Mar 25
Yesterday, I wrote about RTÉ removing a film report on caricatures of Brian Cowen smuggled into two Dublin galleries. [Kudos at this point to Maman Poulet, who's blog tipped me off to the story.] Since them, things have grown more serious. The images on the RTÉ website were removed, copy has been edited, and the …
Mar 24
You can tell a lot about the powerful by how they react to satire. In Ireland, the powerful tend to react badly. Older politicians still smart at the memory of Hall’s Pictorial Weekly, and can barely bring themselves to smile through gritted teeth when Scrap Saturday is mentioned. The result is a pale imitation of …
Aug 06
There’s very little to do on a wet day in Donegal. Except perhaps, to climb a hill to look at a hillfort. Dooneany fort (Dún an Aonaigh?) is somewhere between 2300 and 3100 years old, a rugged, weather-beaten and isolated spot, that took a battering not just from the elements but from beseigers, by the …