The Dubliner Magazine

Playing 'Jesus' in Pakistan

Dubliner columnist performs religious and political comedy in a Muslim country, under a state of emergency

Last month, Dubliner columnist Abie Philbin Bowman represented Ireland at the World Performing Arts Festival in Pakistan, with his one-man show 'Jesus: The Guantanamo Years'.  Here he talks about his experience to the BBC.

Lucky Money

Max McGuinness on our low calibre of plutocrat

Lo, the day of post-colonial atonement is truly at hand. Prospect, the thinking Englishman's bible, has devoted its cover story this month to profiling "Ireland's New Rich". If the English intelligentsia has decided that rich Micks are now a whole class unto themselves, worthy of sophisticated sociological examination, then surely, says you, the tables have truly turned and it won't be long before the Irish robber barons who own half of London are vilified for their rack-renting ways by Cockney proles just as the likes of Lord Lansdowne became hate figures for generations of Irish bogmen.

The article by the Financial Times' Ireland correspondent John Murray Brown, available here,  underscores how the Irish oligarchs have, like their Russian counterparts, grown mind-bogglingly rich in large part through good fortune -- being in the right place at the right time, which in their case meant sitting on rapidly appreciating property assets and large tracts of development land. Indeed, Roy Foster's recent, erudite account of Ireland since 1970, Luck & the Irish, which Murray Brown uses as his initial point of reference,  argues that notwithstanding the various factors trotted out to account for the boom -- corporation tax, investment in education, social partnership etc. -- its scale and suddenness ultimately confound conventional explanation. The Irish, as Foster puts it, just got lucky.

There May Be Troubles Ahead

Gerry Adams sings his way from Sunningdale to Stormont

No musical number is safe in Gerry and the Peace Process - a light-hearted romp through thirty years of the Troubles. Gerry Adams and Marylou MacDonald parody ‘Summer Loving’ from Grease, and a group of bowler-hatted Orange men re-work the Oompa Loompa song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My personal favourite was Adams and Ken Maginnis, on a trip to the States, comparing the differing fates of Sinn Fein and the UUP in a new version of ‘America’ from West Side Story.

Liam Hourican has been playing around with a comic portrayal of Gerry Adams for many years in cabaret shows, and comic monologues – and it shows. He's very comfortable playing the role. Unfortunately, this feels like a series of sketches and songs thrown together somewhat haphazardly.

There are plenty of great things in the show. The romance between Adams and Marylou MacDonald provides plenty of laughs. At one point Adams, struggling to tell Marylou how he feels, blurts out:

"Marylou, there's something I have to tell you... I, em… that is to say… I feel... you need to know that...er… We in the republican movement…”

Later, Marylou confronts Adams:
“Is it true that you have a wife, Gerry?”
“Yes, but no-one’s ever seen her.”

There is also a running joke about Adams suffering from a rare form of amnesia which only affects his memory of the 1970s.

The portrayal of Ian Paisley throughout is absolutely inspired. It would spoil a good joke to reveal more, although I will say that I still can't get the image of Paisley swallowing David Trimble alive out of my head.

Tom Waits for Santa Clause

The Dubliner backs the campaign to get 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis' voted as Ireland's Christmas No 1

A campaign is mounting to get Tom Waits' classic "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" to number 1 in time for Christmas in Ireland.

If you don't know the song, it's an absolute classic - gritty, poignant, evocative - with a gorgeous piano line and a bittersweet kick in the tail. As a lover of lyrics from Noel Coward to Bob Dylan to The Streets, I think Tom Waits is the greatest lyricist I have ever heard, and I'd put this song in the top five he has ever written.

The song will need to be purchased on-line between the 14th and 20th of December in order to do this.

From today and until Thursday and purchase you make will be counted towards the charts for the 21st of December - the charts that will be in effect far Christmas day!

Seasonal Hillarity

Sketch Comedy Meets Stand-Up

ChristFest 2007 combines the comic talents of sketch group Diet of Worms, with one of Dublin's most charming stand-ups, Jarlath Regan.

The Worms, who performed a truly original show on (melted) ice at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, are  best known for their quirky, off-beat series 'Dublin Stories' which has attracted a cult following on YouTube.

Jarlath Regan won glowing  audience feedback for his Edinburgh show this year, building on his phenomenal success at the 2006 Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, where he performed in the Irish Gala, alongside Ed Byrne, Colin Murphy, Deirdre O'Kane and Tommy Tiernan. 

Christfest 2007
The Village, Wexford Street
Wednesday December 19th
Doors: 7.30pm
Tickets: €16.50 (including booking fee)
Available from WAV Box Office 1890 200 078

A Christmas Treat for Anyone Whose Angst-Ridden Adolescence Spanned the Period 1985-1998

Radiohead cover the Smiths... don't say we didn't warn you

Not quite as great as the sum of it's parts, but still 10,000,000 times preferable to any of the Christmas junk you'll hear repeated ad nauseam over the current season.

Don't miss our

Escaping the Festivities

It's a simple choice: detained at a Christmas party or entertained at the theatre

The Loy has published a convenient compendium of Dublin theatre during the Christmas season. Enjoy.

Spare a Thought for the Rich this Christmas

Years of wealth have left many people unable to appreciate the true spirit of Christmas...(brought to you by Ford)

Report: Nation�s Wealthy Cruelly Deprived Of True Meaning Of Christmas

Tis The Season of Tuneless, Insipid Assaults Upon the Eardrums

It's impossible to walk around Dublin without hearing excruciating Christmas music everywhere

Before reaching for a semiautomatic, it's probably worth remembering that we don't get particularly good music on the airwaves during the rest of the year.

This list, of 23 songs which should never be covered again, is a healthy reminder of this fact in the present season.

Any of these songs would make the perfect gift for a relative you don't like very much.

Expect all 23 to feature on "Classics" - the forthcoming album by Joe Dolan.

In Memoriam: Kevin Dunne 1943-2007

Max McGuinness remembers a friend.

Photo:Stuart Smyth
Kevin Dunne, who died at the end of last month after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this summer, was a true Dubliner, a true husband, father, and friend, and, though he never claimed to be, a true artist.

Though he modestly referred to his photographs, a selection of which can be seen on his website, as "snaps", they exhibit exceptional skill, nous, and mastery of light. In the age of Photoshop, much photography has become the product of a computer rather than a camera. But Kevin retained a more honest approach and always strove to make the image perfect just as it entered the shutter of his Hasselblad rather than resort to technical trickery. Like David Lean, he was prepared to wait hours for the right shaft of sunlight to break through the clouds. In his old studio on Liberty Lane, he would regularly pull off the considerable feat of making a pint of Harp look like something drinkable. The Kubrick-like precision with which he isolated a single cod-liver oil tablet from all reflections also attested to a simultaneous obsession for professionalism and aesthetics.