What better way to celebrate Irish heritage this summer than with a druid? Thus went the thinking of the Galway Civic Trust when it briefly promoted an event with “archdruid” Michael McGrath at the Hall of the Red Earl during Heritage Week, kicking off next week in Galway and elsewhere. Not only is McGrath the putative archdruid of Tara and Ireland, he is also a descendant of the Eyres of Eyre Square, bringing added local interest to his story.
One problem, however: McGrath is also an example of what we might call “the other type” of history buff. During his run for the recent local elections in Kilkenny, he offered “a unique understanding of our cultural roots and the profound knowledge that can guide us toward a harmonious future”, going on to tell voters that he declined an offer from Hermann Kelly’s Irish Freedom Party in order to remain Independent.
What’s more, he volunteered, he was once subject to a “baseless” allegation of being a member of a Nazi group – a claim he says he has courageously overcome.
However, in 2005, in the midst of a battle over the route of a road past the kingly mounds at Tara, Co Meath, McGrath did reveal in a letter to the Times of London that he “still [holds] to the belief that Hitler was a genius up until 1938, when he went insane and in his totalitarian madness launched the Holocaust”.
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Praising various aspects of Third Reich economic policy, he also admitted being “an ‘officer’ of an Irish Nationalist Socialist grouping aeons ago”.
To wit, way back in 1988, senator David Norris read into the Oireachtas record a document signed by a Michael J McGrath of Kilkenny, “Chief Lieutenant, National Socialist Party”, titled “National Socialist Party: Smash Aids Blitzkrieg”, it promised among other things to burn down “suspect discos” and jail homosexuals for 10 years.
McGrath decided to withdraw from the Galway talk for personal reasons, the local organisers said.
Dublin football flare-up
Residents and revellers in Dublin’s Docklands on Wednesday night witnessed a volley of red flares lighting up the night sky. They were launched, it emerges, by expat fans of Mouloudia Club de Alger, an Algerian football celebrating its 103rd birthday. A similar display illuminated the Thames in London at the Millennium Bridge near St Paul’s, while Algiers itself witnessed a New Years Eve-level cannonade.
Happy birthday then to MC Alger, eight-time champions of Algeria. The FAI will be hoping fans of Dublin clubs aren’t inspired. A growing trend for flare-brandishing has caused some consternation in the League of Ireland over the past year, with Bohemians hit with a fine and a one-match stadium ban after striking one of their own players during a clash with city rivals St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park. Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers, Derry and Dundalk have also been censured.
American film critics take the Kneecap challenge
The reviews are in for Kneecap, the republican Gaeilgeoir hip-hop fictionalised biopic set in post-Belfast Agreement Belfast – an interesting challenge for the intellectual critics of the American broadsheets.
The New York Times, which omits the fadas in the stars’ surnames, finds the boys “genuinely unhinged and amusingly louche”. The Boston Globe, which deploys the fadas correctly, feels the film to be “nothing more than a ‘snobs vs slobs’ comedy in which “the slobs might kill the snobs”.
The Winnipeg Free Press, which considers the “Óg” in Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh to be part of the surname, describes it as “one of the best drug movies since Trainspotting”. And the somewhat perplexed San Francisco Chronicle reckons it “offers a grand time to all regardless of whether you understand the references or stretches of dialogue”.
Fair City snapper takes a pay cut
Last year, at the height of its governance scandal, RTÉ was forced to pull a U-turn on the tender for taking still photos to promote its flagship soap, Fair City.
Three days after issuing a press release publicising the opportunity, the broadcaster bowed to pressure and said it had decided to “pause the tender process and take time to review the volume of photography required and length of contract, among other considerations”.
The storied contract is back. Where once it sought a minimum of 14 still images, it now seeks 12. Fair City is not mentioned by name among the “various RTÉ productions” in question, although the sample shot list does include one where “Dolores, Pete, Renee and Bob reminisce about how many key moments of their lives played out in McCoy’s”, which is a bit of a giveaway. And the price is down: €50,000 a year for 50 weeks, with an average of 20 hours on set, instead of €60,000.
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When will Dublin’s new family courts complex rise from the swamp?
One of Dublin’s best-known vacant lots, the empty block intended for the new family courts complex in Dublin 1, has taken another baby step towards foundations actually being laid. Smithfield locals have observed the seasons change at the accidental city park – “the pit” or “the swamp” depending on the time of year – for years.
The site was purchased in the late 1990s, and in 2014 was expected to be finished in 2020. Ministers finally held a market launch for the public-private partnership project this week. “Hammond Lane will replace the suboptimal facilities at Dolphin House, Phoenix House, and Chancery Street Courthouse,” Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said. “Once built, it will be future-proofed for generations and will be an important landmark in Ireland’s legal infrastructure for years to come.”
And when will that be? The current plan is to start in 2026 and finish in 2028.
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