The Dubliner Magazine

Top Ten for Ten... (numbers 1 to 5)

Some of them have been knocking around for a while; some of them are brand new. We expect big things of all of them in the new decade. Louise Finn, Neil Brennan & Bridget Hourican meet ten talented Irish people who deserve to be household names in 2010

Alan Taylor
Fashion Designer

Sure, there’s the hair. Sure, there’s the clothes. Sure, there’s the confidence of a 22-year-old who’s already racked up 14 months’ work with designers like Alexander McQueen and modelled for Hedi Slimane. But here’s the thing about Alan Taylor – he’s got a top-notch handshake. “Since the first time I was told to get my elbows off the table, my family let me know how important it was to have good manners and a good handshake,” says the Balinteer boy. 

We may be jumping the gun a bit by declaring 2010 the year for Alan since, Christ, he only graduates from NCAD in the summer – but we’re fond of saying “We told you so,” and aim to do plenty of that with Alan in the future. 

The seeds of his design future started when he was just a young skater boy doing woodwork and construction studies in school. “I love the making of something, seeing how it all comes together. I didn’t know anything about fashion when I started in NCAD – but my tutor told me that was refreshing!” 

After graduation he’ll move to New York – “I love Dublin but there’s just not the kind of jobs here I want” – but for the moment, he’s getting his foot in as many doors as possible, with his sideline gigs in modelling and club promotion. “The experience I’ve got so far is from going out and talking to people, so when I go to New York I’ll just start knocking on doors.” Good thing he’s got that handshake. Alan is on the decks in Crawdaddy every Tuesday night for CU Next Tuesday. pod.ie

Dubliners Dublin: Skerries

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH the extremely chilly Minina Skerries, an archipelago located in the Kara Sea off the northwestern shores of Siberia. Winters there are long and bitter, and the islands typically become fused to the mainland as one icy whole for ten months of the year. The more temperate one we’re dealing with here is a picturesque and historic seaside town on the east coast of Dublin, within easy reach of the city.

HISTORY The name Skerries (Na Sceirí) comes from the Norse word for a group of small coastal islands. Saint Patrick, when expelled from Wicklow by the pagan natives, was said to have sailed to his titular island located just off the coast of Skerries. Allegedly some natives stole the great man’s goat. The angry saint confronted the perpetrators and cast a spell on them, causing them to bleat; to this day Skerries natives are commonly referred to as ‘goats’. Incidentally, Saint Patrick did later forgive the Skerries people and lifted the spell on the promise that they would welcome strangers and not steal in future.

PROPERTY This outlying suburb has been subject to rapid but, refreshingly, rather thoughtful expansion in recent years. Barnageeragh Cove in the popular Kelly’s Bay development was launched last year and promises stunning sea views starting from around €215,000. The Maltings, located next to Skerries Mills, offers four-beds for under €500,000. A Treasury Holdings plan involving a hotel, two golf courses, 43 houses, a tennis academy and stables at a 437-acre site spanning Milverton Demesne and Home Farm is – you’ve guessed it – on hold.

The little shops that could no.6 - Rory’s Fishing Tackle

Gridlocked between the restaurants, bars and hotels of Temple Bar, Rory’s Fishing Tackle feels like a remnant from a bygone era. Established in 1959, not much about the store has changed – including Rory himself, who opened it all those years ago. “This shop is the exact same as when we opened 50 years ago,” he tells us, proudly. “Back then, there was only retail on this street. It’s all upmarket now. All restaurants and pubs, it’s completely changed.

 “We’re here so long now that old customers’ grandchildren are coming in,” adds Rory. But while the shop retains its old-fashioned charm, he’s no slouch when it comes to keeping up with the latest in fishing technology. “When we started there were only about 20 or 30 different rods to cover everything. Now you would have 20 rods for each species. There’s no end to it.”

What Would Madonna Do

Victoria Mary Clarke goes on tour with Shane, Morrissey and the Dalai Lama

One of the most important considerations if one is thinking about a career as a celebrated personality (or even the sidekick of a celebrated personality) is that eventually one finds oneself having to tour. Even the Dalai Lama and Bono go on tour, so it makes sense that Shane and I do it too.

Which is why I find myself upon what is most likely a grim and rainy morning back home in Ireland sitting instead in sizzling sunshine at the Los Angeles Sunset Marquis, debating the most important question of the day – whether to have the buffet brunch or to order à la carte.

If one is as celebrated as we are, it is important to stay in control of one’s waist measurements. The buffet brunch can play havoc with this, because of course one wants to get value for money by trying a little of everything, including the chocolate croissants. Which is why I am opting for the à la carte.

“I wonder what Madonna does in this situation?” I ponder out loud.
“I am sure Madonna doesn’t eat in the restaurant,” my companion points out.
“And besides, Madonna is in control of her appetite.”

Max McGuinness

Cowen and Lenihan need to start spending to get us out of this mess. Any more cuts and our economy is doomed

George orwell, that great scourge of totalitarianism and capitalist exploitation, once wrote that “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” The origins of the current crisis suggest that, for many years, we have, on the contrary, being staring resolutely at our own nostrils. How could we ever have thought that selling houses to each other at ever-inflating prices would provide a sustainable route to prosperity? Or that banks could function along the lines of James and the Giant Peach, borrowing money from each other in order to lend it on to consumers at a higher interest rate? Or that the people engaged in these activities could be trusted to regulate themselves when the obligation to seek higher profits actually dictated that they should take ever more reckless risks?

The answer is what Friedrich Engels called ‘false consciousness.’ To justify this manic game of economic Pass the Parcel, some intellectual jiggery-pokery was required to allow us to think away the blindingly obvious. Thence a panoply of bogus concepts developed – ‘efficient market hypothesis’, ‘shareholder value’, ‘the ownership society’ – which are now being rapidly repudiated by their erstwhile champions, notably Alan ‘Maestro’ Greenspan and Jack Welch. This sort of guff was often collectively grouped under the dictionary-shredding barbarism ‘blue sky thinking’. I wouldn’t normally go so far as to say these people should be swinging from lampposts, but I am still inclined to agree with Henry Higgins that “by rights they should be taken out and hung for the cold blooded murder of the English tongue.” So thank heavens the most successful branding exercise in history now seems set to go the way of New Coke.

Trevor White

Reporting from Bombay, our columnist tries – and then refuses – to define what it means to be Irish today

I bumped into an acquaintance the other night. We hadn’t seen each other for about six months, and meeting like this – at neighbouring tables, in a foreign city – felt like a grand coincidence. Bombay is full of restaurants. It was a shame, we agreed, that we couldn’t spend long together.

Otherwise we’d drink the place dry! It didn’t really matter that neither of us are heavy drinkers or that our laughter sounded forced, unnatural. We weren’t trying to explore the delicate contradictions of the Irish character. It was just one of those remarks that people make in such circumstances. Indeed, what could be more Irish than playing to type abroad?

On Bribing the Public

Trevor White introduces the November issue of The Dubliner...

This is a tribute to two young men who came for the cocktails. I met them at an event hosted by the magazine in the Odessa Club last week. The purpose was to find the greatest Dubliner of all time, and the format was simple: we invited various luminaries to champion one person, living or dead, who best fits that description.

Chris de Burgh spoke with passion about Oscar Wilde. The editor of the Sunday Tribune, Noirin Hegarty, nominated Arthur Guinness despite the fact that she has never touched the black stuff. A star of The Apprentice, Jennifer Maguire, argued in favour of Seán O’Casey (Heckler: “If he loved Dublin so much, why did he leave?”).

 The actress Leigh Arnold said that one Colin Farrell is the greatest Dubliner of all time. And Pat Liddy claimed that the title belongs to William Rowan Hamilton. I had never heard of him. Neither had most of the audience. But at the end of the evening, when they were asked to vote for the best speech, it was Liddy – or Hamilton – who won the day.

To find out more about William Rowan Hamilton, and indeed to see the results of our poll to find the greatest Dubliner of all time, turn to page 45. To find out more about Pat Liddy, go on one of his walking
tours. A few months ago I joined this charismatic champion of the city on a tour of Jewish Dublin, organised – to its credit – by Dublin City Council, and attended by several hundred people.

I am always amazed at the number of Dubliners who attend such events, as it is often said that if we have anything in common, it is disdain for attempts to celebrate our identity as Dubliners. Whenever we organise a debate on some aspect of life in the city, at least one reader will ring up to say ‘Ah jaysus, no one cares about shite like that.’ People are so sweet.

And so I return to the two young men. During the reception that followed our event, they bashfully admitted that they only came for the drink. “We’re students,” said one. “But we really enjoyed it,” said the other. So they came for the cocktails and stayed for the culture.

 I was delighted to hear that, just as I am glad that the city has advocates like Pat Liddy. For while cynicism unites all Dubliners, there is another trait that we share. Curiosity. It was evident that evening in subjects, speakers and audience. And one cocktail is a small price to pay for igniting it. Here’s to thirsty students.

Love Revolution

Theatre director Ronan Wilmot is in love with Cuba. And, more specifically, with a beautiful Cuban woman 34 years his junior. He tells Nicola Reddy about his wedding to Janet, and why this small Caribbean republic is streets ahead of Ireland. Photos by John Minihan

So this is how I met my wife: I was visiting a good friend, Bernie Dwyer, who has been a journalist with Radio Havana for 15 years. There’s a famous promenade called the Malecón which runs through Havana, with the sea beyond. Everyone walks there at night.

I was sitting having a coffee and Janet was in the same café. I asked her to join me. We spoke for a while and I invited her to a show at the Havana Film Festival that night. We went to see Intermission – my son David [an actor] was up on that big screen. I went back to see her about two months later and we continued our relationship long-distance for a year and a half. Then I asked her to marry me.

Papas Preach

We brought a bunch of dads together to talk about their experiences of raising children in Dublin today. Some left more freaked out than they had come in, but at least they got some free tea and biscuits... Paul Trainer chaired.

• Shane Dunphy, journalist.
  His latest book, Hush, Little Baby, was released in August. He has two kids, Marnie, 9, and Richard, 22
  
• Adam Brophy, writes for the Irish Times.
  His book, Bad Dad, will be published next spring. He has two daughters, Nell, six, and Mia, three
  
• Colm Ó Riagáin, Senior account manager for Slattery Communications.
  He has one boy, Lughán, three- and-a-half months
  
• Saïd El Bauzari, social care worker.
  He has two girls, Leena, 17 months, and  Selma, three weeks
  
• Aillil O’Reilly, barrister.
  He has three girls, twins Ailbhe and Honor, four, and Lauren, one
  
• Conor Horgan, film maker who will be directing his first feature film, One Hundred Mornings, in November.
  He has one son, Sam, aged 20.

University: Free Ride?

Free third-level education has served this country well in the past 13 years. But has it benefited some more than others? Who gained the most from the abolition of fees? And what would happen if they were brought back in?

Remember the boom? One of the catalysts was a decent education. The rate of participation in higher education has increased dramatically since the dark days of the 1970s and this uplift has been evident across all sectors of Irish society.

In 1970 just 5% of the population was educated beyond secondary school; this had risen to an impressive 55% by 2007, which compared favourably with international trends.

The introduction of free secondary education in 1967 followed by the means-tested fee and maintenance grant system one year later (currently providing a degree of assistance to 38% of higher education students) has fuelled this increase.