Tag Archives: Limerick

Mixing Pop & Politics

“It’s surprising how quick a little rain can clear the streets,” sang Billy Bragg on a wonderful rendition of The Saturday Boy at Dolan’s last night. The Limerick streets are used to rain, of course, and if they were empty on a Monday night it was because everyone was at the Warehouse to welcome the Bard of Barking to town for the first time. It’s hard enough to get people to come out any night to see a solo singer backing himself on guitar, but it was a testament to his standing that he attracted a full crowd on a cold and wet Monday night in October. I got to Dolan’s early and filled my stomach with some tasty Guinness stew and later washed it down with pints of porter in the Warehouse as I joined some friends to check out the opening act. Paddy Nash hails from Derry and he did a fine job warming up the crowd. He was quite comfortable with the audience and explained that he had walked out on his job in the film industry when they wouldn’t give him the week off to follow Billy around the country. A song called Billy Bragg Jeans was inspired by a story Paddy heard about Billy buying a pair of jeans for a few quid in a charity store. He also gave us a song called Rubber Bullets that was sung from the perspective of a child growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. His best song, and the one the audience enjoyed the most, was called Ballad of a Nobody. This was a witty song that told the story of an average man with an average life and had everybody in stitches as its key line was repeated each time

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Three Is The Magic Number

It had been a while since my friend John and I had been to a gig in Limerick, but we made that right last Wednesday night. John’s a big fan of British and Irish folk music and I quite like singer-songwriters. Both categories were catered for at the Belltable on October 5th as three talented musicians from the British Isles came to town. James Yorkston, Adrian Crowley and Alasdair Roberts were the trio and Limerick was their first stop on a four-night tour that would take in Cork, Dublin and Kildare on the subsequent nights. It was my first visit to the Belltable since its refurbishment earlier this year and I must say I was impressed with what they’ve done to the foyer and the theatre area. Fife native James Yorkston was first up and he tried out a load of new songs on us. I’ve been a fan of his music ever since I heard his song Woozy with Cider and it was a pleasure to finally hear his wonderful voice in person. I’m afraid I can’t recall any of the titles of the new songs, but his quiet delivery and plucked guitar on one was reminiscent of Thom Yorke. He’s no Jimi Hendrix on guitar and spent some time tuning it between tunes, but also engaged in a bit of banter with the audience while fiddling with his strings. Yorkston was joined by Alasdair Roberts at the end of his set as the two paid tribute to a folk legend. Bert Jansch had passed away that morning and Yorkston revealed that his very first paid gig was supporting the Glasgow-born musician. He last met him when he supported him in Paris a few years ago. He admitted that he didn’t know him that well, but you could tell that Jansch’s music meant a lot to him. He and Roberts delivered an emotional version of a traditional ballad about a sailor who takes advantage of a servant girl that brought the first half of the show to an end

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Dancing at the Zombie Zoo

This weekend, the streets of Limerick will be filled with hundreds of revellers dressed in shabby clothing and wearing badly-applied makeup. What makes this weekend different to others, however, is that everyone’s going to be dressing as zombies on the occasion of the city’s first celebration of these ghoulish spirits. The Outbreak Zombie Festival runs from today until Sunday and will feature a host of events around the city. These include film screenings, band performances, flashmobs and even parades. The festival is a non-profit event and its proceeds will benefit a local charity named the Cliona Ring Foundation. This organisation assists families with children who require long-term treatment for serious illness. The event is bound to attract interest from all over Ireland and you can find more information about the festival at their site

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Here Comes The Rain Again

The weekend just gone was a bank holiday in Ireland and the weather was quite unusual for early June in Ireland – it was sunny. I was working for most of it and I played hours of sunshine tunes while I relaxed at work. I was back there again today, but this time I had to put together a completely different playlist. The image above shows the view that greeted me this morning as I drew back the curtains before making the short journey to my place of employment. It got worse as the day went on before improving in the evening. Of course, we’re used to this kind of weather in Ireland, even in the summer. I enjoy sunny days, but I like rainy ones just as much. As long as I don’t get caught out in them, of course. I find that music can be the perfect compliment to the rhythm of the falling rain, so I listened to over a hundred rain songs at work today. Here are half a dozen of them


Happy When It Rains – The Jesus & Mary Chain

Summer Rain – The Lackloves

Walking In The Rain – Grace Jones

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (BJ Thomas cover) – Mercury Rev

Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) – Teenage Fanclub

I See the Rain (Marmalade cover) – Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs

How Bazaar

Later today, I’ll be visiting a bar boot sale at the Raggle Taggle Studios space on the corner of Sarsfield St and Henry St in Limerick. It’s basically a car boot sale without the cars. I guess it would be more correct to call it a jumble sale or a garage sale or even a flea market, but what’s in a name anyway? As you can see from the top half of the event’s poster (above), the sale will include clothes, footwear, records, CDs, DVDs, books and other stuff that people no longer want. Sellers have paid €10 each to set up a stall in the hope of swapping their unwanted goods for some hard-earned cash. I’ve accumulated quite a bit of “stuff” over the years myself and I should actually be trying to flog some of it from behind a stall. Instead, I’ll be popping down to have a browse and no doubt hand over some euros for items I don’t really need and have no place in which to store them. I can’t wait. The sale begins at 1:00 and runs until 6:00. It’s free entry for punters, though they may donate a few bob if they wish. It only costs a tenner for stallholders to set up and they get to keep any money they earn. Donations collected by the organisers will be used to fund an annual interactive digital arts festival called Tweak

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The Party’s Over

Voting booths have just opened in 43 constituencies all over Ireland in an attempt to choose 165 representatives from 566 hopefuls to make up the next Irish government. Since 1932, Ireland’s largest political party, Fianna Fáil, has been the main government party for nearly 60 years in total and has been in power for all but 30 months in the last 24 years. This period of time coincided with the affluence of the Celtic Tiger, but also with its recent collapse. As a result, the party’s dominance in the opinion polls has also collapsed by almost two-thirds since the 2007 election. Fine Gael, historically the country’s second party, have benefitted the most, while Labour, Sinn Féin and Independent candidates have also seen promising increases in their support. What all this means is that Fine Gael will be the main party after the voting has been completed and will most likely form a coalition with Labour. For the first time in the nation’s history, the “Soldiers of Destiny” look like being relegated to third place. The party’s slump in popularity forced many of its members to jump ship before the election was called and will see many more lose their seats this weekend. This frightening scenario has seen at least one former government minister resort to desperate measures in order to hold onto his seat

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Power Failure

It’s two weeks until Election Day 2011 and the political pamphlets continue to pop through my letter box. The latest one comes from the alliterative Peter Power, who is not only working for Limerick but also, apparently, for me. Now, I’m well aware that politicians have a tendency to manipulate the truth, but I must say that, to the best of my knowledge, Mr Power is not in my employ. Not only that, but I also have it on good authority that he’s not working for Limerick, either. You might be forgiven for thinking that Power is running as an independent candidate in Limerick city. Not so. Power is, in fact, one of two Fianna Fáil contenders for the four seats in this constituency. Power was unsuccessful when he first ran for the party at the 1997 general election, but he managed to get elected in 2002 and again in 2007. He only received half a quota on each of these occasions, but managed to get elected each time thanks to transfers from his party colleagues

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Let’s Get Out of This Country

It’s two weeks until Ireland goes to the polls and election candidates keep electioneering and canvassers keep canvassing. You may remember the missing apostrophe on the leaflet from Kieran O’Donnell that popped through my door last week. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so harsh on him as it’s only his second time running for the Dáil. This week it was Michael Noonan‘s turn to come around with a familiar-looking leaflet and an identical lack of attention to punctuation. O’Donnell’s fellow Fine Gaeler is the longest-serving T.D. in the Limerick City (formerly Limerick East) constituency. He was elected back in 1981 and was a minister in two departments in the eighties: Justice and Industry & Commerce. He was also Minister for Health in the nineties and even became Fine Gael leader from February 2001 to June 2002. He is currently his party’s Finance spokesperson and may be given that portfolio in the next government. He’s come a long way from his first appointment as spokesperson for Education in 1981 and even longer from his days as a schoolteacher in the seventies. If he’s the guy in charge of next year’s Budget, let’s hope he pays a lot more attention to his sums than he does to punctuation

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