Tag Archives: Cork

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Indiependence Festival

Deer Park, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork; July 29-31.

Here’s what you may need to know.

01. One of the success stories of the Irish festival circuit of the last decade, Indiependence has gone from a stage in Mitchelstown’s main square to one of the country’s biggest weekenders in the grounds of the Cork town’s Deer Farm.

02. This morning saw the first wave of line-up announcements, equally heavy on big names and independent Irish talent.

03. A hefty amount of weekend tix are gone already, with only Tier 3 passes left before this morning.

04. Previous Indiependence headliners Editors and Ash (back to redeem themselves after being unable to finish their set last year) are joined by Bell X1 and The Kooks at the top of the bill.

05. Scotland’s Idlewild, and Irish pop outfits The Blizzards, Hudson Taylor and The Strypes round out the crowd-pleaser portion of the announcement.

06. An intriguing selection of artists and bands lines out on the undercard, including garage-rockers Otherkin, Belfast’s Pleasure Beach, Dublin outfit Saint Sister, Cork soulman Brian Deady, and electronic lads King Kong Company.

Verdict: A solid start to what is traditionally one of the better line-ups of the Irish festival circuit, with an already-eclectic selection of acts under the bigger names. Deer Park is a beautiful location for a fest like this, and there’s little-to-none of the usual hassles that come with the bigger summer sojourns. Well worth the excursion.

Indiependence

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The Great Balloon Race – Chocolate Beans

What you may need to know…

01. Hailing from Cork, where they’ve been active for the past few years with various line-ups, psychedelia/folk four-piece The Great Balloon Race head in a more blissed-out, jazzy direction with new single Chocolate Beans.

02. Following on from 2012’s Cardboard album and last year’s Daryl and John single, it’s available now, for free/pay-what-you-want download on Bandcamp, and free download from Soundcloud.

03. An accompanying video,  above, was directed by Cork film-maker and photographer Blair Alexander Massie. This is their second collaboration, having worked on the live performance video for Daryl and John.

04. The band are launching Chocolate Beans at legendary venue Connolly’s of Leap this Sunday, with support from promising Cork noisy/synthy unit The Barchester Chronicles. Doors at 9pm, €10 in.

Verdict: Part of a small but vital clutch of bands that comprises Cork’s psych-rock (and related ephemera) scene, The Great Balloon Race have been one of the city’s best-kept secrets of the past few years. Here’s hoping it doesn’t stay that way much longer.

The Great Balloon Race

Talos

Talos – In Time

What you may need to know…

1. In case you missed it last week, Cork-based electronic-pop pinup songsmith Eoin French, aka Talos, dropped his much-anticipated new single In Time over at Nialler9’s blog.

2. Big, big things await the architecture tutor with a penchant for sweet vocals and spacey, shoegazing sensibilities, after a 2014/5 that saw singles Tethered Bones and Bloom take flight in a serious fashion, leading to myriad festival appearances all over Ireland and Europe, including Eurosonic in the Netherlands.

3. The video is directed and edited by longtime collaborator Feel Good Lost, also responsible for the strong visual identity of Cork Scandipop bedfellows Young Wonder, and recently directing videos for All Tvvins and Le Galaxie. One of Ireland’s most influential creative professionals.

4. Firmly established on the independent Irish music scene, Talos is looking set to go mainstream this year, getting the come-to-bed eyes from Hot Press in their recent Hottie awards/reader poll. He scooped two nominations, one for Best Song, the other for Most Promising Artist.

Verdict: Broadsheet recently saw the live configuration of the project play Quarter Block Party in Cork. He gets better every time we see him, but there’s some heavy-duty backup, including live cellos. Catch him live now, before he blows up properly.

Talos.

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From the campaign trail this morning.

Protestors surround Taoiseach Enda Kenny as he arrives on South Main Street, Cork ahead of the launch of the Cork Events Centre.

Via Sean Defoe

Meanwhile…

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This morning.

Thanks Rose

Support for Kathleen Lynch in north Cork city

UPDATE:

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Chris O’Halloran writes:

This December my self publishing group, Turncoat Press, are releasing our latest comic book. It is title Last Rebel and features the hurley wielding hero, Jenny. The comic is set in a post apocalyptic Cork City where gangs terrorise the decreased and poorly population, as well as mutated animals, including cheetahs and a giant swan.

We will be having a release event in Waterstone’s on Patricks St on Saturday, December 5, from 2:30pm to celebrate. The stories contain many Cork locations including St.Patrick Street, Shandon and Fota. The writers and artists are all Irish based and mostly in Cork.

MORE: Last Rebel (Turncoat Press)

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Cork Circuit Court

RTE journalist Brian O’Connell attended Cork Circuit Court yesterday where there were more than 100 home repossession cases listed. He spoke with some of the people who were going before the court for the Today With Seán O’Rourke show this morning.

After hearing people tell their personal stories, Mr O’Rourke asked if anyone had been evicted during yesterday’s proceedings.

Seán O’Rourke: “As a matter of interest, were there cases where people were evicted from their homes or where their homes were repossessed against their will?”

Brian O’Connell: “Not yesterday, Seán. I suppose it was the first day back so people were telling me, legal people I spoke to said, it was unlikely any order would have been made yesterday. That they’d put it back to December. They’re expecting November, December to start seeing those cases, sometimes they’re grouped together.”

Early election so.

Listen back in full here

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A Syria-born man (above), who does not wish to be identified, has been living in Ireland for 13 years and was recently reunited with his wife and son when they moved here under a Government reunification scheme.

The man has a business in Cork and is now an Irish citizen.

He spoke with journalist Brian O’Connell on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Seán O’Rourke yesterday.

He said since his wife arrived, she has been subjected to harassment and abuse and that she hasn’t left her house in several weeks.

“My wife, she says, “if I’m dying in Syria better than being like this situation by racism”. It’s very, very hard for her. She miscarried last week from this. They knock on the door every time, they frighten her, they shout at her when I am not at home, they shout in [through] the door, they throw rocks.”

“Last week, she miscarried from this situation, she was pregnant, you know. She was only five weeks’ pregnant…[After living in Ireland for 13 years] I have had too many [such experiences] but now it’s getting worse… because my [Muslim] wife she has a veil. In this area, I think, they’re not used to see something like this because it’s, I don’t know, strange for them. That’s why it’s so hard, they keep staring at her.”

….Every two or three days, they throw rubbish in my garden, say very bad words to me, very, very bad words. And one neighbour he told me, “Go home to your country, you’re rats, you this, you that”. I don’t want to say it on the radio….”

Meanwhile…

Listen back in full here