The Dubliner Magazine

Photo Finish

Each month we print pictures of an eclectic selection of Dubliners in our Photo Finish pages at the back of the magazine.

Rosanna Davidson, My Secret Hero

We all want to be beauty queens... Why does no one admit it?

They emerge from the underground. Heads of highlighted hair glistening from hours spent on the dance floor with gin and slimline tonic. Lithe, brown bodies that stumble a little, their laughter revealing bleached teeth in perfect rows. I'm outside Krystle, waiting for a friend. Puddles of rainwater bleed into my old Converse. Even at some distance from the roped-off entrance I'm feeling uncomfortably under-dressed. That's when I see her. Her retouched lip gloss reflects the street lamps of the grey night. She is regal in her poise, chatting loudly in a pair of shocking pink stilettos. I gasp a little. 

A Tale of Two Eamon(n)s

Max McGuinness applauds Eamon Gilmore, disdains Eamonn J Clarke.

A letter in today's Irish Times from the Reverend Eamonn J Clarke has brought to my attention a welcome declaration by Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore at last week's Party conference over the scandal of educational apartheid in this country, which I have previously written about here, and here.

Gilmore chose the right  metaphor in comparing the status of a Catholic baptismal certificate when it comes to obtaining a place in our still priest-ridden schools to that of a "pass book" in apartheid South Africa which regulated the movements of blacks, coloreds(i.e mixed race), and Indians  in urban areas.

The good Reverend(whose co-religionists are well-catered for by many Protestant schools), in a spirit of bogus ecumenicism, decided he should stick up for his fellow Christians and accuses Gilmore of taking a "cheap shot" at the Catholic Church and demands to know whether it is Labour Party policy to make Catholics second-class citizens in this country.

Don't. Be. Silly

All this without ever addressing the real issue: the hundreds of mostly black children who have been shunted into a temporary school in Balbriggan either because they are not Catholics or cannot prove that they are(having neglected to pack their baptisimal certificates on the trip from Lagos).

Slavoj Sells Out

Max McGuinness on Slavoj Zizek.

Coca-Cola swilling, Lenin-loving, one time Slovenian presidential candidate, and occasional copywriter for Abercrombie and Fitch, Slavoj Zizek tends to alter his job description every five minutes, signing off his latest squib for the London Review of Books as a "dialectical-materialist philosopher and psychoanalyst".

In the essay "Resistance is Surrender", which can be read here, Zizek apparently ditches a life time of revolutionary commitment, arguing that capitalism is indestructible and that lefties should do their best to get in on the act by muscling their way in on the state, like Venezuelan President Hugh Chávez. He concludes: "The lesson here is that the truly subversive thing is not to insist on ‘infinite’ demands we know those in power cannot fulfil. Since they know that we know it, such an ‘infinitely demanding’ attitude presents no problem for those in power: ‘So wonderful that, with your critical demands, you remind us what kind of world we would all like to live in. Unfortunately, we live in the real world, where we have to make do with what is possible.’ The thing to do is, on the contrary, to bombard those in power with strategically well-selected, precise, finite demands, which can’t be met with the same excuse."

Sacre Bleu! Has Slavoj sold out?

Who's taking the horseshit to France?

Max McGuinness on a spat between Bertie and Sarkozy

Once the Gardaí decided that their solitary Sikh bobby could not wear his turban on duty(by extension forbidding  any hypothetical Muslim bean Gardaí from wearing a veil), French President Nicolas Sarkozy clearly thought he had found an ally in Bertie against the rising tide of Islamism. For, as revealed last week on "Coulisses de Bruxelles", a blog maintained by Jean Quatremer, the highly-respected Brussels correspondent for the left-wing French daily Libération, during his meeting with Sarko on 21 September, Bertie was subjected to what Quatremer here describes as an "anti-Muslim diatribe". Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was treated to an identical phillipic two weeks later.

Sarkozy apparently harangued Bertie for over twenty minutes about the excessive number of Muslims in Europe and their lack of integration within European society - all to try and persuade the taoiseach that Turkey should never join the EU.            

Welcome to the Gaybourhood

Dublin 8. It’s a kip, isn’t it? All soot-stained ceilings and pokey bedrooms? Hardly any light? And no off-street parking? Rubbish, says Quentin Fottrell. Dublin 8 deserves a better reputation. It’s nothing less than the charming new capital of Gay Ireland.

50 Cent not worth as much as he used to be

Rappers make the change into Euro, as dollar continues to plummet

Click here to read the full story from the BBC.

What the BBC failed to spot - due to their sterling bias - is that, luckily for 50, his name works better in euro than in dollars. 

Half an American dollar is 50 cents rather than 50 cent.

However, because different European languages form plurals differently, 'euro' and 'cent' are used as collective nouns.  So the note in your pocket says '20 Euro', not '20 Euros'. Similarly, the coins say '50 Cent' - not '50 Cents'.

So maybe 50 is really European.

On second thoughts, the Yanks can keep him.

He's devalued even faster than their currency.

Playboy of the Modern World (from Western Africa)

Abie Philbin Bowman reviews a new version of Synge's classic by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle - currently playing at the Abbey.

After the phenomenal success of the Barrytown Trilogy (The Van, the Snapper, The Commitments), Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha – which won the Booker – and the brilliantly accomplished The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Roddy Doyle observed, "I felt a little claustrophobic. I'd been writing for 10 years and I hadn't left the house: virtually every scene was set in a bedroom, a living room or a kitchen."

 

A View From Below

by Neil Hegarty

I first came to Dublin as a student at the beginning of the 1990s, and I scarcely knew the city when I first arrived. My family never visited Dublin when I was growing up; there was no reason to do so. We had no family living here and my parents had never lived in Dublin or forged any particular connection with it. When I got off the inter-city coach and onto a city bus and eventually dragged my suitcase into my new and very disagreeable student basement flat, I hardly knew where I was going, and I didn’t know anyone.

The Return of the Foodie Bible

It's that time of year again. Trevor White goes to a bunfight.

The 2008 edition of The Dubliner 100 Best Restaurants was launched at a lavish bash in Browne's Brasserie last night.

The great and the good traded quips with actors, hacks, beautiful women and a couple of truculent liggers. It was, to be fair, the best party the magazine has thrown in years, and our thanks go to sponsors Gilbeys – agents for Santa Rita – and the hosts, Browne's, for ensuring a memorable send-off.

Congratulations, also, to Ross Lewis – pictured left with Julia Kennedy of Gilbeys – and his team at Chapter One for scooping the Santa Rita People's Choice Award for the second time in three years. We hear they're taking reservations for the spring of 2020.

Our little restaurant book goes on sale today. If you fancy finding the very best places to eat this Christmas, buy a copy today. It's just €6.99.