Bearing The Brunt.

That our healthcare system is a source of fright for many isn’t anything new. it’s a dreaded rites of passage nearly to be left propped up on a trolley in a corridor as the numbers stuck waiting for bed reach an all-time high. Paul Dillon talks to the people that have turned tracking trolleys into one of the main statistical tropes of the crisis in our healthcare system about why ... Read More

Scandal Sheet From #rabble15

Keep the Pump Going Fella! Shane Ross spent most of his career in the Seanad and in Independent newspapers. He was elected to the Dail for the fi rst time in 2011, in Ireland’s recession election. It was rumoured he would run on a slate with the likes of Fintan O’Toole, David McWilliams and Eamon Dunphy. This never came to pass. Once in the Dail, he developed his anti establishment ... Read More

Putting A Label On It.

Humble Serpent is a new record label launched at possibly the worst time you could pick to launch a record label. Sean Finnan caught up with one of the founders, vinny dermody, a 17 year veteran of Ireland’s independent scene with The Jimmy Cake to find out what kind of a contrary bastard starts a label at a time like this.

The Agricultural Revolution.

Rashers Tierney talks to Seamus Bradley about a novel model of food supply that cuts out the big box retailers and puts a group of people and a local farmer into a mutually beneficial relationship.

The Future Devoured?

Aiysha Teegan argues the Irish government is allowing us to freewheel off a dangerous slope of heart disease and climate destruction. Here she takes a look at how the Irish Farmers Organisation has us by the cajoles and how we are falling behind on our environmental commitments.

Out Of His Bleedjin Shoebox.

Aoife Davis chats to Ciaran Nugent, Power FM broadcaster, DJ and flyer collector about his experiences with clubbing in Dublin and his ongoing research around club flyers. Providing her with a glimpse into a pivotal moment in Ireland’s recent past told through the medium of flyers, posters, goodie bags and teaser packs.

#rabbleComics: Harry Hangover 7.

The Horrorscopes from #rabble15!

Suburban Super Cinemas!

The only indicator it was ever a cinema are its steeped motifs and the fading letters RIALT above the boarded windows and “SOLD” sign advertising its potential to investors. The “O” not being replaced is the final indignity for such a once-proud building. Even now, in its state of ruin, it looks utterly alien amidst a row of terraced redbrick houses, takeaways and phone repair shops. What must it have looked like when it opened on the 5th of November 1936 to great fanfare and the billing of “Dublin’s Suburban Super Cinema”?

Shout Shout! Let It All Out!

A woman kneels on a bed, as onlookers observe. Her face is twisted, she emits a guttural bellowing, grunts, thumps herself and spouts expletive-riddled abuse. Primal Screaming doesn’t look like much of a buzz but Caitriona Devery decided to take a plunge into the strange anyway.

Of Riots & Rituals.

Terry Dunne takes us back to look at the riotous popular culture behind the façade of Georgian Ireland and at how resistance was shaped by borrowing from festive life, folklore and recreation.

MAO 68!

This was not the first time barricades had dotted Parisian streets, but what was different about 1968 was the immediate international coverage of events. To students elsewhere, it showed the way. In Dublin, the ‘Internationalists’ of Trinity College Dublin, a small Maoist student body with influence beyond their numbers, disrupted the visit to the university by King Baudouin of Belgium.

Gombeen #15: Conor Feckin’ Skehane.

Later he stigmatised one half of service-users and simultaneously pitted them against the other half by blaming the homeless for “gaming the system” to get social housing

Avanti Popolo!

The experience of the Italian Communist Party has much to teach us, and we are of course very proud of that heritage, dating back to the resistance, but at the same time our world is now very different, and we must find our own responses to the problems of today.

Connemara Cinema.

Bob Quinn is a filmmaker based in Connemara whose 1975 film Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire tells the story of a film shoot in a Gaeltacht where the actors rebel against their director. The original suggestion and support for making the film came from Eamonn Smullen, who was Director of Education, Sinn Féin The Workers Party. Upon release, it was greeted as “the first completely native-produced movie that seems capable of holding its own with the best of the world's new cinema.”. After a long period during which the negative was feared lost, it was recovered and restored in 2010. Rabble caught up with Bob Quinn to talk about it.

A HUNREAL listen so it is

We were frustrated at the polarised, un-analytical, stop watch style of broadcasting around the Repeal referendum.  The interpretation of the broadcasting rules means that two sides are being pitted against each other in debates that don’t lend themselves to thoughtful, meaningful conversations.

The Social Fabric.

The banners represent key moments of change in history, from the evolution of the Women’s Workers Union in 1911 to recent responses to Brexit. They portray changing issues throughout Ireland and the UK including our present moments of Repeal the Eighth and wars in regions such as Palestine.

The Hateful Eighth.

Above: Paul Reynolds caught this very telling photograph at last year’s Rally For Life. Since its introduction in 1983 the 8th amendment has created an environment where responsibility of control for the pregnant woman is in the hands of the Health Care Provider. For practicing midwives, this is a scary position to be in. Polly Molotov is a registered midwife and general nurse and takes us through the problems it creates. It ... Read More

The Boogeyman of Balance.

Listening to Marian Finucane interviewing anyone on a Sunday morning can be a slog but sometimes she makes a comment that sheds light on the modus operandi of the national broadcaster. Her “from both sides” comment when interviewing Katie Ascough last November got Sean Finnan thinking about RTÉ’s juggling act when it comes to balance.

We’re 15!

Sat here, farting out the fifteenth editorial of rabble, we’re again confronted by a shambolic media, both AT home and abroad. News of the hacking scandal at Independent News and Media is filtering in, with numerous journalists and their sources compromised. Then we are confronted with the news of millions of Facebook profiles having their data appropriated by Cambridge Analytica to build a a profile of potential voters and how ... Read More