.

You'll always be Miss Helen to your fans, though. People still recognise me from Miss Helen days - just the other day I was on the Royal Mile when a woman came up to me and said, "I know you, you're Miss Helen." When I told her I was doing a show called Folk Off Ulster the blood drained from her face. But I persuaded her to come along. I would love anyone coming to Edinburgh to speak to me after the show - I love meeting former Do Bees (it was a hand puppet song).

Tell us some of your greatest memories from your Romper Room days. What stands out is doing the programme through some of the worst days of The troubles including Bloody Friday and the UWC strike. Not only did I turn up but the children turned up with their parents and somehow we managed it. There weren't many children's TV programmes then and we provided a bit of normality in the middle of all that was going on.It's lovely when people tell me they remember me with such fondness. Just before my mother died she said, "Don't knock it Helen, you could be known for worse."The day the rabbit died was a memorable one. We had an animal in every week and on this particular day I said to the children, "Let's go and see the bunny rabbit," and I could hear the cameraman giving orders for no close-ups on the rabbit. The rabbit had died. I lifted it up and the children, standing there with their carrots, were saying, "He's not hungry, Miss Helen." I said, "Oh, he's sleeping" and I put him down in the pen and took the children to the other side of the studio.

Singing was a highlight of the show... Because internment was going on at the time I had to check if the children's parents had been lifted and put inside. One day I asked if anyone would like to sing and one little boy said he had a song called 'The men behind the wire'. I said, "I don't think we know that one, let's sing Mary had a little lamb." The little boy looked hurt - but he obviously didn't know the point his song was making. I had to keep my integrity with him, so I asked him to sing for me when the programme finished. But I was so angry at his mother. It was very shabby to use a child in that way. On the whole it was wonderful. I always asked the children to bring something along that they wanted to talk about, and one little boy brought his granny. We had her in the show, too!

Tell us some of your other achievements. I've done a lot of broadcasting work over the years, including being one of the first presenters on Radio Five. I'm an accredited celebrant - the first in Northern Ireland (now there are three of us) - for the British Humanist Association. I do weddings and funerals for people who want a secular service. I went to a humanist funeral in London and thought it was a good way of marking someone's death, so I trained. I've done children's funerals and I still do lots in Northern Ireland even though people are more religious here. My background is Church of Ireland but my work as a humanist is not a rejection of this, I just thought it was important to offer people this service. I have studied cognitive therapy and am a qualified adult literacy tutor. I was teaching at the East Antrim Institute of Further and Higher Education until recently, but now I'm hoping my agent will get me more acting work! It's important to have all these other skills to use when there's no acting work.

In 1978 you were diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. How has that affected your life? It was a deep shock, as I was very young at the time. I remember waking up one day with blurry vision and strange sensations in my limbs. It was very scary. I don't really think about it - it doesn't affect me on a daily basis. I have developed an attitude to just get on with life. My motto is carpe diem: seize the moment. I'm very careful about what I eat - lots of fresh food - and I do a lot of exercise, including the London to Brighton cycle race. And I intend to keep working until I'm 110!

Have you anything specific lined up for the future? We'd also love to take Folk Off Ulster on to who knows where: big oak trees from little acorns grow... The Edinburgh International Film Festival runs until August 25, so we're hoping Martin Scorsese will breeze in and sign us up. You just never know - I think there's a hit TV series in there!

Judith Cole

source - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=657202

N.Irish Professor making a "Rackett" in Chicago

It's a well-known fact that Princeton boasts an impressive faculty roster, but most students never stop to think of their professors' extracurricular lives. Professors' fun doesn't end when the stack of papers is graded. Two very distinguished Princeton professors, Paul Muldoon and Nigel Smith, recently decided to eschew the mundane and turn their mutual love of music into a rock and roll band. The result? Rackett, a rocking six-member band dedicated to, as Smith says, "straight up rock and roll".
Smith and Muldoon met and became friends while both were teaching at Oxford, but neither considered creating music together until Smith joined Princeton's faculty in 1999. From its origins in the gothic halls of Oxford and Princeton, Rackett has been branching out to new audiences. The band hopes to produce a CD sometime next year.
Before forming Rackett, Smith, the band's bassist and vocalist, and Muldoon, guitarist and songwriter, had previous experience composing music and lyrics. While Muldoon had collaborated with late songwriter and composer Warren Zevon on numerous projects, Smith, in his youth, "was a member of several local bands in North London." The two soon realized that a band needed more than a guitar and vocals. In addition to Smith, an English professor and Chair of the Renaissance Studies Committee, and Muldoon, Pulitzer Prizewinning poet and Creative Writing professor, the band soon grew to include two Harvard graduates, Henry Rich and Eric Lybeck, founders of mint company Oral Fixation Mints; Beckman Rich, Associate Legal Counsel for Rutgers University; and Paul Grimstad, an NYU graduate student.
Rackett, with its impressive roster, is not your ordinary garage band."It's pretty amazing to be able to sing lyrics written by a Pulitzer Prizewinning poet, which are some of the best rock lyrics ever written," vocalist Rich said."While the lyrics aren't as intellectually complex as his verse, they're full of ideas and quirky, interesting perceptions. They're quite sophisticated as rock lyrics go," Smith added.
While Muldoon's lyrics differ from his poetry, Muldoon's literary background certainly surfaces in his songs. "In one of our songs," Smith said, "the first line includes a reference to King Lear, and I'm not quite sure what it's doing there, probably because we were talking about King Lear when the lyrics were being written . . . [Paul's] songs often work by fusing two landscapes, which creates an energy in their collision. Something that brings the speaker's world together with something from a world outside is a powerful facet of creativity in literature that both Paul and I recognize."Muldoon himself found songwriting to be a very different process from composing poetry. "It's much harder to write songs," Muldoon said, "as songs have a consistent structure that one must stick to." But he contends that the lyrics, as good as they are, can't stand on their own: "Songs are not just poems set to music. Poems have their own music, but lyrics need music to bring them into being."Lybeck, the band's drummer agreed, "Rackett is a band where everyone's supposed to fit together, but no one really stands out. That's the best way to service the lyrics."
While Rackett's catchy music, composed mostly by Smith, is reminiscent of 60s and 70s bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who and Cream, Smith also cites roots music as "an inspiration. Country, rhythm and blues, Jimi Hendrix, black funk, it all sort of comes through in the music, whether I immediately recognize it or not."Rackett's wide range of influences contributes to the music's universal appeal. "One of the great things about this band is the huge range of interest and experience that the others bring to the table," Muldoon said. While Rackett is undoubtedly a 'scholarly' band, its members try to conjure a communal appreciation for the music, regardless of the audience's academic background. "Our music doesn't really fit into a niche," Lybeck said, "and we try to make our music accessible by making it catchy and good." But he acknowledges, "While Paul's lyrics tend to attract an academic crowd who might be able to fully appreciate his talent, we don't really have a target audience. We just want people to enjoy the music."Smith emphasized Rackett's dedication to rock, "If [our music] doesn't make you want to jump up and down, we're not going to do it."When it comes down to it, it's only rock n' roll, and we like it.

source - http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/12/02/arts/11615.shtml

PAUL MULDOON is primarily the lyric writer for RACKETT, though he seems more and more to be getting the hang of a reissue butterscotch Telecaster and a butterscotch maraca, also reissue, which he often shakes at inappropriate times. He plays only 3-car garage rock.

source - http://www.rackett.org/about.html

Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Paul Muldoon Reads, Performs With his Band Rackett

for Poetry Center of Chicago, Sept. 7

The Poetry Center presents Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize winning poet, performing with his band Rackett on Wednesday, September 7th, at 6:30 p.m., in the Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, located at 112 South Michigan Avenue. Muldoon will also read his poetry.

Born in Northern Ireland, Paul Muldoon has written songs for Bruce Springsteen and other musicians. Rackett includes Muldoon as songwriter and guitarist, Muldoon's fellow Princeton Professor Nigel Smith on bass and vocals, two Harvard graduates, a legal counsel for Rutgers University, and an NYU graduate student. Rackett is currently at work on their first CD.

The Times Literary Supplement called Muldoon "the most significant English-language poet born since World War II." Muldoon is author of twenty-seven poetry books, including Moy Sand and Gravel, which received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. He recently edited the 2005 Best American Poetry with David Lehman.

A benefit reception with Rackett and Muldoon will follow the reading. Proceeds will support Poetry Center programs, including Hands on Stanzas, a poets-in-residence program in inner-city public schools that served more than 15,000 youth last year.

A limited-edition fine art print (broadside) published by The Poetry Center and featuring a poem by Muldoon and image by Dessa Kirk will be available for purchase at The Poetry Center.

Kirk's sculpture, "Daphne Garden" is on display at the corner of Michigan and Roosevelt as part of Chicago's Art in the Garden Project.

EVENT DETAILS: Tickets are $10 for the general public, and free for Poetry Center members. Visit http://www.poetrycenter.org/ to link to TicketWeb, or call 866-468-3401. Doors open at 6 p.m. for general admission seating. The benefit reception begins at 8:30 p.m. $20/person includes food and drinks. Call 312-629-9171 or email sstephenson@poetrycenter.org to RSVP in advance.

ABOUT THE POETRY CENTER'S READING SERIES: Now in its thirty- third year, the award-winning Poetry Center of Chicago presents monthly readings by emerging nationally and internationally recognized poets, writers and musicians. The Hands on Stanzas poets-in-residence program is one of the largest long-term arts education programs in Chicago.

source - http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=51855

She did not need to write a book to earn an honoured place in Anglo-Irish history.

Mo Mowlam alongside her giant portrait which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. The ex-MP jokingly described the painting by war artist John Keane as "crap". She then corrected herself to say "he got me very well". Her jibe summed up her refreshing approach to life and politics.
Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, who played a leading role in the province's peace process, died in a hospice south of London today at the age of 55.

"Mo Mowlam passed away today at 8.10 a.m.," said a spokesman for her family.Mowlam, a popular and outspoken character, served in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government for four years from 1997 after recovering from a brain tumour.Before stepping down from politics in 2001, she topped a poll as the public's choice to succeed Blair as prime minister.Blair shifted her from Northern Ireland Secretary in 1999 to a lesser ministerial job. Her latter period in government was marred by a series of anonymous briefings against her.
In the run-up to the Labour party's 1997 election victory, Mowlam told only her husband and Blair about her condition, only going public when a newspaper began commenting on her weight gain and haggard appearance.
Once in government, she took the high-risk step of visiting hardened pro-British paramilitaries in the province's notorious Maze prison in the run-up to 1998's Good Friday Peace agreement in Northern Ireland.She persuaded them to back the peace process, aimed at ending 30 years of sectarian strife.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said news of Mowlam's death would be met with sadness by all who knew her."Mo Mowlam worked tirelessly in the negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement," he said. "As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland she was prepared to take risks for the peace process, risks to secure agreement and risks to implement it."
Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, told Sky Television: "She was a larger than life figure. She was not the stuffy type of traditional Cabinet minister."

source - http://today.reuters.co.uk/news

A proconsul with a style all of her own

Moya St Leger reviews Momentum by Mo Mowlam

MO MOWLAM gave up smoking in 1996. Her account of her life from this point through her time as secretary of state for Northern Ireland to the present day is written in such an unpretentious, chatty way, one could be forgiven for forgetting she was undeniably the most effective Northern Ireland secretary in the history of that troubled statelet.

Mowlam talks openly about her tumour. At no point does she complain or indulge in self-pity, so the person who begins to emerge after a couple of chapters is one hell of a gutsy lady.The courage and tenacity she displayed during her illness was to stand her in good stead later in Northern Ireland.Mowlam is not a gifted writer, but writing is not her calling.

Even if her prose falls short of sparkling, the Northern Ireland peace process is sufficiently momentous historically to need recording in her authentic voice.Describing her political frustrations, the delays engineered by civil servants at the Northern Ireland Office, and the intransigence of the usual suspects in the ongoing pantomime that is Northern Ireland politics, she never becomes morose.Despite all the obstacles Mowlam achieved the impossible -- the setting up of crucial discussions which brought parties into one room who had never before sat together at the same table.Mowlam's cheerful anecdotal style tends to sell her achievements short. No other Northern Ireland secretary would have been willing to meet the prisoners in the Kesh, or go in person to sit down with the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition -- taking with her a Chinese takeaway.Her sympathies become apparent, and her impatience with Ian Paisley is not masked by humour: "helpful as ever, Ian Paisley addressed a rally in Portadown".

The manner of her demise was disgraceful but she does allow herself a little space to express her dislike of Peter Mandelson: "it was clear that Peter was up "to his old tricks". Replacing the golden Mo with Mandelson was, in the eyes of ordinary members of the Labour party, the biggest single political mistake Tony Blair has made to date. The dismal failure of Mandelson as her successor was predictable.Mowlam cared about Northern Ireland.

She did not need to write this book to earn an honoured place in Anglo-Irish history.

source - http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/reviews/mowlam-biog/

Better the Mo we know
She's a fine woman who could have made it to Downing Street. But in her autobiography, Momentum, Mo Mowlam sells herself short

Sunday May 5, 2002

The Observer

Momentum - Mo Mowlam

The fundamental - and fundamentally vicious - rules of autobiography apply. Ex-politicians who write their memoirs have no future favours left to dispense or secrets to impart: so they can be slagged off with impunity. Ex-Labour ministers who sell their extracts to the Daily Mail are still worse placed: nobody - a green-eyed £350,000 later - loves them.Lord Hattersley, of course, complains about a lack of socialist ideology. Feminists complain about an unseemly truckling (to males) in pursuit of base ambition. Blair loyalists gripe at the monstrous ingratitude of it all. The Torygraph, seeing a saint fallen on hard times, puts on its sharkskin bovver boots.

Suddenly, nobody loves Mo Mowlam. She gets the worst drubbing of her career.Is that fair? Well - ahem - not exactly lacking in fairness. Some ex-luminaries, like Michael Heseltine, are brilliant at speaking but pretty leaden at stringing sentences together on paper. Some, like Salman Rushdie, can produce wonderful prose, but only unwonderful drone in front of an audience. Mowlam - stuck with a word processor and no-one to hug - is even more direly placed.

The Mo we know, the folk heroine of the Good Friday agreement, the doughty battler against brain tumours, is great at touching and feeling and empathy: but, on this evidence at least, she'd be hard pushed to pen a decent travel brochure.'The opportunity to live in a castle (Hillsborough) that is the Queen's official residence was a great experience and one I will never forget.' When Prince Charles and Kiri Te Kanawa come to stay, we have 'an enjoyable and relaxed dinner... and we all three chat about everything under the sun'. Chitter-chatter. So summer turns to autumn. Leaves fall. Christmas comes with cards for Charles and Camilla.

Then spring brings renewal and the great wheel of banality spins again as Mo keeps 'moving forward'. Mo-mentum, geddit? She pursues it with panting enthusiasm. Somebody seems to have put her off moving back.Nor is the politics on offer much more inspiring. The Mail, of course, was switched on by her tales of cold-hearted double dealing at the heart of New Labour; but this turns out to be thin, egocentric stuff.

Her relationship with Alastair Campbell has 'ups and downs' - though not enough of them to help her to spell his name properly.She wants to stay longer in Northern Ireland (so she can go on moving forward) but Tony, keen on movement himself, wants to use her as a star reshuffle asset. Health? Education? Mayor of London? Such succulent offers are quaintly brushed aside because Mo fancies herself as the new Geoff Hoon, or even Jack Straw. She settles instead for a chair in the Cabinet Office co-ordinating things like drugs policy and going on fact-finding trips to Jamaica. Is this a 'non-job'? Has Tony, envious of her popularity, shafted her? Have the 'young, arrogant set in Downing Street' been guilty of sexism as well as duplicity?It is all, alas, rather pathetic as well as self-serving. What, pray, is sexist about offering a hugely popular minister (in Belfast, where coming elections aren't won) the helm of the vital NHS - or Education, Education, Education? Why, if Tony is such a beast, is he constantly tossing bargain offers Mo's way? Why doesn't she see that Hillsborough - for any London government - is a middle-range posting which wins few votes and only develops real momentum when the PM himself is on site, sweating for peace?

There are some nice moments in Mowlam's notebook. I like Ian Paisley complaining to her husband that the Secretary of State is drinking too much of the 'devil's buttermilk' (otherwise whiskey). I particularly like the story of the night hubby stayed alone in their London safe house, to be woken at dawn, stark naked, by seven coppers waving shields and automatic rifles. And who are you, sir? 'I live here.' Can you prove that, sir? Here's a passport. Oh...! It must be a false alarm, sir. Exit sheepish security posse (probably to see if they could spot Osama bin Laden somewhere up the Edgware Road).So the pages turn, sometimes with enjoyment.

No amount of study, however, quite answers the crucial question. We leave Dr Mowlam in semi-retirement, knitting, doing jigsaws, planning to help disabled children in 'Mo-Mo homes'. Was she really the next PM but one? Was she truly such a political force? And the answer, lest we forget, is mostly 'yes'. Mo, through the early 1990s, was dynamite; good at detail, long on charm. She did battle her tumour with rare fortitude. She did win hearts and golden opinions. It's just that Mo on Mo, in her own words, sells this finer, feistier Mo terribly short.That's another fundamental about autobiography. Some people shouldn't even think of writing them.

Peter Preston

source - http://politics.guardian.co.uk/bookshelf/story/0,9061,710497,00.html

Been Reading:

THE T.S. REVIEW
Literary news, reviews, poetry and observations brought to you by Todd Swift: poet, writer, editor and cultural strategist based in London
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Been Reading: The State of the Prisons
Sinead Morrissey was born in Portadown in 1972 and read English and German at Trinity College, Dublin, from which she took her PhD in 2003. In 1990 she received the Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry and in 1996 she won an Eric Gregory Award for the manuscript of her first book, There was Fire in Vancouver (Carcanet, 1996). Her second book, Between Here and There (2002) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Award. She lived and worked in Japan and New Zealand and now lives in Northern Ireland, where she has been writer-in-residence at Queen's University, Belfast. Her most recent collection, The State of the Prisons, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

From time to time, I'll be leaving notes, comments, and very brief reviews here, regarding collections of poetry I am currently reading - very unofficial and not at all meant to summarize or in fact review at all. The first in this occasional series is The State of the Prisons, by Sinead Morrissey (see above).

I haven't finished the collection - I love to dip and swoon in and out of a poetry book like a ladle into water - but have enjoyed several of the shorter poems, especially. I recognize the poem "In Praise of Salt" from the anthology I edited for Salt (100 Poets Against The War) of course (and wonder where the acknowledgement for that is, but never mind) - but to my mind the three finest poems in the book (so far, for me) are:"Genetics""Migraine"and"Zero"

Morrissey has a very good way with incorporating the body (or bodies) in to history, and vice versa. She's somewhat famous for her historical, sensuous eye, in fact - she makes inventories you can live with, surveys that vivify old ground.
In "Migraine" the Russian hostage stand-off in the theatre we all remember, which ended so badly, begins, for one hostage, with a migraine - their own body taking control of them, doing damage - so you get a Russian doll of pain.
"Genetics" covers what might be already a trope stretched too thin - how many DNA poems can any one actually need? - but has the exceptional last line: "We know our parents make us by our hands" which has something of the lasting quality we expect in the very best poetry written in the Hardy-Larkin line.
"Zero" seems to me to be even better than these seriously good poems, though - a poem that, as far as mainstream Irish and British writing goes, seems destined to be representative of the dates 2000-2010. That it is, it's a poem of the decade. Why? Well, the conceit is delightful and compact - Alexander is bringing "zero" to the Greeks - and the poem works this out - "this number / no-number would eat the world" - in ways both colourful and intelligent - it's wit on the move. It is also a relief to see someone Irish redeem Alexander after the woeful Colin Farrell murdered the man with his bleached portrait in the eponymous Stone film of late (I loved JFK).

I have just spotted another poem in the book I want to read; "Gobi from the Air".But, I can be lazy traveller in reading - stopping and starting as I please - so I'll save it for another day.

Morrissey's collection is worth the effort required to cross the sands, and is certainly a contender for this year's incoming T.S. Eliot Awards to be held in London.
Todd Swift

Todd Swift was born in Montreal in 1966 but has lived in Europe (Budapest, Paris and now London) for much of the past decade. He is the author of three collections of poems, most recently Rue du Regard; and an editor of five international poetry anthologies. He is poetry editor of online journal Nthposition, and recently guest-edited the special section "The New Canadian Poetry" for the 2005 issue of New American Writing. He is the Oxfam Poet in Residence and a Tutor at London's Poetry School.

source - http://toddswift.blogspot.com/2005/08/been-reading-state-of-prisons.html

the top of my to-read pile

'A brilliant debut...'
Nicola Jeal, The Observer OFM

'Everybody should read this book before they die...'
Dylan Jones, GQ Magazine

'A pacy read...'
Daily Mirror

source - http://www.indiego.co.uk/reviews_jakes_eulogy.asp

Birthday launch for tale with an Ulster twist
Graphic designer Nick Cann was celebrating his 46th birthday today correct by having his first book published.And the Londoner who settled here 17 years ago will be signing copies of Jake's Eulogy (Indiego £6.99) in Easons of Donegall Place on Saturday .
It's the story of what happens after Ulsterman Jake drinks himself to death in Brighton and plans are made to have him brought home to be laid to rest. "His friend Charlie Clarke has to give the eulogy and rings all Jake's acquaintances and close mates to find out more about him," says Cann. "He discovers that there is more to Jake than he thought and that the dead man has been leading a double life."
The story of Jake so impressed Richard Gibson, the 37-year-old proprietor of the Smith and Gibson handmade shirt shop in Belfast and his girlfriend Selina Holland, ex-Christies, that they decided to launch Indiego to publish the book. Selina said: "It's a black comedy and one of our friends, after seeing a proof, described it as the story everyone should read before they die."
The story of Jake becomes more complicated when his body is accidentally switched at the morgue with that of an elderly gent who died at the same time. And the wrong remains are shipped to his home town of Cloverock, Co Londonderry.
Cann, a father of two who once worked as a designer in Fleet Street, added: "Cloverock is really Maghera, a place I know well and there are little bits of various people around Maghera in the story."I enjoyed writing Jake's Eulogy so much that I've nearly finished the sequel."
Trevor Foster, deputy manager at Easons said today: "We don't usually have unknown writers in for a signing, but this book is an exceptional read."
Eddie McIlwaine

source - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=656321

photo by Teresa

Nick Cann was born in South West London in 1959.He is half Welsh, half English and an Irish citizen. Since 1981 he has worked primarily as a magazine and newspaper designer. In 1989 he moved to live in Northern Ireland where he works as a journalist and editorial design consultant. Jake’s Eulogy is his first published novel.

source - http://www.indiego.co.uk/theauthor.asp

Bookring for Jake's Eulogy by Nick Cann
This is my first attempt at a bookring, so here goes....!
Debut novel, signed copy (which is why I want to make it a book ring) when author was at my local bookshop.
Charlie Clarke has been asked to give a eulogy at the funeral of an old college friend, Jake McCullough. Problem: they have had no contact for years and Clarke has nothing to say. In researching his friend's recent past Clarke discovers that Jake has been living a double life...
Jake's Eulogy is a black comedy- a chaotic journey which starts on the south coast of England and follows a winding path to Northern Ireland and back. Along the way come the distractions of lust, hard drinking and dark secrets- all mixed with a cocktail of confusion, mayhem and madness. Nick's website is http://www.indiego.co.uk

peaceangel

source - http://bookcrossing.com/forum/20/2532143/subj_-Bookring-for-Jakes-Eulogy-by-Nick-Cann

YepI have the book at the moment; it's gone to the top of my to-read pile so it'll soon be ready for the next person.
InvisibleAng

source - http://bookcrossing.com/forum/20/2552254/subj_-Yep

'Jake' read at meetup by author
Nick came along to our meetup and read the first chapter of this book to the group, and was received with applause. It was funny and sad, but the rest of the book is even better and I'll not spoil it for anyone! Just add your name and Ang will send it to you.
peaceangel

source - http://bookcrossing.com/forum/20/2552809/subj_-Jake-read-at-meetup-by-author

Yes, I read it and its very funny - dark sort of humour.
Norah

source - http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/bookcrossingni/message/125


I've just finished Jake's Eulogy and loved it - the copy I read is Norah's book ring copy, so if anyone else would like to have it next, please add your name to the thread for it in the forum on BC:

http://bookcrossing.com/forum/20/2552254/3/subj_-Bookring-for-Jakes-Eulogy-by-Nick-Cann

Rem and I got to the signing in Eason in Belfast on Saturday, and though they had him in a rather inobvious spot, Nick was very chirpy and managing to attract the attention of various shoppers, a good few of whom who went off happily with signed books. He also said he's trying to get a local radio interview spot, so hopefully that'll add to the attention the book is getting.
Noticing a review of it in Saturday's Belfast Telegraph got me thinking about how once you're aware of a book, references to it jump out at you from everywhere
Ang

source - http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/bookcrossingni/message/129

Giving a eulogy at a funeral is on a par with giving the best man's speech at a wedding - it's difficult to hit the right note. At least that's what Charlie Clarke thinks when he's asked to speak at the funeral of his old college friend Jake McCullough. The pair haven't been close for years, and Charlie has plenty of gaps to fill in. There's the small matter of Jake's death - after a massive drinking bout in a hotel room shortly after winning a literary award.No-one seems to know quite what was going through Jake's mind when he ordered up two crates of liquor and a box of assorted crisps, before settling down to drink himself to death. His wife Catherine knew things had been a bit difficult between them, and that Jake had seemed uneasy in his new role as loving husband and father.His best friend Ned is keeping quiet about recent events in Jake's life, and concentrating instead on comforting Catherine. And Jake's family back home in Derry seem bemused - his sister Sinead is convinced he'd been leading a double life. The funny, wise-cracking facade had covered a much darker interior.
Nick Cann's debut novel seeks to explore the hidden, inner life of his hero, as Charlie turns detective in trying to discover as much as he can about his dead friend. But he knows as little as the reader, who only meets Jake in the first chapter, as he's cracking open the Veuve Clicquot and toasting his success as a children's author. He seems a decent kind of guy - funny, self-deprecating, a little melancholy. But the secrets hidden behind his gleaming white grin are enough to set him on the road to self-destruction.He calculates how much drink he'll need to consume to kill himself; orders it in, switches on the racing on telly and settles back with a packet of crisps and a large glass of vodka.
Cann has created a likeable hero in Jake - and it's a shame he doesn't hang around a little longer. His ghost hovers over the rest of the novel, as Charlie endeavours to find the man behind the mask. But he's the one character the reader hopes will return, Houdini-like, before the final chapter. Cann's characters travel from England to Northern Ireland in this black comedy, and on the way they're tripped up by lust, drinking and a lot of confusion. There are a lot of laughs along the way, and some inventive comedy - the idea of the Houston Seventh Day Tabernacle Gospel Choir turning up at a funeral in Inishowen, for example.
Jake's Eulogy is a promising debut from a writer confident of his abilities, whose laidback literary style will appeal to readers. There'll be a lot more from this author in the future. I'd like to have spent a little more time with Jake, all the same.
Grania McFadden

source - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/special_interest/story.jsp?story=656676

After the revolution

Nationalist revolutionaries often find themselves in strange company. Nation-alist movements are usually coalitions of radically divergent social classes and political opinions glued together for as long as "the Struggle" continues. When that struggle faces its end point, be that defeat, victory or (more usually) compromise, the glue cracks and things fall apart.
What is remarkable about the Provisional Republican movement is that it has remained relatively united over the past two decades, while its leadership has dragged it from terrorist pariahs to power sharing with unionists, with the blessing of Tony Blair. Since the IRA given its P45 by its own leadership on July 27, what will Irish republicans do with the exclusively democratic means that they tell us they now embrace? Are they still committed to a 32-county socialist republic? Or are they going to continue to steal the clothes of their main electoral rival in Northern Ireland, the Social Democratic and Labour Party? Will they become the North's answer to Fianna Fail, the natural party of government that evolved from the losing side in the Irish Civil War of 1922-23? Sean Lemass, an IRA leader from 1916 who became Irish Taoiseach in the 1960s, once described his Fianna Fail as "a slightly constitutional party". Is that the future for Sinn Fein?
In Sinn Fein and the SDLP, British historians Gerard Murray and Jonathan Tonge trace the evolution of Sinn Fein and the IRA's ideas as to what their Republic might look like. Taking a long view of Northern Irish nationalist politics, and maintaining a factual rather than sectarian stance, the authors concentrate on the political wing of the movement. Their narrative starts in the 1960s, when the old nationalist tactic of abstensionism was abandoned in favour of the street politics of the civil rights movement and its political expression, the constitutional nationalism of the SDLP.
Republicanism split into Officials and Provisionals, and concentrated its energies into "armed struggle". Murray and Tonge quote the Provo weekly, Republican News, acknowledging "the political impotence and subordinate position of Sinn Fein" to the IRA in 1971. The article continued: "Here in Belfast, Sinn Fein appears to be its own worst enemy. Instead of being seen as an efficient and effective machine providing the political leadership, it seems content to sit and bask in the reflected glory of the military wing of the movement."
In the 1970s there was little discussion of social policy. The shift in strategy occurred as the older leadership based in the South was elbowed aside by the younger generation from the North in the 1980s. Most were teenagers during the mayhem of the late 1960s, who saw (and see) their primary function as defenders of their community. These were harder men, but ultimately more pragmatic. Gerry Adams may have blood ancestors among earlier generations of rebels, but most, such as Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly, had no such family history. It becomes clear from the narrative that what made them angry and ruthless in the 1970s also made them amenable to compromise in the 1990s. If that means ensuring that their voice is best heard in the corridors of Stormont and (eventually) Westminster, so be it.
Murray and Tonge chart the political rise of Sinn Fein at the expense of the SDLP. The roots of Sinn Fein's policy to overtake the SDLP as the chief political representatives for the northern minority community can be traced back to the early 1980s. The risk that John Hume, SDLP leader, took to talk with Gerry Adams and bring the Provos in from the cold may have paid dividends to society in the form of the peace process and to Hume personally in the shape of the Nobel peace prize. But it weakened the SDLP.
One problem the SDLP faced, write Murray and Tonge, was that although the Good Friday Agreement could be viewed as predominantly an SDLP accord, the nationalist electorate did not see the party as the most appropriate defender of its interests in the new political dispensation. Sinn Fein was seen as the party more likely to ensure full implementation of the Agreement.
The growing dominance of Sinn Fein is a theme of both this book and French historian Agnes Maillot's New Sinn Fein. Both argue that Sinn Fein has good political strategists and committed political workers but lacks smart policy works. As Murray and Tonge say: "The SDLP looked increasingly old and middle class, lacking radical zeal." The consequence of this, and a similar process among the unionist parties, is the dominance of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein in recent elections.But the authors argue that Sinn Fein has moved towards a civic republicanism and away from an "ethnic republicanism", which assumed a homogeneity of identity across the island. It is Maillot who points out Sinn Fein's quandary: "Republicans see it as fundamental that they succeed in remaining as true to their radical roots as possible while not confining themselves to the margins." The crucial indicator, she adds, will be next year's elections in the Irish Republic, which will reveal whether Sinn Fein's support has reached its limit.
Their main electoral problem has been the elephant in its corner: as long as the IRA was around - robbing banks and trying to cover up the murder of Belfast Catholic Robert McCartney - republicans appeared hypocritical, says Maillot. "It is considered impossible to reconcile a peace strategy with continued military activities. Republicans are seen as living in a culture that is complacent towards paramilitary operations."
But breaking away into unarmed politics has its opponents. For republican ultras, the dominance of the electoral process ignores the opportunities of "vanguardism". As Murray and Tonge say, "Sinn Fein's election victory of 1918 was preceded by armed rebellion, which came to be supported by armed rebellion." The IRA had served its purpose for the republican mainstream, however, "removing the sectarian essence of the northern state, helping nationalists become part of an "Ireland of Equals", even if that Ireland remained partitioned.
This, then, is the significance of the IRA pledge to lay down its arms last month: "All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means... There is a responsibility on society to ensure that there is no reoccurrence of the pogroms of 1969 and the early 1970s. There is also a universal responsibility to tackle sectarianism in all its forms."
This move is a perfect example of what the Scottish academic Tom Nairn once called the "modern Janus": the ability and necessity of nationalist movements to face backwards towards an idealised historical justification of its actions, while facing forward to a happy end - in this case an "Ireland of Equals".And yet there is a bigger picture. There was always more to the IRA and the peace process than the back streets of Belfast and the "dreary steeples of Tyrone and Fermanagh".
In Reds and the Green, Emmet O'Connor tells how, 80 years ago, the fledgling Soviet Union tried to co-opt the IRA into its goals of world revolution. O'Connor's trawl through the Moscow archives of the Comintern has unearthed documents that speak from the past of hopeless idealism, wasted journeys and ruined dreams. The enterprise reeked also of rancid cynicism.
The Bolsheviks supported the IRA during its war against the British in 1919-21. Nikolai Bukharin, the Bolshevik revolutionary, told the 1919 party congress that the IRA "is only water for our mill, since it contributes to the destruction of English imperialism".
O'Connor tells how Eamon de Valera, Irish leader and the epitome of Catholic nationalism, "dispatched an emissary to Moscow to secure recognition and weapons". During the Irish Civil War, the anti-treaty IRA tried to buy £10,000 of weapons from the Soviets via the Irish Communist Party. Some tried to adapt a "social programme" authored by Mikhail Borodin, the Comintern agent.
Geopolitics has also intervened in the integrity of Northern Ireland's quarrel more recently - and with more success. It was supreme bad timing for three republicans to have been caught in Colombia in 2001 training with FARC, a group denounced by the White House as narco-terrorists. And then, one month later, al-Qaeda brought the practice of terrorism to previously unfathomable depths, killing in one New York morning almost twice the number of people murdered by the IRA over nearly 30 years. Years of lobbying in Washington were wasted.
Sinn Fein needed to regain US confidence, writes Maillot. The result was the IRA's statement on October 23 2001, its first verifiable act of putting weapons beyond use. Martin McGuinness was in Washington DC that day. "This was hardly a coincidence", Maillot adds, "but rather, probably, a confidence-building measure on the part of republicans to try to regain lost ground."
It is probably even less of a coincidence that, after months of foot-dragging, the IRA's hoped-for final communiqué emerged after the July bombs in London, and days after Tony Blair's remarkable comment that "IRA political demands or their previous atrocities could not be directly compared to fundamentalists who carried out the 9/11 US attacks."
Which brings us to another controversial viewpoint, dismissively described by Murray and Tonge as the "external events thesis". This argues that the end of the cold war helped to spur the shift in republicanism and helped to shape the Good Friday Agreement. This thesis, originally outlined by Mick Cox, is fully described and the row neatly outlined by Adrian Guelke in the liveliest and wittiest chapter
of an otherwise academic volume of essays, Renovation or Revolution? New Territorial Politics in Ireland and the United Kingdom (UCD Press). Cox claimed that there was only a "partial commitment" from the IRA towards Stalinist socialism, and that the first steps towards the Good Friday Agreement were under way in the mid-80s.
However, Cox said something different: that the end of the cold war and the "collapse of the wider revolutionary project" altered the global context of the struggles. It made it harder for the IRA to justify its strategy campaign, which by the late 1980s had reached a dead end anyway. This idea was surprisingly controversial when Cox first voiced it in 1997, annoying nationalist-minded academics because it refuted the view that the roots of the problems and solutions for Ireland could all be found within. "Prior to 1968", writes Guelke, "there was a predominance of literature that blamed either British imperialism or the Republic of Ireland's irredentism for the conflict. However, by the 1980s there was wide consensus among academic analysis that communal antagonism inside Northern Ireland was the root of the problem. Perhaps one reason why the Cox thesis attracted so much criticism was that it was seen as a challenge to that consensus.
Reds and the Green shows that the IRA of four generations ago was prepared to travel a long way, politically and geographically, for succour and support. The past two decades have shown that republicans have prospered by recognising the reality of a tiny province of six counties. The events of recent months have shown that even the most fervent of revolutionary nationalists cannot avoid the facts of globalisation. And that in the war on terror, which concentrates most, minds these days; Gerry Adams is getting in step with Tony Blair and George W. Bush.
By John O'Farrell
John O'Farrell is a journalist based in Belfast.
source - http://news.ft.com/cms/s/54354ca8-0956-11da-880b-00000e2511c8.html

my Best and Worst reads

Got a suprising phone call this morning from the Belfast Telegraph. They are featuring my Best and Worst r