[Leah Farrell (left) and Ruth Marie Callinan watching Garth yesterday]
What did the Garth hoo ha say about us?
“….Sad, too, is how the bile unleashed at Brooks fans hints at Dublin’s insecurity, that with it becoming more like a mini London – its old-world charm getting pushed out by Facebook, Google and an endless cavalcade of chain stores – we’re left clinging to elitism to justify spending €1,200 (£995) a month on a damp one-bedroom flat. We yearn to feel special – berating Brooks fans creates in us the impression that, no matter how bad things are deep down, at least we’re not as bad as them.
In all, the Garth Brooks saga is indicative of Ireland’s split psyche. His urban haters and rural admirers represent two opposing viewpoints, one as faulty as the other.
There are those who’re happy to embrace the memories that the singer conjures up – the innocence of the 90s and of the past in general, the good times, the drinking and the, “Sure, what harm?” attitude. Then there are those who would rather rip up the last few centuries of Irish history, forget they’ve come from the same dubious stock and start all over again….”
The Garth Brooks Bullshit Defines Ireland (James Nolan, Vice)
Meanwhile….
(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
God, they publish a lot of shite on Vice, don’t they?
Its like a comments section writ large.
i mean, how come it’s this nonsense that defines our national dysfunction, and not our corrupt politicians, unpayable debt, crumbling public services etc.?
and all the finger pointing? nolan is no different to any of the players in this game.
You don’t get to pick and choose your national dysfunction symbols! That’s not how national dysfunction symbols work!!
well as a proud irishman, i demand the right to name and own my dysfunction. and sod anyone else who tells me otherwise.
That attitude is just entirely symbolic of the broader dysfunction in Irish society, you know.
Only minor amounts of projection to be seen here.
Nice bit of trolling there by Vice. And by extension you, Broadsheet. by posting it.
Vice seem to have really embraced this embarrassing s***e. I remember the one about why a guy hates GoT while admitting he’s never actually watched it. Trolololol
As I recall, that article boiled down to “Ugh, nerds. What are they all about, amirite?”
It’s pretty typical of Vice “reporting” in general.
Such a unique view and so well written. I admire his forthrightness and his ability to so keenly hold a mirror to Irish society and show us all who we really are. I wish him nothing but success but fear such a polarising view of our country may make it hard for him to find any employment here. Too many people would dribble out this kind of wank at a barmen and remain too idle and work shy to transcribe it in the cold light of day. Kudos to him. Kudos.
Thank heavens for a common sense opinion amongst the usual bile.
“Sad, too, is how the bile unleashed at Brooks fans hints at Dublin’s insecurity, that with it becoming more like a mini London – its old-world charm getting pushed out by Facebook, Google and an endless cavalcade of chain stores”
What exactly is wrong with ANY of that? A mini London? You mean a modern city with a decent infrastructure. Old world charm?! You mean the largest tenement city in Europe maybe? Crumbling decaying colonial outpost? Nice to see Vice ‘journalist’ posting with rose tinted glasses firmly placed on nose.
Who’s slagging Garth Brooks fans?
Was that a ‘big thing’ over the last few days?
What a load of horsesh*t.
God I hate it when this Bodger character posts on Broadsheet. It’s always a repost of some half-baked blog about how sh*t Irish society is and how we’re a race of morons and paedophiles.
More C&H cartoons and amusing YouTube clips, less state of the nations drivel from the lower colon of the internet please.
+1
I’d say Bodger gets more clicks and comments than any other contributor, so he should probably just keep doing what he’s doing.
Exactly, it’s pure clickbait. And we are all guilty of enabling him.
yup.
That’s unfair. Bodger also did the post about a woman carrying a ladder in a buggy, and the one where he thought “no stone unturned” was the opposite of “no stone unturned”.
HA!
You’re on a roll today
F*ck this innocence of the 90s nostalgia shit. My country dwelling cousins worshipped Garth in the 90s as teenagers. We city dwellers sneered at their music taste and choices back then. We thought Garth was crap while they thought he was “excellent”.
We loved our cousins, didn’t think we were better than them and after some slagging we got on with having a laugh. We just thought they had shit taste in music. Which they did…and still do.
There will always be the town mouse vs country mouse situation between urban and rural dwellers. It’s the same in lots of countries and Ireland is no different.
I liked this bit… “for the first time the outside world felt like something to be embraced rather than run away from”
Pretending to himself that he’s speaking about the 90s to 00s period in Ireland, I think it’s clear that he’s really speaking about his finishing puberty… or maybe his first wank, I’m not sure.
My experience of music, and that of my peers in the 90s was the same as other teenagers around the globe….we had MTV, we watched 120mins, we listened to pirate radio, we listened to music with our siblings and friends and made mixtapes. We were aware of music from the UK, America and the rest of Europe. The idea that we were all holding hands waiting for Garth Brooks to save us is farcical.
I think poor old James is just embarrassed about his own dubious past or taste in music and transferring it over to the rest of Ireland.
Don’t like living near Croke Park? My god…what could the solution be…
Ah the old Dublin is like the UK observation being trotted out. I’m from Dublin and in all honesty, I’ve more in common with a city dweller in pretty much any other Western-European urban environment than I do with someone from a farm. This is why nationalism is a load of old crap the misty-eyed tripe this fella is spouting is a demonstration of it. Sure, there’s some national differences which are nice to keep and maintain but in general yearning for some kind of nostalgic view like this is a waste and wrong.
London!????!!!? You bloody well wish mate.
innit?
This sterling attempt at national introspection fails to recognise that plenty of the culchies have no interest in Brooks, his asinine behaviour or his mundane music.
What is with this assumption that it’s only people from the sticks going to Garth Brooks?
Where’s the sticks? Anywhere outside Dublin?
No comment on the Ryanair boarding pass on the table no?
I’m disappointed.
My good God, that is a pile of annoying right there (I’m refusing to click through as that’s what they want). As someone above hinted, this smacks of projection and thus major issues this lad has. There seemed to be two main groups of Irish people in this saga/fiasco/future Reeling in the Years gold: (1) the unhappy fans, and (2) the bemused rest.
He lost me at “Having grasped one too many kids, the Church was relinquishing its grasp,”.
That’s a badly written sentence. Also who is James Nolan?
He’s the same dope who wrote the rambling, incoherent rant on why Ireland shouldn’t have been named the Best Country in the World, blissfully unaware that Ireland had not been named any such thing, and had in fact been ranked No.1 in the countries that bring good to the rest of the world.
Clearly a bit of a half-wit that someone in Vice thinks is telling The Truth about our verdant isle.
Dublin is full of Mulchies , I work with loads of country people, Christ ,people think Dublin is some type of urban pin up. what really annoys me is the outrage/uproar on this Croker- Garth saga, yet no one gives a toss about the junkies roaming O’Connell Street and environs. sad.
This is a total sham, One of the objectors told me he got a visit from the Garda yesterday to check that the objections weren’t bogus, They have 10 Gardai working on this instead of other real day to day issues
The guards love Garth in fairness.
That’s cause they’re all from the country.
Since when did this fake-as-plastic-vomit w****r in a hat stand for ‘authenticity’?
he’s clearly twisted it to fit his own prejudices against Dublin.
Dublin is about as hip as council estate fashion, and the hundreds of thousands of culchies who live there would have to equally fall into this perceived us vs them nonsense, so are they really sneering at themselves ?? The real urban hood kids get equal abuse about liking garbage like macklemore and iggy azalea – equally muck.
kevin smith was in vicar street recently, and every time he mentioned a place in ireland, there were people who would boo. he was gobsmacked, and asked why do we all hate ourselves.
That’s interesting I reckon like it’s an the result of the exploitation of the post-colonial fear of the big other by the PTB in Ireland since the 20’s yeah? Which has then been transferred to localised rivalries through the GAA, and also stoked by politicians (“I’m from Navan and he’s from Trim,”), I dunno maybe the Church too, and a general maintaining of the status quo (no promised land reform) leading to bitterness, maybe. That my guess anyhow.