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Issue 65 October 2011

Owner Elsie Kenny stands in her flood damaged toddler’s playroom at Connolly Children’s Centre in the Coombe. The crèche was seriously flooded after heavy rainfall in the Dublin region earlier this week. The drainage system for the crèche in Ashgrove backed up severely, flooding many of the rooms. “I knew yesterday evening it was flooding but I was stuck on the Long Mile Road, my car was a boat and I couldn’t get back to the crèche until seven o’clock this morning,” said Kelly, who has managed the centre for the last twelve years. “We contacted all the parents as soon as we could and told them not to come in. We don’t know when we can re-open.” The crèche was one of several buildings to be flood damaged in the Liberties area. - Andy Nally & Oisin Gregorian

DRINKS GIANT Diageo is consid-ering a €100m redevelopment of its historic St. James’s Gate site.

The company has begun prelimi-nary discussions with Dublin City Council with the aim of consolidat-ing the factory’s European brewing operations.

If the project gets underway, it will cover the area between James’s Street and Victoria Quay.

Diageo will have to submit a plan-ning application to Dublin City Council for approval before going ahead with the proposed works.

If the application succeeds, the company must decide whether to drop its earlier plans to consolidate brewing at a greenfield site in Leix-lip, Co. Kildare, which would have meant closing the city centre site.

The company is the world’s largest producer of premium liquor. Annu-al sales across 180 countries amount to €11 billion. A total of 24,000 em-ployees work for the group, whose top brands include Smirnoff, Baileys and Johnnie Walker whiskey, as well as Guinness.

Profit growth has been slow since

2007. Most of it has come outside of Europe and the US which currently accounts for nearly 75% of operating profit.

Diageo generated around $3 bil-lion in cash in its 2010 financial year.

However, a report prepared for the drinks giant by DCU academic Tony Foley showed that bar sales took a volume hit of 25% in 2007 and fell by over 10% in 2010 alone.

Employment in Irish pubs has plunged from 65,000 in 2008 to 47,000 last year, with another plum-met of 3,000 this year.

The blame game is ongoing with publicans arguing that Diageo has tried to encourage more aggressive price cuts while taking too much profit themselves.

Cynics would suggest that the shift to alcohol consumption at home and then in clubs actually suits the spirits conglomerate quite nicely.

Diageo have said that the aim of the cuts was to create a more com-petitive, efficient and sustainable business for the company in both Europe and Ireland.

€100m proposal for Guinness siteDan Cochrane

NEWS

Election coverage

Page 6

Diageo job cuts Page 3

ARTSOne Liberties,One Book Page 20

NCAD Grad Show Page 16Annie Ryan Interview Page 20

FEATURESOut & About Page 12 & 13Bollywood in Dublin Page 8

SPORTSt Pats Big Cup Win Page 24

KIDS Pages 14 & 15

Halloween Special

Bicycle thefts Page 5

REGULARS

Welcome to the autumn issue of The Liberty, the free local

community newspaper for the Liberties area.

The newspaper is produced by journalism students at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)

in Aungier Street, not far from the heart of the Liberties. We

produce around five issues every year during term time - from January to May and September to December.

Our goal is to inform and entertain the community about

local issues and events, and only you can judge how well

we do this – so we welcome all feedback from you.

ARTSEllen Cooney

thelibertyartsteam@gmail.com

SPORTNiall McCague

thelibertysportsteam@gmail.com

Sub EditorDan Cochrane

FEATURESJenny Dunne

thelibertyfeaturesteam@gmail.com

NEWSOrlaith Grehan

thelibertynewsteam@gmail.com

PHOTOSSarah Reilly

Local History

WEb EdiTORAidan Knowles

WEb STAFFCasey FitzgeraldCormac O’Connor

PROdUcTiONKevin DonnellanColin HigginsDavid HoganBlaithin HenehanCassie Delaney

ASSiSTANT SUbEdiTORS Oisin Gregorian, Lynne Swan,Caroline Ewins, Declan Marron,Gillian Stedman, Brendan Kelly, Jenny McGovern.

EdiTORStephen Bourke

thelibertyeditor@gmail.com

Stephen Bourke looks back on a bloody ambush in the streets of Dublin at the height of Ireland’s inde-pendence struggle.

AN IRA ambush on a military convoy during one of the bloodiest months of the War of Independence left three British soldiers dead and eight wounded.

In March 1921, the Irish War of Independence was at its height. The IRA was routinely attacking British forces throughout the country, and Dublin was no exception.

Aungier Street and Camden Street connected the army barracks at Por-tobello to Dublin Castle, making it a target for the guerrillas. British troops dubbed the route “The Dar-danelles” after the site of the First World War Gallipoli campaign and the regular ambushes there.

On the evening of Saturday 19 March, a lorry carrying troops from the South Lancashire Regiment into

the city centre was attacked at Cam-den Row.

The ambushers threw bombs at the vehicle. Lance-Corporal Henry Charles Jarvis and Private George

Thomas were killed instantly and another six were wounded, includ-ing an officer. The troops returned fire, but no rebel casualties were re-corded.

The Freeman’s Journal reported the area was “filled with people mak-ing Saturday night purchases” in the

busy shopping district. One wit-ness “counted 50 shots” but thought more had been fired.

John Stanford, a 35-year-old la-bourer from Upper Mercer Street was seriously wounded in the abdo-men and was brought to the Meath Hospital in a “precarious” condi-tion. Accompanied by his young nephew, he had just left the Cinema de Luxe – now the Palace Bar – and “walked into a hail of bullets”.

Mary Bryan of the Iveagh Build-ings and her daughter Margaret suffered minor injuries. “I was out shopping about 6:30,” she told the Freeman’s Journal, “I heard a tre-mendous, deafening explosion. How dozens were not killed seems a miracle to me.”

She retreated into a shop, and “feeling queer”, noticed that her right foot was bleeding. “I then saw to my horror that my little girl was bleeding from both legs. But hap-pily she was even less injured than I. Her wounds were the merest little

scratches, but they bled a lot.”One of the soldiers wounded in the

attack, Private Benjamin Whiting, died of his wounds two days later, bringing the death toll of the am-bush to three. The British adminis-tration imposed an earlier curfew in response to the attack.

The Camden Street ambush was just one incident in a week of vio-lence throughout the country.

Earlier that day, Tom Barry’s flying column carried out one of the larg-est ambushes of the war at Cross-barry in Co. Cork. Two days later, the IRA in Co. Kerry attacked a train at Headford, with, twenty Brit-ish Royal Fusiliers. Three civilian bystanders were killed in this attack.

The period between January 1921 and the Truce in July that year saw a death toll of about 1000 between the IRA, the British military and para-military forces and civilians, mak-ing it the bloodiest time in Ireland’s struggle for independence.

What’s the storymap, bud?

The Camden St ambush -1921

Orlaith Grehan

DUBLINERS ARE famous the world over for their wit and charm – so it comes as no surprise that this has made for some brilliant stories over the years.

Have you heard the one about boxer Dan Donnelly, whose rowdy reputation around the Liberties was said to be as powerful as his punch?

Or what about local man ‘Bang Bang’ Thomas Dudley, who spent his life pretending to shoot at pass-ers-by in a never-ending game of Cowboys and Indians?

These and other stories from across the city have been brought to life by two local film-makers and their multimedia website, Storymap.ie.

Tom Rowley and Andrew Flaherty film Dubliners telling their favourite yarns, posting the videos on a map of Dublin so that visitors can take a virtual storytelling tour of the capi-tal. As Tom explains, “myself and

Andy came up with the idea about a year ago and launched the site in February. We started with about 20 stories; we’ve now branched out to around 40, and we’re expanding by about a story a week .”

“We’re trying to capture the whole city’s personality through stories. It’s about giving the city a bit of vision and giving people a way to see it a bit differently. The website gives a new way that you can see the city and we’re also hoping it’s something that can travel to other cities eventually.”

The pair, who live on Cork Street, are constantly on the look-out for the best of the weird and wonderful stories the city has to offer.

“We usually end up approaching people for the stories. We might walk around and pop into places to see what’s there, or we might do a bit of research if it’s something with a bit of a historic background. Very occasionally, we’d get people coming to us; that is something we’d like to see a bit more of.”

The Liberties doesn’t disappoint, with a total of eight short films from the area already posted online.

The Brothers O’Neill shows Johnny and Tommy O’Neill meeting in Fal-lon’s Bar to talk about their “won-derful, wonderful life” growing up in the area, which they describe as “a little piece of heaven on earth”.

The bell-ringer at Christchurch

Cathedral tells of the surprising dangers of his job, while theatre ac-tor Laurence Foster narrates articles written by Charles Dickens about the Coombe.

Log onto Storymap.ie if you want to see a different side to your area –and if you have a story you want to share, contact the guys at storymap-dublin@gmail.com.

Storymap Logo: Trying to capture the city’s personality through stories.

Present day Camden Street, ninety years on from the bloody IRA ambush which resulted in multiple casualties. Photos: Stephen Bourke

“How dozens were not

killed seems a miracle to me”

2

3 NEWS

ROADWORKS HAVE finally been completed on Hanover Lane, with no less than four different util-ities carrying out different mainte-nance work over the summer.

Cable-carriers UPC, ESB Elec-tric Ireland, the city council drain-age team and the road mainte-nance team all spent several weeks working on the lane from March through to August this year.

The lane, which links Francis Street and Patrick Street, is an ac-cess point for many utilities, mak-ing maintenance work here com-mon.

Contractors have now completed the work and the council’s road maintenance team have re-sur-faced the working area.

Hanover St roadworks completedFionnuala Holohan

News IN BrIef

“Old? We’re not that old...”

pg 10

CAP service launchesTHE EX govenor of Mountjoy

prison John Lonergan was a guest of honour at the recent launch of new pilotm Care After Prison (CAP) project in the Carmelite Commu-nity Centre.

Throughout his speech on the eve-ning, Mr. Lonergan discussed ex-cerpts of his book ‘The Governor’ in which he described the prison as a “hell hole.”

“I did write it, say it and mean it. It was a hellhole, nothing to do with the staff, but the buildings them-selves”, he said.

Mr. Lonergan insisted that prison can be damaging and is a negative experience for the majority of pris-oners. He praised the new pilot proj-ect saying, “Going to prison is trau-matic, getting out is more traumatic. In a nutshell, I’ve never met an all bad person in prison, nor have I ever met an all good person outside of prison. Maybe we should remem-ber that when we condemn people”.

Among the guests at the launch

were Deputy Lord Mayor Maria Parodi and independent council-lor Mannix Flynn. “It’s good to get good care for prisoners out of jail, get them back into society and back on the straight and narrow to avoid them falling into isolation”, said Mr. Flynn.

A main objective of the new proj-ect is to invite prisoners back into the community while maintaining their motivation. CAP Director of Services Stephen Doyle said this is crucial in preventing re-offences. He is adamant that prisoners should not be dictated to and instead should de-cide for themselves which areas they require support. “What they’re look-ing for, we help them with”, he said.

Harcourt Terrace gardaí Eoin Car-roll and Mick McHugh were present at the launch. “It is very good for offenders to be integrated back into the community to avoid them falling back into crime”, they agreed.

CAP chairman Paul Mackey said there are many organisations which

the new pilot project will liaise with, while Carmelite Parish priest Fr. Charlie Hoey agreed that linking with these other agencies will be crucial: “We must give people back their self esteem and help them back into society.”

The project is being undertaken in partnership with the City of Dublin YMCA and the Carmelite Commu-nity Centre. It began running offi-cially on October 3 2011, although trials began back in November 2010.

Director of services in CAP, Ste-phen Doyle said the two key objec-tives of the programme are informa-tion referral and support.

“Our key aim is to reduce reof-fending between the Dublin 2 and Dublin 8 areas...Prisoners self iden-tify issues after which our aim is to refer them to suitable agencies such as those dealing with education or accommodation”.

While reducing the number of reoffenders is the main aim of the service, Mr. Doyle says it also offers

family support. “We see the impor-tance of staying in touch with family members throughout time in prison and promote family unit support through mediation”.

He insisted that the Care After Prison programme does not dupli-cate other similar services and fo-cuses on encouraging ex -prisoners towards independent futures.

Prior to this new programme, there was no centralised support for prisoners. According to Mr. Doyle, a core intention of the project is to catch prisoners at a key stage and link with them prior to their release. “While awaiting security clearance, we communicate with other agen-cies to offer a support mechanism in relation to things like the organisa-tion of social welfare payments...A lot of the time prisoners are so excit-ed prior to their release and are then faced with the downer of organising social welfare and accommodation,” he said.

Sarah Reilly

John Lonergan at the CAP launch in Carmellite Community Centre. Inset; Cllr Mannix Flynn and SICCDA Mediation & Service Manager Taragh O’Kelly. Photos: Sarah Reilly

TWO LOCAL youth projects hope to secure the public’s support to win a €3,000 reward as part of the nation-wide Better Together campaign.

Young people from the SWICN Computer Clubhouse on Rainsford Street and the South Area Youth Ser-vice (SAYS) are taking part in the campaign’s online video competition.

Better Together aims to raise aware-ness of community groups across the country, inviting them to submit short films on their work to the na-tional website.

The public have until 11 November to vote for the video and cause they find most inspiring – with three priz-es of €3,000 up for grabs for the most popular.

SWICN’s “National Day of Volun-teering 2011” and SAYS’s “Better Get Her Into The Áras” are both compet-ing with over a hundred other en-trants.

To vote for the videos or for more information on the Better Together campaign, visit www.bettertogether.ie

Opening of SWICN Clubhouse. Photo: Sarah Reilly

Online video competition

Orlaith Grehan

GUINNESS PARENT company Diageo is considering job cuts among its Irish workforce of 1,800 as part of an efficiency drive.

Workers were told that it would seek redundancies in support func-tions and marketing as a result of a reorganisation of Diageo in Europe as a whole.

The drinks giant has revealed that it is the marketing wing that will take the hit. Scores of jobs will be

cut in an effort to slash €8m off the wage bill in its Irish operation.

John Kennedy, managing director of Diageo Ireland, said the cuts were about making the company more ef-ficient.

“Diageo is fully committed to Ire-land, and has very significant opera-tions here that are an essential ele-ment of our company’s operations globally,” he said.

“However we do need to make

changes and deliver greater ef-ficiencies in some of the support functions of the business. These changes, which are being carried out across Europe, follow months of careful analysis and consideration.

We will work closely with our employees and offer them every practical support through what will be a difficult period. However, the changes are absolutely essential to ensure that Diageo has a competi-

tive and sustainable business in Ire-land.”

The speculation is that 70 jobs will go. This follows a similar cost reduc-tion on the administration wing in 2009.

The company said that these cuts were part of a new strategy of its European business and do not affect manufacturing.

Diageo considers job cutsDan Cochrane

ST JAMES’S Hospital is running significantly over-budget after fac-ing the biggest budget cut of all Dublin hospitals in 2011.

The budgets of Dublin’s five main hospitals have been cut by €73m this year. St. James’s allowance was slashed by €20.4m.

According to the HSE Healthstat Dashboard, St James’s was already 2.2% over-budget by July 2011.

There are now fears that the 2012 budget, due on 6 December, could spell further bad news for the hos-pital.

However, Michael Maloney, press officer for the hospital, said, “The hospital doesn’t discuss budget cuts or budget issues with the media as it is currently under discussion with the HSE.”

As indicated in last year’s budget, huge cuts were made across all ar-eas, including social welfare, educa-

tion and health.The Health Service Executive was

allocated a budget of €13.4bn for 2011, compared to €14.2bn in 2010. This reduction in the HSE budget has meant that hospital budgets have had to be slashed this year.

The HSE’s 2010 Annual Report was published this summer and showed that areas such as jobs, the cost of

supplies and drugs were all reduced to achieve maximum savings.

The Annual Report showed that the number of people employed by the HSE had fallen by 3,533 since 2007.

This is in line with Government policy to reduce the number of peo-ple working in the public sector.

According to HSE Board chair-man, Dr. Frank Dolphin: “In order to protect frontline services, areas such as the cost of supplies, drugs and other non-frontline areas have been targeted to achieve maximum savings.”

“We are engaged in a relentless cost reduction programme across all non-pay areas, maximising procure-ment opportunities and eliminating all discretionary spending.”

“Demand for services continues to grow year on year...creating an abso-lute necessity for reform and change not only in how we provide services but in people’s behaviours and ex-pectations,” he added.

This year’s budget is expected to be one of the most austere budgets our country has ever had to face.

Increasing national debt and the worsening banking crisis meant that the government expenditure faced huge cuts in the 2011 budget.

The Government is to spend €3bn less this year than in 2010, accord-ing to government figures. This 5 per cent decrease means that an es-timated €57.5 billion is available to the Government this year.

4 NEWS

Innovation Dublin festival highlights creativity in the Liberties area

THE ORIGINALITY and diversity of local initiatives come under the spotlight with the arrival of the In-novation Dublin Festival 2011.

Now in its third year, the festival showcases Dublin's creative poten-tial through a month-long series of performances, exhibitions, debates and other unique events taking place across the city.

This year’s programme kicked off on 17 October, with highlights in-cluding the “Unused And Unloved” exhibition being staged in a previ-ously deserted space at Fumbally Court, just off Clanbrassil Street.

Curated by arts group Prettyvacant Dublin, photographs, paintings, drawings and sound installations from eight artists – all dealing with the theme of neglect – are on display at the show, which runs until 11 No-vember.

Director of Prettyvacant, Lou-ise Marlborough, believes that the empty Fumbally Court property is a wasted opportunity, typical of many others across town which have been abandoned during the recession.

“The exhibition is about bring-ing life to these buildings as well as giving the artists an outlet for their work, and it's about thinking of the possibilities for the future. Fumbally is a large-scale space; we want peo-ple to look at it in a different way and draw attention to its potential”.

Meanwhile, first class pupils of St. Audeons and St. Brigids National Schools are preparing to take cen-

tre-stage at the “It's My Business” showcase event at Wood Quay on 14 November.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Andrew Montague, will be guest of honour as the two classes present a product and company they have specially de-signed and marketed for the event.

Damien Henehan of Junior Achievement Ireland is working with the classes, along with students in two north inner-city schools, to develop their new businesses.

“We've organised volunteers from Dublin City Council to go into each school and assist the classes in se-lecting their product. The volun-teers have a background in the area, so they'll teach them about adver-tising and marketing, and give the children a bit of business training. It should be something fun and maybe a bit different for them.”

Organised by the Creative Dublin Alliance in conjunction with Dublin City Council, this year’s Innovation Dublin is the biggest yet, with hun-dreds of other events to look for-ward to as well.

John Tierney, chair of the Creative Dublin Alliance, believes the festival embodies “creativity, entrepreneur-ship, sustainability and a distinctly Dublin vibe.”

Andy Nally

DUBLIN CITY Council has launched new allotments in the Lib-erties for local residents and com-munity groups.

Weavers Square, off Cork Street, in Dublin 8, was recently converted into 27 allotments – with 22 plots for residents and five plots to be used by local community groups.

The site has been vacant since 2008 but a recent joint initiative between

Dublin City Council’s Liberties Area Office, Parks Department and Community section helped create new land suitable for locals to use.

Rubble was stripped back and re-moved to make way for new topsoil and a water point and storage con-tainer for equipment were also in-stalled on site.

The allotments are offered on an annual lease, sized 50m2. However, due to the limited number of allot-ments there is a waiting list.

New allotments for green fingered Liberty residents

GET READY for a once in a life-time experience – the Olympic torch is coming to the Liberties. A tradition of games gone by, the Olympic torch relay will be making its appearance in Dublin for the first time in history after a brief stay in Belfast the previous day.

The flame will land in Dublin on 6 June 2012, just over six weeks from the opening ceremony itself.

Starting in the Garden of Remem-brance early in the day, the flame will make its way down O’Connell Street and into the IFSC via Sheriff Street.

It will cross the Samuel Beckett Bridge before heading west along the Grand Canal and into Harold’s Cross

From there the torch will slowly head back towards the City Centre, visiting the heart of the Liberties before heading down Dame Street to its final destination in Merrion Square.

Local Sinn Fein TD Aengus O’Snodaigh told the Liberty: “The Olympic torch symbolises the Olympic spirit of athletes compet-ing with determination, endurance and courage and as such its carrying

through our local streets is a unique opportunity to showcase our area.”

“We should also use this to re-member Ireland’s many Olympic and sporting heroes who have made us proud and have given us a lift when needed,” he added.

Labour’s Michael Conaghan was equally delighted at the prospect of the torch coming to Dublin next June. “The Olympic Games are the biggest sporting event in the world, and the torch is one of the world’s most recognisable and inspirational symbols.”

The Olympic flame’s appearance in the Liberties will be one of the rare occasions the torch will be outside the United Kingdom in the run-up to the games, making this oppor-tunity see this historic flame all the more unique.

“It’s a unique opportunity to showcase our

area”

Orlaith Grehan

The allotments in the Liberties (above) and before (below) Photos: Cassie Delaney & Andy Nally

Oisin Gregorian

Olympic torch will light up D8

St James’s Hospitalstruggles with budgetKatriona Quinn

Photo: Martha Gberevbie

Budgets have been cut by

€73m

More information on the Innovation Dublin

programme can be found at www.innovationdublin.ie.

To apply for an allotment for January 2012, contact Dublin City Council Liberties Area

Office on 01 222 5200.

The Dublin Bus Community Sup-port Programme has awarded the Dublin 8 Community Education Centre (D8CEC) a €5,000 grant.

Director of D8CEC, Marie Mul-vihill, says the money will be used to fund a new social media course for the centre’s History Group. “The members of our History Group are older people, who are not very fa-miliar with social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs,” she said.

The aim of the training course is to document the members’ individual memories of what it was like grow-ing up in inner-city Dublin during the first half of the 20th century.

“This grant from Dublin Bus will allow us to give them training in how to use social media tools, both to research different topics and to share information,” says Mulvihill.

“What we are hoping to do is ex-plore, through the personal recollec-tions of our learners, what life was like in Dublin 8 and the surround-ing areas during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. We’ll use social media tools to record and showcase interviews with project participants, and we’ll focus in particular on occupations and customs that have been on the wane, or have died out altogether in more recent years.”

The D8CEC, which offers second-chance education to over 300 adults every year, has been operating since 1996. The centre recently received the award at a special ceremony held in Croke Park.

After receiving the award Marie Mulvihill said she was thrilled. “Due to rising unemployment levels, de-mand for our services is increasing but at the same time we are faced with severe funding cutbacks. So we need to constantly try new ways of fundraising, and we were absolutely thrilled to receive an award from Dublin Bus today. Without it, this new social media training course and local history project simply could not go ahead”.

The D8CEC is based in The Digital Hub, in the Thomas Court building off Rainsford Street.

5 NEWS

THE SOUTH inner city is among the top five areas of Dublin for bi-cycle theft every year, CSO statistics show.

Bicycle sales have soared since the launch of the ‘Cycle to Work’ scheme over two years ago. But with the rise in sales bicycle theft has risen dra-matically too.

A breakdown of statistics from Garda stations across the city shows that over the past four years there has been a dramatic increase in bi-cycle theft across Dublin.

Last year, Kevin Street Garda Sta-tion recorded 132 reports of bicycle theft - the fifth highest rate of theft in the capital.

By comparison, Malahide Garda Station recorded only 19 reports of theft in the same period.

But if your bike is swiped, all is not lost.

Tony Connaughton, from the Garda Press Office, says: “All Garda

stations keep bicycles that have been recovered for a short period before forwarding them to central stores. From there they are auctioned off if not claimed by their owners.”

The Garda website, www.garda.ie, currently has pictures of recovered bicycles from stations across the city in a bid to return them to their right-

ful owners. These bicycles stay in Garda pos-

session until such time as they are returned to their owner or they are auctioned off if left unclaimed.

Ken MacDonald, owner of Mac-Donalds Cycles on Wexford Street, shared some tips on bike security.

“The best lock brands are ‘ABUS’ and ‘Kryptonite’. And a good rule of thumb is to buy a lock that costs at least 10% of the price of your bike.

So if you have a €500 bike, get a lock that costs at least €50,” he says.

Bicyle thefts rise with sales

Creative recovery

MICHAEL D. HIGGINS was on hand to launch Birthday, a short film, and Frontier Folk, a book of stories and artwork, as part of the Liberties based RADE programme.

The RADE (Recovery through Art, Drama and Education) programme is designed to engage drug users and recovering drug users with the arts and to provide a platform for their artistic expression. Their mission statement that “creativity is open to everyone” was echoed by Michael D Higgins in his speech following the screening of Birthday at the Irish Film Institute.

Mr Higgins spoke of the value of creativity and the arts in society and how it was vital to ‘win the argu-

ment’ about their importance. He quoted author Raymond Williams when saying that everybody should strive to “be the arrow, not the tar-get”.

The film screening was preceded by readings from Frontier Folk by many of the RADE programme’s participants. The writing was devel-oped under the guidance of writers Malcolm MacClancy and Domi-nique Cleary. Highlights included Dog by Brian, Cold by Jenna and My First Fish by David. The book can be viewed in full on the RADE website and hard copies can be requested through the RADE office.

The film itself was a Western, of sorts, set in a tent in Blanchardstown.

Kevin Donnellan

Katriona Quinn

Michael D. Higgins, Janine Murphy, Geraldine Murphy and Mick Egan at the RADE event Photo: courtesy of RADE

Olympic torch will light up D8

Photo: Stephan Bourke

Written by director Pom Boyd in collaboration with the RADE par-ticipants, it depicts a birthday party with an unexpected birth happening in the midst of the revelry.

The film was the final of a trilogy of films produced by the RADE team, and the screening was accompanied by a ‘making-of ’ documentary pro-duced by the participants showcas-ing their editing prowess.

The YMCA’s YPOD project has been shortlisted for the Outstand-ing Contribution to Dublin Life category in the Dublin Living Awards 2011.The City of Dublin YMCA started a new youth project in the Carmel-ite Community Centre called the YPOD for children and young teens in the Liberties earlier this year.The Carmelite Community Centre on Aungier Street, Dublin 2, began after renovations were completed to what was formally known as the old Cross Care building.The YPOD project is focused on kids and young teens in the area, while the YMCA is aimed at older teens. After-school homework clubs have proven to be popular for all age groups in both facilities.

“The homework clubs are always full. The kids will come in, be given something to eat and then get down to their homework,” says Stephen Doyle, a coordinator for the YPOD.The Girls Club has also grown in numbers since it has started.“It’s one of the programmes we’ve worked on and has become really successful,” said Bernadette Grogan, a coordinator for the YPOD.The YPOD also runs social aware-ness classes with a new one starting mid-October named the Choices Programme. The class aims to give members information on the conse-quences of committing a crime.“What we hope to do with these classes is give the right information, show them the consequences and

effects of anti-social behavior and hopefully they’ll make the right decisions,” said Stephen.Minister for Youth and Chil-dren Francis Fitzgerald officially launched the YPOD project earlier this summer. She was presented with flowers and apple tarts that members of the popular Girls Club programme had baked for her that day.The YMCA and YPOD have classes running Monday to Friday includ-ing the Homework Club, the Girls Club, nutrition and exercise classes, cooking classes and Mixed Teens Clubs.All classes are free of charge and offer a relaxing and friendly atmos-phere.

It’s fun to play at the YMCA

Gillian Stedman

Historians get with the times

“Creativity is open to

everyone”

Brendan KellyCity of Dublin YMCA Photo: courtesy of Jackace

For more information about the courses on offer you can

visit www.d8cec.com.

Digital Hub Photo: courtesy of extraface

A GROWING number of legal bodies and politicians have ex-pressed concerns over the two refer-enda due to be held on 27 October.

The Bar Council of Ireland, the Law Society and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) are op-posed to the constitutional changes put forward by the Referendum Commission.

Twelve independent TDs and sen-ators also object to the amendments, calling for the public to register a “No” vote on the day.

If voted through, the proposed changes would allow the govern-ment to reduce judges pay in line with other public service cuts.

The two houses of the Oireachtas would also be given the power to conduct inquiries into issues of pub-lic importance.

It is now feared that these mea-sures could have worrying implica-tions for the “separation of powers” in Ireland into the future.

Those opposing the referendums believe they have been rushed through and would give too much power to the government of the day.

They argue that the authority of

the Irish courts would be restricted by the changes, and that the vague wording of the documents could al-low further manipulation by future governments.

In particular, the Bar Council is worried that Oireachtas inquiries would remove the chance for those found to have acted unlawfully to defend themselves in court.

Speaking on the Pat Kenny Show, Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte, played down this view.

“The right of the parliament to in-quire into matters of public interest and to make findings on fact is an essential element in the armoury of the parliament.”

He argued that the changes would allow the government to investigate important issues, such as the bank-ing crisis, without paying for “the

money-making rackets” of tribunals.In relation to judges’ pay, the Law

Society warned that “interference with judicial pay is a classic means of interfering with judicial indepen-dence”.

However, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, encouraging a “Yes” vote to both proposals, said “this provision in no way impinges on the independence of the judiciary. The other strong protections in the Constitution re-main untouched.”

The Referendum Commission, headed by retired High Court judge Dr Byran McMahon, was appointed to draft and publicise the proposals in early September.

The opposing groups believe the Commission should have been giv-en more time, leaving the proposals to be voted on in 2012 along with the upcoming referendum on children’s rights.

With time now running out, Dr McMahon has urged the public to fully inform themselves before mak-ing a decision.

“Others will seek to persuade you to vote yes or no to each of the pro-posals. You should listen to the de-bate and then make up your own mind.”

6 NEWS

PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER Gay Mitchell is keeping his Dublin 8 roots close to heart throughout the race to Phoenix Park.

Announcing his candidacy ear-lier this summer, the Inchicore-born MEP explained that from the Presi-dent’s study in the Áras, the flood-lights of the CIE Works in Inchicore are visible as a clear landmark.

“If I am elected President, this landmark shall be a daily reminder of where I came from and that my sworn duty is to serve the welfare of the people”.

Throughout the campaign, Mitch-ell has made constant reference to his life growing up as one of nine children in a single-parent family within the inner-city community.

Although drawing criticism from some quarters, Mitchell remains one of the most successful politicians from the area, representing the Dub-lin South Central constituency for over 26 years.

THE LIBERTIES has played host to a number of the presidential can-didates in the run-up to the election.

Seán Gallagher called into the City of Dublin YMCA on Aungier Street at the beginning of the month, speaking to manager Alan Carroll about the wide variety of services available.

Senator David Norris made a trip to Meath Street’s Liberty Market on the same day.

He told local shoppers that “we’re going to have a wonderful Ireland” before stocking up on the special of-fers.

Local Oscar-winner Brenda Frick-er attended “The Arts for Michael D” event in the Royal Hibernian Academy on 15 October, celebrating the contribution Michael D. Higgins has made to the industry.

Meanwhile, independent candi-date Mary Davis closed her can-vassing campaign with a visit to the Sophia Housing Project on Cork Street.

MARTIN McGUINNESS used his presidential rally at the Man-sion House to address the neglect of disadvantaged communities in the Liberties.

The Sinn Féin candidate expressed disappointment that “over the Celt-ic Tiger years, the regeneration of communities like St Michael’s Es-tate [in Inchicore] were never com-pleted”.

He also praised the “patriotism that in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s drove these communities to cam-paign for decent housing and ten-ant rights and to face down the drug dealers”.

The event, hosted by Hollywood star Colm Meaney on 13 October, saw a number of celebrity guests joining hundreds of fans to support McGuinness’ bid to reach the Áras.

Outlining his future plans for the country, the presidential hopeful described how he wants “to help bring the marginalised and those struggling into the centre” of Irish society.

Campaigning in the LibertiesOrlaith Grehan

McGuinness praises patriotismOrlaith Grehan

Mitchell sticks to rootsOrlaith Grehan

“I do think it’s worthwhile to have an election for the presi-dency. Because if we don’t, we may as well not be living in a democracy. I will definitely be voting for the sake of it” – Ross Doyle, Harold’s Cross.

“If the successor to Mary (McAleese) is just as good as she was, then I’ll have no prob-lem with it at all” – Terrence Kelly, Oxfam Francis Street.

“I think it’s very important. They may not have as much influ-ence as say a TD, but they do have a fairly important role in making sure everything in the country runs smoothly. So for that reason I will be voting” – Vernon Kennedy, Rialto.“I don’t have much to say to be honest. I don’t really know much about the people run-ning for it. Think it’s a waste of time and very boring to hear about” – Nicola Callaghan, Rialto.

?Oisín Gregorian & Stephen Bourke

“Is it worthwhile having an elected

President?”

Liberty Opinion

“For the money those people get...it’s a joke but I will be vot-ing for Gay (Mitchell) because he lives nearby.” – Suzanne Connaughton, Chamber Street

Special Report

THE 2011 race to Áras an Uachtaráin has become one of the dirtiest election campaigns in Irish history, leaving many local people unimpressed.

Since the close of nominations on 28 September, the past mistakes and personal lives of all seven candidates have rarely left the headlines.

Seán Gallagher, Mary Davis and Gay Mitchell have all been forced to defend themselves against allega-tions over previous payments and expenses.

Meanwhile, Martin McGuinness, David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scallon have also faced serious ques-tions regarding IRA membership, clemency letters and family abuse accusations respectively.

Even Michael D. Higgins couldn’t escape the intense public scrutiny after he admitted to having smoked cannabis as a younger man.

This endless focus on controversy has led to some critics dubbing this a ‘showbiz’ election, with many Liber-ties residents seeming to agree.

“It’s a disgrace. Does it really make any difference to how well the per-son could do the job? When you think about it, that’s the most im-portant thing,” said Tommy Byrne of Pimlico.

“It’s almost like they’re all trying to catch each other out, and that’s a stu-pid way to go about winning people over at the end of the day.”

Jenny Masterson, a student living on Thomas Street, shares a similar view. “I don’t think the media should

be dragging people’s personal lives into it the way they have been”.

“I don’t know a single person who hasn’t got a story they wouldn’t want people knowing or who hasn’t made a mistake they wish had never hap-pened, and I don’t think it’s fair that these things are coming out.”

While Mary Davis has argued that “there is no room for secrecy in this campaign”, few could imagine the amount of mud-slinging and con-troversy that has arisen over the past number of weeks.

Several candidates have been left upset and frustrated with what they see as undeserved personal attacks coming from both amongst them-selves and the media.

Martin McGuinnness, for example, has accused Gay Mitchell and his Fine Gael colleagues of using “black propaganda” and “dirty tricks” to smear his campaign.

The Inchicore man announced his disbelief that McGuinness had left the IRA in 1974 as claimed, leading to a war of words between the pair.

Dana, too, has come out against the “most despicable and malicious campaign of hatred” she sees being targeted towards herself and her family.

Ms Scallon briefly left the cam-paign trail earlier this month after sexual abuse allegations involving members of her family came to the

surface. Labour hopeful Higgins has called

for more concentration on the actual role of the President and the abilities of the seven contenders to fulfil it.

Higgins said “that some of the de-bate on the Presidency so far has tended to diminish the stature of that Office and even question its substance.”

Mary Ryan of Meath Street agrees. “The way I see it, the President still has an important job.”

“There’s no need to be bringing up all these scandals; there needs to be a bit more dignity about it all. They don’t change the way the person could handle being our President.”

With just days to go before the new President is elected, the seven candi-dates can only hope that these nega-tive reports haven’t affected their chances.

Although recent polls suggest that Seán Gallagher and Michael D. Hig-gins rest ahead of the competition, the results remain uncertain and lie open to change until the very last minute.

Each candidate is urging the public to ignore the headlines and to vote for the person they believe most suitable for the office.

As David Norris pointed out, “if you’re waiting for a perfect presi-dent, you’ll be waiting a long time”.

Showbiz electiondoesn’timpress

Referendums raise concerns

Orlaith Grehan

Dana canvassing in Larkin Bros. butchers on Meath Street. Photo: Orlaith Grehan

Orlaith Grehan

Photo: courtesy of Paula Funnell

1200 GARDAÍ are eligible for re-tirement prior to the change in the public sector pension scheme com-ing into effect this February.

The measure could impact on the number of gardaí working from Kevin Street station. This figure has already fallen from 230 in June 2009 to 153 by May 2011.

Austin Kenny of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) say those with the option of retirement are “supervising a young police force”.

The AGSI has 2300 members, 400 of whom can retire by the end of

February. With a moratorium on recruit-

ment which also affects promotions, Mr Kenny says that any senior mem-ber who retires will not be replaced: “Essentially if a sergeant retires, the force will lose a sergeant.”

The AGSI warns that accelerated retirements could have serious con-sequences for the force.

“We are extremely worried about the capacity of the garda organ-isation to provide a service to the public if this situation is allowed to continue,” said the AGSI president, Aidan O’Donnell.

The changes being introduced in February will mean that public sec-tor pensions will be based on the individual’s average career salary rather than just the final year.

On average 400 gardaí retire every year. However there was a spike in 2008, when a record 700 members left, prior to pay cuts introduced by the then government.

Definitive figures for expected pre-February retirements will be avail-able at the end of next month which will be the cut off point for the three months notice required.

Local Fine Gael TD Catherine By-rne believes only a quarter of the 1,200 eligible will actually retire.

Minister Shatter has said that there will be about 400 retiring before February. Ms Byrne does not expect the retirements to have a huge ef-fect on the frontline as, “most of the eligible members would not be com-munity gardaí.”

However the South Central TD ad-mitted that there could be a “brain-drain at the top with the force losing out on experience’.

IN A radio interview this month Presidential candidate Gay Mitch-ell said he would throw himself off O’Connell Bridge if he was asked to smile once more.

The remark by the former Dublin 8 TD and current Dublin MEP was unfortunate, given that all through his campaign Mitchell has been committed to raising awareness about suicide.

In fact on the day he made the throwaway comment he had called suicide “a horror that stalks the land, claiming 600 people a year.”

Peter Moroney of Save Our Sons and Daughters criticised Mitchell’s remark as “flippant and disgraceful”.

But suicide campaigner Joan Free-man of Pieta House said it was clear Mitchell’s remark was “not intended to cause hurt”.

And she agreed that Mitchell is right when he put the tragic figure at 600 for those who take their own lives each year.

Official CSO figures show that 486 people committed suicide in 2010 – down from the official number and a record high of 527 in 2009 – Ms Freeman believes that the real num-bers are actually higher.

She told the Liberty: “Unfortu-nately they are not accurate at all. They do not include undetermined deaths, of which there were over 200 in 2010.”

In the Leinster region, there were a recorded 239 suicide deaths last year. Dublin city had the highest number of suicide fatalities with 57 deaths recorded.

There are no official figures avail-able specifically for Dublin 8, but Ms Freeman revealed “over 50” had at-tended Pieta House from the Dub-lin 8 area for suicide counseling in recent times.

Alarmingly, self-harm figures are on the rise throughout the country.

Earlier this year, Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, launched the 2010 Annual Report of the National Reg-istry of Deliberate Self Harm..

The report identified an ongoing increase in deliberate self-harm. In 2010, there were a recorded 11,966

deliberate self harm incidents in-volving 9,630 individuals.

And, according to the report, 2010 was the fourth year in a row to show an increase in the national rate of hospital treated deliberate self harm

incidents, with a four per cent in-crease from 2009.

The most startling figures from

the report were among 20-24 year-olds. The rate among men in this age group increased by 19% and there was a 30% increase among women.

The National Suicide Research Foundation believes the numbers

rose due to the economic recession, with high rates of both unemploy-ment and emigration among 20-24 year-olds in Ireland in 2010.

But the government and corpora-tions seem to be taking the problem of suicide and self-harm seriously.

Last year the Arthur Guinness Fund – based in Dublin 8 - present-ed Pieta House with a “financial gift” of €50,000.

Ms Freeman said: “Part of the prize was for us to have access to the cream of their workforce in areas such as marketing, development and com-munications. Their help has brought Pieta House to the next level.”

There are many organisations like Pieta House dedicated to helping people in need. If you are feeling sui-cidal, inflicting self harm, or know of anyone suffering from suicidal tendencies, please contact one of the following organisations below.

7 NEWS

Retirement to affect services

Suicide stats ‘not accurate’

Joan Freeman of Pieta House. Photo: Courtesy of Pieta House

HOUSE PRICES in Dublin city centre have dropped by 16.5% since September last year, according to a new report from the property web-site Daft.ie.

This continues the downward di-rection which has seen Dublin’s prices drop by 53% since their peak in 2006. In the last 3 months alone, prices have dropped 1.8%.

The good news is that it tends to take only four months to sell prop-erty here compared to Northern Ire-land’s 13 months.

The report from Daft.ie states that the average price of a one-bedroom property in Dublin city is €111k. A two-bedroom property averages at €200k, rising to just €225k for a three-bedroom property.

A similar recent report from My-Home.ie echoes these results and also notes that the margin between asking prices in Dublin and across the Republic declined to just 14% in Q3 2011 compared with 30% at the peak.

Daft.ie will publish its companion report on rental prices in November.

Dublin house prices drop 53%

Fionnuala Holohan

Photo: Fionnuala Holohan

THE 9TH annual Social Inclusion Forum will take place on November 9th in the F2 Centre, Fatima, Dublin 8. A theme of this year’s forum will be the ongoing review of the nation-al poverty target. An input on the review will be given and participants will have the opportunity to express their views on the subject.

The Social Inclusion Forum is an annual event which represents a key element of the government’s com-mitments to consult with all relevant stakeholders in the National Ac-tion Plan for Social Inclusion 2007 – 2016. It provides an opportunity for individuals and organisations to input their views on key policies and implementation issues.

Childrens Rights Alliance is one of the many organisations taking part in the forum. Carys Thomas, a spokesperson for the organisa-tion, said that “children are the most vulnerable in our society and with the recession more children will find themselves in the poverty trap, therefore Childrens Rights Alliance will be calling for the child poverty target to be implemented.”

Fatima to host annual Social Inclusion Forum

Overview of thepension scheme In February 2012, changes will

be introduced to the Public Sector pensions scheme which could affect the numbers of gardaí, teachers, and health care workers in The Liberties.

Previously, public sector employees had a pension based on their final years salary. From February 2012 pensions will be based on employees average career salary.

The Minister for Public Expendi-ture and Reform Brendan Howlin says that “this is a fairer approach to pensions.”

The changes will result in a signifi-cantly lower pension for many public servants which could lead to record retirement figures.

Tainaiste Eamon Gilmore says, “We have to wait until we see on the clos-ing date what the take-up rate is ac-tually going to be.”

The exact figures for the numbers of public servants who will retire in the scheme will be known at the end of November as this is the deadline for the required three months notice.

The three months’ notice rule was brought in to “protect services by giving management information about the number of staff retiring.”

• PietaHouse,Lucan016010000

• PietaHouse,Ballyfermot016200020

• Samaritanshelpline1850609090

• Awarehelpline1890303302

• Barnardoshelpline1850222300

• Web:www.metanoia.org/suicidewww.samaritans.org

Brendan Kelly

Cormac O’Connor Photo: courtesy of Workers Solidarity Movement Ireland

Andy Nally

FEATURES High rents force Liberties shops to close

Shopping in the Liberties has just gotten cheaper with the opening of the 99c Store on

Patrick Street, Dublin 8.Just like the numerous 2 Euro

shops scattered around town, the 99c store offers low priced daily ne-cessities - but at less than half the price.

The 99c store offers a new ap-proach to shopping.

Manager Sean Kelly told The Lib-erty that business has been flying since they first opened a couple of weeks ago. He said: “The first week we had queues out the door of the shop.”

“Plans are in place to open up 14 more 99c stores throughout the Dublin area,”

A visit to the busy premises can be overwhelming when you see the huge variety of items available to purchase for just 99c. From fresh eggs to toiletries, stationary and even household appliances, this store has it all.

In a country where everything seems to have become overpriced,

it’s comforting for the people of the Liberties to know there is a place in town that is helping the average per-son save a penny or two.

The 99c store boasts fresh produce, fresh milk in its fridges and Irish-made eggs on its shelves. The shop also supports selling Irish branded items.

The future is looking bright for this shop.

Aim Group (commonly known for being a cash and carry business and the company behind the 99 cent store) is confident that the stores will be a success and has future plans to branch out around Dublin.

“Plans are in place to open up 14

more 99c stores throughout the Dublin area,” says Sean.

As many will agree, it’s nice to see a company giving good value in tough times.

It’s open all day all week, including Sunday. You’ll find yourself amazed at how many good things you can find without breaking the bank, let alone the piggy bank.

There is something in there for ev-eryone, be it a giant pencil or a cute Disney tea cup. Shopping has never been easy… or so cheap!

99c goes a long wayCaroline Ewins

The Liberties is renowned for the vibrant, bustling markets, stalls and long esta-

bished businesses in the area. However, trade on Meath Street

has been on the decrease in recent years and many of the small markets and stalls have been affected by the downturn.

Pat Armstrong, owner of Christie’s market on Meath Street, says that, “people just aren’t spending their money at the minute and I think it’s because they are saving for Christ-mas. And before that they were sav-ing for the summer holidays, every-one is saving for something.”

The ‘Liberty Market’ has seen many stalls close recently as they, “just weren’t getting the same kind of business as they used to”, says Armstrong. “Money just isn’t there for people to spend anymore.”

In recent years business owners in the area have watched helplessly as Meath Street becomes a shell of its former vibrant self.

Thomas Street is one of the busiest streets in Dublin but has also seen a decrease in business. Many business owners on the street are blaming the high rents and the supermarkets that have set up in the area as the main factors.

Tom Walsh, owner of Walsh News-agents on Thomas Street, says that, “The rents are too high here and it’s affecting small shops and new busi-nesses especially.”

Leonard Fagan, owner of Jas Fagan Communion Shop agrees and says, “Luckily we own the shop now and we don’t have to pay rent because it is increasingly high on Thomas Street.”

New businesses are feeling the pressure from high rents and with the decrease in business they are finding it hard to stay open at all.

Mr Fagan went on to say, “A new shop near here closed down just a few months ago because he just couldn’t pay his €2000 a week rent.”

Many shops have recently closed both on Meath and Thomas streets due to the high rents and lack of consumer expenditure.

An example of a young business forced to closed is the small restau-rant ‘Just Off Francis’, aptly named as it was on the corner connecting to

Francis Street.‘Just Off Francis’ received rave

reviews from both critics and cus-tomers and looked to be a thriving business. However, the high rents just weren’t being covered and the owners were forced to shut up shop early this summer.

Unfortunately this is just one such story in a long line of businesses that have been forced to close recently due to the downturn.

“A new shop near here closed down just a few months ago be-cause he just couldn’t pay his €2000 a week rent.”

Another factor that business own-ers in the area suggested has contrib-uted to the downturn is the opening of new franchises and chain stores such as Centra, Tesco Express and Lidl on Thomas Street. These larger stores offer bargains and savings that the smaller shops simply can’t match which is diverting business away.

Mr. Armstrong, from Christie’s on Meath Street, says that, “A lot of the shops just can’t compete with the prices in Lidl’s. People want to hold on to their money so of course they’re going to go where’s cheapest but small shops just can’t compete.”

Mr. Fagan, from Jas Fagan Com-munion Shop, agrees and says that, “We’re a specialised business so we’re lucky that we have an es-tablished customer base but small newsagents and green-grocers can’t compete with the likes of Lidl.

“The prices just don’t compare and customer loyalty isn’t such an im-portant thing any more.”

Hopefully things can change in the future and Meath and Thomas Street will, once again, be the lively heart and soul of the Liberties.

Katriona Quinn

With Bollywood film “Ek Tha Ti-ger” currently filming on location in Dublin, Indian dress has never been in greater demand. We spoke to Khamar Naseer, the owner of Libaas Indian boutique who has been living in Ireland for the past 17 years.

Libaas is in good company on Clanbrassil Street. Many Indian res-taurants, take-aways and grocery stores have also chosen to make the Liberties their home-from-home. Libaas in the Liberties has a nice ring to it and I wonder did Khamar draw any inspiration from the place name?

When she arrived in Dublin from Hyderabad, India she was shocked by how little the Irish people knew about Indian culture. Fast forward to present day, Khamar now caters for weddings, parties and has built up a steady loyal customer base from all over Ireland. No surprises there, as Libaas is Dublin’s first ladies Asian fabric shop to stock a variety of tra-ditional ready-made dresses.

Along with stocking clothes, hen-na tattoos are another of Khamar’s specialities. Henna tattoos are tem-porary designs that are traditional in India.

Khamar fulfilled her dream and opened Libaas seven years ago dur-ing the boom of the Celtic tiger.She relocated after her husband was of-fered a position in Ireland working in IT. The couple have four children; three boys and one girl. Khamar’s four-year-old daughter loves play-ing dress-up in her mother’s shop and takes full advantage of all the colourful treasures to be found.

Khamar returns to India with her family every year and directly im-ports all the garments from her home country. India has a popula-tion of 1.2 billion and is the second most populous country in the world. So naturally there are huge differ-ences between her homeland and Ireland. Kharam has overcome these differences and has made sure her boutique is a labour of love, some-thing that is evident when you speak to her.

Like everyone, Khamar has been affected by the recession and un-fortunately her plans to expand Libaas across Dublin were thwarted. Khamar remains upbeat as she is still supported by her loyal clientele.

The filming of this Bollywood film “Ek Tha Tiger” will bring in about €1.5 million to the Irish economy and create just over 1,000 short term jobs. It will also boost Ireland’s pro-file as a visitor’s destination as the film portrays Dublin as a vibrant and culturally rich capital city. Once released, the film will be broadcast to 24 countries all around the world.

Financially this Indian film couldn’t come at a better time for the country and the Irish will even have a small stake in it, with many Irish people starring in cameo roles. Lis-ten out for the call of “lights, camera, action” or the tiger(grrrrr) when you are roaming the streets of our fair city this month, as you may just be featured in the background!

In Bolly Átha Cliath

Khamar Naseen, owner of Libaas boutique Photo: Martha Gberevbie

Casey Fitzgerald and Martha Gberevbie

8

FEATURES

Blaithin Henehan takes you on a tour of the most terrifying spots in the capitalHave a Spooktacular Halloween!

Map Legend

1. St Kevins park and cemetery

2.Marsh’s Library

3.St patricks Cathedral

4.Bull and Castle

5.St audeons Church

6.THe Brazen Head

1.Start at St Kevin’s park on Camden Row, where you’ll find the graveyard famous for bodysnatching in the 19th century. at the time, bodies would fetch a high price and were frequently sold to medical students. Famous body snatchers include the infamous Burke and Hare (the subject of the 2010 movie of the same name). It was later discovered that the bodies they sold on were not actually snatched but their own murder victims.

2. next, Marsh’s Library, set up by Bishop narcissus Marsh in the 19th century. The ghost of Marsh is still said to haunt the bulid-ing to this day. It is said the Bishop’s ghost is searching for a letter left for him by his niece. The story goes that his niece, which he raised alone, eloped with a sailor. Knowing she would break his heart saying goodbye she left a let-ter rather than having to face saying goodbye to his face. The letter is said to be hidden in her favourite book inside the library which Marsh is damned to find.

3. Beside Marsh’s Library you will find St. patrick’s Cathedral, where the tale exists of a young woman who was almost buried alive. Only when the funeral at-tendants tried to steal her wedding ring was she revived. The woman ran screaming from the church and it is said that her screams can be heard every year around the time of her misk-taken burial.

5. don’t miss the 40 steps to Hell outside St. audoen’s Church; the old-est parish church in dublin. at night you can almost hear the ghost of darky Kelly looking for her baby. Legend has it she was pregnant with Sheriff of dublin Simon Lu-trell’s baby. Fearing for his job, the Sheriff denounced darky as a witch. at the time darky was a well known brothel owner and lady of the night and so no one disagreed with the Sheriff’s accusation. She was burnt on the stake nearby and her ghost is said to wan-der here amongst the lepers and the crimi-nals looking for her child amongst all the abandoned babies. The 40 steps are actually only 39, if you count them, climb them for yourself and see! 4. Make sure to pop into The Bull and Castle (previously

the Castle Inn) on Lord edward Street. The poet James Clarence Mangan was born in this very building. His life was short but eventful. He died in 1849 but is said to still float into the inn now and again, dropping the temperature and cre-ating depression in the premises. Better just stay for one pint then!

6. Finally your tour comes to an end at the Bra-zen Head, on Lower Bridge street for a well deserved drink. The oldest pub in dublin was once the haunt of Robert emmet, the rebellious leader who was hanged and beheaded. Legend has it he still appears in ghostly form, sitting in the corner looking for his executioner.

9

FEATURES

Liberties kids were thrilled with tales of yore from local ladies at a recent evening of

storytelling in Scoil San Seamus.

Throughout the evening, Sheila O’Reilly (74), Ethna O Gorman (70’s) Josie Sheehan (73), Agnes Mc Sherry (70’s), Maureen O Farrell (80), Eileen Burns (78) and Ena Mc Cormack (68) shared tales of their youth and being brought up in the Liberties.

Reminiscing on technology or lack thereof when she was young Josie Sheehan said; “We didn’t have tele-vision, our thing was reading,” to which the children’s response was utter shock. One young lad asked the ladies if they used the internet when they were kids to which Sheehan re-plied; “The only net I ever seen was the one on my mother’s head.”

She went on to share fond memo-ries of favourite pastimes. “Songs we sang while playing ball included ‘pounds, shillings and pence’. An-other was ‘You called me this, you called me that, you called me a big fat pussycat’ and ‘When I’m dead I’d be happy if I had that crust of bread’.” It was only when Ms. Sheehan rhymed off her rendition of “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me”, that the kids’ uncertain faces became more accustomed.

“At tea time everyone sat around the table and got bread and jam....there was no such thing as being brought to Mc Donald’s”, Sheehan explained having been enthusias-tically questioned by the children about meal times. Eileen added that her childhood supper usually consisted of bread and dripping, to

which the kids’ uncertain expres-sions again became apparent.

Maureen O Farrell was asked by one young boy if she walked to school as a young girl. “I walked four and a half miles to school and four and a half miles home so that’s nine miles day”, she replied, to which the schoolboys solemnly responded in harmony saying “why why why”. “The lot of us had to leave school at fourteen”, added Agnes Mc Sherry.

One pupil enquired about the la-dies childhood hobbies and was a little taken aback by Josie Sheehan’s reply; “We sold jam jars to get the price of a cinema ticket”.

Reece Gibbons asked the women if they used a washing board in the olden days. The ladies, shocked by the young boy’s enquiry, asked him how he knew about washing boards. Reece confidently replied; “Well I live in the tenements.”

Laughter broke out among the Scoil San Séamus guests when a young pupil asked whether the la-dies had any close relations in the famine. Giggling amongst them-selves the women cried out “We are not that old.”

“How do you feel about getting old?” added a young lad soon after, to which the women replied again in unison; “We’re not that old!”

After the ladies shared stories of dancing in their day, three of the children confidently performed the modern shuffle dance to the ladies delight.

The hour flew and was enjoyed by all. Then it was time for the students to get back to their desks and work on their homework in the after-school club.

Following the fun filled discussion on the contrasting events of Liber-ties youth today and the ladies child-hoods, refreshments were laid out for the ladies courtesy of the After-school Program team leader Phyllis Fitzgerald who said, “I thought it was very informative for the chil-dren...They really seemed to enjoy it and the ladies were lovely.”

With a cup of tea in hand, Agnes Mc Sherry said; “I found the kids very attentive and thought they asked really good questions...When I showed them the book on what we used to play when we were kids they loved it”.

Sheila O Reilly said she thoroughly enjoyed the visit. “Some of the ques-tions knocked me for six”, she said. She highlighted one question in particular from one of the young-est boys who asked if the ladies had known their grandparents growing up. “I just thought maybe he has no granny or granddad!” She felt she could relate to him as Sheila had only ever known one of her grand-mothers.

Liberties ladies meet the local little ones

Q. “How do you feel about get-ting old?”A. “We’re not that old”.

Sheila O Reilly, Ethna O Gorman, Josie Sheehan, Agnes Mc Sherry, Maureen O Farrell, Eileen Burns and Ena Mc Cormack with the children. Photo by Sarah Reilly.

Sarah Reilly

Lose your spare tyre at Basecamp

In the first of a two part series, Liberty reporters Cormac O’Connor and Jenny Dunne start their six week bootcamp

10

The night before my first class at the Basecamp Fitness Company I was reading their website and wor-rying about what I’d let myself in for.

Terrifying concepts like suspen-sion training, swiss balls, power bags, resistance bands and kettle bells were all mentioned.

Earlier in the week I had spoken to Jonathan, Basecamp’s friendly own-er, and the phrase “disguised fitness” had stood out to me from our con-versation. Considering my hatred of exercise, disguised fitness was really my only chance.

It soon became clear that base-camp is also no - frills fitness. The class takes place in a big graffiti decorated warehouse near St.James’ Gate. There are no ‘extras’ like show-ers or vending machines.

The class gives you a full body workout including aerobic and strength training. Tyres were a ma-jor part of my first class as we lifted them, passed them back and forth and did squats while balancing on them.

This type of exercise is great be-cause it keeps costs down, and a tyre is a fairly simple piece of equipment to use.

The friendliness of everyone there is what really stands out compared to other exercise classes I have been to.

The fact that basketball, chasing and one-on-one fights with foam sticks are all part of a standard class helps to build a group spirit that is very different to the everyone for themselves feel of something like an aerobics class or a normal gym workout.

The class was tough but not so tough that I felt like I had to stop, al-though there were a few of the core exercises that I had to take a rest during. Afterwards I felt energised and I will definitely be going back.

It’s Saturday morning 9:50am and I’m waiting for my first class to be-gin, already sweating due to the unseasonal warmth, the thought of what’s to come is a tad nerve rack-ing.

The chatty atmosphere amongst the members and the realization that I’m not the only newbie goes some way to easing my nerves.

In the warehouse, there is a white-board with nutritional tips and ad-vice on how best to prepare for your class food wise.This is not a generic list, it’s not just a list of facts that no-body actually understands. The ad-vice given here is short to the point and written by a resident expert.

The owner Jonathan tells me that if I really want to see changes to my fitness levels I should aim to be at three classes a week for six weeks.

The class begins with a brief warm up followed by a series of games and exercise routines punctuated by brief water breaks.

The games vary from class to class; one I particularly enjoyed involved hitting (or trying to hit) your part-ner with a lightweight polystyrene stick while trying to avoid being hit by theirs.Don’t worry: you barely feel it.

What you do feel is a workout of

arms and legs as you swing and try to jump out of the way. Think of it as sword fighting, without the obvious dangers!

We played hockey and basketball activities that are both fun and ex-tremely effective workouts. This is the main advantage Basecamp has over your regular gym. It’s fun and sociable, you don’t feel like you’re actually working out and, most im-portantly, you will want to return.

Jenny Dunne Cormac O’Connor

Working out with tyres Photo:Courtesy of Basecamp Fitness Co.

For more information on the Base-camp Fitness Co. Phone:087 689 1784 or e-mail info@basecampfitness.ie

FEATURES Golden opportunities in the Liberties

I pressed the doorbell of the half shuttered Dublin Gold Exchange on James’s Street and

waited for the cashier to open the door. I was there to check how much I could get for my mother’s gold wedding ring from the cash-for-gold sellers in the Liberties area and he was my first port of call.

I chose that piece of jewellery for my survey as I was less likely to get carried away by either patter or poverty to sell it - she’s a formidable woman, my mother.

After letting me in, the cashier

quickly retired behind his coun-ter and grill and waited resignedly for me to show him what I had for sale - his expression weary and pre-occupied. I handed over the ring, making it clear I was only looking for a quote.

His expression fell further. He took it though, peered at it through his magnifying glass, weighed it and said, “Eighty-five euro. It’s 18 carat you know”. He went on to say if I’d

come a week earlier I would have been given a better price.

This was true - the last week in September had seen a 20% drop in the price of gold and other precious metals on the world markets.

The U.S. salvage company who re-cently located a sunken WWII Brit-ish cargo ship off the Irish coast with seven million ounces of silver on board had €21 million wiped off the value of their find during that week.

Three weeks previously, gold in particular had been trading at a re-cord price of $1,900 per ounce and the sharp four-day fall was raising more questions on the value of gold as an investment.

Big name investors worldwide continue to contradict each other on the topic. John Paulson, who made €2.7 billion by foreseeing the sub-prime collapse in the U.S., continues to buy. Others such as George Soros, have sold out of the market in fear of a new bubble.

“It’s the oil versus gold balance”, said the cashier, going on to claim that developments in Libya were in-fluencing the commodities market in favor of oil.

Whatever the reason, the drop in gold prices has precipitated a siz-able buying frenzy, and gold prices are predicted to rise again, above the record highs of late August and early September.

My next stop was the CashGold shop on Wexford Street. The cashier buzzed me in to the waiting room, a clean, white-washed antiseptic foyer lined with flyers and information on gold weights and measures. There was one other customer, who chat-

ted breezily with the cashier, casting occasional sidelong glances at me. “I’ve got my holiday money now.” she said as she left with her payment.

The assessment technique was dif-ferent at CashGold. The cashier took my ring, and applied several drops from an array of small bottles in front of her.

She then rubbed the ring vigor-ously on a black pad, and repeated this several times. I’m told this is a scratch test to determine the gold karat - the percentage of pure gold.

She then weighed it and offered €89.66. CashGold claim to be 100% Irish and also to be the “No. 1 Gold Broker in Europe”.

After tramping around in vain for a promised gold exchange shop on Crampton Quay, I decide to tackle a few of the more prominent online gold traders.

Goldparty.ie claims to be a 100% Irish-owned business and operates through postal services, agents and by hosting ‘gold parties’. A handy calculator on the top righthand cor-ner of the website allows me to cal-culate their price offering - €67.52. GoldtoCash.ie operate a similar model and their online price was €44.10.

Goldrush.ie are part of the Jack & Jill Foundation who also buy via post. Their online calculator offered a price of €58.38. Of this, €16.95 goes to the charity, which freely admits it

does not have access to the global gold markets but sells to interme-diaries who melt down the gold for trading - an implied explanation for the much lower price.

Scrap-gold-buyers.ie surprise me by offering €102.55 for the ring. Theirs is also a postal service.

A similar survey on cash-for-gold prices performed by the Consumer Association of Ireland in April this year found similar variations in the price comparisons, with online trad-ers usually offering less.

The UK magazine Which? found last year that television advertisers offered the worst prices of all when compared to pawnbrokers and jew-elers.

So - do you sell or hold on? As the trend in gold prices has been rising upwards for a long time - from €255 in October 2001, €450 in October 2006 and currently around €1600 and climbing - cash-for-gold out-lets are likely to be with us for some time.

However, you are paying for the service - my ring would have been worth €188 based on the gold spot-rate for that day.

The best advice is to keep an eye on the market prices for gold, shop around when the price is good and not to be afraid to ask questions.

It’s early on a Sunday morn-ing, and while most of the city snatches the last remnants of a

lazy lie-in, an old warehouse build-ing on Ardee Street is buzzing with activity.

It may seem an odd place to be so lively, but this modest and incon-

spicuous setting is home to the Lib-erty Community Church.

Established by its current pastor, Noel Kenny, just over ten years ago, Liberty is a Christian Pentecostal church, a member of the umbrella group Assemblies of God Ireland.

While a strong trust in the Bible

and “salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” lie at the root of its belief, the church is steeped in a long history of community involvement and activ-ism in the Liberties.

As church elder Rob Duff explains, “For us, what the church is about is loving God and loving people. That was Jesus’s message when he was asked what’s it all about: love the Lord your God and love your neighbours as well. I think those two things come hand-in-hand. We live in a community where we try to show that in real and practical ways.”

Although active in the area for the past decade, the church is still rela-tively new to this address.

Noel “planted” the church after a series of meetings he hosted in his Dolphins Barn flat grew in popular-ity. After St. Andrew’s Hall in Rialto gave Noel free use of their facilities, the venue on Ardee Street became available just six years ago, with the church members jumping on the op-portunity.

“It was like an open shell at the time; we even had to put the floor in. It took us about a year to raise the finances to do it up, but it’s worth it when you see the place filling up on a Sunday. There’s about 200 people coming in, obviously a lot from the local area but we draw people in from all over the place”.

“Liberty doesn’t exist just as a place

for Christians to come. Our measure of how effective we are is what people do during the week because they’ve been here on a Sunday morning. Obviously, the more people we have in the more effective we’ll be, but it’s not just about attracting people into the place.

“We are 100% committed to be-ing in this community. Obviously, you go through a time where you’re growing and consolidating and put-ting a lot of time into what goes on on Sunday mornings; that’s only an aspect of what we do and the major-ity of what we do as a church doesn’t happen in an hour on a Sunday morning”.

What does happen outside of Sun-day mornings is the community work that the church prides itself on. Having lived in the area throughout his life, Noel has known the difficul-ties and problems that people can face, and believes that the church can help.

“In the business world, you’d prob-ably call Noel a visionary leader,” says Rob. He’d use the language of ‘the city helping the city’.

Before he planted the church, he was involved in kids clubs, youth clubs and all, so the church was re-ally birthed in social action. That came first, and getting together on a Sunday morning came after.”

“Liberty is a place where things can happen: if you have a heart to do something, or a desire to do some-thing, there’s a lot of like-minded people who’ll get alongside you. It’s not just social action for the sake of social action; it’s social action out of a belief system, out of a love, you’d probably say, from God”.

Wednesday and Thursday eve-nings, for example, see a group of members meet at the church for their weekly homeless outreach pro-gramme, Stew Crew. The crew offer help to homeless people in the area and throughout the wider city, and while Rob acknowledges there are similar services in Dublin, he insists

they take a different approach. “The Stew Crew’s real aim is to be

going out to see friends. It’s not just handing someone a Pot Noodle or a blanket – although they do that too – but it’s making friends with peo-ple, being there for them, and chas-ing up on them to see how they’re getting on”.

Liberty is currently gearing up for its third annual Great Big Giveaway in December. A whole-day event, members donate and distribute hundreds of Christmas hampers to those struggling around the holi-days, with the church decked out in a Winter Wonderland theme for the children.

“Last Christmas, we handed out 300 hampers here, all donations from people who are in the church. I think we’re hoping to get more local businesses involved in it this year in terms of supporting it. We’d love if it was the whole community involved.

It’s growing from year to year and we’re experimenting with it, and the hope is that people who really need it will come and avail of it. We’d love if it was the whole community sup-porting it. As a church, it’s not just us loving people; we hope that that becomes contagious”.

Although some may suspect a hid-den agenda, Rob insists these events aren’t organised “to raise the profile of the church or anything, but more for a community connection and for people to be together and have fun. The hope for these events is that they trigger other stuff ”.

Liberty Church is open 10am – 3pm, Tuesday – Friday.Telephone +353 (0)1 454 6294Email: info@libertychurch.ie

Committed to helping the community

Fionnuala Holohan

11

Orlaith Grehan

The Liberty Community Church on Ardee St Photo:Jenny Dunne

12 FEATURES

OUT AND ABOUTCAP Launch ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ Filming in Dublin

Carmelite Food Festival Scoil San Séamus C.B.S. (Primary)

Eric Doyle, Stephen Doyle, Tara Fitzgerald and Paul Mackay (top left) Jerry Williams and John Mc Loughlin (top right) Noel Creedy and Maeve Halpin(bottom left) Noel Alwright, Noel Grady, Martin Quigley and Conor Boksberger (bottom right). All photos by Sarah Reilly.

Massimo Zarucco, Cristina Di Fino, and Floriana Mancuso enjoying a night out at the Carmelite Food Festival. Photo by Brendan Kelly.

Bollywood Actor Salman Khan in Grafton Street. Photo by Martha Gberevbie.

13 FEATURES

OUT AND ABOUT‘Ek Tha Tiger’ Filming in Dublin Titanic Filming

Scoil San Séamus C.B.S. (Primary) Rade Film Premier

Filming of italian production “Titanic: Untold Story of How it All Began” on Crane Street. Photo by Ste-phen Bourke

Bollywood Actor Salman Khan in Grafton Street. Photo by Martha Gberevbie.

Agnes Mc Sherry shares a book on games she used to play (top left) Jason Thompson and Darragh Cul-len at after school club (top right) Jack Moore and Ciaran Mooney (bottom left) Matthew Kenny (bottom right).All photos by Sa-rah Reilly

Michael D. Higgins and Mick Egan. Photo courtesy of Rade.

14Just For kidsIngredients:

100 grams (4 ounces) of Irish Butter or Marga-

rine100 grams (4 ounces) of Caster Sugar

100 grams (4 ounces) of Self raising flour

2 EggsTo decorate:

100 grams (4 ounces) Butter

100 grams (4 ounces) Icing Sugar

2 tablespoons of milk/water

Orange Food Colouring

(A few drops of Red colouring and Yellow

colouring mixed together makes Orange)

You will also need:

A mixing bowl

A silver spoon

A whisk (Electric or hand-held)

Bun casesA bun tray (for baking)

Icing bag and nozzle

Spooky Halloween toys

Jenny’s Spooky

Halloween Buns!

Method:1. Ask an adult to help you pre-heat the oven to 190°C

(375°F) Gas Mark 5

2. Place 12 or 16 bun cases into a bun tray.

3. Pour sugar into mixing bowl

4. Cut up your butter/margarine into small pieces an add to

the sugar 5. Using a hand held or electric whisk, mix together the but-

ter and sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Ask an adult for help

when using an electric whisk.

6. In a separate bowl, crack both eggs and lightly beat them.

7. Add the eggs into the mixing bowl a little at a time, con-

tinue to whisk.

8. Using a METAL spoon, fold in the flour (this helps to

keep your buns light and airy)

9. Continue mixing until mixture is smooth.

10. Fill your bun cases with the mixture, do not over fill the

cases, two thirds of the way is perfect.

11. Ask an adult to help you place the bun tray in the oven.

Let them cook for 15-20 minutes.

12. Allow to cool.

To make Butter cream icing.

1. Mix together the butter, icing sugar and milk to for a

smooth thick paste. Add the food colouring until you have

the right shade of orange!

2. Spoon the icing into the piping bag. When your buns are

completely cooled you can decorate them with icing and

scary creatures!!

Tips:If the buns are cooked properly they should be springy to

touch.Use a clean knife and insert it into the bun, if it comes out

with no bits on it then your buns are cooked

A D F M T I W I

T C H E A A LT

D R A Y E V A R

G T A T T TS O

E B Y K C I R T

S I R E EF R K

E S K E L E T O

N G S BT E B R

C R O N D A H P

O M CN W I A B

R A O I B G G D

O EE E L B D N

I K P M U P I P

MA B O N F I R

E S S U K C N B

Halloween words are hidden in this Word Search puzzle. They can go in any directions - forwards, backwards, up, down and diagonally.

witchweb

black-cat

skeletonpumpkinbonfireghost

tricktreat

nightspooky

graveyardmoonbat

spider

Wicked Word Search

Halloween started off in Ireland as a pagan festival called “Samhain”, which means “the end of summer” in Irish. The ancient Celts believed that on the night before Samhain - Halloween - the dead would come back to the mortal world, and they lit huge fires to keep these spirits away. These became the bonfires we have today on the 31st Octo-ber - All Souls Day.

The Halloween pumpkin, with its scary face and candle, is said to come from an old folk tale about a blacksmith called Jack who had a row with the Devil and couldn’t get in to either Heaven or Hell. He was and is doomed to wander the earth forever, with a hot ember from the

fires of hell, placed in a turnip, lighting his way. When the Irish emigrated to America, the turnip was replaced by the pumpkin which was more common.

Did You Know?

Ingredients:270g plain white flour80g soft brown sugar (demerara)350g mixed raisins & sultanas1 teaspoon of mixed spice (allspice)

1 teaspoon bread soda1 egg330ml of cold strong tea A little butter for greas-ing.

You will need:Mixing bowl7” round tin (well greased)A Fáinne (ring)

Method:1. Mix the tea sugar and dried fruit in a bowl. Cover

with a cloth and leave overnight.2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4

3. Grease the tin with butter 4. Beat the egg and mix it thoroughly into the fruit

mixture5. Sieve in the flour, bread soda and spices and mix well

into the mixture6. Drop the Fáinne in, and mix well!

7. Put the batter into the tin evenly.

8. Place into oven and bake for 90 minutes

9. Wait until the brack is completely cool before eating.

10. Enjoy slathered with butter and jam, and a cup

of tea!!

Batty Barm Brack

Page compiled by Fionnuala HolohanRecipes and photos by Jenny McGovern

‘Bob-bing for Apples’

is one of the best known Halloween games of all.

Float a few apples in a large basin of water and let everyone take a chance to grab one of the apples with their teeth only - they have to keep their hands behind their back. Whoever

gets the apple first wins.

‘Snap Apple’ was a

popular game dur-ing Halloween as apples

were plentiful in Autumn. Hang and apple from the ceiling with string, and

the first person to take a bite wins.

The winner of our drawing/writing competition is

Sanju Thapa, age 8. Sanju is in 3rd class at the

Presentation Primary School in Warren-

mount.The other colourful

entries are on the opposite

page and you can also view them online on

our website at www.theliberty.ie

Halloween Competition

Winner!!

15Just For kids

Alex Moylan, age 8, 3rd class (L) an

d Al-

lexia Antochi, age 8, 3rd class

(R) Alex Moylan, age 8, 3rd class (L) and Casey Malone, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Alix Lee, age 8, 3rd class

Allexia Antahi, age 8, 3rd class (L) a

nd

Unknown (R)

Amna Sajid, age 8, 3rd class (L) and Nicole O’Reilly, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Amna Sajid, age 8, 3rd class (L) and Sanju Thapa, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Dahab Sharaby, age 8, 3rd class Iqra Zahid Hussain, age 8, 3rd class (L)

and Megan, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Lara Dolan, age 8, 3rd class (L) and Dahab Sharaby, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Lara Dolan, age 8, 3rd class Michelle Kuzmicheva, age 8, 3rd class Nicole O’Reilly, Age 8, 3rd Class

Shannon O’Connell, age 8, 3rd class (L) and Carly Donnelly, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Unknown (L) and Iqra Zahid Hussain, age 8, 3rd class (R)

Molly Heatley, age 8, 3rd Class,

All competition entries are from talented schoolchildren attending Presentation Primary, Warrenmount. Photos by Fionnuala Holohan

16ARTS

Lynne Swan takes a look at the work of some up and coming artists, designers and entrepreneurs in an NCAD exhibition.

THE NCAD best of graduate de-sign exhibition is once again in full swing. The exhibition, which show-cases designs from graduates of col-leges all over Ireland, has been turn-ing heads with its unique, wonderful and practical designs.

This year’s event showcases the work of over twenty-two Irish third-level design course graduates. The exhibition consists of every-thing from clothing designs, mobile phone applications and even Lego based-creations.

The Lego creation is by former NCAD student, Oisin Miliano. Mili-ano describes the work as being “a play mat for Lego which also trans-

forms into a stackable storage unit for the bricks.”

Another NCAD graduate, Ben Millet, managed to design what will no doubt become an essential tool for any and all photographers look-ing for the perfect still shot without carrying a bulky tripod. Millet de-scribes the Mount Kestral – Duopod as “an adaptable camera rig for new video DSLR cameras”.

The product promises to allow photographers to attempt any kind of photography situation by simply adjusting its shape. Millet’s rig has been shortlisted for the Institute of Designers Ireland award.

It’s impossible to miss NCAD stu-dent, Honor Scanlon’s quirky “It’s a hoot’” brown owl backpack design as you pass by the windows of the gallery. Scanlon has said that her de-sign, which has been shortlisted for an Institute of Designers in Ireland award, was very much inspired by tribal body painting.

NCAD graduate Mary Fallon has designed a phone app that will definitely be essential for those of us who still haven’t quite grasped the many windy streets of Dublin city. Fallon said that, “The maps func-tion to show the compact nature of the city and to encourage walking by indicating clearly how the city con-nects.’’

The NCAD exhibition aims to showcase the best of Irish gradu-ate design and provide a platform for emerging talent. The college has described the designs as displaying; “...the most innovative thinking and highest quality making skill in seven design disciplines.”

The Institute of Designers in Ire-land graduate awards winners will be announced at the annual awards night in late October. The free exhi-bition will run until the 5th Novem-ber in the National College of Art and Design’s main gallery.

NCAD exhibition turns heads

FADE STREET fans and critics will have let out a collective sigh of relief as news of its return was announced.

However, the former will have let out a sigh of relief and the latter a sigh of despera-tion.

RTÉ has made the decision to air a second sea-son of the con-troversial reality TV show despite receiving poor reviews from critics through-out the first sea-son.

Season two will once again focus on the lives of Louise Johnston, Dani Robinson, Cici Kavanaugh and Vogue Wil-liams.

Questions about the central loca-

tion of the show arose when it was revealed that the apartment on Fade Street, where most of the filming took place, was up for rent several months ago.

However, there’s no doubt that the show will mainly focus itself in the Dublin 2 city centre location.

Viewers of the shows can expect much of last season’s dilemmas to be re-visited.

The show is scheduled to hit our television screens in next few weeks.

Despite criticism from many that the dialogue and scenes are being acted out, the RTÉ website states that: ‘’The cast are not actors and do not deliver lines from a script nor

provide emotions on demand.’’

Q u e s t i o n s about the re-turn of the show arose when RTÉ decided to move it the from the 9pm primetime slot to an after-midnight one halfway through the first season.

Keep your eyes peeled to the TV listings for more information.

Dublin contemporary exhibition takes to the Fade Street returns for second seasonLynne Swan

rooftopsTaking place from Sep-tember 6th until October 31st, Dublin Contemporary 2011 showcases the work of more than 114 Irish and international artists. Jenny McGovern takes a look at what’s on offer.

NOTICED anything strange around George’s Street? Look to skies and you may spot something very unusual indeed. Perched on a rooftop with blonde hair swaying is a life-sized tape sculpture of a lady poised to step off the edge of a build-ing.

This reporter observed four dif-ferent people glancing at the sculp-ture with a look of surprise. At first glance, it really does appear as though the “lady” is stepping off the roof to her death.

The realistic sculpture, entitled “Blond Series, 2011”, is the creation of American artist Mark Jenkins. Jenkins’ hyper realistic sculptures are made by encasing an object or a person in plastic wrap and then tape, which allows him to create ex-tremely life like art pieces.

Jenkins method of art is to use the “street as a stage” and to allow pedestrians to become actors. His work is placed in an urban setting and brings the city to life in a new way, allowing the ordinary, such as a regular rooftop, to become unex-pected.

The sculpture is part of the City as

a Gallery exhibit and is one of the many artistic installations dotted around the city, all of which are part of the inaugural Dublin Contempo-rary visual art exhibition.

For more information about Dub-lin Contemporary log on to dublin-contemporary.ie.

‘’The cast are not actors and do not deliver

lines from a script nor provide

emotions on de-mand.’’ (RTE)

Photos: Lynne Swan

NCAD graduate Ben Millet creation- The Mount Kestrel Duopod.Lego creation by former NCAD student Oisin Milano

17ARTS

VICAR STREET was the perfect venue to host a big personality like Dylan Moran.

A word of warning though; it is impossible to review a Dylan Moran routine and do it justice as to fully appreciate this Irish gem, you have to see him in the flesh.

Veering from one topic to the next, Moran uses his caustic wit to show his ‘yeah yeah’ attitude.

Eloquent and irritable; this grumpy comic has a unique way of looking at life and shares his annoyance of ev-

erything from heavy metal music to vegans and all the bits of daily life in between.

He jumps casually between these topics and yet still manages to weave a narrative throughout the show. But even more impressive is the way that nothing Moran says on stage sounds planned or rehearsed. He has a way with words that would rival even the best writers.

Simplicity and unbelievable imag-ery are his speciality; he described heavy metal musicians as, “bald people with too much facial hair

who get together to try and kill air”. This was met with much laughter, especially from the bald man sitting in front of me wearing a Metallica t-shirt and leather jacket.

The audience sits on the edge of their seats just waiting for the words to tumble out of his mouth and send them into peals of laughter.

Moran takes this pressure in his stride and seems to think that it’s all a chore that takes him away from his glass of red wine, which he, of course, had on stage with him.

FRANCIS STREET recently wel-comed the opening of a brand new state of the art BIMM Music College.

The college is running in direct conjunction with the British branch-es of BIMM (the Brighton Institute of Modern Music), whose success stories include indie rock band The Kooks.

Music modules include guitar, bass, drums, vocals and song writ-ing, which are being taught by an exciting line up of Irish musicians and songwriters.

The Frames Drummer, Graham Hopkins will be giving tuition to hopeful drummers.

Teaching bass guitar will be ac-complished bass and double bass player, Keith Farrell who has been playing bass, singing backing vo-cals, producing and engineering for well known performer Mundy since

1996. Paul Moore will also teach bass.

His professional accomplishments include working alongside Van Morrison. Moore also worked ex-clusively with Riverdance for 4 years between 1998 and 2001.

Alternative rock band JJ72 front man, Mark Greaney will teach the song writing module. Also teaching song writing in the college is ‘Brew-ing Up A Storm’ writer Steve Wall from one of the most successful 90’s bands in Ireland The Stunning.

“Styles which are covered on the courses range from jazz, blues, rock, reggae, pop, acoustic music to singer songwriter”, said Dublin manager Dara Kilkenny.

BIMM accepts applicants of a wide age range, from school leavers to mature students. Dara Kilkenny said hopefuls should have a semi professional level of performance. “We encourage individuality and personality in a musician. We wel-come self taught musicians. The

ability to read music is not essential and we expect a decent level of gig-ging experience”.

The college offers two programmes.

The four year Bachelor of Arts hon-ours degree in Commercial Modern Music is validated by Dublin Insti-tute of Technol-ogy and is the first programme of its kind to be offered in Ireland at de-gree level. They also offer an Ad-vanced Diploma in Professional Musi-cianship which is a part time one year programme run-ning one day per week.

The BA is cov-ered by the Free Fees Scheme. Therefore eligible applicants have to pay the normal registration fee which is currently

€2000 and the rest is covered by the scheme. The Advanced Diploma is a private one year course and costs €1100.

While a number of BIMM students have attained success as performers

and writers at the highest lev-el (30 UK Top 40 singles), the underlying suc-cess of BIMM as described by m a n a g e m e nt is its output in the field of pro-fessional play-ing capability, music business development, song writing, live perfor-mance and particularly in

the field of music teaching.

The BIMM ethos is not directed

towards short term celebrity and courses are clearly designed for those with the long term goal of having an enduring and sustainable career in the music industry and in the broad spectrum of opportunity which the industry provides.

Senior management in BIMM said they were very attracted to the loca-tion on Francis Street because it is a fantastic area and because it is so vi-brant “We knew this was the perfect place for creative and talented peo-ple to come to the first music college of its kind in the country. We also wanted to be close to the DIT cam-puses in the area as all BA students are registered DIT students and can avail of the great range of services DIT provides”.

There will be gigs showcasing the BIMM Dublin musicians at the end of each term. These gigs will be held in some of the best venues in the city and will be open to the public. The events will be publicised closer to the date at the end of each term.

Francis Street Rocks

Sarah Reilly

“Styles which are covered

on the courses range from jazz, blues, rock, reg-

gae, pop, acous-tic music to sing-

er songwriter”

ReviewComedy gem Dylan Moran at Vicar StreetKatriona Quinn

Glancing at his watch he says, “I think I’ve done enough here, you’ve got your money’s worth now”, and finishes up with no encore, but leav-ing no-one disappointed.

Moran will play three more gigs at Vicar street for his current tour be-fore moving on to trill audiences at the Galway Comedy festival.

Anybody looking for more infor-mation about the gigs visit his web-site, www.dylanmoran.com.

Alternatively you can also visit tick-etmaster.ie for ticket information.

Dylan Moran: Photo courtesy of Tom Horton

BIMM - new music school on Francis Street. Photo: Sarah O Reilly

Little Miss FancyDress

Trick or Treat? It’s halloween time for the Liberty, so our team got together for this month’s fashion shoot to give

you a spooky treat of different Halloween cos-tume ideas. Halloween is always a fun time to dress up as your favourite scary character from a comic book or be that Disney princess you always wanted to be. This year don’t feel you have to break the bank to go all out with your costume - all of the costumes for this shoot were either made by student Caroline Ewins or bought in budget stores for under 30 euro. Dare to be different, it’s as easy as going to your wardrobe, finding an old hat, blazer and shirt, drawing on a moustashe and bang:

you’re Charlie Chaplin.Cheeky Charlie Chaplin

A red dress and hood makes for a simple and versatile Little Red Riding Hood

A simple gingham mini paired with shiny red heels makes the perfect Dorothy costume

This store bought Marie Antoinette costume is a classic that can be recycled year after year

Poison Ivy

Theres no place like home - and no accessory like a great pair of heels

Styling and coordination: Blaithin Henehan and Caroline Ewins.Photographer: Cassie DelaneyModel: Leah Murray Moran

20ARTS

THE MUCH anticipated “One Lib-erties, One Book” literary initiative was successfully launched on Sep-tember 27. This project aims to get as many people as possible reading and discussing the same book.

Several sixth class primary school and first year secondary school

pupils in the Liberties area will be reading the book 17 Martin Street which is written by Marilyn Taylor.

17 Martin Street is set in Portobello, Dublin during The Emergency. It deals with the darkest period of European history, World War Two. The book follows the story of Ben

Byrne and Hetty Golden who de-spite problems between their fami-lies (Catholic and Jewish) set out to rescue a teenage Jewish refugee who is on the run from immigration authorities. It is an engaging tale which is set only a few streets away from the Liberties.

The launch was held in St. Cath-erines Church, Thomas Street and was attended by children from participating schools as well as their parents. The church was colourfully decorated with posters drawn by two pupils of Presentation Warren-mount Secondary School and each student present wore a badge which was also designed by a pupil. Audi-ence members were greeted by tra-ditional Jewish soul music from The North Strand Klezmer band.

Terry Keogh, who organised the project opened the event by welcoming all of the participat-ing schools and the special guest speaker - author Marilyn Taylor. He expressed his delight that all of the schools in the Liberties community are working together on a reading project.

The initiative will run for six weeks and each class will devote ten min-utes a day to reading the book. An event will be held each week focus-ing on different aspects of the book. Such events include a walking tour of the areas mentioned in the book, a Jewish cookery demonstration and a visit to the Jewish museum. These events are intended to en-hance the children’s understanding and enjoyment of 17 Martin Street.

The highlight of the launch was a speech given by the author Marilyn Taylor. Taylor informed the crowd that she has been to numerous lit-eracy events and to her delight this was the first time she had encoun-tered a traditional Klezmer band at a book launch.

When asked how she felt about her book being chosen for this initiative Ms Taylor said she was “honoured” and that it was “a great morale

boost”. She is proud to be part of a project which helps to cultivate the joy of reading.

In her speech she told the children about the research she did to write the book including finding infor-mation about food rationing, the transport during that time and the role of the Nazi’s. Because the book is a factual account of life during the Emergency she interviewed many Jewish people who lived in Portobello’s “Little Jerusalem” dur-ing World War Two.

Holly, Taylor, Molly and Courtney are pupils of St.Brigid’s primary school and are very excited about the project.

“We can’t wait to read the books at school; it’s cool that we’ll all be reading the same thing so we can talk to each other about it. It’s go-ing to be interesting to go on the tour and see the places that we read about in the book and it’ll be fun to learn how to cook Jewish food!”

One parent who attended the launch told this reporter that she can’t wait for her son to bring home the book so that she can read it too!

“He loves reading and this initia-tive is great because it’s giving him that extra push to keep going. It’s great how interactive the project is, he’s excited about the tour of the Jewish museum and the cookery demonstration.”

17 Martin Street is published by O’Brien’s Press. They have gener-ously donated a copy of the book for our lucky Halloween competi-tion winner on 14.

One Liberties, one book

One of the many highlights of the recent Absolut Fringe festival was the Corn Exchange Theatre Company’s production Man of Valour.

Wowing both audiences and critics alike, it was seen as a real triumph for the Liberties based company. The play’s director and founder of the Corn Exchange, Annie Ryan, spoke to the Liberty about its suc-cess and how the theatre company has had to cope with the Govern-ment’s sweeping cuts throughout the arts.

A Chicago native, Ryan spent her teenage years studying physical theatre and improvisation in her hometown.

“When I came to Ireland twenty years ago,” Ryan explains, “there were only the very beginnings of training here in Dublin, so recog-nising a gap in actors’ training I started teaching and the response was phenomenal.”

In 1995, with the creation of the Dublin Fringe Festival a natural platform was provided for the work Ryan had been doing. From there the Corn Exchange Theatre Com-pany was conceived.

The company’s latest production, Man of Valour, was staged in the Samuel Beckett Theatre for a sold out run during the Absolut Fringe festival. It received lavish critical acclaim with some critics calling it

both daring and gratifying.

Clearly pleased with the response to the play Ryan says, “We are very proud of the work that went into Man of Valour. We see it very much as a Dublin play and it was fantas-tic to see the audience react with standing ovations every night. We are hoping now to tour it both na-tionally and internationally.”

However with widespread govern-

ment cuts in this sector, Ryan says it may be difficult for the company to continue producing the high quality work the Corn Exchange has become renowned for.

“In 2009 we were doing a play called Freefall which became very successful, winning many different awards but at the same time as all this success we were also being cut by nearly fifty per cent by the Arts Council. It is a crazy time in the arts

sector and this has made us learn to adapt and look at working in differ-ent ways.”

One of the different ways that Ryan feels her company can adapt is by looking at partnerships as a way of moving forward.

“We are currently in talks with the Abbey Theatre about the possibility of some kind of partnership. This would be wonderful if it worked out but we are also in meetings with various institutions in England to try and produce different adapta-tions and of course our own origi-nal work.

In every sector of Irish society at present people are having to rein-vent themselves, look at how they work, and become more efficient. We at the Corn Exchange are cer-tainly no exception.”

It is clear, while understanding the difficulties that may lie ahead for all involved in the arts, Ryan is eter-nally optimistic that the show will go on.

Men of Valour say the show will go onPatrick Gormley

Paul Reid in the acclaimed original production of Man of Valour by the Corn Exchange. hoto courtesy of Corn Exchange

“It was fantastic to see the

audience react with standing

ovations every night”

“It is a crazy time in the arts sector

and this has made us learn to adapt and

look at working in different ways”

Jenny McGovern

Author Marilyn Taylor with children from St. Brigid’s Primary Schoool. Photo by Jenny McGovern

21 SPORT

PUZZLED as to who are our play-off opponents this No-vember? Sean Duffy is here

to help you out.

Q: Who are we talking about?

A: Estonia.

Q: Why should we care about them?

A: Well you don’t really have to, but they are Ireland’s opponents in the

playoff for the European champion-ships, and in the way of a first major

championship appearance in ten years.

Q: Are they any good?A: No. It appears they are not. They don’t have any recognisable players and have never qualified for a major

tournament. But we’re not too great either. So it should make for a

dreadful match.

Q: But aren’t we quite good at dreadful matches?

A: Yes we have become specialists at dreadful matches. And we may even

qualify for next summer’s cham-pionship which will make it all ok even if it may give Eamon Dunphy

a stroke in the process

Q: Anything else we should know about Estonia?

A: Well the capital city is Tallinn and they have a population of just

1.34 million people. They have the highest per capita GDP of any

former Soviet Republic

Q: So they’re like posh com-munists?

A: Well no....Not really

Q: Right. Anything else?A: Well they won independ-

ence from Russia in 1918 and the country suffered greatly during the

Second World War.

Q: Right, so a bit like us with the Brits and the fam-

ineA: Again not really. Two completely

different situations we’re talking about here.

Q: What will happen if we qualify?

A: Well the whole country is likely to go football mad for at the least the duration of the group stages

next June.

Q: Where are the champion-ships on again?

A: Poland and the Ukraine. But with infrastructure problems expect

majority to be played in Poland.

Q: Where is Ukraine ex-actly?

A: Don’t start that again.

An idiot’s guide to Estonia

With Shamrock Rovers’ Europa League adventure well underway, Colin Higgins looks back on their form and hopes for progression.

Shamrock Rovers have made his-tory this year by becoming the first Irish team to qualify for the group stages of a European competition.

The men from Tallaght ensured qualification after a magnificent 2-1 away victory over Serbian outfit Par-tizan Belgrade.

Rovers reward for the historic achievement - a place in Group A alongside English heavyweights Tot-tenham Hotspur. It was the team ev-ery fan was hoping to get, meaning a bumper payday for the club.

Rovers would have to wait a while to take on Tottenham as they had to contend with Russian outfit Rubin Kazan in their first group match. The game gave a stark reminder to fans of the quality of the competi-tion they would be facing as they went down 3-0.

The game couldn’t have started

worse for Rovers in front of their diehard fans as former Newcastle man Obafemi Martins connecting with a low flying cross from Parti-zan winger Kardeniz with only three minutes on the clock.

Rovers had a couple of chances in the first half, the first coming after some fine individual play from Enda Stevens while Gary Twigg met a cross from the right and his header went over the bar from close range.

The second half didn’t start well for Rovers as they conceded yet another early goal on the 50th minute. Kazan attacker Noboa fired an unstoppable shot past Rovers keeper Thompson from the edge of the box. It was the goal that effectively killed off the tie.

A further goal from Partizan player Karadenez on 60th minutes put a slightly distorted look on the result. Rovers put up a good fight but the difference in quality was evident as Kazan ran out 3-0 victors. ’Rovers next match saw them trav-el to London to take on Tottenham Hotspur. The match saw a strong travelling support and the Hoops players didn’t disappoint.

After a strong opening first half which saw both teams carving out good goal scoring opportunities, it was Rovers who took a deserved lead in the 50th minute trough a goal from Stephen Rice.

The goal was sadly the last bright piece of play from Rovers as Spurs quickly equalised in the 60th min-ute trough Roman Pavlyuchenko. Two more quick goals followed in the space of three minutes through Jermaine Defoe and Giovanni dos Santos which made Rice’s goal seem it never happened.

Tottenham deservedly finished the match as 3-1 winners to leave Rovers bottom of Group A without a point leading into match day three.

The Irish Champions would travel to Greece for their next encounter of the group stages to face PAOK Sa-lonika.

Rover’s fans encountered trouble on the way to the match as a two day country wide strike in Greece shut down public transport links. Those who did eventually make their way to the stadium witnessed Rovers sthird defeat of the campaign.

The visiting team made a promis-ing start to the game but were un-done by another early goal in the 12th minute from PAOK player La-zar.

Rovers looked outclassed for the remainder of the first half and strug-gled to keep the deficit to one goal going into the break.

The men from Tallaght emerged after half time with a sense of urgen-cy and hit back trough an early Karl Sheppard goal on the 47 minutes.

The Hoops could not maintain their momentum and fell behind again on 60 minutes when Vierinha unleashed an unstoppable effort from just outside the box.

Rovers failed to put their Greek hosts under pressure for the remain-der of the game and a 2-1 defeat was a fair result overall.

Rovers have three more matches in the group to make an impression but already things look bleak. Hoops fans will look forward to December 15th with great excitement when they welcome Tottenham to The Tal-laght Stadium.

Reward

Deserved defeat Greek Tragedy

Karl Sheppard scoring for Shamrock rovers against PAOK Salonika. Photo courtesy of Bobby Crawford

ROVeRS euROPeAn ODySSey

Defeat

Katie Taylor won her fifth successive European title on Saturday night af-ter an impressive 10-5 win over two time world champion Russian Sofya Ochigava in Rotterdam on Saturday.

Despite her success, Taylor has managed to maintain the hunger which has seen her rise to the pin

nacle of the lightweight division.“It’s always a great feeling to win.

In fact it gets better every time. There was a lot of pressure on me going into this tournament and that pressure was there again this week.” Taylor said.

Saturday’s bout against Ochigava was a chance for Taylor to gain re-

venge after being defeated by the Russian in controversial circum-stances last year. While Taylor man-aged to put the record straight in Rotterdam, she still maintains a huge respect for Ochigava.

“Obviously we are rivals inside the

ring, but we get on very well outside the ring. Sofya is one of the best op-ponents I have met and I’m abso-lutely thrilled with the win. I can’t believe it really.”

Irish team manger Anna Moore

believes there has been a notable improvement in Taylor this year.

“Katie is boxing at a completely different level than was the case at last year’s event and she was abso-lutely exceptional. The entire squad are on a high after this win and we’re

absolutely thrilled.” Moore stated.Next up for Taylor will be the

World Championships in China next May. Those championships will act as a qualifying tournament for next summers’ Olympics in London, where she will surely represent Ire-land’s best chance of a medal.

Taylor, 25, is keen to get some rest

in the short term after what has been a gruelling week.

“ I am going to take a few weeks off now and then we’ll prepare for the World Championship and Olympic Qualifiers. That is going to be the biggest tournament of my life,” Tay-lor added.

Next year’s Olympic Games will be the first time women will allowed to compete inside the Boxing Ring.

TAyLOR WInS FIFTH SuCCeSSIVe euROPeAn TITLeSean Duffy

rest

rivals

Olympic Qualification

Improvement

22 SPORT

Guinness Rugby Football Club has gotten their Leinster League Di-vision 3 campaign off to a tonic start.

They are sitting at the top of the table after four victories from their first four outings with 19 points from a possible 20.

They have overcome Rathdrum 29-10, Birr 18-0 as well as comfort-able victories Midland Warriors and north Meath respectively.

They have set up a crucial game this sunday away to 2nd placed Ark-low, who are currently eight points adrift of Guinness.

The 2nd team is also going well with two wins from their first three games with wins over Monkstown and swords.

The solitary loss came last saturday away to navan 30-20, mainly due to a severely depleted squad.

senior training (including 17's, 19's and 21's) takes place in iveagh Grounds on Tuesdays and Thurs-days @ 7.30pm, and minis training (u'8-u'14) on sunday morning @ 10.30am

*If you are interested in playing for any of Guinness’s rugby teams, please visit www.guinnessrugby.ie

Guinness make perfect start to Division 3 League campaign with four wins

Niall McCague

Gaels bow out in semi-finals

sT. JAMes GAeLs bowed out at the semi-final stage of the Dublin Ju-nior B football Championship this month.

The game was every bit as engaging as the score line suggests, with two evenly matched sides pitting it out for the right to play in the final.

Despite looking the better side for long periods of this game, st. James couldn’t convert their chances.

After soaking up some early pres-sure, they went into a 1-4 to 0-4 lead at the break and looked the most solid side going forward.

But Ballyboden rallied back, and a goal five minutes into the second half allowed them to gain a foothold in the contest.

Despite some impressive periods of attacking, st. James were guilty of squandering a number of chances and their opponents duly took the initiative to close out the contest and qualify for the final.

Niall McCague

Ciaran O’Fiachain looks back on the Irish rugby team’s world cup campaign in New Zealand, which pro-vided highs but ultimately desperate lows.

DespiTe entertaining and thrilling the nation throughout the month of september, ireland’s Rugby World Cup fantasy is over for another four years. sadly, this was also the last at-tempt at a World Cup for many the current squad, six nations Grand slam heroes back in 2009.

However, there were plenty of high points to look back on over the course of the campaign. ireland topped a pool for the first time, set a new team record for consecutive tournament wins (four) and secured their first victory over Australia on southern Hemisphere soil since 1979. Adding to this, talismanic captain Brian O’Driscoll became only the third player to score at four World Cup tournaments.

ireland kicked off their campaign with a hazy start with a 22-10 win over usA in new plymouth on sep-tember 11.

With the match played in rainy conditions, ireland struggled to maintain the upper hand. ireland’s forwards illustrated their domi-nance on numerous occasions dur-ing the match but the wet conditions and their opponents’ solid defen-sive effort made it difficult for them to reach the try line. Having only scored three tries, they failed to se-cure what would have been a helpful bonus point.

The following week, the tables were turned as they produced the first major shock of the tourna-ment – overcoming giants Australia with a memorable 15-6 victory in Auckland. ireland silenced the crit-ics once again with loose head prop Cian Healy spearheading the fantas-tic team performance.

Healy was the heartbeat of an irish scrum that was so crucial to the vic-tory, claiming the majority of their points. There is no hiding the fact that a shaken Wallabies side left the field second best as their key players were superbly boxed up by an irish side who, in skipper Brian O’Driscoll’s words, “dug deep into the well”.

if there was any fear the Australia performance was a simple flash in the pan, the nine-try 62-12 win over

Russia in Rotorua quelled that. Aid-ed by a mass of irish fans decked out in green, the match may as well have been played at home.

Reinstated fly-half Ronan O’Gara was at the centre of the irish attacks and his goal-kicking and general kicking was immaculate. The irish put on a first-class show and fin-ished the game in storming fashion.

ireland cemented their place in the quarter-finals after a convincing thumping of italy 36-6 in Dunedin as the tournament entered Octo-ber. italy made their presence felt, virtue of their defensive line as the irish front row found themselves in the midst of a blue wave of Azzurri tackles.

The boys in green were certainly

not having things their own way, and italy opened up a sudden wealth of possession. This seemed to send a message to the irish, who searched desperately for a foothold. They were soon rewarded for their efforts and began to dominate the game. But in terms of possession, there was

little to separate the two teams.six days later, the nation’s hearts

were to be broken as the impressive winning streak came to an untimely end at the hands of Wales. in what was a breathless encounter, an out-standing defence from the Welsh proved just too strong. Caught nap-ping from as early as the second minute, Wales capitalised and took the early lead.

The jolted irish struggled to com-

pose themselves and even though they played with more possession and territory, they failed to con-vert pressure into points and lost a number of battles in key areas of the pitch.

Throwing anything they could find at Wales in the last quarter to find that one sliver of light, poor de-cisions and several handling errors cost the team dear.

in the end, ireland could not break down the red wall and suffered a deflating finish to their World Cup campaign. To summarise is simple – Wales took their chances, ireland did not.

Following on from their impres-sive presence at all of ireland’s matches, the fans were out in force at Dublin Airport as they gave the players a very warm reception on their return from new Zealand.

Three times World Cup veteran Ronan O’Gara revealed that: “the team are hurting. it’s disappoint-ing but there have been some great highlights along the way, and you don’t forget them either”.

Rory Best, who plays as hooker for ireland, believed that the team missed a “fantastic opportunity” to win the World Cup while head coach Declan Kidney - “it will be a hard one to take, but they’re good men. They’ll rise again and that’s all that you can ever do in life”.

ireland will now look to build to the future ahead of next year’s 6 na-tions Tournament and they have a favourable draw next as they take on France and england at home.

Ireland’s golden generation come up short against Wales at The World Cup

Ireland were unable to overcome a powerful Welsh team. Photo courtesy of Sortsfile

Opening match O’Gara reinstated

Welsh Heartbreak

World Cup exit

J4 League (2nd team) take on Swords RFC. Guinness won 35-5. Photo courtesy of Anthony Keogh

SPORT

Rovers’ European adventure continues

23

Ireland fans’ celebrate victory over Armenia in The Clock Pub on Thomas Street Photo by Sean Duffy

After grafting a victory against Armenia to secure their place in the play-offs, the republic of Ireland have been handed a favourable play-off draw against estonia.

Despite being considered the weakest team in the play-off draw estonia finished second to Italy in

Group C, topping teams such as Serbia and Slovenia, as well as beat

ing Northern Ireland twice.Ireland reached the playoffs de-

spite a nervy 2-1 victory against Armenia on 11 October, which in-cluded a sending off for both sides.

Armenia were dealt an early blow, with keeper roman Berezovsky

judged to have handled the ball out-side his box on the half hour.

The Armenians further com

pounded their own demise with Valeri Aleksanyan turning Damien Duff ’s cross into his own net.

richard Dunne bundled in Ire-land’s second goal on 59 minutes, but Armenia hit three minutes later-through Mkhitaryan’s strike.

The vistors retained possession

well despite being a man down, and Ireland were left hanging on for a tense finish after Kevin Doyle was sent off for second bookable offence with ten minutes left on the clock, ruling him out of the 1st leg of the playoff through suspension.

The boys in green travel to tallinn on 11 November for the first leg. Ire-land were 2-0 winners in their

previous visit to the citywith the re-turn leg being played at the Aviva Stadium on 15 November. With a first appearance in a major tourna-ment in ten years up for grabs, ex-pect the nation to come to a stand-still.

For information on tickets visit the FAI website or alternatively log onto www.ticketmaster.ie.

Liam Keegan

It IS a credit to templeogue Synge Street player Denis Bastick that he has established himself as a key player in the Dublin set up over the past two seasons.

Suspensions and bans may have drawn negative attention in the past, but this season he has been a model of composure.

He was outstanding in the quarter final against tyrone in August. He made a series of tremendous aerial catches and covered a phenomenal amount of ground exploiting his marker Sean Cavanagh in the pro-cess.

He may not be a marquee scorer, but his physicality around the mid-dle third of the field adds a cutting edge that the team has lacked since Ciaran Whelan retired in 2009.

He is 31 now, has four Leinster medals, a junior and Senior All-Ire-land and a reputable All-Star nomi-nee to his name, and the possibility of more big days ahead.

There is a spectacular picture from the All-Ireland final in 2003 at Croke Park hung on his wall at

home, with the words ‘unfinished business’ emblazoned across the top in handwriting. It’s the words that carry the most significance for him.

His office in Drumcondra is a short walk from the cathedral of Croke Park, and every day staring up at the quiet stadium is a reminder of busier times.

The story of his success carries a trail of romance. The tuesday be-fore the All-Ireland final Bastick fell awkwardly on his ankle in a practice game resulting in heavy strapping, pain killers, icing and a bout of in-jections all week. The pain refused to ease, making his participation in the All-Ireland final a major doubt.

That friday, he met Paul flynn in the physio room at DCU. They spoke about the game, and listening to flynn’s positivity allowed Bastick to believe he was ready for the job in hand.

It is amazing he kept going through the barren years with Dublin as he struggled to sustain a place in the squad with the occasional point and stints sitting on the bench count-

ing the water bottles. Pillar Caffrey drafted him into the panel in 2005 and featured briefly that season, making his League debut the follow-ing february against tyrone.

Bastick didn’t make his senior championship debut for another

three seasons until 2009 against Meath, instead plying his trade with the junior team where he earned valuable exposure captaining the team to an All-Ireland success in 2008. He cemented the full-back position for the 2009 senior champi-

onship, and played every game until the Dubs were unravelled by a deter-mined Kerry outfit at the quarter fi-nal stage. As Michael Dara McAuley has slowly evolved into one of the best midfielders of the last two sea-sons, Bastick continued to underline

his presence as the best man able to keep up with him.

Both players have contrasting qualities necessary for the big stage. McAuley has the ability to make powerful aerial fetches, and also has a massive on field presence to link with his half back line and set up vi-tal attacks.

Bastick, on the other hand, is more consistent at holding the midfield area, and when he contests the high ball he scatters all before him. His jumping style is more natural than McAuley’s and his shooting is accu-rate and clinical.

Bastick’s ability to opt as an outlet for the short kick out and man mark players is graceful and riveting; cut-ting off Sean Kavanagh’s impact in the game against tyrone was one of the turning points in Dublin’s cham-pionship journey.

The championship curtains are well drawn at this stage and with club games ongoing, he can sit back and take satisfaction from what he has achieved this season. While he is hardly the most recognisable face or voice in the modern game of Gaelic football, The templeogue Synge Street man has established himself as one of the best midfield players in the country.

IReLAnD DeFeAT ARMenIA

Dunne deal

Blue’s boy Bastick Niall McCague

Physicality

romance

Contrasting qualities

satisfaction

Denis Bastick holds Sam Maguire aloft. Picture courtesy of Sportsfile

SPORT

next Issue December 2011

Part of the Community since 1998

FREE

Election 2011

analysispg 4 and 5

Annie Hall

swaps New

York for the

Liberties pg 16 and 17

Out and About

pg 12 and 13

NEWSwww.theliberty.ie

MANY LOCAL residents and busi-

nesses said they will refuse to pay the

water charges the new Government is

bringing in.

The introduction of water charges

will involve the prior installation of

water meters in every household and

business. Once the meters are up

and running it is likely that monthly

payments will be mandatory when

the limited credit on the meter runs

out. Many are worried about the impact

these additional charges will have.

“What type of world do we live in

that we have to pay to wash ourselves

and our clothes, or drink water or

flush the toilet?” said Mary, a lifelong

resident of the Liberties.

“It’s going to be another bill in the

door that I’ll be struggling to pay.

Water is a basic need to survive. It

is just madness that our right to free

water is being taken away from us

because of mistakes made by

others.”Joe, a pensioner, told

me how he is also feel-

ing the pressure with

the water charges

looming. “I live on my own

and my memory isn’t

the best anymore,”

he said chuckling.

“What would hap-

pen if I forgot to pay

the bill? Would I be

cut off? Dehydra-

tion can cause a lot

of problems. I shouldn’t

have to worry about dehydration in

the 21st century”.

The general consensus on the ef-

fect these charges will have on busi-

nesses is that large businesses are not

as worried. “I don’t think it’s going to

affect business much to be honest,”

said Brendan, a member of the bar

staff in a popular local pub.

However, the smaller business-

es said that they are hoping the

implementation of the charges

hold off for as long as pos-

sible. “Another bill, no

matter how small at the

moment could throw

us under,” said the

owner of a small

shop in the area.

E x a c t l y

when the

charges are

implemented

will be a matter for the new Gov-

ernment to decide. As the Govern-

ment will be a Fine Gael and Labour

coalition, it is difficult to predict an

outcome as the two parties have very

different views on the issue.

Fine Gael said that they will only

support the introduction of house-

hold water charges when the follow-

ing three conditions have been met:

• Household water meters have

been put in place.

• Families are given a free water al-

lowance / credit.

• The responsibility for water de-

livery is transferred from 34 local

authorities to a single national water

company.

Fine Gael believes that such a na-

tional water company will be up and

running within 12 months.

In stark contrast the Labour Party’s

manifesto says “Labour does not fa-

vour water charges.”

However, in contradiction, Pat

Rabbitte said this month the Labour

party favoured charges from 2014,

with householders granted a specific

allowance of free water.

Continued Page 7

Blood boils over new water chargesPictured: Demolished Murphy’s Pram Shop on the High Street; Inset: The building prior to demolition work. Demolition photo: Fionnuala Holohan

The last house on the block finally comes down. Murphy’s shop once stood as part of a full terrace on High Street. Its demolition has

eradicated all indicators of a once thriving community. Story on page 3.

GONE BABY GONE

Issue 63 March 2011

Gillian Stedman

Is the Liberties

the cheapest

place to shop?

pg 3

“When you are

in a wheelchair,

small things

can be a big

problem”

ARTS

FEATURES

St Pat’s get off

to a winning

start pg 24

SPORT

Profile of a

local artist pg 15

OPINION pg 24

INsIDe

AFTER a stunning 1-0 win against Sligo recently, St. Pat’s have only crashed to one defeat in their last nine games, and have taken 16 points.

Sadly for the Inchicore outfit, sit-ting in fourth place in the League game with only one game remaining means it will be at least another year until the league title returns to Rich-mond Park.

Recent performances haven’t raised too many eyebrows or made people leap off their seats with en-thusiasm, but between the Leinster Senior Cup triumph and progress-ing to the semi-finals of the FAI Cup, confidence is visibly high amongst the supporters.

Despite failing to land the league title, Pats secured their seventh Leinster Senior Cup triumph follow-ing a 2-0 win against Bohemians at Dalymount Park earlier this month with goals from Paul Crowley and David McMillan securing an im-pressive win for the Saints.

Pat’s, making a raft of changes from the team that beat Sligo 1-0 two days previous, showed the greater creativity and sharpness in the first half with Danny North and Ian Daly prominent.

North has proved an inspirational presence for the Richmond Park-men this season, and on 24 minutes he showed tremendous skill and composure to cut in from the right

and release McMillan, but he pulled his effort wide.

McMillan redeemed himself two minutes later with a delivery from the right flank that was met by the unmarked midfielder Paul Crowley at the far post to head past Boh’s keeper Sexton to make it 1-0.

With the goal advantage, the Saints continued to put their opponents under relentless pressure and began to capitalise on their errors. Their lead was duly doubled when McMil-lan tucked away after North’s pow-erful drive was blocked by Sexton from a tight angle.

With the game getting increasingly beyond their reach, Bohs continued to battle to the very end but were guilty of squandering possession and poor finishing should have been more effectively dealt with. Thank-fully for the ever-vocal home crowd, Pat’s kept their line intact holding off

for a deserved victory.Despite the victory, Pat’s manager

Pete Mahon voiced his anger in the lead up to this game about the unfortunate timing of the fixture schedule. “The timing is unfortunate as it’s the week of the FAI Cup semi-finals as well. We’ll be playing three games in seven days and there’s no way you can use the same players in all three games,” said Mahon.

Mahon’s fear was to be realised. Pat’s drew 1-1 with opponents Shel-bourne, but were beaten 3-1 in the replay.

Defensive alignments need to im-

prove though, with the most notable slip up being the 2-1 defeat to UCD at Belfield, after leading for most of the contest. There was a distinctive drop in the intensity of the game in the second half and UCD capitalised on St. Pat’s errors, clawing back a su-perb goal, before netting a last min-ute winner.

The UCD defeat was followed by two 1-1 draws with Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers respectively. They moved the ball with pace and pur-pose but couldn’t string together that killer pass to threaten their op-positions’ defence.

The next game against Dundalk

showed a level of organisation and discipline that had been absent in the previous two games. Sean O’Connell lifted the siege with a re-markable double, the goals coming on either side of the interval, to earn St. Pat’s the crucial points and leave them in contention for the title race.

St. Pat’s consigned bottom of the table Galway United to further woes with a 6-1 at Richmond Park, Danny North weighing in with two superb goals which capped off an all round solid team performance.

The biggest result of the last few weeks was the 1-0 win over Sligo, which battered the Westerners’ title aspirations. Despite Sligo’s domi-nance, Conor Kenna’s goal in the second half was enough for the Saints to capture all three points.

Squandered possession and some

poor decision making went against St. Pat’s in the 1-1 against Shamrock Rovers again. Shamrock Rovers con-vincing form sees them as the most likely team to capture the L:eague

Niall McCague title. Fourth place is an encour-aging finish for Pat’s, and confi-dence can be taken as they have a promising young team to contest for silverware in the next few sea-sons.

LeInSTeR SenIOR CuP TRIuMPH FOR ST. PAT’S

St. Pat’s players celebrate winning the Leinster Senior Cup with fans. Photo courtesy of Pat McCabe

fixture pile-up

Shamrock Rovers European Odyssey pg 21

Ireland’s World Cup Journeypg 22

Templeogue Synge St. player wins All Ireland pg 23

Ireland qualify for Euro play-offspg 23

Leinster success

Improved discipline