Monday 16 December 2019

'How To Disappear' - 'Sunset Connoisseur'


"Sunset Connoisseur" is an instrumental track on Limerick musician Paddy Mulcahy's latest vinyl album How To Disappear, which is "printed on recycled material - every copy will be a different colour," he says.

The track also has a superb new video by Dave Fox. It's shot around modern warts-and-all Dublin, on an old Super 8mm camera that he recently inherited. Enjoy.

Wednesday 28 August 2019

The 'Pigeon House' of Stoneybatter


Pigeons of Discontent is a superb new documentary by Paddy Cahill about the pigeons of Stoneybatter. It was inspired by Cónal Thomas's report in the Dublin Inquirer two years ago about the birds that congregate around the "Pigeon House" on Manor Street.

Despite the film's title and a few dissenting voices, it's essentially a celebration of the wee flockers. Among those taking part is Mary Barnecutt from the band Mary and the Pigeons - who also provide the atmospheric music at the start.

For more on Paddy Cahill's brilliant work, check out this post on my other blog about Long Now, his Amanda Coogan documentary.

Tuesday 9 July 2019

Billy in the Bowl, the Stoneybatter Strangler

Above: "Billy in the Bowl" by Shota Kotake, part of the @DublinCanvas series of painted traffic-light control boxes

One of Dublin's most infamous killers is surely Billy in the Bowl, aka the Stoneybatter Strangler. He's a local ledge in our hood, as the young ones say.

But this being eighteenth-century folklore, bear in mind that the following facts might get blurry here and there...

Sunday 28 April 2019

'Dancing Bug' in Oxmantown


Yet another music vid shot in Stoneybatter's back streets. It's for the single "Dancing Bug", a collaboration between Aoife McCann aka Æ Mak on vocals and Le Boom - electronic duo Aimie Mallon and Chris Leech.

Prominent from the start is Carnew Street, also used by the Spice Girls two decades ago for their "Stop" video. Watch out for the fleeting but excellent drone shots of the grid of terraced streets of Oxmantown.

Thursday 28 March 2019

Mahon Printers and the fabric of society


1. The Huguenots


Dead industries and ways of production linger on in Dublin's street names. Some names reflect the Huguenots who settled here in Ireland, and their descendants in the city's growing middle classes. Many of them came as refugees from France, particularly after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685.