Foul Play

Humiliated in Poland, the question begs asking: would it have been better for Ireland not to have qualified for Euro 2012?

Craig Fitzsimons, 01 Aug 2012

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Craig Fitzsimons

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By the time you read this, you’ll know whether Ireland have qualified for the World Cup. One thing’s for sure – a home defeat to France has left Trap’s men facing an uphill battle. Well, at least the rugby team is humming along nicely...

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Cockney football pundit Tony Cascarino recently paid a visit to the Ballydung abode of potty-mouthed puppets Podge and Rodge. Here both sides reflect on the historic get-together.

2007-12-10 - Interview

In the wake of Steve Staunton’s sacking as Ireland manager, Eamon Dunphy welcomes Craig Fitzsimons into his Ranelagh home and offers some characteristically forthright views on the state of Irish football.

2007-11-13 - Interview

Overnight sensation Newton Faulkner talks about sudden success, his Irish guitar teacher and the challenges of covering Massive Attack.

2007-10-08 - Interview

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Irish author Paddy Woodworth has written the definitive tome on one of Europe’s most complex and at times contradictory regions.

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2007-01-11 - Reports

Thirty nine years ago a British soccer team won the European Cup for the first time: Glasgow Celtic veterans Billy McNeill and Tommy Gemmell look back at their triumph in Lisbon.

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For the painfully shy and private Ray LaMontagne, life in the spotlight is one of almost unremitting discomfort, and yet he hopes to last as long as Willie Nelson.

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Four albums in two decades may seem like a poor return, but not when the music is as gentle and wondrous as that made by The Blue Nile. Ahead of a rare live turn, frontman Paul Buchanan explains why he likes to take things slowly.

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After an eight-month hiatus to refine their craft, Dublin five-piece The Chapters talk to Craig Fitzsimons about their new EP and overcoming ego wars.

2006-11-28 - Interview

Could a serial killer be behind a rash of disappearances in Dublin and neighbouring counties over the past two decades? And might the murderer now be behind bars? Craig Fitzsimons untangles a dark and disturbing tale and wonders whether the truth of what happened will really ever become known.

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The big time came knocking but Jack L said, "No thanks, I’d rather do my own thing." In a revealing interview, he explains why he’d rather be an underground star and tells of how melancholy gets him out of bed every morning.

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The missing link (ouch) between the Velvet Underground and Phil Spector, The Jesus & Mary Chain were one of the most influential and critically lauded bands of the 1980s. 20 years after Psychocandy though, Jim Reid found himself mired in serious alcohol addiction problems. Now domiciled in Devon, he looks back through the lens of newfound – but still precarious – sobriety.

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Every hip indie musician is namechecking (and soundchecking) Gang Of Four these days. But there’s more to the band than scratchy guitars and funky rhythms – as guitarist Andy Gill tells us, their unique sound was forged during a time of musical innovation and political radicalism.

2006-08-24 - Interview

What sorcery is this? By now, it’s accepted that every musical sub-genre gets excavated and recycled after time has put the original article at an appropriate distance, but a full-on psychedelic folk revival?? Weren’t the punk wars fought to cleanse the Earth of beads, beards, flutes and six-minute one-chord drone jams?

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Amir Khan is one of the hottest young British boxers in a generation. What makes his story especially interesting is that the Bolton Olympic silver medallist is an English Muslim child of Pakistani parents. He is due in Belfast shortly for his seventh professional encounter and, make no mistake, fight fans are in for a treat.

2006-05-24 - Interview

Until recently one of the ultimate indie cult bands, The Flaming Lips have survived the ravages of heroin, acid and a hunting trip with William Burroughs. Now, their new album At War With The Mystics finds them taking their funky psychedelia to strange new places – including the upper reaches of the charts for the first time. Could it be that their moment has finally come? Interviews: Craig Fitzsimons (now) and Peter Murphy (then). additional reporting: Stuart Clark, Ed Power and Jackie Hayden

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Ballymena is a sleepy Northern Ireland town in the heart of the Presbyterian ‘Bible belt’. How did it become the heroin capital of Europe?

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They redefined the parameters of contemporary music, creating weird, eerie and magnificent soundscapes. Now, as they prepare to release a career retrospective, Massive Attack talk about their choice of collaborators and why they agreed to soundtrack a porn movie.

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Annual article: Dreams of a Grand Slam and a ticket to the World Cup collapsed in traumatic fashion.

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Annual article: The gaelic football season was a tale of three counties, and of further northern dominance.

2005-12-20 - Interview

He is one of the world’s most famous campaigners, but Bob Geldof’s musical output documents a frayed and fragile soul, ravaged by life and love.

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Following the publication of The Ferns Report, there is no longer any hiding the rampant extent of clerical sex abuse of children in Ireland. But in Pope Benedict II, the Roman Catholic Church is headed by a man who knows the detail of what went on – and yet has done nothing to redress it.

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Following the publication of The Ferns Report, there is no longer any hiding the rampant extent of clerical sex abuse of children in Ireland. But in Pope Benedict II, the Roman Catholic Church is headed by a man who knows the detail of what went on – and yet has done nothing to redress it.

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2005-01-13 - REVIEW

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2004-10-26 - REVIEW

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2004-10-04 - REVIEW

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2004-08-23 - REVIEW

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2004-07-19 - REVIEW

With even the comparatively tranquil Euro 2004 marred by trouble on the Algarve, the issue of football hooliganism remains a live one. Now, one of its definitive texts has made it to the big screen. Craig Fitzsimons meets the men – and learns about the hard men – behind The Football Factory

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It’s not revolutionary or groundbreaking stuff by garage standards, but it’s an impressive enough statement of intent from potentially Peckham’s finest export since the family Trotter.

2004-07-08 - REVIEW

With his first film The Station Agent, Tom McCarthy has fashioned a magnetic fable of Fin, the new-dwarf-in-town, which has invited comparison with Ford and Cassavetes.

2004-04-26 - Interview

With his first film The Station Agent, Tom McCarthy has fashioned a magnetic fable of Fin, the new-dwarf-in-town, which has invited comparison with Ford and Cassavetes.

2004-04-26 - Interview

The violent life and death of the Florida prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002 for a string of murders, is the subject matter of the debut film feature monster by Patty Jenkins. Craig Fitzsimons talks to the writer-director about the controversial, Oscar-winning movie

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John McCarthy’s experiences as a hostage of Islamic fundamentalists in the late ’80s form the basis of a powerful new film, Blind Flight. McCarthy here reflects on his period in captivity and discusses his ongoing growth as a writer with Craig Fitzsimons.

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He may have already seated his place in movie history with searing performances in the likes of Scarface and Dog Day Afternoon, but legendary screen icon Al Pacino remains keen to seek out fresh challenges. Hotpress caught up with Pacino to discuss his role in People I Know, the gritty New York thriller which sees the actor go back to his lo-fi indie roots.

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Milo O’Shea and David Kelly, two famous old-stagers, re-unite for a new Irish caper movie.

2003-12-04 - Interview

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Having scored critical and commercial success – not to mention putting Irish cinema on the map with the likes of My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father – Jim Sheridan has now mined his own past for in America, a haunting remembrance of the film-maker’s time as a struggling immigrant on the streets of New York.

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Following the lukewarm reception accorded Jackie Brown six years ago, Quentin Tarantino reached a crossroads in his career. now, following a prolonged retreat from the media spotlight, a rumoured struggle with writer’s block and his break-up with Mira Sorvino, the most influential film-maker of the nineties has made a stunning return to form with the explosive samurai thriller, Kill Bill. Craig Fitzsimons travelled to london to meet the director and discuss the film he describes as “the movie of my geek boy dreams.”

2003-10-13 - Interview

Craig Fitzsimons talks to oscar-winning director Kevin McDonald about his gripping new docu-drama touching the void, chosen to open this year’s stranger than fiction festival at the IFI.

2003-10-01 - Interview

A goofy frat-boy movie that even the critics can warm to – Luke Wilson and Will Ferrill give Craig Fitzsimons their Old School report

2003-05-12 - Interview

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