James Galvin

I went to see this tonight - haven’t seen any reaction from Irish bloggers since it was released. There was plenty of coverage in the build-up, about winning the Palme D’Or at Cannes and also relating to the tripe that was published in some of England’s newspapers - one step away from labelling Ken Loach a traitor for his depiction of the British soldiers. The film is anti-British, they say that like its a bad thing? As Loach said “we could have shown things that were much worse than are actually in the film” but it would probably end up being too traumatic for a mainstream audience.

I think its criminal that the men who wrote these articles slamming Ken Loach can work for a newspaper. How can you demand that movie makers turn a blind eye to your history? Films like this should be encouraged - and not just about Ireland, but about Kenya, India, and Tasmania for starters. If they are historically accurate then there should be no complaint - how can you possibly whinge about “resurrecting old conflicts” - are we supposed to pretend they didn’t exist?

The fact that this movie is ranked just above Howard the Duck on imdb with a score of 4.7/10 (293 votes) is sickening. I wonder how many people who voted actually saw it. Watching the film reminded me of the recent documentary depicting the burning of Cork by the Black and Tans. They were absolute scum, and the atrocities they committed are well documented. If you want to nitpick about minor historical inaccuracies like the material of Cillian Murphy’s hat, thats fine, but all these English people lashing out blindly make me very angry.

It would be an injustice to the film if I were to attempt to review it - my knowledge of the struggle doesn’t go far beyond junior cert history, a handful of lectures from old people, and Tom Barry’s Guerilla Days in Ireland - so I’ll just give a few thoughts. The film is very well made - from the realistic hurling training at the start right through to the end. I could hear people in the cinema whispering about the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the accents… ranging from Bandon to Bishopstown to mild-Faranree, but thats something relatively few of us would notice and I wouldn’t consider it a drawback. Besides, if they used genuine West Cork accents then most of us would need subtitles.

Some great performances - notably Cillian Murphy, the old woman, and the politician (don’t know who played him but he was perfect). Some dodgy performances - mainly from guys with smaller parts, but there were times when Teddy (Padraic Delaney) did not acquit himself well. Most of these guys never acted before, so it is very impressive with that in mind.

The film was entirely contained in a small parish in West Cork, although news occasionally filters in from other parts of Cork and elsewhere in Ireland. This was really well done, and it also makes you realise that a similar film could be written in dozens of locations in Cork County, and probably elsewhere.

If there was an unfair bias to this film, it certainly wasn’t against the Brits… but I know a lot of Fine Gaelers who won’t be too happy.

Cork City will face Apollon Limassol of Cyprus in the first qualifying round of the Champions League. The winner will then go on to play Red Star Belgrade (aka FK Crvena Zvezda). All the qualifying round fixtures are here.

I have never heard of Apollon Limassol but Heres where Wikipedia comes in handy:

In 2006 Apollon won the Cyprus First Division championship title, while being the only undefeated team in Europe. Apollon hasn’t had a defeat for the last 30 league games (since 12 March 2005 - today).

While the league of Cyprus might not be the highest standard, that is a very impressive statistic, and this looks like a very difficult fixture. A number of them play for Cypriot national team, and they’ve also got three Iraqis who probably train with a concrete football, and a bunch of Eastern Europeans including at least one former Polish national who played in World Cup 2002.

Cork City are top of the league again after beating Drogheda United tonight, but do not look as strong as last season. It would be too much to ask for a repeat of last year’s performances against FK Ekranas and in particular the heroic win over Djurgårdens IF. I’m looking forward to this, the match will take place on the 11th or 12th of July.

Derry City face familiar opposition in the UEFA Cup - former winners IFK Göteborg. Cork City played them in the UEFA qualifiers in 1999 - Göteborg won a flattering 3-0 in Denmark, while City won 1-0 in Turners Cross. Drogheda United will face the Finnish team HJK Helsinki.

Michael Jackson flew in today and according to RTE, he will be staying at Blackwater Castle in Castletownroche. Locals speculate that he may have come to attend their far-famed fortnightly jumble sale. Others reckon that he’s actually going to stay with Michael Flathead. Either way, you’d think theres no need for the masks in Cork airport - and with the size of those bodyguards he’s hardly going to get mobbed. You’re not in Neverland anymore Mick, show some respect!

I was never a big fan of Red FM - most of the music doesn’t appeal to my taste (although there are some good shows like Green on Red), and like the Peoples Republic of Cork forums they tend to go much too far with their Cork self-parody. While its better than the alternative (fake accents as provided by 96fm’s Nick “C3P0″ Richards, or Hollywood “I-went-to-New-York-once-when-I-was-a-teenager” Hayes) I often cringe at some of the stuff they come out with in the hope that Cork people will approve - in particular those clowns in the morning who think they are funny but make me embarrassed.

Initially, I had tarred Victor Barry with the same brush, but turns out he is a very funny guy (with a great blog). He says some outrageous (in a good way) things on the radio and I don’t know how he gets away with it. The first time I realised this was last Christmas - I was genuinely shocked as he described the sexual connotations that he associates with the stuffing of the turkey… well beyond the “Men Behaving Badly” sketch. Tonight he killed the opposition on the underage drinking debate by describing with disgust the older male predators on Junior Cert results night in Cork, “they should be dragged out and have the shit beaten out of them with golf clubs”. I don’t know how he has the patience to deal with some of the fools he gets on Cork Talks Back, but fair play anyway - he might not be right in everything he says but at least he listens to people.

You could compare to his opposite number over in Sydney Place - Neil “I’m-not-racist-just-as-long-as-they-stay-out-of-my-country” Prendeville. Here are some memorable quotes from him:

• <Neil> Idle hands make light work
• <Neil> he was paralysed from the spine down
• <Caller> I have catholic taste
  <Neil> Ah come on now, in this day and age?
• <Neil> (about the Heineken European Rugby Cup) Toulouse has won it three times, while Leinster Tigers have won it twice.

There are loads more but thats all I could think of for now - feel free to add your own.

Ireland’s most experienced gaming clan, Clan FH, are now playing Warsow. The clan has been going since August 2000 and has played hundreds of official matches. When Quake 4 turned out to be such a disappointment, I thought that FH’s days were over but we’ll give Warsow a crack and see if its worth playing. I moved the website into Wordpress and got most of the news / match results archives imported.

It’s funny to see that after 6 years, the lack of broadband is still the major issue for me. FH had 21 dedicated Irish gamers in its teamlist. Looking through the news archives, it wasn’t until 2003 that any of us were able to get broadband. On 6th Jan, 2003, quozl was the first of us to have more than 128k bandwidth. He was living in Dublin 4, actively involved in Irish WAN, an engineering graduate with broadband a major priority. But like the rest of us in Cork City, Carrigaline, Bray, Malahide, Galway City, Dundalk, Ennis, Limerick, Portlaoise, and er.. *cough* Ballymore Eustace, it was simply impossible to get any kind of broadband (bar satellite) until this time.

Some FHers still weren’t able to get DSL until just a couple of months ago - Spacey went to extreme lengths including bribes and intimidation in order to get his line to pass and it finally paid off. Out of the blue, Eircom upgraded Vincent’s local exchange. Anyone else who still couldn’t get broadband had long since resigned themselves to the Xbox I think, so that now in the middle of 2006, I’m the last remaining ISDNer. I think I’ll write a song about it.

I’ll add my voice to the mounting frustration among Irish internet users resulting from Amazon UK’s decision to stop delivering certain items to Ireland.

Amazon: if its costing you too much to ship to Ireland, then maybe… raise the shipping charges? I see no good reason why they would pull the plug on their Irish customers like this, and judging by the reaction on Michele’s blog, Amazon have not been forthcoming with an explanation. Its insulting, and while they continue to ship certain items (such as DVDs), this is a very clear statement that they don’t value our business. Viva play.com.

Joe Gamble has been drafted into the Irish squad for the training camp in Portugal and friendly against Chile. This is the first time a Cork City player has been in the Ireland senior squad - although there have been times in the past when it was clearly deserved.

Gamble, from Togher in Cork, was one of the best players in the Eircom league last season, and remains consistent this season. He’s a great midfielder and thoroughly deserves to be there - hopefully he’ll be given the chance at Landsdowne Rd. on 24th May to prove that.

Tom’s Sporting Almanac has previewed the upcoming hurling championship, with a look at each of the contenders. A good article - until he says he thinks Kilkenny will just scrape it.

Cork’s major worry will be about injuries. They do not have Kilkenny’s numbers, but their quality overrides any deficiency in quantity. However, injuries to the likes of Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Sean Og O hAilpin, the O’Connors or Ronan Curran would be debilitating, especially if they occured amongst their inspirational defendsive division.

For anyone who doesn’t usually listen to Cork’s 96fm - tomorrow is a good day to tune in. Even the rest of ye who are not in Cork would do well to listen in online, because the Celebrity Voices competition is there for the taking. Each word “Corks” “Perfect” “Music” “Mix” “96″ “FM” is spoken by a different celebrity, and five of them have been correctly identified. The unidentified celebrity voice saying “Perfect” is a male actor who plays in a commanding role. All of the incorrect guesses are here. If anyone knows who it is but can’t get through, please tell me so that I can win it and I will give you half a third of my winnings.

I have a bone to pick with you. You’re losing me sleep. I’m holding you directly responsible for my current situation, one of domestic anguish. Because of the relentless gunshots and sirens, I stayed up until midnight frantically drilling rawlplugs, filling cracks, boarding up the back windows with sheet steel. I then lay awake stewing over the perfect Crown colour to hide the bloodstains in my living room, ruminating over where to place the mirror to give that perfect illusion of depth to make my 700sq. ft. flat seem large enough to house my 14 illegitimate children.

I think that painting my tiny hallway with a burgundy suede will match the listless colours of the rundown neighbourhood. Maybe I’ll add some uplighters. Back to Woodies tomorrow, I guess. Perhaps if I leave at 6am I will beat the traffic and be home by nightfall. Thats assuming my neighbours don’t decide start another riot or something.

YOU made me like this, Dublin. My television works, but I am huddled behind my comfortable couch waiting for the man in the Celtic jersey to arrive and take it all away.

But my little house has POTENTIAL. Potential that simply isn’t being realised when I’m sitting on my arse. One of these days I’m going to take that bus PAST Inchicore and find out what all the fuss is about. So now, instead of sitting comfortably, relaxing in my sitting room, I’m standing at the window, observing the heroin addicts in the gutter below, as my 35 year old son struggles to read the classifieds in The Sun to find some place to live that he and his pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend can afford.

With a paintbrush in hand the remote control is relegated to my arse pocket, because I still can’t figure out how to use it. Last night I watched The Matrix Reloaded. It was really good but I still don’t understand who those guys with the sunglasses were.

If only you were more like Cork. I’d be able to keep my paintbrushes in a shed where they belong. For my €330,000 I would be living in a bigger house, with a nice garden, in a safer area, without having to deal with the traffic and the living cost and the ignorant locals who think that Laois is something you hang your dog with. There’d be peeling paint and rising damp, because I’d be enjoying life with a can of Murphy’s, waiting for my rugby team to come on the telly and win the Heineken Cup. Instead, I spend my days painting the walls, because I have nothing else to look forward to this summer.