Raked over in newspapers since the fifth and final series made its way on to TnaG, it's hard to write anything new about the Wire. It's a portrait of America through Baltimore and the cop show vehicle; of failing school systems and crumbling communities, where drugs gangs and cops act in similar flurries of selfish brutality. read full story / add a comment

The 'phones are in and the old number - 091.533594 - prevails! read full story / add a comment

Her short stories are published in several anthologies of Irish Writing. Her film 'Gypsies' was screened in Ireland, UK, New York, San Francisco and at International Children's Film Festival, Hyderabad, India. read full story / add a comment

A new booklet detailing the results and analysis of research on the West of Ireland 's local newspapers will be launched by Journalist and Author Michael Mac Caughan on Wednesday the 3rd of September AT 7 PM in the Amnesty Cafe Middle Street Galway. read full story / add a comment

"Well it's losing some of its politcial significance as Obama moves rapidly to the right, but it's a great song!"
"O.K. Hit me with it!"
...and then and there on the Connolly station platform, IWW anarchist singer Anne Feeney did her Dublin one song perofrmance. A great cover of Roy Zimmerman's Obama song...check it out
http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=you+tube+zimmerman+...rd=r1 read full story / add a comment

On Sunday 24 August 2008 Save Tara campaigners presented an international gathering of poets and musicians at Tara to honour and celebrate the place and our heritage. It was organised by Susan McKeown and Paul Muldoon.
Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer prize-winner, read their poetry and were joined by Grammy award-winner Susan McKeown who was accompanied by Aidan Brennan. Laoise Kelly and Steve Cooney also playing at the event.
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The Western Writers' Centre are already liaising with a prominent Irish-based poetry group to organise a possible Scotland exchange . . . .but there's a missing link read full story / add a comment

Maybe it is not the sort of anti government story Sir Anthony would want. Minister Martin Cullen padding around in his first class pajamas on his first class flight to China has vanished, replaced by:

"Cabinet opposed to across-the-board pay rises
By RONALD QUINLAN

ACROSS-the-board pay rises look like an increasingly unlikely outcome from the national pay talks as the Government attempts to rein in inflation and protect employment as the economic downturn continues."
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A very attractive program of Russian music was presented in the refurbished Marist Church, Dundalk, last night. Tickets were €15. The program and the performance was captivating and exemplary. read full story / add a comment

In a second interview, Sean Matthews of Workers Solidarity Movement in a personal capacity interviews singer/songwriter and former republican prisoner Ciaran Murphy concerning the release of his new album and other matters. read full story / add a comment

Every generation has its political rock band: The Fugs, The Clash…and Rage Against The Machine.

RATM formed in Los Angeles in 1991 and released the self-titled debut a year later, one of the definitive CDs of the 90s. The cover featured the image of the “burning monk”, who burned himself to death in 1963: an ultimate image of commitment and protest. The music was a highly potent mix of metal, funk, rap, and anti-capitalist politics.

They made two more albums and a hard-driving CD of cover versions of political or socially-conscious rock and rap songs (including Springsteen’s “Ghost of Tom Joad”) after which they fell victim to internal arguments, and split in 2000.

But now they’re back. read full story / add a comment

Media that doesn't have any other distribution.................... ......................... ..........other than the internet, screenings, dvds......... read full story / add a comment

A fight song for all who raise their voices in dissent
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SDLP Youth has called on Irish language television channels and radio stations to broadcast on the digital free-to-view platform in Northern Ireland. read full story / add a comment

Amid a festive atmosphere of face-painting, musicians, loadsa tourists and even some warm sunshine, free poems . . . . read full story / add a comment

Last weekend’s downpours failed to dampen the spirits of the hundreds of people who gathered for the inaugural Galway summer solstice festival ‘Saoire na Sraide’. The festival, organised by Galway Community Arts, was designed to celebrate the longest day of the year and featured a street carnival, live music and street theatre and a range of children’s activities. read full story / add a comment

Lunchtime reading by three poets to support The Spirit Centre read full story / add a comment

David Harvey makes his long-running City University of New York course on Volume One of Karl Marx's Capital available for free online.

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The National Concert Hall was a hive of activity yesterday evening long before the symphony concert began at 8.00 p.m. Lyric FM were ensconced in the foyer with some kind of panel connected with a composers' congress which had been taking place in Dublin. I did not get involved in listening because I was in an upstairs room with a few dozen other punters listening to the pre-concert talk.

Composer Gerald Barry created a great centre of attention at the talk and around the foyer afterwards and later he took a bow on stage at the end of the Irish premiére concert performance of his opera, La Plus Forte, 2006. A very interesting and talented man who has already achieved a lot he may go on to produce even greater work. He was born, according to the program, in 1952. read full story / add a comment

"How do you recognise a ghost? By the fact that it does not recognise itself in a mirror.

Since all of a sudden [the mirror] no longer plays its role, since it does not reflect back the expected image, those who are looking for themselves can no longer find themselves in it. Men no longer recognise in it the social character of their own labour. It is as if they were becoming ghosts in their turn.

These ghosts that are commodities transform human producers into ghosts. And this whole theatrical process (visual, theoretical, but also optical, optician) sets off the effect of a mysterious mirror."

'Spectres of Marx' 1994, Jacques Derrida read full story / add a comment