Never ask a runner her time
I ran an 8k road race yesterday (in under 40 minutes)
Album Review: Strange Boats, Gnome
GNOME is the debut album by West of Ireland band Strange boats. The LP fuses quirky guitar licks and bawdy lyrics, bringing together charming tunes.
The summer might be over but these songs will have you yearning for long summer days spent sitting on a patch of grass with nothing but a soft breeze and the laughter of your friends at your side.
The album opens with a quick, cheery song Sugar Delph, which is just under two minutes in length. This is followed by the catchy single Boys Walk Faster Than Girls.
The third chant My Baby, is a slower melodic tune that will leave you dreaming for someone somewhere.
The eighth track Slow Burner is a cheeky rendition of real raw love. The bold take on the nursery rhyme: “The age old tale of Jack and Jill. Down the old road for the morning after pill” preludes the mischievous line: “Don’t worry old man I won’t harm your daughter, just take her out for a cool glass of water.”
Sweet Onions, the closing track on the LP is a heart-wrenching acoustic ballad. The sweet violin adds to the tangible melancholy in the song.
Also, don’t miss the hidden track that swoops in a minute after you think it‘s all over. It’s brought to you by Leo Moran, the guitarist from Galway band The Saw Doctors. He recites Gnome, a poem by Samuel Beckett which the LP is named after.
Strange Boats launch Gnome in Canavan’s Pub, Tuam, Co Galway this Friday September 6. They also play t Oude Pothuys, Utrecht Netherlands on October 11 and Water Rats, Kings Cross, London on November 2.
The album will be available on iTunes from September 6 and from most record stores.
The album artwork is by artist Mike Dwyer of Factory Edge Design.
Stream the album for free: https://soundcloud.com/strangeboats
Joyce Fahy – Broken Down Train Tracks
A poem I wrote.
Published in The Galway Advertiser
Joyce Fahy is a journalist and bar person from Co Galway. She enjoys writing all sorts of stories, from non-fiction to fiction, extraordinary to mundane and sport to music. She loves trying new sports, meeting new people and going new places. She is fluent in German and lived in Dresden, Germany for a year.
Broken Down Train Tracks
Decrepit houses hang
below phone wires
Things don’t change but things don’t stay the same
They rot and fall away
Fading, growing old
As Broken down train tracks
Fill with empty bottles
Of tonic wine
And worn out school kids
Local gamblers yo-yo from bar to bookies
And stand around smoking and musing
As they shuffle their weary feet.
Small-town life is predictable and slow
Screaming out for a straggler
From a foreign place
To come and stir the dead.
Ex-Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi may face up to seven years in jail
A news piece I wrote for thedailyshift website on ex Italian President Silvio Berlusconi’s latest fiasco
Controversial Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi might be heading to jail. The Daily Shift’s Joyce Fahy reports…
View original post 448 more words
Abortion Laws are a nightmare from which I am trying to awake
James Joyce wrote, “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” It’s never been truer than with the abortion case that has been on-going whilst staying stagnant and unchanged for decades.
In Ireland, abortion is permitted ‘to save the woman’s life or prohibited altogether’. Ireland has the same laws as heavily Roman Catholic countries and many developing countries. “Perhaps no other democratic society in the world has so totally surrendered its key functions to religious orders, as well as allowing the Catholic Church to inform its entire legal ethos.” said Kevin Myres in his recent article about Catholicism.
We need to talk about abortion in Ireland. But what we really need to do, is talk about it without mentioning the Catholic Church. But in Ireland we are incapable of doing so. The Catholic Church is the institution that condemns sex before marriage but is ridden with paedophiles and sex scandals. The same institution condems homoxesuality but is ridden with hush-hush homosexual priests and nuns. The same religious capitalists banned the sale of contraceptives until 1979. And this very same institution that we look to for guidance on families and philosophy, belittles women by not allowing them to say mass, as only men are capable of such grandeur. But still, the Irish look to the Church on all things legal and moral and health related. Catholicism is our saviour in that regard, you see.
Growing up in a rural primary school, I felt awkward and guilty because I didn’t go to mass every Sunday like all the holy school kids. I made my communion and confirmation, but only because my school placed so much emphasis on it. I was glad I made them though because I earned some money on those occasions. When I admitted to friend’s parents that I didn’t believe in God, or mass, or marriage, they looked at me like I had fleas.
Yes, I get it. Abortion is seen as a sin in the eyes of the church. But what about the Irish who care more about the health, lives and wellbeing of women, than going to a fire blazing hell with a red tailed devil?
Yes, I get it. It’s not very nice to murder a baby that is growing inside a woman. But what if not doing so results in both the baby and the mother dead? Savita Halappanavr, an Indian national living in Galway died of septicaemia while pregnant. The couple requested an abortion, but were refused even though their unborn child was miscarrying.
According to the mass media, to prevent the spread of infection, staff should have considered performing an abortion – even before the couple requested it. But this is where things get hazy again. The Irish Central magazine published an article on February 6 of this year, saying “no evidence exists as yet as to what role, if any, Ireland’s anti-abortion laws played in the death of Savita Halappanavar. Never mind the observation made in the Hindu Times last November by Dr. Fema Divakar (who as a woman, non catholic, and head of India’s Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has more right than most to comment) that the delay in giving Savita an abortion was not only an unlikely cause of death, but that giving her the abortion earlier might have led to her dying earlier. And never mind that Ireland’s health services have been the subject of significant complaints and scandals regarding mismanagement, inefficiency and gross errors.” So what this journalist, Marc Coleman is saying is that abortion may not have been the answer here. Many pro-lifers believe pro-choicers are using Savita’s death as a an excuse to push abortion legislation.
What if Savita was given access to abortion in the Galway hospital and she still died? Well then it could be said that a woman was granted her dying wish. Instead of being told patronizingly by doctors: “this is a catholic country” and “our hands are tied”.
“Abortion is actually code upon a much larger discussion around women’s health,” says Dr. Nata Duvvury, lecturer and co-Director of Global Women’s Studies Programme in NUI Galway. “Reproductive rights is about ensuring universal access to safe, effective and affordable and acceptable modern methods of family planning,” she added.
What if a woman is brutally raped and ends up pregnant? Could we forgive her for saying she cannot face giving birth to a baby? Every time abortion is mentioned these days, someone mentions the X case, or the A B and C cases. The X case involved a 14 year old girl made pregnant through a rape by a relative. She was refused permission to travel to England by a court which held that she would be committing a criminal act if the baby were aborted. A claim was made that the unwanted pregnancy had left her suicidal and therefore a conflict existed between her right to life and the life of her child. A State funded appeal was made to the Supreme Court.
In a surprise verdict, the Supreme Court, held that the threat of suicide constituted a “real and substantial risk to the life of the mother” and that in such an instance the equal right to life of the unborn child as envisaged by the 1983 Amendment could not mean an absolute equality, that in fact the rights of the child were “contingent” on the mothers right and, therefore, of lesser importance. In short, abortion became legal in Ireland by the same Constitutional provision which was designed to prevent that. The girl was permitted to travel to England for an abortion.
At least 7,000 Irish women go to England or Wales every year solely to have an abortion. And that number only includes the ones who give Irish addresses. The lovely Irish ethos, if you’re going to do it – do it and we’ll close our eyes and look away because we’re a catholic country. But not everyone can afford to travel to get an abortion, or may feel mentally or physically unable to do so. These women faced with an unwanted pregnancy are often forced to resort to untrained providers or to self induce abortion, which puts them at great risk of injury or death. Word Health Organisation estimates that unsafe abortion accounts for 13% of the half a million maternal deaths worldwide each year.
Now we come to my final point. The one a pro-lifer tried to make me agree on -that legalising abortion in Ireland would increase the amount of having abortions and we shouldn’t be encouraging that sort of thing. Abortion isn’t a temptation we are trying to resist! Women don’t aspire to have abortions, but if they feel they need to, we shouldn’t ignore their pleas. If a woman needs or wants to have one, then there should be doctors in Ireland to say something other than: “My hands are tied, this is a catholic country. No can do, madam.”
A day out for the Paddys
THE 17th of March is a proud day for the Irish. Gymnasts parade through town doing backflips on the road and traditional Irish music is played all day. Kids run riot eating multiple packets of Tayto crisps, not only because the crisps are an Irish symbol but because they’re the only bit of food to eat in many pubs. Bored teenagers get drunk in lush fields of green and adults stumble home, often before the sun goes down.
Saint Patrick had a drinking problem. That’s why we have to drink to him every March. His drinking began as a lonely shepherd stuck in the desolate hills of rural Ireland, where he drunk whiskey to stay warm and pass the time. He also banished the snakes by poisoning them with alcohol.
The St Patricks day tradition has gone global. Every city seems to have a typical Irish pub these days and if you enter one in a foreign country on Paddy’s day and flaunt your Irish accent, demand free drink for the evening.
One country that has really taken to St Patty’s day is the United States of America. New York has a feckin’ huge parade. The first St Patrick’s parade ever was held in N.Y. Chicago river goes green with glee, along with Niagra Falls and numerous other buildings which are all illuminated like the luscious Emerald isle.
And they say the Irish use any excuse for a party. At least we know what we’re commemorating. Right? Well, not exactly. But the Saint is a metaphor for everything Irish. Leprachauns, pots of gold, the colour green and alcohol consumption. Throw in a few tractors parading through the town square and mix it up with a badhrán, an old man sipping a pint and tapping away on the spoons and there you have it – Paddy’s day in Éire.
So how has the day become so popular throughout the world? Alcohol branding and advertising? Maybe. Or are the alcohol companies just respecting St Patrick’s wish? Just like they decided to respect Arthur Guinness’ day of birth with a little party that seems to fall on a different date every year.
So if you’ve ever thought of getting a celtic cross tattoo, smoking from a pipe, attempting to make Irish stew, or simply just turning into a leprachaun, march 17 is the day to do it. Stick on the Pogues, watch some Father Ted and spend the day speaking the odd word of Gaeilge every few sentences. Have fun celebrating the patron Saint of Ireland on Sunday. Just don’t have too much fun.
Tír gan Teanga, Tir gan anam
IRISH people have a strange connection with the Irish language. The majority of us only speak Irish on very rare occasions, and even then it’s just the cáca milis/cúpla focail, but we’re rarely willing to admit this to non-natives.
I noticed this strange patriotism about the language when I was living in Germany. “Wow you’re from Ireland!” said the Brazilian guy. “You’re the first Irish person I’ve ever met! Wait, so your native language is … Irish, right? Or is it English?” he questioned.
I paused. This, for me, was not an easy question. All I had to say was “it’s English”. But I felt I owed good aul-Gaeilge something. A quick mention at the least. After all, it was the language that was metaphorically beaten into as a primary and secondary school student.
“Well, my native language is English. But there is another language in Ireland called Irish. Before the British colonised Ireland, we all spoke it. But now very few people speak it regularly. We have to learn it in school but apart from that, we only use it now and then.” I said.
“Wow, that’s very interesting. Say something in Irish. I want to hear what it sounds like,” he said enthusiastically.
OK: “Sláinte!”I said, telling him what it meant. He practised it a couple of times and every time we met after that, we’d clink glasses and say ‘Sláinte’.
I didn’t tell him that my knowledge of the Irish language had dwindled to little more than a few old-fashioned phrases. Those fourteen years of Irish had left me with little more than basic verbs and odd colloquial phrases. The six weeks immersed in the culture in the Gaeltacht was where I learned most of my Irish.
Apart from my useless grammar, my conversational language was quite good for a couple of months after the Gaeltacht. But maintaining a language is like staying fit, one week you’re sticking to an elaborate fitness regime, the next you have a beer belly, your abs are just arms and you’ve swapped push-ups for lie-downs by the couch.
Languages are high maintenance! Unless you’re hearing a language every day, seeing the language in newspapers, books, watching films, listening to lyrics in music, talking to friends, family and shop- assistants – you lose touch with it.
County Galway is home to the largest Gaeltacht Irish-speaking region in Ireland. But I rarely hear Irish speakers conversing in Galway city. And when I do the only words I seem to understand are: “Haigh” “Google” “Slán” and “An bhfuil cead agam dul go di an leithreis?”
But we have place signs in Irish! And road signals! And the Dáil, Taoiseach and T.D are Irish words! And every so often we hear a speech as Gaeilge, followed quickly by an English translation, of course.
I care about Irish. But when everything I hear or see in Irish is followed by an English translation, why bother? It’s like using the stairs, when you can use the lift – It may be satisfying and rewarding to use the stairs, but it seems pointless especially when I can just wait a few seconds for the lift to arrive. . .
Cyber Bullies Need A Kick Of Reality
SOCIAL media brings people from all over the world together, to discuss anything at all. Anyone can sign into a social media website and create an account, enabling them to comment freely and openly. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
If only it were that simple. People tend to be more outspoken when they have a strong dislike or liking for something. Social media websites convey a sense of popularity, and we judge and are judged by the photos we upload, the comments we post and the number of online friends/followers and ‘likes’ we have on these websites.
Facebook is not such a good thing for those with low self esteem. Social media sites clearly feed on people’s egos, making them susceptible to and dependent on others’ views and comments. On the surface, social media is about staying in touch with people, but on further inspection it is about perfecting one’s image – having a lot of friends, displaying fun-filled photos, attending parties and other social events (which is shown through a Facebook invite). It’s becoming purely narcissistic and ego driven.
Cyber bullying has been a contributor to several teenage deaths in Ireland in recent months. Thirteen year old Erin Gallagher and fifteen year old Ciara Pugsley both died by suicide, which was strongly related to being victims of cyber bullying.
A harrowing aspect of negative commenting, is that it is rarely in a private message, there are often hundreds or thousands of others who can view the comment and can choose to ‘like’ it. This gives the bully an audience. But this audience is both public and private. The people who view it are mostly friends and acquaintances of the receiver. Unlike a physical brawl or a verbal attack in public, passers-by cannot intervene and confront the bully.
When one receives a negative comment from someone in person, there are rarely hundreds of people around listening attentively waiting to give a thumbs up or to watch silently. The receiver can walk away and choose to concentrate on a more positive memory. But on a social media site, the comment remains on the site for others to read and comment on. It’s not a question of hearing something incorrectly – it’s on the screen to read and re-read. The comment can be deleted by the receiver, but by the stage it is read by him/her, many people have already viewed it.
Facebook permanently asks the question: “What’s on your mind?” but it is not a diary, no one wants to hear you complain and whine, what it really should say is: “Anything funny or interesting to say? If not, don’t say anything.”
Teenagers are the most vulnerable in this social media craze. However, children are beginning to use social media too and although parents may think that their online behaviour is harmless, they are only just learning the difference between moral and immoral behaviour. Without regulation, they may become cyber bullies, cyber bullied or watch passively as others are bullied online.
Of course, parents cannot stand over their children every time they are online, but they do need to warn them not to say anything online that they would not say in a room full of people. Children should also be warned that if they use an anonymous name, their username can still be traced back to them, if it needs to be. Teachers also need to address their students on the consequences of misusing the internet and stress that it is not acceptable to insult or offend others online. If they see this happening they should report this behaviour to a teacher, parent or older sibling.
Just another album review? No, no this year’s Mercury prize winner’s album Review!
An Awesome Wave by British band Alt-J was released this year. Is Alt-J (∆) another ‘alternative’ pop band that claims it has created innovative sounds and unique lyrics, all told through the beauty of a highly distinctive and fragile voice? (But in reality sounds like a boring raucous of embarrassingly obvious words and drab sounds?) I feared Alt-j would not awaken my ears to fresh music. In spite of these pessimistic thoughts I decided to give another indie album a listen.
Within minutes I had jumped right on the imaginary band wagon that celebrates Alt-J, just days before the album won the Mercury prize – an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the UK and Ireland.
The band, to my relief, is not just another mundane indie pop quartet. Its indie style is combined with a mixture of trip-hop, electronic heavy synth riffs, and at times even sounds folky. Each song seems to start slow then builds up solidly to create a reverberation of texturing sounds. In my opinion, a good album and a good smell are very similar. A smell that overpowers quickly becomes sickening and distasteful, but a more subtle scent – one that resonates and grows – is like music that is not immediately pleasing but becomes more satisfying with time and repetition.
The vocalist adds to the emotional intimacy of the songs, combining strong statements with abstract lyrics to the atmospheric music. Ultimately, the album is chilled out, fusing minimalist sounds with dense beats and unique vocals. “Something Good” “Breezeblocks” and “Fitzpleasure” are typical examples of songs that begin slowly but build up to a powerful chorus only to slip back into discreet, tranquil sounds.
The final track “Hand-Made” is a humble piece with harmonizing vocals and passionate guitar picking.
This album is well worth a listen (or ten), if you are looking for some chilled out, stimulating music.
Alt-J (∆) play The Olympia, Dublin on Friday May 3.
joyceismyfirstname 