Diving for the cause

Declan and Paul Devane - great guys attempting to pull off the world's longest cold water scuba dive in memory of Declan's late son, Cillian.

See their website with info on how to donate.

Dermot Ahern doesn't care about gay people, Part II

Yes, you are reading it clearly: During the Dail debate on decriminalisation in 1993, Dermot Ahern did infer that decriminalising homosexuality could lead to something like the murder of Jamie Bulger in Ireland. Our current Minister for Justice whom we're appealing to for gay equality, everyone.

Dermot Ahern's comments to the Dail during the Second Stage debate on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, 1993. Dáil Éireann - Volume 432 - 23 June, 1993

http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0432/D.0432.199306230101.html

[All emphasis and italics are mine]

Mr. D. Ahern: I have reservations about this legislation. I have already made these views known privately to the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party and the Minister [Maire Geoghegan Quinn]

Reference has been made to our international obligations. However, no reference seems to have been made to the Constitution of this Republic. I wish to give some Members of the House food for thought by quoting from the Constitution. Article 40.1 states:

All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law.

This shall not be held to mean that the State shall not in its enactments have due regard to differences of capacity, physical and moral, and of social function.

That question bears some thought. In regard to the family, Article 41.1.1º states:

The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.

Article 41.1.2º states:

2035

[2035] The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority ...

Article 45, which outlines the directive principles of social policy, states:

The principles of social policy set forth in this Article are intended for the general guidance of the Oireachtas. The application of those principles in the making of laws shall be the care of the Oireachtas exclusively ...

Article 45.1 states:

The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the whole people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice and charity shall inform all the institutions of the national life.

I am not being intolerant in my remarks. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a very tolerant person. As legislators, we have a duty to legislate for the common good. We seem to have reached the stage where we are legislating for pressure and minority groups. We have a duty to consider what is in the common good of all the people and to legislate for that. We should not legislate for hard cases, I do not say this in any intolerant way but we should legislate for the common good.

Reference was made to our international obligations. We have a duty to legislate for the standards and norms which we regard as appropriate for the Irish people. This does not necessarily have to include all the people, but we should strive to achieve a certain standard and norm in our society. The Houses of the Oireachtas have the primary function of laying down rules for the people and the standards they should strive to achieve, and we should never forget that.

2036

I quoted from Article 41 of the Constitution which deals with the position of the family in our society. Many countries, including Britain, are now looking at why families are breaking down. The tragic murder of the young Bolger child in England led to people questioning why [2036] society is breaking down in that country. One of the reasons given for the breakdown of society is that the family unit is breaking down. We should strive to protect the family unit as the primary unit in our society. That is not to say that families do not break up — of course they do — but we should aspire to attain that. I think most Deputies would agree with those sentiments.

It was stated that we would be in breach of the charter of the European Court of Human Rights if we did not introduce legislation to implement its decision. I do not for one minute accept that we have to implement this decision. Britain has decided to derogate from the Social Charter and, in effect, from European monetary union. Yet, business is still being conducted and no one seems to have taken the British Government to task for this.

Much play is made of the word “equality”, for example, equality in regard to the age limit. I wonder if this issue will end here. Will the pressure groups which have succeeded in having this legislation brought before the House stop here? I think not. Will we eventually see the day in this country when, as has happened in the USA, homosexuals will seek the right to adopt children? We should think seriously about this possibility.

I have a problem with the age limit of 17 years. I appreciate that the Minister is endeavouring to equalise the age limits for both homosexuals and heterosexuals. However, under the child care legislation passed by this House a child is defined as anyone under the age of 18 years. We should bear this in mind.

I have a problem with the provisions on prostitution. I understood that the norm in Europe was to liberalise the laws on prostitution but——

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle Joe Jacob

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle: There are only four minutes remaining.

[end of Ahern's comments]

Dermot Ahern doesn't care about gay people [To paraphrase Kanye West on Dubya]

The real Dermot Ahern. And we expect this guy to be fair to gay people?

As for JOD's concerns, decriminalising homosexuality has clearly created a society where greedy, grubby, hypocritical, egotistical political blow-hards can spend tens of thousands of taxpayers' money on cars and hotels and all manner of profligate junkets

Rep star

My piece on shadowing a holiday rep from today's Independent.

Sinead's Hand

Get's the point across beautifully.

Colm O'Gorman writes on the same topic in today's Herald.

A Wintour's Tale? Nah. More like Grace under pressure.

This evening I caught an early screening of the eagerly-awaited documentary, The September Issue. It didn't disappoint - fascinating, riveting stuff. Anna Wintour's input is quite minimal, as it turns out. The real star of the show is style editor Grace Coddington, who comes across as the most grounded, honest, wittiest, approachable, passionate, and, dare I say it, talented person on screen. Give Grace her own documentary I say!

Noughtie Movies

With four months left before the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Pitchfork has just compiled its list of the top 500 songs of the Noughties.

With that in mind, I'm interested in what people think are the greatest movies of the Noughties? What get your vote for the best movie(s) released since 2000?

I've been racking my brains about this one, and, for me, I think my vote for movie of the decade is United 93 (2006), Paul Greengrass' masterful, unbearably tense, and utterly devastating account of the events aboard the last hijacked plane on Sept 11, 2001. It's not only the movie of the decade, it's the movie for the decade.

Coming in a close second is The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (2007), Julian Schnabel's exquisite, profoundly moving adaptation of Jean Dominque Bauby's incredible memoir of living - for he does indeed live - with locked-in syndrome, each word painstakingly dictated to an assistant by blinking his eye.

The other contenders, in my opinion, would be (and I'm sure to be forgetting some!):

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Almost Famous (2000)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Traffic (2000)
Before Night Falls (2000)

Amelie (2001)
In the Bedroom (2001)
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)

City of God (2002)
Adaptation (2002)
28 Days Later (2002)
Spiderman (2002)
Talk to Her (2002)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Goodbye Lenin! (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Finding Nemo (2003)

The Incredibles (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Spiderman 2 (2004)
The Descent (2004)
Before Sunset (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Maria Full of Grace (2004)
Sideways (2004)
Downfall (2004)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The 40 year Old Virgin (2005)
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
Batman Begins (2005)

Volver (2006)
Hidden (Cache - 2006)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Borat (2006)
Children of Men (2006)
Shortbus (2006)

There Will Be Blood (for good and for bad, 2007)
Ratatouille (2007)
The Orphanage (2007)
The Lives of Others (2007)
No End in Sight (2007)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Juno (2007)

Wall-E (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Man On Wire (2008)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to His Son about His Father (2008)
The Dark Knight (2008)

Star Trek (2009)
500 Days of Summer (2009)
The Hurt Locker (2009)

The Mayor of (North) Great George's Street

Senator David Norris' battle for homosexual law reform in Ireland could be coming to movie screens a la Milk.

X marks the spot

On the return of The X Factor on ITV/TV3 tonight.

Words n stuff

Some recent stuff...

Outdoor Yoga

Nightwatch column ranting about disruptive cinema patrons

2009 a bumper year for female movie directors

The Viennese Waltz

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is released nationally tomorrow, and whatever people might make of the movie itself (I LOVED it), nobody can deny the greatness of Austrian actor Christoph Waltz's performance in it. From this weekend on, this guy is going to be a huge breakout star, and here's hoping he lands an Oscar nomination next year to go along with his Best Actor gong from Cannes.

Mad world

The third season of Mad Men started in the US last weekend, and as per usual, it was glorious. Having spent all last season rooting for the show's trio of terrific leading ladies - Elisabeth Moss (give her that Emmy next month), January Jones (who continues to find new depths every week) and the stupendous Christina Hendricks (the perfect woman?) - it seems that series 3 is, once again, gonna be all about the girls.

Personally, I think Sal, the homo-repressed art director, is going to break my heart this season. I can't wait for next week's installment. This is just unmissable TV.

Summer Lovin'

Few heads here saw a screening of this last night - and the reports are excellent. Hope to catch it on Friday morning. In the meantime, check out this promo for the movie starring the two lead actors. It's just utterly - without sounding like an old English dame - charming.

District 9...

...tomorrow morning. Very excited. Watch the trailer here.

On the QT

My interview with Quentin Tarantino from Day and Night in today's Independent.

It's hard to get a word in edgeways when chatting to Quentin Tarantino. That man can talk, especially when it's on his favourite topic: cinema. Within moments of our meeting in Claridges in London, he is waxing lyrical about his two favourite movies of the past year.

Continue here.

Also my feature on Katherine Heigl from last Friday's Day and Night.

Waiting for the sun

My feature on the summers of yore growing up in Kilkenny that appeared in the Irish Independent on Wednesday of this week.

People who grow up in Kilkenny must accept that they will face certain inescapable realities for the rest of their lives. For instance, no matter where you are in the world, or who you’re talking to, or what your feelings are towards the place, you automatically go on the defensive any time someone refers to Kilkenny as a ‘town’ rather than a ‘city’ (try that one out on the next Cat you meet).

Furthermore, if you’re male (and sometimes, even if you’re not) you’ll forever be asked if, a) you went to St Kieran’s College (I did) and, b) if you play and/or are any good at hurling (I did, briefly, and I’m really, really not)

More than anything, however, every person born and raised in Kilkenny has been gifted with a truly heightened sense of irony, and an innate appreciation of, and capacity for, sheer brass neckery. How could it be any other way when you hail from an area with the Swift-ian audacity, with the outright temerity to officially call itself part of the ‘Sunny’ Southeast? That’s like Washington DC advertising itself as “the city where all politicians are honest and on the straight and narrow!”

Because, having spent at least 18 summers in Kilkenny, one of the major elements missing from the experience was the sun. Indeed I can recall one July day back in the late 80s when the appearance of a strange yellow ball in the sky sent the entire region into a panic akin to Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in the 1930s.

Seriously, for years, I honestly thought that rain was just God sweating from the heat while (s)he looked over the ‘Sunny’ Southeast.

This sunshine deficiency, coupled with the fact that Kilkenny has no coastline, meant that it was only fair that Marble Kiddies get at least a week away somewhere else during the summer holidays. Of course, growing up during the Celtic Turtle years of the 1980s and early 90s, it was considered a holiday if you travelled as far as your next door neighbour’s house to camp out in the back garden.

Every summer, we Cashins fled in search of sunnier climes, staying in caravans in Tramore, Co Waterford and Courtown in Wexford, obviously thinking that Kilkenny was the only part of the ‘Sunny’ Southeast axis drawing the short straw in terms of natural Vitamin D provision.

We ventured further afield too to the likes of Killarney and Salthill, having great fun, and finding reassurance that there were at least two other counties that were wetter than ours.

Yes, they were simpler times (mine is the last generation to get away with saying that), meaning that, as kids, we were genuinely very easy to please during the summer months. I grew up in the countryside, about three miles outside the city, so summers very much revolved around the local woods where there was officially nothing to do, but it still seemed like the best place on earth, and a friend’s garage, which had a pool table.

Indeed, today I always smile at the start of every summer when the papers carry pages and pages of advice on summer schools and events to keep the kids entertained. Summer school “back in my day” consisted of my mother instructing us on the first day of the holidays to: “Go outside and don’t come back in until September”.

Being somewhat, erm, lacking in the sporty department, I then spent countless summers standing in goal during neighbourhood soccer matches, and “keeping score” on the sideline during our annual homemade Wimbledon tournament, until I got all hard and rebellious, and blew off those squares to go hang out for the summer with the cool kids (you know, the Famous Five and the Hardy Boys) in Carnegie Library on John’s Quay.

Our treats, though minor by today’s standards, were all the better when they came: tea and a scone in The Pantry or Michael Dore’s and Sunday afternoons in Jenkinstown Woods watching the deer while consuming ‘hang sangwiches’ and flasks of tea; swinging about on the (then measly) playground in the Castle Park; and the odd Friday evening supper in Supermacs, the opening of which generated a level of excitement at the time that wouldn’t even be closely matched today if Heston Blumenthal were to open an eaterie in the city.

One of my abiding memories of my youthful summers in Kilkenny was the visit of the annual 2FM Beat on the Street road-caster, which would set up in the car park of Dunnes Stores, and which my brothers, friends and I would attend decked out in our finest X-Works jeans and St Bernard Touchdown runners. Man, we were the business.

What’s more, to this day, I can remember the evening in the summer of 1992 that Linda Martin, hot off her Eurovision success, came to perform on the road-caster stage (in the rain, natch), her passionate refrain of ‘Why Me?’ signalling to my 10-year-old brain that Kilkenny, now, must surely be the Las Vegas of Ireland.

Then, of course, there was the jewel in the crown of the Kilkenny entertainment scene: the Regent cinema on William Street, since torn down. This was one of the old one-screen cinemas, staffed by stern old ladies who scoured the theatre with their torches, blinding you in the eyes if you so much as coughed.

If memory serves, the first movie I saw there was The Care Bears Movie with my sister-in-law (circa 1985), and the last one was Titanic, which took residence in the Regent in January 1998 and stayed showing there until even after the building was demolished a year or so later (I think they still project it on the side of the new structure that replaced the cinema).

By the by, a little-known fact about Kilkenny: British actor Ralph Fiennes and his family lived for a time in the city, and resided in the house next to the old Regent cinema. Ralph even went to my secondary school. So there.

Of course, as I got a bit older, the summer activities in Kilkenny evolved. There was a lot of general aimless hanging around the Town Hall and lurking about the Market Cross Shopping Centre trying to be cool, not an easy look to pull off when one used to put half a tub of red Dax wax in their hair and then comb it into place. Yes, with an actual comb.

I got a summer job the day I turned 16 (earning the then unprecedented part-time sum of £3.18 an hour), and became involved in local youth theatre, (dis)gracing the stage of the Watergate Theatre in the likes of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and The King and I (all evidence of which is now stored in a Dick Cheney-style underground bunker).

And what kind of Kilkenny boy would I be if I didn’t volunteer at least once during the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival? In the summer of 1997, I was the king of ticket-collectors in the Friary Hall, and nobody could stack chairs or deliver a pint of Smithwicks to Rich Hall or Drew Carey like me.

I haven’t lived full-time in Kilkenny since I left for college in 2000. Every time I go home now, the city has changed again in some way. There’s a new restaurant, shop, hotel or pub, all of which sprung up to cater for the bazillions of stag and hen parties that descend there every weekend. One thing remains the same, however: the Trade Descriptions Act-violating weather. God bless the Sunny* Southeast.

*Terms and conditions apply.

Signs

Cheers to Panti for drawing attention to this short film. Very sweet and romantic.

Here's to you Mrs Robinson

Congrats to Robbo.

V excited

The reboot of V - looks pretty impressive. Great to see the great Elizabeth Mitchell anchoring a show: this, and her confirmed cameos in season 6 of Lost, mean the next TV season is going to be Mitchellrific!

Movers and shakers

Dancing politicians - in honour of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent boogying in Africa. Cringe-/fan-tastic

Why you should never add your boss on Facebook

Going to see this tonight...

...and I cannot wait. It's an early frontrunner for next year's Oscars, and, by all accounts, marks the moment of greatness we have been expecting of Kathryn Bigelow for years. Watch the trailer here.

An Education

There is serious early buzz about this...
Watch the trailer here.

A boy’s will is the wind’s will

I met a friend earlier today who told me some very sad news about a young friend of her's -who was just 21 - who died while travelling in Asia this week. I think the death of such a young person always hits you in the guts even stronger than it usually would. In situations like this, words seem useless, but I sent this poem to my friend to read. I first came across it because it was used to extraordinary effect to mark the tragic death of a young male character in the profoundly moving 2001 movie In the Bedroom. I'm thinking of that's guy's poor family as I read it.


My Lost Youth

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)

OFTEN I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea;
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town,
And my youth comes back to me.
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,
And catch, in sudden gleams,
The sheen of the far-surrounding seas,
And islands that were the Hesperides
Of all my boyish dreams.
And the burden of that old song,
It murmurs and whispers still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the black wharves and the slips,
And the sea-tides tossing free;
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips,
And the beauty and mystery of the ships,
And the magic of the sea.
And the voice of that wayward song
Is singing and saying still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the bulwarks by the shore,
And the fort upon the hill;
The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,
The drum-beat repeated o’er and o’er,
And the bugle wild and shrill.
And the music of that old song
Throbs in my memory still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the sea-fight far away,
How it thundered o’er the tide!
And the dead captains, as they lay
In their graves, o’erlooking the tranquil bay
Where they in battle died.
And the sound of that mournful song
Goes through me with a thrill:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I can see the breezy dome of groves,
The shadows of Deering’s Woods;
And the friendships old and the early loves
Come back with a Sabbath sound, as of doves
In quiet neighborhoods.
And the verse of that sweet old song,
It flutters and murmurs still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

I remember the gleams and glooms that dart
Across the school-boy’s brain;
The song and the silence in the heart,
That in part are prophecies, and in part
Are longings wild and vain.
And the voice of that fitful song
Sings on, and is never still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

There are things of which I may not speak;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.
And the words of that fatal song
Come over me like a chill:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

Strange to me now are the forms I meet
When I visit the dear old town;
But the native air is pure and sweet,
And the trees that o’ershadow each well-known street,
As they balance up and down,
Are singing the beautiful song,
Are sighing and whispering still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

And Deering’s Woods are fresh and fair,
And with joy that is almost pain
My heart goes back to wander there,
And among the dreams of the days that were,
I find my lost youth again.
And the strange and beautiful song,
The groves are repeating it still:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

Out and out winners

Team Ireland results from the World OutGames in Copenhagen

SWIMMING

Nick Flanagan, Waterford

Gold - Breastroke 50M, Free style 200M

Silver - Freestyle 100M, Freestyle 50M (a PB at 26'82" LC)

Bronze - Butterfly 50M

TRACK & FIELD

Edwin Keville, Rathfarnham AC, Dublin

Gold - 5k road race, 5,000M track, 10,000M track,

Silver - 3,000M steeple chase

Bronze - 1,500M bronze

BADMINTON

Joe Ruddy, Mount Pleasant LTC, Dublin

Gold - B- singles

SQUASH

Jonathan MacBride, Lisburn Racquets Club

Gold - A Division

TENNIS

Roger Dowds, Taney Tennis Club, Dublin

Gold - D mixed doubles

Bronze - C Singles

ROWING

Frank Kelly, Castleconnell BC, Limerick

Gold - 6km Head Race

BRIDGE

Lindsey and partner, Mayo

Gold - Pairs Tournament

Michael Mc, Dublin

Gold - Teams Tournament

Silver - Pairs

The Last Word on what to do

My weekly summer events feature every Friday on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Today FM has its own page here. Get in touch if there's anything you want mentioned.

"But I know a good kid when I see one..."

John Hughes, RIP

As a tribute, here's one of my all-time favourite movie speeches (written by Hughes) and delivered by the great John Candy to his niece's gargoyle-faced school principal in Uncle Buck.

"I don't think I want to know a six-year-old who isn't a dreamer, or a sillyheart. And I sure don't want to know one who takes their student career seriously. I don't have a college degree. I don't even have a job. But I know a good kid when I see one. Because they're ALL good kids, until dried-out, brain-dead skags like you drag them down and convince them they're no good. You so much as scowl at my niece, or any other kid in this school, and I hear about it, I'm coming looking for you! Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face! Good day to you, madam."

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Interview with Irish traceur Kevin Mooney (that's a person who does parkour)

My Go Slow day

Some recent stuff of mine

My interview with documentary filmmaker Kimberly Reed, whose movie, Prodigal Sons, screened in the Lighthouse Cinema yesterday evening.

My Nightwatch column on being meh towards U2.