A colllaboration between Studio Wieki Somers and chocolatier Rafael Mutter in which a giant chocolate cylinder of 10 stacked layers studded with geometric patterns of flavoured shapes which are gradually revealed as a crank-turned blade slices thin layers off the top.
The work was commissioned as part of a retrospective of the work of the early 20th century Dutch furniture desigNOMNOMNOM
The Garda Band
The Irish Daily Mail reports that former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan is holding his farewell party at Westmanstown Garda Club in Clonsilla Dublin tonight – with 300 guests expected to attend and tickets costing €40.
Ali Bracken reports (not online):
A quartet from the Garda Band have been refused permission to play at a retirement party for ex-commissioner Martin Callinan, according to well-placed sources. Insiders say that the musicians were willing to play at the function tonight but that senior management refused the request.
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Senior security sources say senior officers are ‘astounded’ that musicians from the Garda Band are not scheduled to perform at the event organised by the Retired Garda Association. Insiders said: ‘It is normal practice for some music to be played at such events by representatives from the Garda Band. There is huge upset and shock over this.’
Previously: The Thin Blue Timeline [Updated]
Photocall Ireland
Prints from Damn Fine Print’s Annie Atkins (Chimneys), Steve Simpson (Raglan Road) and Peter Donnelly (Arthur Fields)
On Saturday, August 9 – from 11am to 5pm – the people from Damn Fine Print are holding a workshop for print enthusiasts.
It will cost €95 which will include all screen-printing materials.
Damn Fine print writes:
“This workshop is a basic introduction to silk screen printing. Beginners will learn a brief history of the art form, print room safety and ethics and gain guided hands on practice in the process of printmaking from start to finish – including preparing your black and white artwork for the medium, coating and exposing your screen, handling screen printing equipment and tools, setting up your workspace, working with water based inks and producing your very own A4 limited edition print run. You will learn to print, troubleshoot and experiment with colour and printing techniques – and leave with your very own limited edition prints!”
Those interested must submit an A4 size black and white image and saved as a JPEG/PDF/PSD file format by email one week in advance of the course to damnfineprint@blockt.ie
One Day Screen Printing workshop – 9th August (Damn Fine Print)
Previously: Damn Fine Damn Hipsters
No cash, favours, prints, or ‘silk’ screens were given for this post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RP0_66GTuI
Last night at least two Palestinians were killed and 200 wounded in the West Bank during a ‘Solidarity March’ against Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Elaine Bradley, an Irish human rights activist working in Palestine, was among the marchers.
Elaine writes:
Last night I acquired the dubious skill of being able to distinguish between live fire and a rubber bullet when being shot at. Thank you Israel for that lesson. Thank you too for teaching me that I should not assume that if I am part of a peaceful protest that includes families, children – that I will be safe.
Together with a friend I joined 20,000 people on the outskirts of Ramallah to take part in the ’48 march in solidarity with the people of Gaza and to protest the actions of Israel there. The aim was to march to Jerusalem – 3 miles from the notorious Qalandia checkpoint.
Everyone was united under the Palestinian flag, an unusual occurrence in a place with many factions that don’t see eye-to-eye. Whole families had turned out – one woman with her baby in a sling walked beside us for a while.
There was an electric atmosphere verging on festive with music blaring from lorries. The crowd sang along and occasionally broke into chants. We walked a couple of miles down the wide street towards the checkpoint in a massive throng. It was immensely powerful and uplifting despite these dark days for Palestine.
Before we got within sight of Qalandia checkpoint clouds of teargas were visible hanging in a vaporous blanket and the loud report of the tear gas cannisters was startling. I had been warned by a friend to bring an onion – apparently it counteracts teargas effects. People in the crowd around me who had been wearing their kuffiyehs (Palestinian scarves) around their necks, started to swaddle their faces with them. I had always thought that was because people didn’t want to be recognized by the IOF, now I know different.
News of what was happening ahead travelled through the crowd like an auditory Mexican wave. The IOF had blocked the checkpoint, had heavy security there and were not going to let us through. No surprise really.
What was a surprise was how quickly things descended into mayhem. As we rounded a corner Qalandia was ablaze before us. Great flames were leaping into the air where some had set fire to tyres. At this point the crowd sorted itself into groups- young men who were no strangers to these confrontations surged forwards, families, elderly people hung back. We were somewhere in between.
Suddenly a noise, hard to describe – a sound between a ping and a whizz, flashed close by. I stood like an eejit for a split second, not comprehending until I saw every one around me had hunkered down. “They are firing on us with live bullets” said my friend as I dropped down. More firing. No one panicked but turned back and ran in a crouched position, as did I. My friend and I moved back 20 yards and stood to the side of the street beside a shop.
The soundtrack to the night had dramatically changed from music and chanting to ambulance sirens, the bang of teargas cannisters and shots. From the Palestinian crowd fireworks were launched, that together with the Israeli flares gave the whole scene a surreal beauty reminiscent of a scene in Apocalypse Now.
I used my iPhone to video what was happening at what I thought was a safe distance until beside, me several feet away there was a loud metallic bang. A rubber tipped bullet had hit the metal shop. At this point my friend took my hand and said “Come- we need to get out of here. It is not safe”.
As we retreated fleets of ambulances were trying to make their way through the crowd to pick up the wounded. The word spread that someone had been shot in the head. One martyr, three martyrs? So many ambulances – was it 20 or 50? Hard to tell.
I made it safely home but didn’t sleep. The ambulance sirens continued well into the morning of this day. I check the Internet – 2 dead, over 200 wounded. The IOF are saying that they were fired on by Palestinians. Really? So how many IOF soldiers were shot?
An Amnesty International Report of earlier this year entitled Trigger-Happy: Israel’s Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank states “Israeli forces have repeatedly violated their obligations under international human rights law by using excessive force to stifle dissent and freedom of expression.” This sums it up.
The international community has abandoned Palestine and the Palestinians – it’s normalisation or nothing! I am deeply ashamed of our own government’s position – both at EU level, and in their abstaining from the vote at the UN for an investigation into war crimes in Gaza.
But the Palestinian people show time and again that they will not back down in the face of the monstrous injustices inflicted on them. Having been brought up in the traditions of freedom and democracy, I am proud to have been part of last night’s march, to stand in solidarity with a people who are seeking nothing more than justice and liberation.
Elaine Bradley.
Previously: ‘The Mask Is Off And People Know’
Pic Julia Mcfarlane
James Nolan
On the lash in Dublin’s cultural quarter?
You know how this ends.
“…What I find once I leave that pub isn’t exactly pretty. Despite being in a good mood, not to mention pretty drunk, walking those streets for 45 minutes probably sours me more on Temple Bar than anything I’ve seen in the previous ten hours. As the tourists continue taking pictures, as they attempt to drink with dignity and enjoy late-night horse and cart rides, the Irish and British take over and go berserk.”
“It’s inevitable, I suppose, that in a melting pot of international drinkers, the two nations with the biggest love for getting shitfaced will rise to the top. Hen and stag parties spill out everywhere, wobbly cellulite and aggressive sweat stains running in chaotic formations down the cobbles. People jump out in front of strangers, startling them, whooping. Others fall down and puke.”
“A distaste rises in my stomach – I know, soon, I’ll have to leave. Needing photos, however, I persist – the camera needs only be held up for someone to dive in front of it, sticking out their tongue, their arse, and contorting their face into an expression that says, “I am a dickhead.””
“I find myself wishing that more tourists were here to force these people out, but in the long term, the opposite will surely happen. What right-minded person will come here, see this and return? How long until Temple Bar becomes – instead of a tourist attraction – something repulsive?”
“That said as long as drinking is considered our main means of coping with the frustrations of modern life, huge amounts of our populations will continue flocking to places like Temple Bar because, here, forgetting isn’t just tolerated, it’s encouraged.”
“Now I really need to leave, and the way I’m feeling, I kind of don’t want to come back. On my way to get a cab, however, I realise I need a piss – I’ve been walking for almost an hour with the dregs of eight or nine pints in me. In a 24-hour Starbucks I came to a conclusion. I’d gone out to discover something new and had ended up basically where I started. I didn’t want to admit it and be too cynical like people said, but late at night, Temple Bar up close looked like the same shithole it did from a distance.”
James Nolan, of Vice, on a night out in Dublin’s Temple Bar.
FIGHT!
I got pissed with strangers in Dublin’s biggest tourist trap (Vice)
A former Anglo Irish Bank clerk has been given a suspend sentence for defrauding his employer of €200,000 while the bank was being nationalised.
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[Gordon] O’Brien had set the money aside “as a war chest” because he was going to lose his job in the wind-up of the bank.
His counsel said his wife was also going to lose her job with another bank and his son had just been diagnosed with autism and faced having his education grant cut.
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At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today Judge Patricia Ryan sentenced O’Brien to four years in prison, but suspended it full for three years.
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The Limerick man committed the fraud by transferring clients’ money into several bank accounts he controlled. He would then take money from internal Anglo accounts and put it into the clients’ accounts to make them appear in order.
No jail for former Anglo employee who defrauded bank of €200,000 (Breaking News)
