Author Archives: Nick Kelly

Thank Fachtna it’s Friday.

As the pubs get ready to impose an 8pm shutdown, there can only be one theme this week for our voucher-free music chin-wag.

What’s your favourite song about or referencing drink?

Here’s mine.

Please include video links if possible.

Lines MUST close at Midnight on Sunday!

Nick says: Good luck!

Nick adds: Hic.

Meanwhile…

Eek-A-Mouse – Ganja Smuggling

Last week, I asked you to post your favourite reggae song in honour of the late Robbie Shakespeare. Reader Flawless won my esteem with this entry:

“My favourite Eek-A-Mouse song. The Irish-Jamaican connections go back hundreds of years and I think his songs are a striking example of Irish traditional music permeating through to reggae music. The airs, the metre, the lilting, etc.”

Nick says: Thanks Flawless and to all who entered.

Last week: Win Nick’s Esteem

Pic: Freebird, Dublin

‘A Night at The Cobblestone’.

An evening of trad in the recently-rescued Smithfield, Dublin 7 musical boozer.

Craig writes:

To celebrate Dublin’s culture and community, District has created a film that documents live Irish Trad music performances from inside the Cobblestone.

You don’t have to be a regular at The Cobblestone to feel a connection to the pub, even if you only darken its door once a year you still feel an affection for it and I think that’s why so many people cared when the redevelopment plan was announced.

The film features Ispíní na hÉireann, Sam Noonan, Emmet O’Brien, Adam Mohamed and other very special guests.

Shot and edited by Collective Films, A Night At The Cobblestone will premiere on the District Youtube channel on Tuesday, December 21 at 6pm.

District

The Cobblestone

Previously: Diddly Eye Opener

Paul Quin – Everything I Loved I Lost (That Day)

Magic and loss.

The inimitable Paul Quin (top) pays a heart-stopping tribute to a late friend on his new single on Scent Air Records.

Breathtaking lyrics and sumptuous synth sonics combine to offer a profound meditation on life, love and death.

Truly a work of art.

You can catch Paul perform his new single live at the Power Of Dreams Christmas Concert filmed on Tuesday and broadcast on Dublin South FM on Tuesday night.

Nick says: The mighty Quin.

Paul Quin

Latest vaccine uptake. Figures based on entire population

This morning/afternoon.

Via Ireland Vaccine progress

Meanwhile…

Hardcore.

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

For Those I Love – To Have You

Dance me to the end of love.

David Balfe‘s project is one that we belatedly feature as it’s clearly one of the Irish albums of the year and it would be scandalous not to acknowledge it in this column. There’s always one that gets away!

A requiem for his friend Paul Curran, who killed himself in 2018, the self-titled album For Those I Love sees Balfe merge memories of his life growing up in Dublin with biting social commentary and all with a banging soundtrack that would bring the house down in clubland.

The video above, directed by Niall Trask, is centred on Shelbourne Football Club and Drumcondra village and was shot on Kodak 16mm in glorious black and white.

Enjoy!

Nick says: Tolka Park life.

For Those I Love

He’s a fantastic man.

Dan!

Previously: The Danned

2021.

Some year, in fairness.

Comedian and satirist CJ Hopkins (top) recalls:

‘I don’t need to review the entire year in detail. You remember the highlights … the roll-out of the “safe and effective” miracle “vaccines” that don’t keep you from catching or spreading the virus, and which have killed and injured thousands of people, but which you now have to get every three or four months to be allowed to work or go to a restaurant; the roll-out of the global social-segregation/digital compliance-certificate system that makes absolutely no medical sense, but which the “vaccines” were designed to force us into; The Criminalization of Dissent; The Manufacturing of “Reality”; The Propaganda War; The Covidian Cult; the launch of The Great New Normal Purge; the whole Pathologized Totalitarianism package.

‘I’d like to end on an optimistic note, because, Jesus, this fascism business is depressing. So I’ll just mention that, as you have probably noticed, more and more people are now “waking up,” or relocating their intestinal fortitude, and finally speaking out against “vaccine” mandates, and “vaccination passes,” and social segregation, and all the rest of the fascist New Normal program.

‘I intend to encourage this “awakening” vociferously. I hope that those — and you know who you are — who have been reporting the facts and opposing the New Normal, and have been ridiculed, demonized, gaslighted, censored, slandered, threatened, and otherwise abused, on a daily basis for 21 months, as our more “prominent” colleagues — and you know who you are — sat by in silence, or took part in the Hate Fest, will join me in applauding and welcoming these “prominent” colleagues to the fight … finally.

‘Oh, and, if you’re one of those “prominent” colleagues and you start beating your chest and sounding off like you’ve just rediscovered investigative journalism and are now leading the charge against the New Normal for your YouTube viewers or your Substack readers, please understand if we get a little cranky.

Speaking for myself, yes, it’s been a bit stressful, doing your job and taking the shit for you out here in the trenches for the past 21 months. Not to mention how it has virtually killed my comedy … and I’m supposed to be a political satirist.’

Fight!

The Year of the New Normal Fascist (CJ Hopkins, Consent Factory Inc)

Pic: Wikipedia