The Minister for Health is proposing to impose a charge on every drug prescribed under the Medical Card scheme. Already the IMO and the IPU have put forward better and fairer schemes that would not target the vulnerable…
It may not have made the front pages but the news emerged recently that our prison population had exceeded the magic 4,000 for the first time. What a remarkable achievement for such a small country, eh?
The life and work of Stephen Gately was brilliantly remembered at his funeral service by the members of Boyzone. There is a lesson in this for all of us.
The Music Show was a huge success, with people from all aspects of the music industry coming together to participate in an event which, as well as showcasing all the latest instruments and equipment, was rich in ideas, information and, above all, great music
Tommy Tiernan has become engulfed in a nasty controversy over remarks made in the context of a comedic performance. The furore raises the question: are there meaningful boundaries to ‘acceptable’ humour?
The Electric Picnic couldn’t have been any more inspiring (weather excepted). Now, roll on the Music Show....
Electric Picnic. It marks the end of the summer, and the beginning of the academic year when people start to trudge back to schools and college. It is a moment when you start to anticipate the darkness falling down around us, the days getting shorter and then shorter again, till the watershed weekend arrives when the clocks go back, and the winter comes stealing in.
But only if we let them. Draconian changes in the arts infrastructure have been proposed, the damaging effects of which will be felt for generations to come. Now is the time to shout: STOP!
In rock terms, that's what U2 are, having successfully defended their crown against all-comers since The Joshua Tree crashed to No.1 in the US in 1987.
And that’s just the politicians we spoke to... The publication of a major new anthology of Hot Press interviews by Jason O’Toole, focused primarily on the Irish criminal underworld, gives cause for reflection on what it takes to ‘get good interview’.
Why the musical legacy bequeathed by Michael Jackson will ultimately outlive and overshadow the huge morass of questions surrounding his life and death...
When the Pope claimed that condoms increase the problem of AIDS, he was putting the ideological and doctrinal interests of the Catholic Church ahead of the health of people.
The party’s over, and the less well-off are expected to pick up the tab for the excesses of avaricious millionaires. But there are constructive things that can be done to turn the tide...
A special interview from the Hot Press archives, first published in 1985: Minister for Women's Affairs Nuala Fennell talks feminism, sex and contraception with HP editor Niall Stokes.
As Ireland’s economy hits the skids at breakneck speed, the Government – and the Opposition – seem utterly bereft of ideas on how to turn the tide. But we need to get on with it quickly...
It has taken a long time but the dream of equality and freedom that Martin Luther King evoked so eloquently in Washington in 1963 may finally be realised under the Presidency of Barack Obama. w
Opening this month with a volley of gigs from such rock 'n' roll A-Listers as Kings Of Leon, and Coldplay, the 14,500-capacity Dublin O2 looks like being one of the best venues in the world.
Hordes of penny-pinching citizens of the Republic have fled to the North in search of, at best, a 4% saving on their Christmas shopping. Are their brains functioning properly?
There is a huge wealth of music talent in Ireland today. In this economic meltdown, the government should help the industry live up to its potential through the introduction of initiatives that would make Ireland a better environment for musicians.
Despite the best efforts of the legislators, the Irish live music scene is fighting back. It's a very good time for the inaugural Irish Live Music Venue of the Year Awards.
Despite routine speed limit violations, Dublin's Port Tunnel is one of the country's safest stretches of road. So why install cameras to police a speed restriction that is too low?
When the Tom Waits shows were announced, there was the by now almost compulsory hue and cry about the ticket prices. So why do we pay more for tickets in Ireland than in the US?
The new Broadcasting Bill has much to recommend it. If it goes ahead in its current form, however, it has the potential to become a hugely retrograde step for Irish radio and television.
It was far from edifying, watching Bertie Ahern attempt to slug it out with the Mahon Tribunal. Now that it's all over, maybe we can get down to some real politics...
The installation of a skatepark in Bushy Park in Dublin is just a small example of the kind of positive thinking that should be at the heart of the national agenda.
Of course Cathal O Searcaigh should be whipped off the Leaving Cert. And every other degenerate writer from the past and the present, along with him...
It's been a hell of a ride at Hot Press central over the past few weeks, what with a controversial drugs issue to defend, and a whole new look to usher in.
The first Hot Press of 2008 focuses on the many weird and wonderful things that are in prospect, in music, movies, comedy, fashion – oh, and life in bloody general! It promises to be a fascinating year.
The routine surveillance of the travel movements of Irish citizens represents a fundamental threat to civil liberties. So why has there been so little resistance to these Government proposals?
By threatening to tighten the rules for provisional drivers, the government is implicitly holding young motorists responsible for rising levels of death on the road.
A simmering dissatisfaction with the amount of Irish music being played on Irish radio bubbled over at Music Ireland, with a debate that was, by turns, lively and illuminating.
The shameful prospect of an ‘all black’ school in Dublin is a reminder of the control which the Catholic Church exerts over the Irish education system.
The Leaving Cert results are out, and college offers have been made. But is it not time to reform a system that rewards rote learning over critical thinking?
To mark the 30th Anniversary of the launch of Hot Press, this issue comes with a free reprint of selected material taken from the magazine's first six months in 1977. It offers a unique insight into what was a seminal moment for Irish music and culture.
That was the ultimate theme in a general election that saw the voters reject the arrogance of Michael McDowell, overlook the controversy of Bertie Ahern’s past and ensure that nothing’s really going to change. It was certainly a very Irish affair
The 2007 general election is set to be a close-run thing. Which makes it all the more important for people to get to the polls. Because if you don’t vote, you don’t count…
By holding the general election on a Thursday, the Government parties have – one assumes knowingly – made it more difficult for young people in general, and students in particular, to vote.
There seems to be a remarkable unwillingness among modern priests, and indeed Catholics generally, to nail their colours to the mast. What’s good about Pope Benedict and his recently announced views on hell, is that he makes it clear: you’re either on the bus or you’re not…
“Guilty until proved innocent” seems to be the unthinking philosophy behind the recent introduction of ASBOs, providing just one more opportunity for the authorities to abuse their powers.
The last thing we want to see is a forlorn Steve Staunton walking along with a parrot that talks on his shoulder, wondering if John Delaney will pick him out again.
We’ve come a long way since the Censorship of Publications Board banned an Irish Family Planning booklet in 1976. But we still have a lot to learn about sex, love and respect.
With election year fun and games already underway, the fear persists that a large number of people have been disenfranchised by the redrafting of the electoral register. However, no one need be left out of the party.
Niall Stokes draws on his best-selling book Into The Heart: The Stories Behind The Songs Of U2 to offer a unique insight into the way in which some of the greatest songs in the history of popular music came into being.
He is a visionary, a poet – and an innovator in terms of interrogation techniques. Now that he has resigned as US Defence Secretary, the campaign to make him a Nobel Laureate starts. Right here...
He is a visionary, a poet – and an innovator in terms of interrogation techniques. Now that he has resigned as US Defence Secretary, the campaign to make him a Nobel Laureate starts. Right here...
He began working in music as a drummer, but Dave Pennefather's greatest success has been as MD of Universal Music. Hot Press looks back over the life and times of a man with a larger than life reputation.
Tough new measures are being promised, to tackle the phenomenon of dangerous driving among young males. But the law is far more likely to work if it seen to be applied intelligently – and if there is a positive side to any new Government campaign.
The defeat in Cyprus may have been shocking – but after the draw with the Czech Republic we should still be battling to qualify for the European Championship finals.
Bertie Ahern has been swimming through a shitstorm over the past fortnight, with accusations regarding controversial payments making the headlines. But Michael McDowell looks like coming to his rescue. Or maybe it’s just William Shakespeare in disguise...
It may have been ill-advised for Pope Benedict to make a speech that seemed critical of Islam. But there's no need for everyone to get so hot and bothered...
From U2 to The Frames and Sinead O’Connor to Damien Rice, music has helped put this country on the map. So why is the government so slow to back the music industry?
With the Leaving Cert points system as its ultimate goal, education in Ireland has been in a bad place for a long time. Now with a drop in numbers doing the Leaving Cert and an increase in the quantum of college places available, the balance has shifted. Let’s make sure that we make the most of the opportunity.
Arriving in Ireland for the first time, tourists can expect to face lengthy and unnecessary queues in cramped conditions because of short staffing at immigration desks. Between them, the gardai and the Department of Justice, are presenting us to visitors as a bunch of witless incompetents.
Hezbollah may be a significant part of the problem, but there is no justification whatsoever for the indiscriminate murder of civilians, of which the Israelis are guilty in Lebanon.
Everywhich way you turn now, the extent of the intrusion of the State into the minutiae of Irish life is more keenly felt. It is unlikely that James Connolly would have approved.
He was one of the greatest Irish novelists of the 20th Century – a man with a singular vision and a commitment to the work that was at once bold and exemplary. He will be greatly missed.
The death has occurred of the great Irish writer John McGahern, at the Mater Hospital in Dublin. He was 71 years of age. Although his health had not been the best for some time, his death was sudden.
There was enough advance warning for the Minister for Justice to have put a plan in place, which would have prevented the riots that engulfed Dublin on the day of the Love Ulster parade. So why is no one blaming Michael McDowell?
President Mary McAleese recently travelled to Saudi Arabia and spoke at a conference at which apartheid against women was practised as a matter of routine. In doing so, she unwittingly promoted the mercenary strain that seems to dominate every Irish stance on international affairs right now.
Irish labels, bands and artists often face an uphill struggle to garner recognition, even on their home turf. Which is why hotpress and HMV have undertaken their own combined initiative, to coincide with the announcement of the shortlist for the first Choice Irish music prize. As a product of this initiative, all ten albums will be specially stocked and displayed in HMV stores all over Ireland on the run-in to the announcement of the winning album later this month. Here, we take a look at the list – and reflect on those that have been omitted.
The violence sparked by cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed forces us to ask serious questions about the importance of free speech – and the responsibilities which that right entails.
The banjo has got some bad press over the years and not without some justification. However, prepare to have your prejudices on this score reduced to rubble: Alison Brown is a wizard and a true star and Stolen Moments is a cracker of an album from start to finish.
That seems to be the official attitude to the homeless in Ireland. And the stark truth, as the winter cold bites, is that some of those living on the margins almost ceretainly will. How have we let it come to this, when homelessness is a problem that could be solved?
The idea for Home, an album of Irish songs, has been on the agenda for The Corrs for a number of years. But its release marks an important stage in the evolution not just of the band, but of lead singer Andrea Corr – who has been exploring new ways of expressing herself as an artist with increasing poise and confidence.
The illustration by David Rooney in the last issue of Hot Press, depicting a priest marturbating, was offensive not just to the clergy but also to women. At least that's what one caller to Joe Duffy claimed. It got us thinking as we prepared the Hot Press Women's Issue (though not, we have to say, for very long....)
An extraordinary letter, written by Bob Dylan, offers a remarkable insight into the greatest songwriter of his generation. It also offers a hugely challenging perspective on the role of the artist.
Sex abuse by priests is just one reflection of a problem that is at the heart of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church-its defininition of sex outside the confines of marriage as a sin.
The glut of fingerpointing and speculation in the wake of our World Cup exit has generally been based on ignorance and a green-tinted view of the past. Niall Stokes asks the hard questions, and answers them.
These are trying times for Irish students, north and south, but life, or what's left of it, is even darker for the American South-East thanks to Bush and co.
The return of Zidane, Thuram and Makelele may have given France a boost - but it is all to play for at Lansdowne Road. So let's make it hot for the visitors...
The British police have admitted to adopting a shoot to kill policy in their pursuit of Islamic terrorists. But already, with the brutal slaying of Jean Charles de Manezes, they have claimed the life of one innocent victim. So who will be held accoutable?
She learned her craft with the Wild Oscars and Kaydee, and more recently featured on the John Hughes album Wild Ocean. Now, Tara Blaise has taken flight with the release of her debut album Dancing On Tables Barefoot – a record that unveils an impressively free-spirit and a desire to live life to the full.
The perfect pop record: it’s an elusive goal. Some people say Pet Sounds, others any one of a rake of great singles from the collected works of Abba. In either case, they wouldn’t be far wide of the mark. But the magic pop gene also disports itself in all sorts of musically diverse situations, from ‘We Are Family’ by Sister Sledge, through ‘Perfect’ by Fairground Attraction, to ‘There She Goes’ by the Las.
It was Wednesday June 14th, 1995, when the terrible news of Rory Gallagher’s death was first phoned through to the Hot Press office. In more ways than one, it was the end of an era. On Wednesday November 8th, a commemoration service was held at Brompton Oratory in London. The ceremony ended with a tribute, which was delivered by Niall Stokes, editor of Hot Press. As a special remembrance of Rory, on the 10th anniversary of his death, we reproduce here the full text of that tribute.
When the Garda Emergency Response Unit went to confront a criminal gang in Lusk, they brought their most powerful hardware with them – leaving less lethal, but no less effective, weapons behind. With two men dead, we need to know why.
There is still time to persuade the government that the Criminal Justice Bill, under which Anti Social Behaviour Orders and On The Spot Fines are to be introduced to Ireland, should be amended.
It’s been some time since Tara Blaise first came on like a potential star, fronting the EMI-signed Dublin band Kaydee. In the interim, she has worked quietly away, developing her craft as a songwriter and performer – and, last year, guesting as vocalist on John Hughes’ largely instrumental album Wild Ocean. Now, it’s her turn to grab the spotlight and she does it with impressive finesse, emerging as a vocalist to be reckoned with in the process.
An online petition has been launched to oppose the introduction of On The Spot Fines and Anti Social Behaviour Orders in Ireland.
[to sign petition go here ]
It is one of the perverse facets of contemporary music that there is a constant demand that artists have to re-invent themselves. I’m all for it if it’s what a band or a performer either needs or wants to do, in order to give renewed sparkle to the muse. But it isn’t something that we ask of poets or writers. Would we want or expect John McGahern to produce a sci-fi thriller set in an imaginary bog landscape five hundred years into the future?
Croke Park is to open its gates to "foreign" games, despite the intransigence of Ulster delegates. Meanwhile, new Criminal Justice legislation runs counter to Human Rights concerns.
With the death of Terri Schiavo in Florida and the news that an Irishman used the services of Dignitas to commit suicide last year, the issue of death has been in the news.
Kevin Myers' use of the word bastard may have been pernicious – but it was not the most offensive aspect of his attack on unmarried mothers. Plus: the death of the great Hunter S. Thompson.
It's almost two years since Sinead O'Connor announced her retirement from music. However, it was always on the cards that she would find her voice again. The good news is that she has. She explains all in an exclusive interview with Niall Stokes...
Niall Stokes kicks off the second installment of Hot Press’ Asian themed issues by arguing that Michael McDowell’s proposed withdrawal of work provisions for Chinese nationals is misguided and reactionary.
It's the way that the movie business works. It took 15 years to raise the money to make the biopic of Ray Charles life. It got done in the end, as they say, but Ray himself couldn't wait around to see its release: he died at the age of 73, in June of last year.
While the international community comes to the aid of the South East Asia tsunami victims, it’s worth remembering that an equivalent number of people die every week in Africa from disease and starvation.
He may be better known as manager of The Corrs – but John Hughes has been a musician for well over 30 years. Besides, with a US top 50 album to his credit in the 1980s, his new record – the remarkable Wild Ocean – is just the latest instalment in an extraordinary journey that has taken him close to the edge and back. interview: Niall Stokes
In 2000, Bertie Ahern condemned rich countries who contribute too little to Overseas Development Aid. Now, we have taken our place among the guilty parties.
George Bush’s victory in the US presidential election is likely to usher in a swing back to religious dominance. We shouldn’t let the same thing happen here.
Last night began a momentous chapter for the world’s biggest band. For U2, it was the first live airing and radio/internet broadcast of material from their eleventh studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. For those in attendance, it was an opportunity as rare as they come. The location: Dublin, Ireland. More specifically, at the album’s birthplace, in their Hanover Quay studios. Hot Press editor Niall Stokes was in attendance to feel the impact and capture the aftershock. [photos by John Dardis, courtesy of U2]
The latest restrictions in the opening hours of clubs reveal that Irish policy-makers are afraid to treat citizens as adults, capable of managing their own lives.
The terrorist attack in Beslan has shown that Russia may yet emerge as a major battle ground in the conflict between radical Islam and the major world powers.
Turbulence, the debut album proper from Saucy Monky, is one of those records. It is at once rich, smart, sexy, thrilling, entertaining, diverse and hugely accomplished. It is a great, rock’n’roll record, both playful and deep, its sometimes dark indie heart-core spangled with enough sparks of pop magic to light up the western sky.
Even though the citizenship referendum produced a worrying result, the fight for justice and equality goes on – a fitting tribute to the memory of a great journalist.
The recently released photos of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners confirm that the American war effort was born out of entirely self-serving and hypocritical motives.
The fact that he’s incapable of giving a simple answer to a simple question is the least of the many reasons to want George Bush out of the white house.
March 29th is D-Day – the date on which the smoking ban becomes a reality in Ireland. The measure has been the source of considerable controversy and recrimination here over the past few months – and even as the day looms feelings still run high.
An Omagh girl of Methodist farming background, with an unassuming determination to match, Juliet Turner has already come some distance from the straightforward and endearingly earnest folk thrust of her roughly recorded debut, Let’s Hear It For Pizza.
Whether it’s the suicide bomber, the pilgrimage stampede or a blood sacrifice closer to home, religion is at the core of a lot of the world’s worst thinking.
The lesson of the last major clampdown on prostitution – as depicted in Paul Reynold’s Sex In The City – is that Michael McDowell would do well to get off the statute books laws which result in pointless and expensive exercises in policing.
Jim Sheridan’s wonderful In America forces us to think seriously about many things: family, children, immigration and the importance of making movies in Ireland.
It’s the title of his new album, his first on the legendary jazz label, Blue Note. it’s also an apt introduction to an interview in which Van Morrison talks freely about his work, his background in Belfast, his brushes with the music industry – and about what made him what he is.
With the cost of war escalating, and public opinion turning against him, George Bush and his administration are turning to the hated UN for help in subjugating Iraq. But they should be asked to withdraw or left to fend for themselves.
As the number of homeless people increases, plans are unveiled to have smoke police in the pubs. Once again the government is getting its priorities badly wrong.
In an Ireland where recrimination and retribution are the norm, the generous, consoling words of Linda Ryan – whose son was one of those killed in a car crash – were like a light in the darkness.
The ordinary people of Ireland have made the running of the Special Olympics here possible. The government must now do its bit for people with disabilities.
The ban on athletes from SARS affected countries travelling to Ireland for the Special Olympics is discriminatory and wrong – and the minister for health Micheál Martin should reverse it
Why all football fans should be delighted at the appointment of Brian Kerr as the new Ireland manager – and other probably unrelated matters concerning the demon drink!
At the end of an exciting, painful and earthshaking year, Bono reflects on the political and the personal – from drop the debt, September 11, Afghanistan and Genoa to the death of his father Bob, the birth of his son John and the enduring friendship which underpins U2’s music and career. Interview: Niall Stokes
[this interview originally appeared in the spectacular Hot Press Annual 2002 - used in the pictures below - a very limited number of this unique collectors item will shortly be on sale - email u2@hotpress.ie to reserve a copy]
Parallels between military action against civilians on Bloody Sunday and President George Bush’s actions, and inaction on September 11 suggest that we’re still getting nothing but the same old story – so far
This is the Hotpress Student Guide 2002. We know that the last thing you want is a load of worthy and boring tips on how to be a good boy or girl. So instead, we thought we’d give you a little bit of help in the much more important task of being baaaaad.
In pre-judging the guilt of those arrested in connection with the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, and fomenting a desire for vengeance, elements of the media have behaved abominably
It may have been Ronaldo & co. who ultimately covered themselves in glory, but Ireland did their bit to make Japan/Korea 2002 the greatest football show on earth
I’d always have said that Irish people were good at huddling. Our history and our climate, not to mention the controlling influence of the Roman Catholic Church, had tended to give us an inward-looking aspect. We had a thing about bars, matter a damn how dark or gloomy they might be. What we wanted, it seemed, was good place to whisper and to hide.
As the dust settles, we can say a couple of things for sure: the first is that the opinion polls generally got it spectacularly wrong; the second is that the pundits fared even worse, in terms of their attempts to call the result in advance
It has taken a long time, but at last a really clear picture is beginning to form of the involvement of the Catholic Church in child abuse - specifically in covering up and colluding in the abuse perpetrated by its priests and brothers
2 weeks ago in Dublin, the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the conviction of Paul Ward [pic left courtesty of The Star] for the murder of Veronica Guerin. It is no disrespect to the murdered journalist to say that this was a good day for justice in Ireland
The major political event in the Republic was the abortion referendum. Hotpress made its position clear in the run-up to that particular farce, but the polls were telling us that it was going to be a Yes vote
At first, the death of Rosemary Toole Gilhooly must have seemed like any other tale of ordinary tragedy - one more sad suicide to add to the statistics, over which sociologists might in time pore and ponder 'why?'
It entered another realm, however, with the revelation that Gardaí were investigating the possibility that this was Ireland's first case of assisted suicide
It might now be appropriate for the Government to declare an amnesty for those asylum seekers who have come here, whether as refugees or as economic migrants
It might now be appropriate for the Government to declare an amnesty for those asylum seekers who have come here, whether as refugees or as economic migrants
Why, more than ever, the Irish government must lead the fight against racism from the front - by behaving in a manner that is absolutely "beyond reproach"
It isn't long since the Irish Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, signed a treaty with the government of Nigeria, which would facilitate the repatriation of asylum seekers from that country, whose applications had been turned down by the authorities here
A comparison with Afghanistan is instructive
As the war in Afghanistan grinds mercilessly on, it has become increasingly clear: the rules have long been forgotten, as much by the Americans and the British as by their Northern Alliance allies.
Ireland's position in all of this is, frankly, shameful
At the end of another eventful year, Andrea Corr takes time out to reflect on life, death, love, health, music and her role, off-stage and on, in the family that plays together. Interview: Niall Stokes
There is no such thing as a War On Terrorism. It is not possible to wage war on an idea or an activity. War is waged against military forces or against people or even against States
There had been a working assumption that, in the thirty-plus years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, we had just about seen it all. But last week proved otherwise
In the same week that an Amnesty International report highlighted the alarming incidence of RACISM in Ireland, NIALL STOKES offers one eye-witness example of just how unwelcoming this country can be. Additional reporting: PHIL UDELL
On 25 August 2001 - twenty years after first appearing there in support to Thin Lizzy - U2 play Slane Castle. NIALL STOKES reflects on the extraordinary journey that has led up to this historic, and beautiful, day
At the time of writing, we are in a state of suspended animation. The new, so-called Blueprint for the North which has been hammered together over the past fortnight by the Irish and British governments is finished.
Have you got a ticket? The way things are looking, that's going to be the question of the year. U2 played Slane Castle as one of the support acts when Thin Lizzy topped the bill there in 1981. Since then they have gone on to become the biggest band in the world.
It was another spectacular own goal by Immigration Control. Nineteen Moldovan workers arrived in Dublin Airport last week. They had valid visas and work permits. Despite that fact, however, they were questioned for between two and four hours by immigration officials at the airport - and then refused entry.
The glitz and glamour is but the tip of the iceberg a lot of blood, sweat and tears has also gone into making THE CORRS the huge success they are. And it s not just about the music either the tricky business they call show has to be negotiated too. NIALL STOKES gets the inside story from the captain of the ship, manager JOHN HUGHES, with supporting testimony from some of the crew.
Niall Stokes: With this record you took on responsibilities as a group which were significantly greater than had been the case before, in terms of shaping the record, being involved in production. How did that affect the process?
Niall Stokes: As a band you took more responsibility with In Blue you have a greater level of input into the production and so on. Was that a strain when you were doing it?
Niall Stokes: People would make an assumption that since The Corrs have sold millions of records, you ve already got it made. Does it feel like that to you?
Niall Stokes: As the drummer in a band, you re occupying a seat that s normally occupied by men.
Caroline Corr: It s a natural thing for boys to go for instead of girls. But I think there should be a lot more females playing. I don t know why they don t.
By any standards, The Corrs are an extraordinary phenomenon. It won't be long before the combined global sales of their albums to date top the 20 million mark. In Ireland alone, by the end of the year, they will have sold over a million records - at which point they may well have established themselves as the biggest-selling Irish act of all time on home turf.
The front page of the Observer carried a very interesting lead story last Sunday. Apparently Britain's intelligence services are seeking powers to seize all records of telephone calls, emails and internet connections made by every person living in the UK. Already a confidential document has been sent to the Home Office, in which the argument in favour of wide-ranging new powers of data control is made, on behalf of MI5, MI6 and the British police.
What are Dublin Corporation up to? I know that not everyone in Ireland cares about the answer to this question: if you live in Cork or Sligo or Derry, why should you? Well, I'll give you one good reason: where public policy is concerned, if something is introduced in Dublin and it sticks, then almost inevitably, it's only a matter of time before the other significant cities and towns around the country at least south of the border follow suit. Think parking fines. Now think clamping. As the old town planner's song goes first we'll take Dublin city, then we'll take Athlone.
The Dail all-party committee on abortion issued its report last week. If it wasn't such an important and emotive issue, it might have been enough to make you laugh. The report was surprise, surprise, completely and utterly predictable. In fact, there was no agreed response, with each of the major parties drawing completely different conclusions from the information and evidence that had been furnished to them.
There's a girl who, over the past few months, has taken to sleeping in the doorway of our offices here in Trinity St. It's hard to tell what age she is she looks all of fourteen years, though she claims to be older. In the morning on the way in, when she's there, you step over her sleeping body. It's a moment that's always fraught with a feeling of dread. It seems somehow heartless, walking past and literally over her prone body as if she wasn't there. And yet there is also a genuine sense that you feel that you should tiptoe by, in case you might waken her before she is ready to face the world. Let her rest, you
One of the problems of working for a fortnightly publication is that events can so easily overtake you. Right now, on Monday 9th October, the stark reality is that the Middle East is on the brink of all-out war. By the time you read this, Israel may have forced the region over that brink, potentially plunging Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Libya and the Lebanon, as well as Palestine, into a full-scale conflict.
IT came as a bit of a surprise when the Minister for the Arts (not her full title!) Smle de Valera, hit the headlines last week. Smle delivered a speech in Boston, in which she suggested that further European integration would not be in Ireland s interests. She observed that directives and regulations agreed in Brussels can often seriously impinge on our identity, culture and traditions. And she insisted that the EU is not the cornerstone of what our nation is and should be.
Every day another outrage. Every day another act of vengefulness and malice. Intimidation. Violence. Shootings. Then murder. The North has seen some desperate times lots of them even more full of doom than this, for sure. But seldom has there been a week of more intense clandestine viciousness than the one we have just been through.
How long must we sing this song? We ve known for what seems like aeons that Ireland in the first two thirds of the 20th century was a cesspit, in which children were routinely and systematically abused, physically and sometimes sexually, by people in whose care they were placed in sports clubs, schools, orphanages, reform schools and so on.
IT is all highly entertaining. In men s athletics, the traditional dominance of white athletes was overturned a long time ago. At first it was the Kenyans and the Ethiopians displaying a prowess in long-distance running that required the wholesale rewriting of the record books. Then black American, British, Canadian and Jamaican athletes began to come through in the sprints. Then gradually a bunch of middle-distance runners followed on, to fill in the gaps.
DON'T stand still. You should never stand still. Because if you do, you'll look up and find that in truth you've been drifting backwards. Gotta keep movin'. Gotta keep movin' on.
I find it hard to know where to begin, so deep is the sense of disillusionment I feel. Every few days now, it seems, we are confronted by some new racially-motivated abomination in Ireland. Last week the Richardson family from England were the victims a mixed race group of father (white), mother (black) and son (student at Trinity College), they were on a night out in Dublin, celebrating a family occasion. Walking back, along Pearse Street, to the apartment in which they were staying, they were attacked by a bunch of yobs shouting racial insults. The father, David Richardson, was stabbed brutally and almost died. Rushed to hospital, he remained in intensive care for days. Who knows what scars he will carry with him, physically and psychologically, for the rest of his days as a result?
Let s talk about heroin addicts. Yeah, they re the ones who ghost around town looking like death warmed up. Glazed eyes, sunken cheeks, rotting teeth. Hopeless cases, most of them, good for nothing except bag-snatching. They rob, they cheat, they lie. And when they ve done with that, they rob, they cheat and they lie again. They steal off their mothers. They steal off their lovers. And they steal off their children. If there s something that can be hocked, they ll hock it. If there s something that can be moved, they ll lift it.
SINEAD O'CONNOR has been many things - bona fide pop star, tabloid target, controversial activist, mother and priest. But, above all, she is one of Ireland's most compelling musicians.
With a new album due for release, she talks to NIALL STOKES about love, sex, the Church, fame, racism and why "it's important to make it soul music." Pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
A lot of people have expressed shock and outrage at the fact that the bishops and the clergy have been giving Bertie Ahern and his partner, Celia Larkin, a hard time of it recently
THE Bishop of Meath is a very helpful fellow. Sometimes, it can be difficult to even begin a debate about the way in which education is structured and run in Ireland. Traditionally there s been a kind of cosy collusion involved. The State, to a very large extent, abdicated its responsibilities, especially in the area of primary education, handing over the running of the schools to religious orders and local clergy. The Catholic Church and indeed the smaller religious denominations have been only too happy to step into the breach.
THREE men are murdered in horrific circumstances in the seaside town of Scheveningen in Holland. The descriptions of the torture inflicted on them, and of the final brutal manner of their murder, are harrowing in the extreme. Putty or plaster of some kind, it is reported, had been rammed into the orifices of at least one of them. All three were dowsed in inflammable material and set alight. The bodies are so badly disfigured that they are unidentifiable. To contemplate it, even in the abstract, is enough to stop you in your tracks, to render you speechless at people s unbelievable capacity for evil.
There is a grim fascination, watching events unfold at the Flood Tribunal. For a long time it seemed that this official inquiry into corruption in the planning process in Dublin might remain mired in a kind of parochial squabbling and bitterness. Last week, however, the whole circus switched into another gear and, at last, what has been a grindingly long and often tedious process began to take on a real sense of scale.
I stopped playing football at the age of eighteen and stayed away from it for twelve years. By then I had a son, and it was kicking ball with him, and witnessing his unselfconscious enthusiasm for the game that first re-awakened the sense of magic that football had held for me during my own childhood and teenage years.
ORANGEMEN last marched in Dublin in 1937. Apparently feelings ran high at the time, and there were running battles and scuffles the length of Talbot Street, as the banner-bedecked brigade made its way towards Amiens Street station, some of them, at least, to board the Belfast train there. Sixty-three years on, another march is being planned for the capital this time to mark the bicentenary of the first meeting of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, which took place in what is now the Norwich Union building on Dawson Street.
SOMEONE in the Department of Justice is convinced that we re being swamped. Or is it John O Donoghue himself who is responsible for the current scare-mongering about the issue of housing immigrants?
He scored his first hit single as lead singer with Them in 1965, with Baby Please Don t Go . In 1968, he released his debut solo album Astral Weeks, which is widely regarded among critics as one of the most important and complete records of the past 50 years. But these are just two early landmarks in a remarkable career which finds Van Morrison still on top of his game 40 years since he made his debut with his own skiffle group, The Sputkniks, at a school concert in Orangefield in Belfast. In an exclusive interview, carried out for the RTE television series From A Whisper To A Scream, and published in the run-up to Van s latest Irish dates, he talks to Niall Stokes.
IT S been a bad week for the Minister for the Arts, Smle de Valera. First, the Arts Council, appointed by her amid the usual fanfare 18 months ago, began to unravel with the resignation of the Chairman, Professor Brian Farrell. Then a report in the Irish Independent revealed that the Minister had brought before Cabinet a proposal to sell RTE s transmission network to the highest bidder a controversial move which could herald a period of intense conflict between the Minister and the national broadcaster. And finally, at the weekend, The Sunday Times revealed that the Minister was close to making an announcement about the formation of a Music Board.
JUST when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the jetty collapses. On Friday afternoon last, it was hard to escape an awful, mournful sense of dij` vu, as the word came in on the mojo wire that the new devolved institutions of governance in Northern Ireland had been suspended, and direct rule from Britain reimposed.
IT was one of those newsflashes that immediately registers, with a rare piquancy. Eoin Ryan was being promoted to the cabinet, as a junior minister. With responsibility for drugs.
You look up 'skiffle' in the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary and it says "a strongly accented jazz type of folk music, played by guitar, drums and often unconventional instruments etc. popular about 1957".
NIALL STOKES on the tactical and personnel blunders that left MICK McCARTHY with few legitimate excuses for Ireland's failure to qualify for Euro 2000.
IT was in many ways a good week in Irish political life. Within two days, two major reports were published and in both cases you d have to say that their authors did well.
WHO would want the job? Mo Mowlam was riding high in the wake of the Good Friday agreement last year; at that stage, she was entitled to feel that she had actually contributed something substantial to bringing about a peaceful solution to the awful conflict that has disfigured life in Northern Ireland for so long.
The word had been out on the industry grapevine for the previous week at least. It still came as a shock, however, when the official confirmation came through that In Dublin had been banned.
IT S more than curious. Every day in the national newspapers, you read the stories. The gardam have seized another shipment of heroin, with an estimated street value of #5 million.
Well done, Desmond! Most people in Ireland will be well aware of the controversy which has erupted following the speech which Archbishop Desmond Connell of Dublin gave recently concerning the church s teaching on contraception
The Corrs Talk On Corners was the biggest-selling album of 1998 in the UK. So far it s shifted 6 million copies worldwide and rising. And now the band are set to embark on their American campaign, with who knows what ultimate destination at journey s end. So they ve had it easy, eh? It s all a big marketing scam, masterminded by the moguls in the American record company that signed them? We thought you d like to know so we put these and other accusations to someone who should know, their manager of nine years, john hughes. And got some interesting answers too. Interview: niall stokes.
But not all the time! The Irish presence at the music industry s biggest convention MIDEM was an impressive one. But as ever, a split was on the agenda. Report: NIALL STOKES.
I KNOW that there are more important things going on in the world than car clamping like, for example, the grotesque murder of the former IRA man Eamon Collins. But what can we say about that monstrous deed that adds to the sum of human insight, knowledge or happiness?
STUDENTS of religion will no doubt have been struck by the recent spate of articles concerning the relationship between the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and his partner Celia Larkin.
Having made his name in the folk arena with Emmet Spiceland, Planxty and The Bothy Band, DONAL LUNNY went electric with the ground-breaking Moving Hearts. In the second part of a wide-ranging interview reflecting on all of the major characters and plots in Irish music since the folk revival blossomed in the '60s, he talks about the demise of the Hearts, the impact of Riverdance, Shane MacGowan, Sharon Shannon, Altan, Coolfin – and what he'd like to do with Sheryl Crow. Tape: NIALL STOKES
It s been a long, long way from there to here and DONAL LUNNY has been at the centre of things every step of the journey. He has achieved enormous acclaim and considerable success with Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts. Now with the launch of his latest band and their eponymously titled album COOLFIN, he takes time out to reflect on all of the major figures who have contributed to the extraordinary revival of folk and traditional music that has taken place over the past 30 years. He also recalls the highs and the lows the heartbreak, the good times and the great music that he himself has enjoyed as one of Ireland s finest and most influential musicians. Interview: Niall Stokes. Pics: Colm Henry
WAKE up. Look at yourself in the mirror, Ian Paisley. What do you see? There’s three children’s faces there. Tight cropped hair. Grins from ear to ear.
WE need to be very careful. During the 1970s, under the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, a violent and nasty culture developed within sections of the Gardaí Síochana.
If you're under 25 and out of work for six months, watch your back. That's the message from the Tánaiste Mary Harney, who announced plans last week to cut people off the dole after six months
If you're under 25 and out of work for six months, watch your back. That's the message from the Tánaiste Mary Harney, who announced plans last week to cut people off the dole after six months
The war is over. There are many messages that can be read into the overwhelming endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement on both sides of the Irish border - but that is the most conclusive, and the most welcome.
THE first reports were unequivocal. There had been a shoot-out between the Garda Early Response Unit and a gang of armed robbers on the main Dublin- Wexford road, near Ashford. One of the raiders had been killed. There were no garda casualties.
The substance of these reports appeared
The Republic of Ireland's pallid 2-0 defeat by Argentina in last week's international friendly showed that
MICK McCARTHY's time and resources are becoming increasingly limited, as Yugoslavia and Croatia loom
over the horizon in the Euro 2000 qualifiers. NIALL STOKES asks: "What is to be done?"
THERE are times when you wonder if this is the right line of work to be in. Maybe it's the fact that it's a small country and we all think that we know each other well. Whatever the reason, there are few things more unseemly than the spectacle of journalists squabbling, and there's been a hell of a lot of it going on in recent years. The mud-slinging which has surrounded the impending publication of Emily O'Reilly's book about Veronica Guerin is just the latest and most intense example of a malaise which is rapidly coming to characterise the Irish journalistic milieu.
What a strange warp we were in. On Good Friday, I walked through an almost deserted BBC building in Ormeau Avenue with Mike Edgar, the producer of the Heineken Hot Press Awards show, as well as one of the presenters. Deeper into the bowels we went, along claustrophobic corridors, until we finally came to Edit Suite No.5.
WE RE heading for some kind of watershed, I m told. And yet, no matter how hard I try, there s nothing happening in the Northern peace talks that I can become even the remotest bit enthused about.
Dear John,
I read this week with interest about the deportations you re organising at the moment. A whole eight of them in just nine days? God, you must be a very busy man. Well done!
I M looking again now at a picture taken at the funeral of the West Belfast taxi driver John McColgan, who was murdered by the LVF. In the centre is Lorraine McColgan, John s wife, her face contorted with crying, her body doubled over in grief.
At long last, a real debate seems to be beginning in Ireland about our treatment of immigrants. It may get nasty and unpleasant at times over the coming months. Already, the foul stench of prejudice and bigotry is in the air, with the attempted launching of the Immigration Control Platform by the Clonakilty schoolteacher (the mind boggles) Aine Nm Chonaill. This pathetic creature s ideology stinks but, in a perverse way, in launching her campaign she may be doing us all an unintended favour. Because what she espouses is little more than an extreme version of what passes for official policy on immigration in this country.
I HOPE John O Donoghue has a happy Christmas. The last time I saw our Minister for Justice on television, he looked and sounded like a deeply troubled man.
ANYONE who had a heart would have to weep at the terrible, tragic squalor and degradation of it all. Did our politicians really imagine that the abortion issue had gone away? Did they think that, miraculously, no other cases would emerge which would end up before the courts that the so-called right to travel would be enough to deal with every eventuality?
WHERE S the emotion? Where s the elation? Where s the celebration? It s an odd sensation indeed. There s a feeling that the words of acclamation should come pouring out but they don t. They don t and they won t.
DID we really imagine that it might be any different? What was it that created the expectation that Drumcree would not become another celebration of Orange supremacism in 1997? Looking back now over the events of the past few weeks, it s hard to believe that we were naive enough to hold out any hope of a compromise. It s hard to believe that we did not see the writing on the wall.
AT long last, it seems that the wretched grip in which the Tories have held British society is about to be undone. For 18 years they have ruled. And for 18 years the poor, the underprivileged and the unemployed in Britain have suffered as a direct consequence. During that period, the Tory party have waged a relentless campaign against the underclass. In a time of plenty, poverty has intensified, and with it the sense of hopelessness and despair which takes root among the disadvantaged on the margins of an affluent society.
It may be hard to resist taking a certain twisted pleasure in the current predicament of the Tory MP Piers Merchant, but I think we should. The Sun newspaper has publicly declared its support for Tony Blair s so-called New Labour and as a result has been digging its leprous teeth into the unsavoury rump of the Conservative party with some relish in recent weeks. The Merchant dunce is their latest victim.
The initial rumours were that it was going to be a rock n roll record . Then subsequent whispers hinted at everything from trip-hop to techno to ambient. But U2 s eighth studio album, Pop, is all of these things and more. It s the first album since 1983 that they ve made without the assistance of Brian Eno, it s been a long time in the making roughly a full year, all told and it s selling like the proverbial warm buns. Here, NIALL STOKES talks to BONO and ADAM CLAYTON, as well as co-producers FLOOD, HOWIE B and THE EDGE, about its lengthy genesis and what the band hoped to accomplish in creating it.
Pix: STEPHANE SEDNAOUI .
I don t know about you but I d been hoping that Mary Robinson would do another stint up in the Aras. I d spent a bit of time contemplating the alternatives recently and some of the possibilities were positively scarifying. I m not going to mention any names here for fear it might encourage them, but forced to choose between Albert Reynolds and Peter Sutherland I think I d go for Bart Simpson if only for his photogenic qualities.
SOME people s spirits may have been lifted by the news that a British general election is likely to take place on May 1st, but not mine. Is there no way that anyone can engineer the termination of John Major s appalling government sooner than that?
I VE been in Vivienne Westwood s shop in the King s Road in London a few times. There s a very striking architectural feature to the place. It s a simple idea but genuinely original and somewhat startling. The floor is pitched at an angle, as if you re on board a ship that s about to go down, or the building you re in is beginning to implode. The shop is called World s End.
Let s begin 1997 on a positive note. This is, after all, the first issue of the year in which we will be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Hot Press and so, despite the fact that we have every right to feel knackered and bollixed and fucked, having had just four days to produce the issue you are now reading, we are in a good humour. Aren t we, team? (No, we aren t. Now fuck off The Staff).
AS you all know, I have always been of the view that popular culture is useless. Rock music is a tuneless, repetitive irritant, recorded by people who can t play and listened to by people who can t hear. Cinema is a playground for perverts and fools. And as for cartoons? Nothing could be more puerile and irrelevant.
The news of Rory Gallagher s tragic death has sent seismic shock waves through the music world. Here was a man who managed to combine the gift of being an authentic creative genius with the even rarer gift of being a genuinely decent, honourable human being. Over the next six pages, Hot Press pays tribute to both the legend and the person, with contributions from the stars, friends, fans and colleagues who were touched by the Gallagher magic, and takes a trip through the backpages of an extraordinary career.
NIALL STOKES takes a very personal journey back through the music and memories of a friendship with a man he was proud to have known
THE DRIVE to Cork was a lonely one. Ry Cooder on the deck, that sweet slide guitar shooting off tracers: the memories, stacked up like a vast
rack of on-line CDs, kept slipping in and out of the engagement slot. No need ever to press the play button. Now and then I had to hold back the
tears as the music of past friendship flooded the car and, with it, a terrible awareness of all the things that might have, but hadn't, been done.
The sense of shock about what happened when football-related violence erupted at Lansdowne Road for the first time during the Ireland v. England game still lingers, almost a week on.
IT is every journalist’s worst nightmare. It doesn’t often happen that a story is either important or sinister enough to lead a writer into direct conflict with dangerous forces.
It is very difficult to get any debate going about the banning of Natural Born Killers. The reasons are obvious. Since the film has been banned, not many people in Ireland have seen it.
IT would be churlish not to begin the new year in a spirit of hope. 1994 saw the most remarkable changes take place in Northern Ireland and after 25 years of war, bloodshed and strife, the paramilitary guns were silenced on both sides of the sectarian divide.
There are times when language itself seems inadequate to the reality with which we are confronted. Over the past months, we have seen the most astonishing sequence of events unfold in Dáil Éireann.
WITHOUT A shadow of doubt, the figures revealed in the Hot Press/Classic Hits 98FM survey will give politicians, priests, lawyers, legislators, educators and gardai pause for thought.
When Hot Press and 98FM decided to ‘go to the country’ some time ago, it was with a view to ascertaining how young people in Ireland were thinking on a range of the burning issues of the day.
The more I think about it, the more angry I feel. What is this bullshit the bishops have been peddling, about not understanding fully the seriousness of child sexual abuse?
WHAT I want to know is this: how do so many intelligent people still give their allegiance to the Catholic Church? Now I know that nobody is perfect and that there are flaws in every institution.
When the news came through it was well after midnight. The Hot Press production crew were doing their usual crazy stint trying to pin the beast down, and put it to bed. In the middle of the mayhem and the pressure, it still came as a terrible shock.
THE conflict in the North has nothing to do with religion. That is the startling argument put forward by Peter Robinson in an interview in this issue of Hot Press.
At the time of going to press, all the appearances are that the story concerning the involvement of what the media are describing as a senior Coalition politician with ‘rent boys’ is about to be told. Hot Press has been aware of the facts of the case for some time.
IT’S BEEN a strange month. Hot Press has been at the centre of controversies before – but never quite like this! Elsewhere in this issue, we cross swords with Eoghan Harris and the Sunday Times regarding an issue of defamation.
It’s over six months since the historic legislation was passed which decriminalised homosexual relations between consenting adults above the age of 17 in Ireland.
The Irish were out in force at MIDEM, the annual music industry bash held in Cannes, in the south of France last week. With Irish music’s international stock running high and the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Michael D. Higgins on hand to lend his support, it proved to be a very interesting year. Report: Niall Stokes.
At the time of writing it is nearly a week since the order prohibiting interviews with members of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin, as well as various proscribed paramilitary organisations, under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, was allowed to lapse.
The end of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign was deeply unimpressive, not so much for the poverty of the results as for the manner in which they were achieved. And just when everyone was breathing a collective sigh of relief at the whisker-fine nature of our qualification, worse was to follow with the news of Niall Quinn’s critical knee injury. So what is the best way forward for Jack Charlton’s embattled troops? Analysis: Niall Stokes
Since 1914, the PRS has administered the rights accruing to Irish songwriters, composers and publishers from the use of their music in public places throughout the world. However, the campaign to establish Ireland as a separate territory, with its own independent music rights organisation, has been gathering momentum. Now in a controversial move the PRS have declared that this change can only take place with the approval of two-thirds of the Society’s members in Ireland. Niall Stokes – himself a member of the PRS – examines the issues and concludes that subsidiary status is no longer enough for IMRO.
A lot has changed in Ireland since World AIDS Day in 1992. At long last, restrictive legislation in relation to the availability of condoms has been dumped.
When Pat Kenny steps before the cameras every Saturday, he attracts an audience-rating which is increasingly likely to threaten the long-standing supremacy of The Late Late Show in Irish broadcasting. But despite his popularity, the host of Kenny Live remains something of an enigma. In the first part of a wide-ranging interview he talks about everything from his first kiss to, well, the meaning of life. Interview: Niall Stokes
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
The time has come for radical action. It's been building inexorably - as things always seem to build - towards this inevitable climax for a long time now. Well, there can, I fear, be no further room for delay no matter how painful the process itself may ultimately be. Because I have finally, and after careful consideration, decided to denounce everything.
The Union of Students in Ireland is under imminent threat of closure. As many will be aware, the Union has been involved in a long drawn out legal battle with SPUC, following their decision to continue to publish information regarding abortion after SPUC had successfully taken Open Door Counselling and the Wellwoman Centre to court on the same issue.
HAVING passed through both the Dáil and the Seanad, the new Sexual Offences Bill needs only the signature of the President Mary Robinson to become law.
When Siniad O Connor tore up a picture of the pope on the Saturday Night Live television show in the US recently, she unleashed a storm which has been swirling around her ever since, causing her at one point to announce her premature retirement from the music industry. One month on, bruised and weary she may be but Siniad is neither downhearted nor repentant. Having declared war on the Roman Catholic Church she is determined to keep taking the battle to the real enemy. Interview: Niall Stokes.
There is no question about it. He may look as if he's been dipped in a bottle of red ink but it is Adam who stands there bollock naked before the camera and the world on the back sleeve of the latest, long playing opus from the band whose name begins with U and ends with 2. And is that Eve who hovers topless behind Bono on the front?
It was a year when all manner of ecological malaise seemed to come home to roost. In particular the Sudan was in turmoil, putting our own nasty little problems of smog, toxic waste and criminal fish kills into sharp relief –
From a darkened studio in Artane to the bright lights of Top Of The Pops and beyond that 'Orinoco Flow' has taken Enya and all who sail with her on an unprecedented voyage of discovery. Niall Stokes joins the key figures as the flow swells into a torrent of success and is pleased to report that nobody on board is in danger of losing their bearings.
Nearly a decade after the release of their debut single, U2 are widely regarded as the No. 1 rock band in the world. But the album and the film "Rattle And Hum" depict another kind of reality entirely. Larry, Adam and The Edge talk to Niall Stokes.
Having already achieved a degree of acclaim with her soundtracks for The Frog Prince and The Celts -- with the release of her first fully-fledged solo album, Watermark , Enya seems set for the type of accolades reserved for major-league artists. Niall Stokes unveils the creative trinity behind the finished meisterwerk, talks to Enya and her collaborators Roma and Nicky Ryan, and ponders the question:what will commerce do to this thing of beauty?
The privilege of being given space in a newspaper to pontificate on the events of the past year is afforded to very few people. As such it is a privilege. The same applies to rock criticism in general.
Amid rumours and press reports that his career could be at an end, Larry Mullen reveals the truth about the extent of an injury to his hand that is becoming a common problem for rock drummers. Interview: Niall Stokes
It's hard to believe that it's so long since John Fogerty's last album. In the intervening time span, rumour and speculation flared intermittently about a new album in the marking - yet Fogerty, one of rock'n'roll's most tantalisingly enigmatic recluses remained silent.
In a mediocre year, there was one album which offered a complete vindication of our continuing belief in the power of rock’n’roll. Just one – but that one is enough.
The time has come when we can no longer pretend that we’re in control. An incipient sense of cosmic disorder, for the past year gnawing away at the fringes of our collective consciousness, has suddenly become devastatingly palpable.
The story of how Paul Brady was transformed from a superlative folk artist into a superlative rock artist in a blinding flash of light (well, fifteen years actually). Today's reading is by Niall Stokes.
There's a new star in the charts tonight, and throughout the land there is much rejoicing (especially in some of the more fashionable areas of London). One of punks more pathetic jokes, Adam Ant, forsakes his past of seedy night clubs.
ABBA have seldom been acknowledged by those who arbitrate or presume to arbitrate on matters of rock taste. Apart from a brief flirtation about five years ago, rock culture – in as much as the phrase actually signifies anything concrete – has continued to stick them with the legacy of their Eurovision success.
Somebody is onto something, that's for certain. To begin with the name has a touch of magic. Dexy's Midnight Runners suggests something illicit, even apart from the drug reference. It's both strong and open, pointed and evocative. And in the end it's accurate because it registers the desired connection – Dexy's Midnight Runners are a soul band.
When Rory Gallagher hits the stage at this year's Macroom festival gig, it'll be his last appearance in Ireland, a year that has seen him forgo some of the spotlight he's enjoyed over the previous ten years in Britain and Ireland in particular.
