THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED. THE MASSACRE OF THE MIAMI SHOWBAND

In 1975 The Miami Showband were riding high in the Irish music scene, known as The Irish Beatles and credited with being Ireland’s #1 band. The showband scene had enjoyed huge popularity from the late 1950’s, through the 60’s and on into 70’s… until one fateful night in July 1975. Here we discuss the background and the devastating aftermath of what became known as The Miami Showband Massacre. 

Led by singer Dickie Rock and later by Fran O’Toole the Miami Showband had thirteen Top 10 singles, including seven number one records in the Irish singles chart. From their debut #1 in 1963 a cover of Elvis’ ‘There’s Always Me’ until that fateful day in 1975 The Miami Showband reigned as Ireland’s premier ‘showband’. In the 1950’s the Irish music scene was dominated by Ceili bands, orchestras and ballad singers and it was from all those influences that the ‘showband’ in the 60’s/70’s took their sound. There’s an excellent history of the progression of the Irish Showbands on the aptly named Irish Showbands site. The term would come to be used to cover many different bands and styles but in its very early days, in the 1950’s it was used to describe a show where a band would play two sets with another act in the middle, more than likely a comedian. Success didn’t come easy for the Miami Showband travelling the length and breadth of Ireland every night to play anywhere from village halls to large city venues. The hard work paid off with several high points for the band like representing Ireland in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest and appearing on British TV on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Band members came and went and by 1975 all the original members had left and the new line up of the now bell-bottomed, wide-collared Miami Showband comprised of Des Lee, Brian McCoy, Tony Geraghty, Fran O’Toole, Steve Travers and Ray Millar.

Steve Travers joined the band at 24. Six weeks later half the band would be murdered.

From left: Stephen Travers, Tony Geraghty, Ray Millar, Brian McCoy, Fran O’Toole, Des Lee

The band were a ‘mixed’ band meaning they had members who were both Catholic and Protestant and from both sides of the border. Politics was not on the agenda for them. All they cared about was the music and bringing joy and excitement into peoples lives. It is estimated at the height of the showband scene there were over 650 fully professional groups operating across the island. At the time violence in the north and censorship in the south were rife and folk longed for a escape and they found it through music. Later Punk would fulfill the same role in bringing people together. As Stephen Travers explains

“There was no sectarianism at these dances, people left their religion at the door.”

So popular were they that they breezed through Police and Army checkpoints on the border often being recognised and asked for autographs. No stranger to the London Irish scene either performing regularly at famed London venues The Galtymore and The National to packed houses. There really was no one to touch them at the time. London Celtic Punker Gerard recalls

“I was only 12 and I knew very little about them, but I could realise something terrible had happened, the sombre mood about the place, people involved in the entertainment business (like my relatives in Galway) were shocked and very scared. Bomb scares were a regular part of a night out to our pub. They were seriously worried that these murders would escalate things. They were scared that the places the Showbands played in would become a target, like Seapoint ballroom in Salthill.”

It’s hard to fathom how popular a band they were and the Showband scene was. Ireland was littered with these places at the time and they were absolutely central to rural nightlife as well as cities.

(the BBC documentary The Day The Music Died)

On the 31st July 1975 the band had played another successful gig in the northern town of Banbridge. After loading their gear drummer Ray Millar bid farewell and headed off on his own back to nearby Antrim. The bands manager Brian Maguire got in the van containing the groups equipment and set off just a few minutes ahead of the remaining five band members on the trip back home to Dublin.

Sometime after 2.30am they were stopped in the townland of Buskill outside Newry by what they thought was a routine military checkpoint. The Ulster Defence Regiment (a local part time regiment of the British Army) regularly patrolled the border and random stop and searches and harassment of nationalists was common. They were directed into a lay-by and ordered to exit the van while their van was searched. They were questioned at gunpoint and told to give their names and other details. While the search continued, another member of the gang appeared on the scene and according to Stephen Travers and Des McAlea began barking orders at  the others in what was described as a “crisp English accent”. Naturally concerned that the UDR men who were searching the van would damage their instruments Stephen Travers attempted to go towards the van to ask them to be careful but was pushed back into line and it was at that moment an massive explosion ripped through the van throwing band and gang members in all directions.

The bogus checkpoint had in fact been set up the Ulster Volunteer Force (an illegal Protestant paramilitary force involved in the indiscriminate murder and intimidation of innocent Catholics and Republicans) dressed in UDR uniforms. A bomb with a timer had been placed on the van that had gone off. Intended to explode after they has crossed the border into the Irish Republic killing the Showband and giving a convenient excuse for sealing the border completely. Two of gang, Wesley Somerville and Harris Boyle, died instantly. Besides being members of the UDR they were also senior members of the UVF who gave them a full paramilitary funeral. 

None of the band members were killed in the bomb blast. Des McAlea was thrown over a ditch by the force of the explosion, suffering minor injuries and managing to make good his escape across fields. Fellow band members Fran O’Toole, Tony Geraghty and  Brian McCoy were not so lucky. They survived the blast but the gang were intent on killing and opened fire. Stephen Travers was hit and was seriously wounded, the bullet that struck him breaking into sixteen pieces. Tony and Fran had tried to help him off to safety but were unable and as Stephen lay there pretending to be dead he could hear the men chase down his friends in the neighboring fields and despite their pleas for mercy murder them in cold blood. Brian McCoy, hit by machine gun fire, was the first to die. Tony Geraghty was shot four times laying helpless on the ground. Frontman Fran O’Toole died after being shot twenty two times. The gang walked around the aftermath of the explosion kicking at bodies to ensure that they were all dead. Seriously wounded, traumatised and terrified, Stephen decided to lie still as he was approached. Luckily for Stephen, just as he came near, one of the other soldiers shouted that

“those bastards are dead.  I got them with dum-dums”.

The soldiers then departed the scene, and despite suffering horrific injuries Stephen survived the attack.

A leaflet distributed in Catholic areas during the war.

The 6-man gang involved in the massacre included Wesley Somerville’s brother and alongside other UDR men were all part of the ‘Glenane gang’, a notorious UVF unit responsible for countless sectarian atrocities. This unit led by Robin Jackson were suspected of killing up to 50 Catholics, and who organised the bomb attacks in Dundalk in 1975 that killed two and the worse atrocity of the War the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan that killed 33 and a unborn child and injured almost 300. The weapon used to kill Brian McCoy was traced back to other murders in the Mid-Ulster area and fingerprints found on a silencer would link Robin Jackson to the massacre, but charges were mysteriously dropped with allegations he was protected from prosecution by British special branch. Only three members of the gang would be convicted, with two members and one former member of the UDR, sentenced to life in prison. Former British army Intelligence operatives have gone on record since to confirm that undercover British Military intelligence were collaborating with the Glenane Gang and heavily involved in the planning and carrying out of the Miami Showband massacre.

The involvement of the British state in the murders of the Miami Showband and other atrocities have been dismissed as the actions of ‘rogue’ soldiers, RUC (Northern Irish Police force) or Intelligence operatives but the evidence shows otherwise. The refusal of the British government to co-operate with the inquiry into the Dublin/Monaghan attacks and the record of shady British military engagement shows they have something to hide. The history of the army in Ireland has been a bloody one, directly, and indirectly through collusion with their allies in groups like the UVF. Catholics and nationalists throughout the north of Ireland at the time lived with the British state actively assisting Loyalist death squads to terrorise whole communities through intimation and murder. Any attempt to get to the truth of what happened on 31st July 1975 has been hampered and blocked by the British state. Back in 2017 the Ministry of Defence was ordered to release documents relating to the murders. It was also revealed that a substantial amount of documents were destroyed in 2005 with no explanation as to why, or how, this happened. Despite this, the families and surviving members of the band continue to campaign tirelessly for the truth and justice that for too long has been denied to them.

Further Information

For those of you with Netflix the Miamia Showband were featured as part of eight ReMastered music documentaries. ReMastered claims to “investigate high-profile events affecting some of the most legendary names in music” such as Bob Marley, Johnny Cash and Sam Cooke. March 2019 saw The Miami Showband Massacre come under the spotlight and Stephen Travers’ search for the truth of what happened on 31st July 1975.

The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor’s Search for the Truth – by Stephen Travers and journalist Neil Fetherstonhaugh, was published in 2007.

The Miami Showband web-site.

FILM REVIEW: CLASH OF THE ASH (1987)

Phil Kelly is the young anti-hero of Clash Of the Ash. A restless teenager, a fan of The Cramps and The Pogues, great at Hurling but with a strong aversion to studying. Pressured by those around him – from his Mum to do well at his exams, his Dad to take a job at the local garage and his hurling manager to prove himself on the field. This short film manages to tell its story of the frustration of small-town Irish life with a great deal of humour and compassion.

Release: 1987 * Director: Fergus Tighe * Music: The Pogues * Writer: Fergus Tighe

Duration: 50 mins * Country: Ireland * Language: English

Starring: Liam Heffernan, Gina Moxley, Vinny Murphy, Alan Devlin

Clash Of The Ash was written and directed by Fergus Tighe in 1987. It was shot on 16mm with a running time of just over 50 minutes and won Best Irish Short at the Cork Film Festival that year. Some months later the film was broadcast on RTÉ 1 where it made quite an impression on my teenage self – primarily because it contained a lot that I could identify with.

Phil Kelly (played by William Heffernan) is the anti-hero; a restless teenager imbued with natural hurling ability and a strong aversion to studying. The location is not fictitious but instead it’s the very real Fermoy in County Cork which is a welcome touch. Like much of 1980s smalltown Ireland it’s a claustrophobic place that drives people away but inexplicably retains a strange sort of hold on them. The latter is exemplified by Gina Moxley’s character, the tempestuous Mary Hartnett who has returned after a stint in London. The other members of their gang are languid Martin (Vincent Murphy), uptight Willy, and mousey Rosie who carries a torch for Phil. Control and the expectations of others are what Phil fights against. Kelly Senior wants him to take on a job in the local garage while his nagging and snobbish mother has her sights set on him getting a good Leaving Cert. Meanwhile on the sports field the coach Mick Barry (Alan Devlin) has high hopes that his star player will make the county minors and by extension a job in the bank.

“The GAA looks after its own”.

There is a keen build-up to the upcoming match against local rivals Mitchelstown. But Phil isn’t happy. He prefers to train alone (running down a hill backwards and belting a tennis ball around a handball alley) and just can’t apply himself in school. He has little interest in what his well-meaning father can arrange for him and clashes with his mother about late nights and “cavorting with gurriers”.

“It would be more in your line to think about the Leaving Cert”.

Music plays a key part in Clash Of The Ash. Phil wears a Cramps t-shirt, has a Rum, Sodomy and The Lash poster stuck to the bedroom wall and spins Dirty Old Town on the turntable. Mary complains about sharing a house with NME hopefuls The Saints and Scholars while it’s revealed that Martin is talented musician but lacks the motivation to take it to the next level. In a pivotal sequence the gang borrow Willy’s father’s car and drive into Mitchelstown to see The Big Guns play the local nightclub. An exercise in pint stealing means a clash with angry punters and an increase in tension with Murphy (Phil’s nemesis and hurler on the opposing team). The ill-feeling between the two players explodes during the crucial game. It proves to be a turning point in Phil’s life.

Clash Of The Ash takes place in a world of Silk Cut posters in shop windows, radio clips of Michael Lyster reading soccer results, interminably boring Irish classes and lessons in how to skip mass effectively. The television in the pub is tuned to RTÉ’s Closedown (national anthem), the Sunday Press costs 50p, the dole is paid on Tuesdays and the bank is seen as an ideal career choice. While drifting down the river Martin wistfully remembers a time when local trains still ran and flattened ha’pennies so wide that they could be used to buy penny sweets from the almost-blind shopkeeper. However the sense of claustrophobia is ever-present and the drift towards emigration an inevitable outcome. The moral: when others try to run your life then escape becomes necessary.

THE BEST SONG EVER WRITTEN!

The debate over what is the best song ever written will linger on and on and on and be debated well into the night by friends and foe alike. Here at London Celtic Punks we are unanimous in our view that it is a song that had been largely forgotten and unknown outside Ireland till it’s appearance on You Tube led to some well deserved modern day recognition.

Back in 1976 while I was still listening to The Wombles (and a couple of years before I would discover Sham 69) the legendary Paul Brady released an album with the equally legendary Andy Irvine called Andy Irvine & Paul Brady. The whole album is simply outstanding, but there is one song that stands head and shoulder above even the best of the other tracks. Paul plays solo a song that closes the vinyl’s first side (remember ‘records’ and ‘sides’?) that I am yet to hear anyone who has heard it not comment on its utter brilliance. I am told it’s played in an Open G tuning and for me, someone with no musical talent, it is mesmerising watching Paul’s fingers

“bounce on the surface of the strings like dragonflies on the surface of a pond” –

guitar tabs for you budding musicians here. Paul’s voice is perfect for the song and the incredible lyrics that contain some serious threats of violence that are eventually acted upon! A Christmas song that is far from your typical Christmas song! The song was also recorded by Bob Dylan on his Good As I Been To You album of 1992 opening up the opportunity for Paul’s superior version to be heard all over again. Dylan had wanted to get out of a contract, but owed two albums so he recorded traditional songs that he liked.

Oh, me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride,
As we went a-walkin’ down by the seaside,
Mark now what followed and what did betide,
For it bein’ on Christmas mornin’
Now, for recreation, we went on a tramp,
And we met Sergeant Napper and Corporal Vamp
And a little wee drummer intending to camp,
For the day bein’ pleasant and charmin’.
*
“Good morning, good morning,” the Sergeant he cried.
“And the same to you, gentlemen,” we did reply,
Intending no harm but meant to pass by,
For it bein’ on Christmas mornin’
“But,” says he, “My fine fellows, if you will enlist,
Ten guineas in gold I’ll stick to your fist,
And a crown in the bargain for to kick up the dust,
And drink the king’s health in the morning.
*
“For a soldier, he leads a very fine life,
And he always is blessed with a charming young wife,
And he pays all his debts without sorrow or strife,
And he always lives pleasant and charmin’,
And a soldier, he always is decent and clean,
In the finest of clothing he’s constantly seen.
While other poor fellows go dirty and mean,
And sup on thin gruel in the morning.”
*
“But,” says Arthur, “I wouldn’t be proud of your clothes,
For you’ve only the lend of them, as I suppose,
But you dare not change them one night, for you know
If you do, you’ll be flogged in the morning,
And although that we’re single and free,
We take great delight in our own company,
We have no desire strange places to see,
Although that your offers are charming.
*
“And we have no desire to take your advance,
All hazards and dangers we barter on chance,
For you’d have no scruples for to send us to France,
Where we would get shot without warning,”
“Oh no,” says the Sergeant. “I’ll have no such chat,
And neither will I take it from snappy young brats,
For if you insult me with one other word,
I’ll cut off your heads in the morning.”
*
And Arthur and I, we soon drew our hogs,
And we scarce gave them time to draw their own blades
When a trusty shillelagh came over their head
And bid them take that as fair warning.
And their old rusty rapiers that hung by their sides,
We flung them as far as we could in the tide,
“Now take them up, devils!” cried Arthur McBride,
“And temper their edge in the mornin’!”
*
And the little wee drummer, we flattened his bow,
And we made a football of his rowdy-dow-dow,
Threw it in the tide for to rock and to roll,
And bade it a tedious returning,
And we havin’ no money, paid them off in cracks.
We paid no respect to their two bloody backs,
And we lathered them there like a pair of wet sacks,
And left them for dead in the morning.
*
And so, to conclude and to finish disputes,
We obligingly asked if they wanted recruits,
For we were the lads who would give them hard clouts
And bid them look sharp in the mornin’.
*
Oh, me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride,
As we went a-walkin’ down by the seaside,
Mark now what followed and what did betide,
For it bein’ on Christmas mornin’

The songs first appearance in print was around 1840 in Limerick as collected by Patrick Weston Joyce, but the roots of ‘Arthur McBride’, however, go right back further to the 17th century, and Ireland’s involvement in the Glorious Revolution (1688), the Nine Years War(1688-97), and especially the Williamite War in Ireland (1689-1691). The song refers to being “sent to France,” which would suggest the Flight of the Wild Geese: when the departure of the Patrick Sarsfield’s Irish Jacobite army were exiled from Ireland to France in 1691.

In the song, the singer and his cousin, Arthur McBride, were out walking when approached by recruiters for the British Army. They try to recruit them into service for the Crown extolling of all they will have both monetary and also the ‘finest of clothing’. Arthur McBride is having none of it and informs the recruiting sergeant that they would not be his clothes only loaned to him and why would they want to join up anyway only to die in France. The sergeant is angry at this and threatens both Arthur and his cousin but they defend themselves by attacking the recruiters with their shillelaghs (a walking stick made from blackthorn that was often used for ‘defending’ oneself!). The lyrics are so descriptive and even chilling- “And we lathered them there like a pair of wet sacks, and left them for dead in the morning.” They then steal their money and in a last show of defiance chuck the recruiters drum into the sea. The website Irish Music Daily has the best explanation for some of the colourful language used in the song.

The whole album is incredible and here from the same record is ‘The Plains Of Kildare’ an old traditional Irish song that with emigration made its way across the broad Atlantic and in the 19th century wound up in the mountains of Appalachia  to become ‘Old Stewball Was A Racehorse’.

Paul Brady – WebSite  Wikipedia  LastFM  YouTube

The song spawned a short film in 1977 based on the story-line of the song called Christmas Morning. It took me ages to find a copy but I eventually came across it on Paul’s own You Tube channel. It was filmed on Gormanstown beach, north of Dublin and Don Foley who plays the corporal went on to star in several episodes of Father Ted while Godfrey Quigley who played the sergeant led a much distinguished acting career. As Paul describes it himself “long gathering dust on a shelf” the short film, directed by Tiernan McBride, is a beautiful adaptation of the song and really tells an entertaining story.

EP REVIEW: THE FIGHTING 69th- ‘FAMOUS FOR NOTHING. TRIBUTE TO THE DROPKICK MURPHYS. VOLUME 2 (2019)

Back again for more it’s Celtic-Punk’s most prolific artist the Buffalo, New York based ‘One Man Band’ The Fighting 69th release their second tribute to Celtic-Punk’s #1 band this year. Five more songs given an affectionate twist and again available as a free download.

Was only in September we reviewed Volume 1 of the Fighting 69th tribute EP to the Dropkick Murphys and already hot on its heels lands Volume 2! Again the songs chosen are a mix of the more famous and perhaps some lesser known songs as well and give Raymond ample opportunity to show off his amazing musicianship for he plays every instrument here including piano, bagpipes, tin whistle, drums, bass guitar, electric guitar… all played by the man himself including vocals too!

We went into how the band first formed back in 2007 in our review of Volume one here and even a bit of history of who the original Fighting 69th were and where the band took their name from. So rather than repeat ourselves head over there and read up on some proud Irish-American history and also grab yourself the first Volume of this series for free. The EP starts with ‘Paying My Way’ from the rather cooly received last album 11 Short Stories Of Pain And Glory. On reflection the album has grown on me and ‘Paying My Way’ has gone onto become a staple of their live shows, as well as ‘Blood’, so perhaps it’s worthy of another listen. Next up is ‘Ten Years Of Service’ from the Murphs second studio album The Gang’s All Here (this is also the album that featured the Bhoys version of The Fighting 69th). It was Al Barr’s first album with the group and ‘Ten Years Of Service’ was the first big exposure of him as the new lead singer. I think Ray tries a bit too much punk rock snarl here on his version but there you go.

“Who’s gonna save us from this lonely picket line,
10 years of service but I’m still not worth your time.
And I’ve seen men give their lives,
and heard the stories that they tell of how they labored
for this company which sold it’s soul to hell”

Not strictly a Murphys song but they did record ‘The Green Fields Of France’ on their best selling album The Warriors Code from 2005. Graced by just about every Irish artist worth their salt it was actually written in 1976 by Scottish folk singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, reflecting on the grave of a young Irishman who had died fighting in the First World War. A sad song and suitably played here. Now to perhaps the fans most favourite Murphys song ‘Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced’. Played at every gig since they wrote it it’s usually the start of their encore and the beginning of bringing the curtain down on a sweaty night of Celtic-Punk rocking! Featuring on Blackout the fourth studio album released in 2003. The EP comes to an end with another song from their last album and its another live favourite in ‘Blood’ and it’s a pretty decent cover of the original with plenty of piping! The Fighting 69th show that none of the Murphys songs are beyond them and end on the EP on a glorious high!

(You can listen to Famous For Nothing below on the Bandcamp. It’s available as a  free download but chuck a price of the ‘Black Stuff’ over if you can afford it. Now get downloading!) 

Download the EP FromTheBand  Contact The Fighting 69th  Bandcamp  YouTube  Instagram

THE SOUND OF AN UNDERGROUND. REBEL MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

A short documentary film about rebel music in Ireland, directed by Declan McLaughlin and John Coyle featuring commentary and performances from Declan McLaughlin, Gary Óg, Eileen Webster, Terry ‘Cruncher’ O’Neill and Joe Mulhearn.

 

Throughout Ireland’s long history of struggle for independence, each of the various uprisings has generated its own collection of songs. The tradition of rebel music in Ireland dates back many centuries, dealing with historical events such as uprisings, describing the hardships of living under oppressive British rule, but also strong sentiments of solidarity, loyalty, determination and support the political dreams of the generations who sought an independent nation.

As well as a deep-rooted sense of tradition, rebel songs have nonetheless remained contemporary, and since 1922, the focus has moved onto the nationalist cause in the north of Ireland. However, the subject matter is not confined to Irish history, and includes the exploits of the Irish Brigades who fought for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, and also those who fought during the American Civil War.

Irish rebel music has occasionally gained international attention. The Wolfe Tones’ version of ‘A Nation Once Again’ was voted the number one song in the world by BBC World Service listeners in 2002. Rebel music has often courted controversy with successive Irish governments banning it from the airwaves in the Republic of Ireland throughout the 1980’s. More recently, Derek Warfield’s music was banned from Aer Lingus flights, after an Ulster Unionist politician compared his songs to the speeches of Osama bin Laden. However, a central tenet of the justification for rebel music is that it represents a long-standing tradition of freedom from tyranny.

THE REBEL COLLECTIVE

Thanks for the The Rebel Collective for posting the video to You Tube. They run a monthly music based podcast that features various guests of a rebel nature. Getting to know some of their favourite songs and the songs that helped shape the artist they are today, and hopefully gaining a bit of insight into their background and influences.

Support The Rebel Collective. New badge £4 plus £1.50 orders via Pay Pal to: therebelcollective@hotmail.com

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NEW FILM. A REBEL I CAME- THE STORY OF ÉIRE ÓG LIVE AT THE BRAZEN HEAD

In 1997 Éire Óg released their Live At The Brazen Head album, one of the most iconic rebel album of its generation. This film, produced by The Rebel Collective podcast, brings together some of the original members of the band and many other prominent musicians from the rebel/folk scene to discuss how the band and album came about, its impact and legacy more then twenty years later.

Many of the best rebel bands of the modern era hail from Glasgow. Among them Saoirse, Athenrye, Shebeen, Mise Éire and Pádraig Mór but the foremost was the legendary Éire Óg who led the way inspiring all around them. Formed in Glasgow, Scotland in the early 1990’s, they toured throughout Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Europe and the USA extensively during their time together.
What made them unique was their introduction of the marching drums to their music, a style that has subsequently been copied by many bands ever since. It gave them an unmistakable and uncompromising sound that became the soundtrack of an entire generation during a period of civil strife prior to the IRA ceasefire of the late nineties.
The band was led by Irish republican supporter, Glasgow-born folk rock singer Gary Og, who is now a successful solo artist and we recommend checking him out here.

The video is viewable for free but we would appreciate if you could donate to: 
https://angortamorglasgow.com

An Gorta Mór Glasgow

 We’re Building a Famine Memorial in Glasgow

Between 1845 and 1855 over one million people fled starvation conditions in Ireland. Around 100,000 made their way to Glasgow. Coiste Cuimhneachain An Gorta Mór (Great Hunger Memorial Committee) has been formed to build a permanent memorial to those who died of starvation or were forced to emigrate, including those who came to our city during ‘An Gorta Mór’.

We need to have a monument worthy of the memory of our ancestors who were forced to leave Ireland and those who were starved to death by the British government and the British ruling class, so please give generously. There is an online shop where you can buy goods with the An Gorta Mor logo. All profits go to the fundraising plot. Thank you. We are building it!

THE REBEL COLLECTIVE

The Rebel Collective podcast is a monthly music based podcast that features various guests of a rebel nature. We will be getting to know some of their favourite songs and the songs that helped shape the artist they are today, and hopefully gaining a bit of insight into their background and influences.

Podcast  Facebook  YouTube  Twitter

BUY LIVE AT THE BRAZEN HEAD CD HERE

FILM REVIEW: BLACK ’47

Famine was quite deliberately employed as an instrument of national policy, as the last means of breaking the resistance of the peasantry to the new system where they are divorced from personal ownership of the land and obligated to work on the conditions which the state may demand from them… This famine may fairly be called political because it was not the result of any overwhelming natural catastrophe or such complete exhaustion of the country’s resources in foreign and civil wars

– William Henry Chamberlin

BLACK 47

Directed by: Lance Daly

Written by: Lance Daly, P.J. Dillon, Eugene O’Brien and Pierce Ryan

Starring: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan,  Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene and Jim Broadbent

Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes

Despite being a huge film fanatic it’s fair to say I haven’t anticipated a film like Black ’47 since the release of the Irish War Of Independence drama The Wind That Shakes The Barley back in 2006. At that film a whole bunch of us went to the cinema sneaking in beer and crisps and cheered every time a British soldier was dispatched, much to the annoyance of the metropolitan elites watching it with us in snooty Islington. Black ’47 was going to be a whole different film. We have made no secret here that we don’t actually believe there was a famine in Ireland. Their were adequate supplies of food being grown in Ireland but these were needed to feed the British empire and so were taken at gunpoint from the country. Ireland was transformed into

“an extended grazing land to raise cattle for a hungry consumer market [in Britain]… and the British taste for beef had a devastating impact on the impoverished and disenfranchised people of Ireland” and “pushed off the best pasture land and forced to farm smaller plots of marginal land, the Irish turned to the potato, a crop that could be grown abundantly in less favourable soil.” (Rifkin, ‘Beyond Beef’ 1993)

Make no mistake it was the ethnic cleansing of the Irish Gael that was the goal here.

Set in the west of Ireland in 1847 at the very height of An Gorta Mór, the story begins with Feeney, played by James Frecheville having returned from Afghanistan after fighting with the British army. He deserts and makes his way back home only to find the potato crop has failed and disease, emigration and famine has touched many of his neighbours and also claimed the life of his devoted mother while his brother has been hanged. The film tells of Feeney and his attempt to avenge the deaths of his nearest and dearest. Lance Daly directs the film as Rambo meets Fionn MacCumhaill and the story unfolds, in a way as many people have said, like a traditional western and while it’s not the first Celtic action film, that honour belongs to Braveheart and then maybe Michael Collins, it certainly brings the chilling horror of the times to our screens very well. Unlike Braveheart’s William Wallace our hero here is strong and silent. Like Clint Eastwood’s The Man With No Name, from Sergio Leone’s ‘spaghetti’ westerns, Feeney is a quiet grim faced executioner who dispatches his foes with finesse.

The film begins as a history lesson about the relationship between Ireland and the British Empire. A history lesson sorely needed in these times about the horrors of the ‘famine’. Those of with the inclination will take a certain amusement from watching Feeney taking his revenge against members of the British authorities after all he kills with a style only found in feature films. One curious aspect to the film is that the Gaelic subtitles appear in the centre of the screen instead of along the bottom and their is a lot of our native language in the film. It is shot in the same style as films based in the Arctic with a sort of white glow that gives it a sense of bleak apprehension. One aspect that should ruffle feathers among the Irish establishment is the portrayal of those who ‘took the King’s shilling’ to save their skins. The ‘sleeveen’ mentality of the Royal Irish Rangers who assisted the British Army to help murder their countrymen. The sleeveens are still around. Look no further than the Dáil and the Gards facilitating the evictions of families from their homes if you wish to find them.

James Frecheville as Feeney in Black 47

At times it seems that Feeny has the entire British Army on his back but at every turn he escapes their clutches and even when he is eventually caught he escapes easily using his wiles. By now it gets more than a little far-fetched as David takes on Goliath in some fairly improbable situations. Towards the end of the film Feeney’s former comrade in the British Army, Hannah, played by Hugo Weaving, arrives in Ireland to help capture him. A much more rounded character than Feeney we see eventually a shift in the loyalties of Hannah towards sympathy for the Irish cause.

Black 47 is a great film and while its detractors (more sleeveens!) moan that it will re-open ‘famine’ wounds these are wounds that have not healed and will not heal until it is finally excepted that the potato blight did not kill the Irish or send them into exile but a callous British regime bringing ruination to the Irish people, language and culture. Feeney’s avenging angel of death struggles to have his revenge while at the same time representing the fight against the wretched British landlord system. The tension mounts throughout the film and at the climax of the film emotions will run riot at the realisation that both natural disaster and a kind of fascism butchered our people. Black 47 may be implausible in parts but it does go someway to laying the ghosts of An Gorta Mór to rest.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING:

At this point can I point you in the direction of last years London Celtic Punks #1 album Chronicles Of The Great Irish Famine by Declan O’Rourke. Fifteen years in the making Declan has taken the best of traditional Irish music and the heart of modern song-writing for something truly special. He has taken true stories that will melt your heart and put them into something that I believe every school child would be given a copy of. It is quite simply outstanding and a more than worthy companion to the film. Read our review here which includes various places to buy or download the CD and a link to listen to the album. assisted by a wealth of Irish musicians including John Sheahan on fiddle, Dermot Byrne on accordion, Gino Lupari on bodhran and Mike McGoldrick on pipes, whistle and flute and I can honestly say that in all my 47 years I have never heard anything that evokes Án Gorta Mór in such a moving and evocative way.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Coogan, Tim Pat (2012), The Famine Plot: England’s Role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy, Palgrave MacMillan

Crowley, John (ed) (2012) Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, Cork University Press

Kinealy, Christine (1997) A Death-Dealing Famine: The Great Hunger in Ireland, Pluto Press

Fogerty, Chris (2017) Ireland 1845-1850: The Perfect Holocaust And Who Kept ‘It’ Perfect, Fogarty Press. Available here.

On Facebook:

Let Ireland Remember  Remembering An Gorta Mór  National Famine Memorial Day

but the most extensive resource on Facebook about this period is to be found at

The Great Hunger- Ireland 1845/1850

RECOMMENDED WATCHING:

When Ireland Starved Part 1  Part 2  Part 3 

RELEASE DATES FOR NEW MOVIE ABOUT THE IRISH HOLOCAUST- BLACK 47

The land of song was no longer tuneful; or, if a human sound met the traveler’s ear, it was only that of a feeble and despairing wail for the dead.

Black 47 Trailer & Clip

Directed by: Lance Daly

Written by: Lance Daly, P.J. Dillon, Eugene O’Brien and Pierce Ryan

Starring: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan,  Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene and Jim Broadbent

Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes

The much-anticipated film, Black 47, is set to be released in Ireland, the UK and the United States in September. We will keep everyone posted with further release dates in their respective countries.

It’s 1847 and Ireland is in the grip of the Great Hunger that has ravaged the country for two long years. Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and reunite with his family. He’s seen more than his share of horrors, but nothing prepares him for the hopeless destruction of his homeland that has brutalised his people and where there seems to be no law and order. He discovers his mother starved to death and his brother hanged by the brutal hand of the English. With little else to live for, he sets a destructive path to avenge his family.

Ireland | 5 Sep 2018
UK | 28 Sep 2018
US | 28 Sep 2018

Further Recommended Reading:

Coogan, Tim Pat (2012), The Famine Plot: England’s Role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy, Palgrave MacMillan

Crowley, John (ed) (2012) Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, Cork University Press

Kinealy, Christine (1997) A Death-Dealing Famine: The Great Hunger in Ireland, Pluto Press

On Facebook:

Let Ireland Remember  Remembering An Gorta Mór  National Famine Memorial Day

but the most extensive resource on Facebook about this period is to be found at

The Great Hunger- Ireland 1845/1850

On You-Tube:

When Ireland Starved Part 1  Part 2  Part 3 

NEW MOVIE- THE BLOODLUST OF THE DRUID OVERLORDS

Here’s the new short film from singer/vocalist of Irish-American celtic-punk band the Templars Of Doom, Michael X. Rose. Thanks to Michael for sharing. Heaven knows how he keeps up the level of activity he does. I’m jealous! So sit back put your feet on the coffee table pour yourself a drink and break out the hob-knobs for a classic Hammer Horror style movie featuring ritual virgin sacrifices,visions of the Virgin Mary, a giant burning Wicker man, bloodthirsty Druids and a swashbuckling St. Patrick!

THE BLOODLUST OF THE DRUID OVERLORDS

Written, Produced, and Directed by Michael X. Rose.

Assistant Producer James Pogo Lo Rubbio | Edited by Dr. Jeff Burns | 30 Minutes 

Music by the Brian Wilson Shock Treatment

Starring Mary Urban | Michael X. Rose | Suzanne Schubert | Steve Scibelli | James Pogo LoRubbio | Gala Scibelli

Ireland. 428 A.D. Bloodthirsty Druids overrun the land seeking Virginal Maidens to Sacrifice to their Dark, Insatiable gods. They emerge from dark caves carrying torches, wearing white robes and hideous animal masks. Soon Saint Patrick arrives from Britain sent by a dream. He is rowed by two fellow monks to the wooded shores of Ancient Ireland. While praying in his hut, the Virgin Mary appears to St. Patrick, telling him to “go and save my maidens.” Meanwhile the young girls are brought by land and water to the unspeakable place of sacrifice by the Druid Overlords. Victim after victim is slaughtered in bloody worship to Belinus. Half-naked nymphs drink human blood and eat the human flesh that they crave. Can St. Patrick find the Druid orgy in time? As the most pure virgin is prepared to be burnt alive in a forty-foot tall wicker man, see him battle the Druids to save the last virgin in a life or death climax in this thrilling blood-soaked tale.

You can contact Michael via the Templars Of Doom Facebook page here or his Web Site here

NEW FILM- STOKED: THE DREADNOUGHTS RETURN

Stoked. A documentary about The Dreadnoughts by Adam PW Smith.

Documentary, Short | 40minutes | 17 November 2017 (Canada)

Vancouver clusterfolk legends The Dreadnoughts have returned from a six year hiatus to record a new album. Filmed in the recording studio, and drawing from an archive of photos and film clips that go right back to their second ever live show, this low budget documentary rises above its station with great characters and stories that range from enlightening to hilarious (and occasionally dubious). These liquor soaked musical heroes prove themselves to be thoughtful, as well as entertaining. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Vancouver-based Celtic-Punk band – and perhaps things you didn’t – can now be found in, Stoked: The Dreadnoughts Return.

After a few years away The Dreadnoughts announced their arrival back on the circuit with a utterly brilliant new album and now also a documentary film.

The 40-minute film by Adam PW Smith looks at the 10-year history of the band. It features rollicking music accompanying a mix of old and new footage, including tongue-in-cheek, sometimes raw tell-all biographies of the band members, past and present. The documentary delves into the band’s temporary hiatus and return with last November’s release of  Foreign Skies.

The film contains what some might consider inappropriate language and if you of a delicate disposition then viewer discretion is advised!

The Dreadnoughts  WebSite  Facebook  Bandcamp  YouTube

Adam PW Smith  WebSite  Facebook

You can also still buy ‘This Place Is Awesome’ – a Dreadnoughts tour diary written by the director of this video. It’s 2009 and music photographer Adam PW Smith flies to England to spend a week touring with The Dreadnoughts in the middle of their first European tour. Smith was in the thick of it, suffering all the standard indignities but one. The result is a book that reveals much about life as a young, touring band who bring real meaning back to the DIY ethic, and a few things about what it’s like to be a 43 year old trying to survive in that environment. Available on amazon.com http://goo.gl/Q9Cdk

FILM REVIEW: THE REVENGE OF THE MEKONS (2013)

“the band that took punk ideology most seriously”

Directer: Joe Angio    Release Date: November, 2013  Running Time: 99 minutes

“A loving ode to an unsung band” – LA Times
“Marvelous” – New York Post
“Jubilant” – The Village Voice

Emerging soon after the first blasts of UK punk rock, the Mekons went from being a group of socialist art students with no musical skills to the prolific, raucous, rabble rousing progeny of country legend Hank Williams. Formed in Leeds by Jon Langford, Kevin Lycett, Mark White, Andy Corrigan and Tom Greenhalgh they were from the outset highly principled stating

”That anybody could do it; that we didn’t want to be stars; that there was no set group as such, anybody could get up and join in and instruments would be swapped around; that there’d be no distance between the audience and the band; that we were nobody special”

They took the band’s name from the Mekon, an evil character from the Dan Dare comic strip in the popular 1950’s comic The Eagle which briefly resurfaced when I was a kid in the 80’s. Their first single, released in 1978, was ‘Never Been in a Riot’, a piss take of The Clash’s ‘White Riot’ and was a masterpiece of simplistic DIY punk, rock and roll.

The band carried on for several years playing their noisy brand of post-punk rock releasing singles on a variety of labels and their first album, The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen, was recorded using a friends bands instruments. Due to an error by the record company art department the cover featured pictures of, fellow Leeds band, Gang of Four by mistake. After The Mekons Story compilation in 1982 the band called it a day, with Langford forming The Three Johns.

They soon returned and began pumping out album after album again on a multitude of labels and even at one time making it onto a major though the resulting album was a commercial flop and though it was loved by the fans they were soon dropped like the proverbial hot potato and cut adrift again.

click for download link

Over the years and as the band have learnt to play their instruments their musical style has transformed and The Mekons are now as famous for playing country and folk music as well as brief forays into rock and even dub reggae. With around twenty albums to their name plus untold amount of singles and EP’s as well appearances on dozens of compilations they have a massive discography so a good place to start would be Mekons, Mekons, Mekons which you can download by clicking on the record cover on the right. It covers the years 1987-1992 which includes both their punkier days and their transformation into a post-punk, cowpunk or alt-country band (or whatever label the press give them at that moment in time).

Around 1985’s brilliant Fear And Whiskey the first signs of a full on change in style began to show. Taking the outlaw country’n’western of Hank Williams/Johnny Cash rather than the cowboy hat and glitter of Nashville and The Mekons successfully reinvented themselves. Joe Angio’s exuberant film ‘Revenge Of The Mekons’ documents the unlikely career of this genre-defying collective. Following their improbable history- a surprising and influential embrace of folk and country music, forays into the art world and consistent bad luck with major record labels. Featuring interviews with fans, from musician Will Oldham, author Jonathan Franzen to film director Mary Harron and comedian Fred Armisen, ‘Revenge Of The Mekons’ reveals four decades into an ever-evolving career how The Mekons continue to make bold, unpredictable music while staying true to the punk roots.

Mekons circa 2015 left to right: Lu Edmonds, Tom Greenhalgh, Steve Goulding, Sally Timms, Jon Langford, Susie Honeyman, Rico Bell (not pictured: Sarah Corina)

Critically and cultishly adored The Mekons deserve to be much more well known and this film reveals how, four decades into a still-evolving career, the Mekons continue to make original, genre-defying music while staying true to the punk ethos.

(Q&A and performance with band members Jon Langford and Lu Edmunds following the screening of Revenge of the Mekons in 2015)

WATCH REVENGE OF THE MEKONS

HERE

1. Close any ads
2. Find the proper play button and click on it
3. The film will start playing.

Buy The Documentary

Here

Contact The Band

Facebook  UnofficialWebSite  BloodshotRecords

The Mekons On The Web

The 10 Best Mekons Songs here * LastFM * AllMusic * The Mekons Blog here * The Mekons discography reviews here *  A Skeptic’s Guide To The Mekons here * Toppermost here

FILM REVIEW: TOWNIES- IRISH MOB (2007)

For any of you out there who haven’t seen Townies the short film by Mike O’Dea then here it is in all its original You Tube glory. Made back in 2007 it began production as a full movie but was forced to closed down after the Police busted them for filming a mob hit scene in south Boston without the official permits. The director took that footage and incorporated it into a forty-five minute short film. There were plans to re-shoot the entire film under a new title this year and Mike O’Dea has just announced that this will be happening. As Mike said on his official Facebook page

“I’m gearing up to begin filming my latest feature film ‘Hustler’. It’s about a Boston drug dealer who loses drugs and guns that belong to the mob. He has only 2 days to get it all back”

Country: USA Release Date: 15 August 2009 Production Co: Shamrock Films

Director: Mike O’Dea  Writer: Mike O’Dea

Starring: Mike O’Dea, Jimmy Burke, Frannie Bryne, Michael Foot, Wade Gallagher, Johnny Hickey

Townies opens to the sound of London Irish celtic rockers The Bible Code Sundays singing ‘Honour Of The Gael’, a tune the band wrote specifically for the film. It is set in the town of Charlestown an Irish-American neighbourhood where the locals refer to themselves as townies. It is the oldest district in Boston and has always been known as an Irish area. In common with most cities now though since the late 1980s Charlestown has changed dramatically. The yuppies have moved in and gentrification has overtaken much of the area, as it has in much of Boston, but it still maintains a strong working class Irish American population and ‘Townie’ attitude.

After being released from prison, the son of an Irish mafia boss returns to his home town. Mickey Callaghan dreams of getting out of Boston and relocating to Florida but visions of palm trees vanish in gun smoke when he’s immediately surrounded by his Charlestown gangster crew and all of their problems. Murder and revenge is taking brother for brother and friend for friend until the vicious circle of bloody violence finally comes around to him.

(newspaper report about the filming of Townies)

CHARLESTOWN, Mass.-A handgun, gun shots and a bleeding victim; sounds like the scene of a crime, but when police responded to the incident, they discovered that it was all part of an act. State Police rushed to the scene for a report of shots fired at Paul Revere Park. When they got there, officers found a man, a fake gun and another with fake blood on his arm. “As I was coming up to him, he did pull his right hand out and saw a bit of his weapon,” Trooper Robert Malloy, State Police Marine Unit, said. “My adrenaline was pumping pretty good man,” Wade Gallagher, actor, said. “It was quite a rush.” Wade Gallagher is not a killer. He’s an actor who was filming a mob movie called ‘Townies’. Paul Revere Park was not an actual crime scene, but witnesses saw the gun and the blood they ran screaming for help. “It’s an actual gun and it fires blanks,” Mike O’Dea, Film Director, said. “Nothing actually comes out of the chamber.” Here’s the problem, O’Dea never told the city or police they were filming a violent mob scene in broad daylight. They did however post a sign on a car near the scene. “Well, we don’t have any money for permits, so you gotta do what you gotta do to get the movie done,” O’Dea said. “So, we took a risk and paid the price for it.” The actors were not arrested; however they are expected to face a judge later this month to face charges of disorderly conduct. They say that it was all worth it. “It’s supposed to be the most realistic mob movie ever made, so I guess we proved that today didn’t we,” O’Dea said. – – 2007 Sunbeam Television Corp.

Soundtrack:

Bible Code Sundays- ‘Honour Of The Gael’

Nowhere USA- ‘Enemy Is Me’

Sharky Doyle’s- ‘Everybody’d Irish’

The Bible Code Sundays- ‘My Town’

Kilmaine Saints- ’57’

Kilmaine Saints- ‘The Whiskey’s Calling’

Mr Irish. Bastard- ‘Everyone Must Die’

Wet Your Whistle- ‘Well Below The Valley’

Nowhere USA- ‘Today’

Sharky Doyle’s- ‘Catholic School’

Nowhere USA- ‘Perfect’

The Cloves And The Tobacco- ‘Shamrockville’

Kilmaine Saints- ‘Brave Yankee Boys’

Follow Michael O’Dea (actor and Director)

WebSite  Facebook  Twitter  IMDb

The Top Ten Irish Mobster Movies Here * Twenty Questions With Mike O’Dea  Here * Irish Organised Crime Forum  Here *  The Irish-American Gangster In Film  Here

ALBUM REVIEW: DANNY GREENE- ’10 BLOCKS FOR THE IRISH’ (2015)

Straight Up Southern Illinois Working Class Old School Traditional Hardcore Punk

Well those of you of a nervous disposition better turn away now as Danny Greene may well be responsible for doing some serious damage to your sensibilities! We have of late neglected the punkier side of celtic-punk and we are more than making up for it by reviewing the new album of American hardcore band Danny Greene. Named in honour of the legendary Irish-American gangster the name suits them well and the blistering noise attack would I am sure have gotten Danny’s approval. The album starts with ’10 Blocks For The Irish’ and those of you in the know will instantly recognise the intro before Sean Penn as Terry Noonan in the excellent Irish-American gangster film State Of Grace takes over and then wham… fast as hell hardcore comes straight at you. For those of you who like the folkier side of things give this a listen and shake the old cob-webs away. There is nothing too overly spectacular here just superbly well played old fashioned hardcore music with shed load’s of energy and more fist in the air moments than a million chart bands could ever dream of. The song last’s just over a minute so brace yourselves.

‘Two Faced’ follows and carries on in the same relentless vein as before. I was always a fan of more old style hardcore or, as my mate Steve Caveman always called it, “that stop and start shit” and so this album really hits home for me. My album favourite is ‘No Quit In Me’ which for you punk traditionalists is probably the easiest song here to listen to. Chugging guitars and a great chorus of

“working class hardcore”

‘Broken’ and ‘Bottom Of Barrel’ continue the approach and the songs are much longer so Danny Greene are able to expand a bit on their sound.

The albums longest track is ‘Walking Dead’ at only just over three minutes and is also one of the albums stand outs.

‘Vick’ is about the American Football quarterback Michael Vick who went to jail in 2007 for promoting, funding and facilitating a dog fighting ring on his property. This sick bastard had also engaged in hanging and drowning dogs who did not perform well. Rightly Danny Greene put the boot right into him and it is heartening to see his career has gone to shit since he was jailed.

“you fucking coward, you worthless piece of shit”

‘What Is Truth’ brings the album to a close and is a collaboration with the bands friend and rapper Joe Myles. A hip-hop/hardcore mix up that really works. Obviously ’10 Blocks For The Irish’ will not appeal to everyone out there but if you do like fast hardcore punk you are gonna love this. If you just like the idea of an Irish-American band who will NEVER have a banjo player then, again, this IS the band for you. The boys will be releasing a full-length album soon called Heritage so keep an eye out on the internet and here as I have a feeling its going to get another fantastic review!

Buy The Album

FromTheBand

Contact The Band

Facebook  Spotify  WebSite  Bandcamp  YouTube

*Find out more about the legend that was Danny Greene, an impoverished but charismatic young Irish-American who rises to power as president of the longshoreman’s local union and is charged with corruption but evades serious jail time by becoming an FBI informant. With fearless nerve he joins forces with a Mafia gangster to rise to power in Cleveland’s underworld, gaining the reputation of a Robin Hood-like figure with nine lives as he escapes countless assassination attempts.

Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman

USA | 2011 | 60 min.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Tommy Reid

Photographs that have never been seen before and exclusive interviews with the family members of Danny Greene, officials from the Federal government, associates of the Mafia and representatives of Cleveland Police Enforcement make up this documentary examining the life of the legendary and infamous Irish-American gangster Danny Greene.

Clint O’Connor of The Plain Dealer writes

“Feeding America’s appetite for mob stories with a grisly slice of Cleveland’s criminal past, spotlights the gangster whose life was famously extinguished by a car bomb in a Lyndhurst parking lot. A fearless hood who grabbed headlines for years in the 1970s, Greene was a colorful character. He dressed in green, drove green cars, and embraced Irish history and Celtic lore. Alternately a union troubleshooter, embezzler, and enforcer, Greene dabbled in racketeering, gambling, and loan-sharking. He excelled at beating the rap, which may have been attributed to his other occupation: FBI informant. Police have long assumed that Greene conspired to take out Shondor Birns, a rival in Cleveland’s numbers racket, and later mafia underboss Leo ‘Lips’ Moceri, whose body was never found”

Kill The Irishman

USA | 2011 | 1hr 42mins

Genre: Action | Biography | Thriller

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh

Starring: Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Vincent D’Onofrio

for a link to watch ‘Kill The Irishman’ simply click on the film poster on the left and you will be re-directed. if the link is broken leave a comment below and well try and fix it.

FILM REVIEW: ‘A MAN YOU DON’T MEET EVERY DAY’

It’s the mid-nineties in London and a couple meet through a lonely hearts column. She is an middle class English married woman, he is an lonely Irish mechanic and despite the gulf between them they start an affair.

A long forgotten slice of life from the early 90’s with a soundtrack from the best band of all time.

CREW

Director: Angela Pope Writer: Ronan Bennett  Producer: Belinda Allen  Cinematography: Gavin Finney

CAST

Richard Hawley as Jim, Colum Convey as Bernie, Conleth Hill as Michael, John Keegan as Aidan, Harriet Walter as Charlotte, Peter Davison as Robert, Ray Nicholas as Crackdealer, Joanna Wake as Landlady, Doreen Mantle as Mrs. Norton, Kika Mirylees as Caroline, Bill French as John, Eamon Maguire as Jack McConville, Lesley Taylor Jones as Eileen, Emma Hill as Newscaster, Marianne Hemming as Woman Upstairs, Kevin Kibbey as Man Upstairs and

Shane MacGowan and The Popes as Themselves!

RUNNING TIME : 64 Minutes

MUSIC : The Pogues * Shane MacGowan And The Popes

Well until just recently I never even knew this film to exist! ‘A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day’ was made by Channel 4 and broadcast, it would appear, the one and only time way back in 1994. Why this should be is anyone’s guess especially in this day and age when it is possible to stream anything over the internet. The film is just over an hour long and tells the story of Jim, a lonely mechanic working over in London from Belfast with his mate Bernie.

Ronan Bennett

Written by the prolific writer Ronan Bennett. Ronan was born in Belfast and has led an interesting life to say the least having been convicted of murdering an RUC Inspector in 1974 at the age of only 18. He was jailed in the notorious Long Kesh prison but his conviction was declared unsafe and overturned and he was released in 1975. He moved to London and in 1978 was caught up with the arrests around the anarchist Angry Brigade bombings and he was a defendant in the ‘Persons Unknown’ trial. Charged with conspiracy to cause explosions he was again sent to prison, serving 16 months on remand. Ronan conducted his own defence and all defendants were eventually found not guilty. He went on to study history at Kings College London receiving a first class honours degree and later completed his PhD at the college in 1987. Since then Ronan has wrote numerous screenplays and dramas as well as completing both novels and non-fiction books. He was the uncredited co-author of ‘Stolen Years’, the prison memoir of Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four who were wrongfully convicted in 1975 of the Guildford pub bomb in 1974.

Richard Hawley

Straight away in the first five minutes of ‘A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day’ you get Shane MacGowan singing ‘Lullaby Of London’ over the credits as well as a half dozen Pogues references including a visit to White City greyhound track. The story begins as Jim spies an ad in the paper’s lonely hearts column and arranges to meet Charlotte a rich sophisticated English woman and they start a relationship together. The story sees the ups and downs of their romance and I wouldn’t want to give too much of the story away here as I doubt very few of you will have seen it. It really is a lovely short film with a simple tale of a couples affair. If that all sounds a wee bit too soppy for you then you will be able to console yourselves with the fantastic soundtrack of Pogues classics and that Shane MacGowan And The Popes make a brilliant appearance as a pub band playing live in what looks like The Canterbury Arms in Brixton. The boys including the late, and sorely missed, Tommy McManamon on banjo and Paul Mad Dog’ McGuinness on guitar give a great version of The Old Main Drag’. Lovely characterisation of how London can be a very lonely place and then a totally unexpected and sharp twist that come’s from absolutely nowhere that even M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of. A totally unique film showing London Irish life when it still dominated huge parts of London. The simple story of romance that, at first, has you failing to see what the story of the film was hiding!

Everyone I have asked has no re-collection of this film so watch it now on the YouTube link provided. The film has been uploaded from an old VHS video so the quality is not as we are use to these days but is still easily watchable and the sound is perfect. As is the way with these sort of things they have a habit of coming and going off air so if it does go down leave a comment below and we’ll try our best to fix it. That is until someone sorts out an official release which unfortunately doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any day soon.

(thanks to Øyvind Lade for sending us the link when we couldn’t find it- we had the name of the film wrong would you believe!!)

The Best Pogues Related Sites

In The Wake Of The Medusa * Paddy Rolling Stone * The Parting Glass * Pogues Facebook Page

For me though the best place on the internet for The Pogues is this unofficial group on Facebook (here) all the diverse views you would expect from a bunch of people who follow The Pogues. Be sure and join up won’t you?

if you’re interested in The Pogues we have a multitude of great articles:

‘From Oppression To Celebration- The Pogues And The Dropkick Murphys And Celtic Punk’

‘A Wee Biography Of Shane MacGowan’

‘30492-London Celtic Punks Top Twenty Celtic-Punk Albums Of All Time’

‘Film Review: If I Should Fall From Grace With God- The Shane MacGowan Story’

‘Book Review: Irish Blood, English Heart- Second Generation Irish Musicians In England’

‘Red Roses For Me And Me‘

FILM REVIEW: THE MOLLY MAGUIRES (1970)

“maybe its my Christian heart but I never could stand the sight of a man carrying a cross”

Growing up in England the opportunities to express pride in your Irish roots were very few and far between. The rare moments would come along, we had St Patrick’s Day, Celtic, our pubs and clubs and church and lets face it very little else. On the TV we were a figure of ridicule and nightly we were informed that the people sat right next to us in our living rooms were thick and stupid and steeped in superstition or dangerous and drunkards or trying to bring down the rule of law and that ordinary folk should inform the authorities of anything suspicious among the Irish community. Innocent people were sent to jail with little more evidence of guilt than their accents or their family backgrounds. With that going on in the background we learnt our history at home and among our family, friends and neighbours but one of the defining moments of my childhood was watching The Molly Maguires as a kid. It ticked all the necessary boxes for a young 2nd gen Irish lad with a identity crisis. Not only did it portray the Irish outside of Ireland and showed how badly they were treated and exploited but, and most importantly of all, how rather than except their fate and roll over they resisted that oppression and fought back, even though eventually it end in tragedy. The Molly Maguires were a secret society of militant Irish Catholic coal miners who resisted violence from the mine owners with violence themselves. The film is based on real events and the gripping story is a sympathetic and accurate depiction of the struggle for justice of the Irish-American miners.

CREW

Cinematography- James Wong Howe * Director- Martin Ritt * Music- Henry Mancini * Producer- Paramount Pictures

CAST

Sean Connery as “Black Jack” Kehoe * Richard Harris as Detective James McParlan/McKenna * Samantha Eggar as Miss Mary Raines * Frank Finlay as Police Captain Davies * Anthony Zerbe as Tom Dougherty * Bethel Leslie as Mrs. Kehoe * Art Lund as Frazier * Philip Bourneuf as Father O’Connor * Anthony Costello as Frank McAndrew * Brendan Dillon as Dan Raines, Mary’s Father * Frances Heflin as Mrs. Frazier * Malachy McCourt as The Bartender

Running time 123 minutes

“You either end up on the gallows or coughing your lungs out, what’s the difference?”

With the Great Hunger still vivid in the minds of the newly arrived Irish immigrants to America as they spread across the country, many of them washed up in Pennsylvania coal country where they became miners. The mine workers were treated abysmally and most died young of diseases picked up in the mines or in the ghetto’s that surrounded them. The years between ‘Black 47’ and the depression of 1920-21 saw great turmoil in industrial America. Violent confrontation between workforces and bosses over poor working conditions and even poorer wages, as well as the threat of workers uniting in trade unions, were common in the cities and the coal fields that fuelled them. The promise of work for the unskilled and a better life drew large numbers of Irish people to north-eastern Pennsylvania. The choice for the poorest of the Irish poor was the coal mine. They came mostly from west Ulster and north Connacht. The Irish didn’t confine themselves to coal but to get the black gold to New York and Philadelphia they also dug canals as well as building embankments, tunnelling and laying track. But more than anything, the Irish dug coal. A Mayo-man looking round a coalfield is quoted at the time as saying

“Do you mean to tell me that this is America?”

In 1880, the ‘foreign-born’ accounted for 23% of the region’s population and Ireland was the birthplace of 41% of those, the figure underestimates the Irish as many would have been born in America, England and Scotland. It is thought well over 30% of the regional population would have been Irish. These were dark times of persecution for Irish Catholics and they were not to get better by crossing the Atlantic. These were the men and women who built America. A people who had escaped poverty and death only to find a world where they were still enslaved the only difference being the company had replaced the empire.

We have no idea exactly when The Molly Maguires came into existence but they gained prominence in the mine fields in the years around 1860. They were a militant secret cell within the open catholic organisation the Ancient Order of Hibernians. With no organised labour movement to speak of it became the Mollys who were the only protection those miners had. Protection was needed from anti-Catholic and anti-Irish discrimination, more than any other race they were used as scapegoats on whatever stage their enemies deemed fit. Irish working men started organising together while the, predominantly protestant, mine owners organised a paramilitary force to take them on. Violently breaking strikes and trade unions. Strikers and activists were sacked and evicted, their jobs and houses given to scabs, and ‘troublemakers’ often attacked and killed. In return the miners engaged in sabotage. Mines were flooded, breakers burned, stores dynamited and trains derailed. Mine bosses, superintendents and foremen, generally of English, Welsh or German extraction, were intimidated and killed and blacklegs and informers in the Irish community were ruthlessly punished. The rebellion came to an end with the execution of twenty people rounded up as Molly Maguires. They bravely went to the scaffold without betraying themselves or their comrades. The majority of the twenty had links to the same part of Ireland in west Donegal. At the time and right up until modern times (possibly around the time this film was made) the twenty men hanged as Molly Maguires in north eastern Pennsylvania were either valiant defenders of labour or

“the most noted band of cut-throats of modern times”

That controversy has ended and its clear now to all that the hanged men were innocent victims of a terrible miscarriage of justice.

So the stage was set in 1969 with radical politics and a vision of a better life for all not just a distant memory for a film to be based on The Molly Maguires to be made. In 1967 Director Martin Ritt was making ‘Hombre’ in which Scots-Irish actor Sean Connery’s then wife Diane Cilento was cast. Ritt had the idea for The Molly Maguires and asked Connery what he thought. Connery was interested but it took over four years to get the film off the ground. Both director Martin Ritt and screenwriter Walter Bernstein had been blacklisted by major studios in the communist scare of the 1950s.

leader of the Mollys
Jack Kehoe

The film is dirty and relentless and coal dust gets everywhere.  It was filmed in the abandoned Pennsylvania coal town of Ecksley, a place where the Mollys were active in their day, that adds credibility and authenticity to the picture. The colliery still stands along with the Emerald House pub, the company store and all the Mollys homes. A frighteningly impressive Sean Connery plays Jack Kehoe, the leader of the Mollys, while Richard Harris plays James McParlan. Kehoe is suspicious of McPharlan when he arrives to work at the mines but over time he begins to trust and allows him to join the Mollys and take part in their activities. Unbeknown to Kehoe, McPharlan is in fact working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency and has been sent to infiltrate and destroy the Mollys. The film is basically a clash between two ways of life. McPharlan who is willing to sell out and betray anyone to rise in class and Kehoe who puts the interests of his community first and is prepared to sacrifice all for the benefit of others. As McPharlan states in the film

“I’m tired of always looking up. I want to look down”

The history of Ireland has unfortunately been plagued with informers. People seduced by wealth or promises of land and power or simply those with no conscious they are rightly despised by all  to but we Irish have a special disdain for them. The story as told in the film sticks closely to the truth of what happened and is as gripping and well made a piece of radical cinema as has ever been made. From the soundtrack to the costumes and location and acting the film is dazzling and is today considered a masterpiece, and deservedly so, which makes it incredible to think it bombed so badly upon release. It put paid for a time the idea that either Connery or Harris would make leading men. In the critics minds the wordless 15 minute prologue as well as the decision to not let Sean Connery speak until 45 minutes into the movie couldn’t have helped.

Connery and Harris

There were no ‘Marquis of Queensbury’ rules in early industrial America. Decent people sometimes did terrible things. They still do. It is the way of the world. The Irish fought oppression first with dynamite and powder and then with political power. Soon the Irish were to rise to all levels of political influence and the old guard were dispensed with. Martin Ritt thought the films financial failure being down to audiences being unable to decide whether Jack Kehoe or Jim McParlan was the hero.

“They should have understood, that Kehoe, who was a murderer, was the hero of the film”

In another interview Ritt acknowledged that life was changing and some of the decent values that America was built on were also changing.

“I wanted to show that the villain in the film was the informer, a man who wormed his way into the graces of his fellow workers and then turned them in. To me that is a villainous act. And in the American tradition, an informer is a villainous person, although those ethics have been somewhat undermined by the hysteria of the communist scare”

In 1970, Middle America couldn’t accept Kehoe as the hero he has now become. As the films ends and with McParlan’s true identity revealed, he visits Kehoe in prison. It is a significant moment between the two of them, ending a relationship based on trust and bringing to the fore the differences between them. The final image that imposes McParlan against the gallows he has helped to build emphasises that we have an awful lot to be grateful for free men that will stand against oppression and fight back. Their is no Hollywood here. What the Mollys gave was their all. Their is no romance just two solid hours of an uncompromising and heartbreaking look into what working people have had to endure. Our job now is to make sure those conditions never return.

(the following clip is the final scene of the movie so don’t watch if you haven’t seen the whole film!)

The Molly Maguires Soundtrack

Composed, Arranged and Conducted

by Henry Mancini

For the film, composer Henry Mancini composed one of his finest musical scores, filled with jaunty Irish tunes and roaring dramatic evocative themes. Whether depicting early morning at the mines (the astonishing opening cue) or the resistance activities or the blossoming love affair, Henry Mancini’s score is right up there with his greatest soundtracks including such masterpieces as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, Days of Wine and Roses, Hatari!, Two For The Road and many others. amazingly it doesn’t appear to be available on CD anywhere.

Tracks

(click on the tracks in green to hear them)

Theme from The Molly Maguires (New Day in 1876)
The Mollys Strike
Main Title
Room and Board
Sandwiches and Tea
Work Montage
Pennywhistle Jig
A Hard Day’s Work
On Your Knees
Jamie and Mary
Trip to Town
Strike Two/Strike Three
The Hills of Yesterday
There’s More
The Mollys Strike Again
A Suit for Grandpa
Kehoe Lights Up/The Last Strike
The End

Buy The Film

plenty of places on the web or try Amazon  AllYourMusic as a last resort!

The Soundtrack

is out of print but since this article came out I have been sent a download link for it. Rather than put it here I will include it as a comment as these things have a habit of being taken down. So check the comments and download this rather brilliant album.If it does disappear leave a comment and we’ll try and upload it again.

Molly Maguires statue by Zenos Frudrakis in Molly Maguires Memorial Park, Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, USA

FILM REVIEW: SEAN CONNERY IN THE OFFENCE (1972)

“after 20 years, what Detective-Sergeant Johnson has seen and done is destroying him”

When I was a helluva lot younger than I am now I came across a film late one night hidden among the schedules. Strangely it starred the great Sean Connery which made me even more surpised that a film starring the biggest actor of our time could be hidden away with no fanfare so, intriged, I settled down for exactly what I wasnt sure. ‘The Offence’ finds two of Scotland’s greatest ever actors in a stripped-down, rough and tough little movie that pits his hard bitten veteren detective against the late Ian Bannen’s child molester suspect. The battle of wits between the two breaks only to look at the cop’s equally distressing marital life. Yes, a tough film to watch but incredible to marvel at the sheer power of Sean Connery’s performance as the driven yet ambivalent detective. Both Connery and Bannen are at their darkest best in this deeply disturbing film that examines exactly what men might be capable of doing if they are pushed to the edge.

“nothing I have done can be one half as bad as the thoughts in your head”

Somewhere just outside of London, 1973: Detective Sergeant Johnson (Sean Connery) is a burnt-out British police detective of some twenty years in the force and one of the lead detectives working towards the capture of a serial child molester who is menacing the satellite town which he calls home. Johnson is an abrasive man who is barely able to contain his simmering resentment towards his lack of promotion, the superiors whom he considers to be witless and a loveless marriage. His animosity towards the world is driven to breaking point when he crosses swords with Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen), a successful family man who becomes a suspect in the investigation. Over the course of one night, events come to a violent head whilst Baxter is in police custody; but what precipitated the violence? And what was the real motivation behind the offence?

Sean Connery

‘The Offence’ is an important film for two reasons: Firstly, it was one of the first widely released theatrical films featuring a major star to deal with the subject of child molestation (and it’s consequences) in a popular medium; and secondly it is one of about three films where the audience is treated to the sight of Sean Connery ACTOR rather than Sean Connery MOVIE STAR. For my money, Connery , though a great actor he had, post-Bond, coasted through the majority of his career playing a caricature of his 007 persona and who only ever really got to flex his acting chops to the max in two films – ‘The Offence’ and ‘The Hill’, both of which were directed by the late, great Sidney Lumet. Personally speaking, this film pips ‘The Hill’ (which is similarly brilliant) to the post for me because Connery as an actor expresses a degree of emotional vulnerability and psychological fragility that we were never to see again. It’s fairly apparent that post-Bond, Connery was attempting to shrug off the cast typing of Ian Fleming’s character once and for all, and his bravery as an actor here is formidable. His thinning hairline is, for the first time in his career exposed to the world for all to see and the charismatic calmness and composure of Bond is nowhere to be seen beneath Johnson’s moustache, sheepskin jacket, hat and tirades of blunt accusations.

“in this room you discover something like the truth about yourself”

Sean Connery

But there is far more to this film than just Connery’s performance. The screenplay, brilliantly adapted for the screen from the stage by John Hopkins, remains the most disturbingly brilliant examination of a man succumbing to what we would now call ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ that has ever been committed to film. It is all the more impressive because it is told in a way in which the audience first observes the aftermath of the offence itself without context; then the context of the situation; and finally the devastatingly catastrophic interrogation that immediately precipitates the offence itself.

“why ain’t you beautiful? You’re not even pretty”

Lumet as a director perfectly captures the soullessness of England’s then burgeoning ‘satellite’ new towns – vast, monolithic, semi-industrialized estates of office buildings, clone homes, motorways and underpasses which were constructed in the home counties in order to house the overflow population of London – using a drab pallet of rainy greys, caustic strip lighting, and shadow.

No other film has ever rendered the experience of living in one of these towns so effectively. The movie took just one month to film, at the low cost of $1 million and despite this and excellent notices, it failed to make any profit for nine years, and went unreleased in several countries including the major market of France.

Ian Bannen

This troubling psychological thriller is the kind of film that, for the most part, just doesn’t get made any more by big budget studios that are more interested in pandering to the lowest common denominator in pursuit of big bucks than telling an original story. It’s intelligent, erudite, understated, subtle and profoundly disturbing. An extremely tough film to watch but just marvel at the sheer power of Connery’s performance as the driven yet ambivalent detective.

(you can watch The Offence below. If the link goes down then please leave a comment below but sometimes their aint a lot we can do. If anyone has a better link than this one please add in the comments)

Language: English   Year: 1972   Runtime: 112 minutes

The film is available from Eureka Video who have re-released The Offence as part of their Masters Of Cinema collection. We recommend you buy from them (check out their whole fascinating catalogue) as their version comes with a whole host of special features as well as as a 36 page booklet with a essay on the film by critic Mike Sutton, a vintage interview about the film with Sidney Lumet, and rare archival imagery but it is also available from Amazon.

SEAN CONNERY

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020

FILM REVIEW: TAX CITY (2013)

written and produced by Andy Nolan
directed by Tom Begley
starring Jon Campling, Steve Collins, Mark Hutchinson, Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, Tony Barber and Emily Hall
http://www.clanlondonmovie.com

Tax City is a muscular drama directed by London based Irish-born Tom Begley and written and produced by Andy Nolan. Andy plays accordion in celtic-rockers The Bible Code Sundays who have been a permanent fixture on the London Irish scene for a good few years now. Set back in 1990s’ London, Tax City follows the sensational comeback of rock star Johnny Costa (Jon Campling), his tragic fall from grace and his perilous fight for survival on the streets of London. Costa is forced to confront Fintan, the brutal leader of a real life, Irish-dominated Taxing Squad gang that preys on the homeless community. Starring an outstanding star-studded cast including former world boxing champion Steve Collins and a member of one of the biggest movie franchises ever. A never before look at ‘cardboard city’ gives a thought-provoking look at how one act of desperation can change the lives of a family, friends and community.

TaxCity Facebook  ClanLondon Facebook

Official video for The Thinker taken from the album Elephant In the Room released 17th Nov 2014

‘Elephant In the Room’ iTunes

http://www.ronanmacmanus.com/

FILM REVIEW: IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE- THE SHANE MacGOWAN STORY

Music videos and archived footage supplement recent interviews in this documentary of ex-Pogues singer Shane MacGowan. We follow his life from the early days in Ireland and England, through his formation of – and later dismissal from – The Pogues, to his new band The Popes. Shane’s family, friends, and former bandmates comment on the music, the rumors, and the alcohol.

Directed by Sarah Share * Cinematography by Colm Whelan * Editing by Orla Daly

Ireland, 2001, colour, 91 min.

Starring Nick Cave, Paul Simonon, Shane MacGowan, Victoria Clarke, Maurice MacGowan, Sarah Share and more…

“He had a smart brain. It only lost a few million cells. ” Thus begins this documentary by Shane MacGowan’s Dad.

(Sadly YouTube have removed the film from its platform. It’s available to buy/rent on several sites but here is Part 1 the first fifteen minutes. The other parts follow but are unavailable in some countries)

If I Should Fall From Grace is a candid portrait and artistic overview of Ireland’s ‘punk poet laureate’ that traces the singer-songwriter’s life from his childhood in Ireland, through his troubled teenage years in London, on into his explosion on the punk music scene fronting the Pogues and beyond. On a deeper level, the documentary examines distinctly Irish themes of the diaspora and displacement, anti-Irish racism, ‘the Troubles’, Irish Nationalism, Alcoholism, the legacy of Irish folk music and culture, and the Faustian price paid for artistic genius. Did I mention that it has some of the finest songs ever written? Featuring insightful commentary from his closest friends, family members and collaborators, and at once heart-breaking and inspiring, the film suggests that despite the hard road taken, MacGowan has yet to fall from grace.

Never forgetting that his family’s land in Ireland is his true spiritual home, young Shane MacGowan found himself uprooted at an early age when his parents moved to London for work. Suffering from displacement and the anti-Irish sentiment of his new environment, MacGowan found acceptance and community in London’s emerging punk subculture and quickly realized that playing traditional Irish Republican fight songs to a frenetic rock beat was perhaps the most punk rock thing one could do in the anti-Irish climate of England in the 1970s and 80s. At once a poet in the ancient Irish folk tradition; a mesmerizing performer; a godfather of British punk; a contemporary songwriting genius in the tradition of Cave, Dylan, Reed, and Waits; and a fierce Republican fighter with the soul of a hopeless tragic romantic, the film is testament that popular music will not see the likes of Shane MacGowan’s magic again. Long may he play!

FILM REVIEW: GOOD VIBRATIONS (2013)

By Gerard Mellon

Writers: Colin Carberry (screenplay),  Glenn Patterson (screenplay)

Directors: Lisa Barros D’Sa  Glenn Leyburn

Stars: Jodie Whittaker  Liam Cunningham  Dylan Moran

Terri Hooley

If you haven’t seen Good Vibrations yet you should. It’s the story of Terri Hooley the Godfather of NI punk. After opening a record shop a few doors down from Belfast’s Europa hotel ( Europe’s most bombed building ) he stumbles upon a gig by Rudi and has what only can be described as an epiphany!! He decides to start a label so bands from Northern Ireland can get their music heard more widely. So Good Vibrations record label was born and the rest as they say is history.

The makers have re-created 70s/80s Belfast brilliantly with the drab grey/beige colours everywhere . The main actors are perfectly cast , Richard Dormer plays Hooley with a twinkle in his glass eye.

They bring to life tales of tours to the middle of nowhere , records released without any discs in the sleeves and some nasty skin bastards who haven’t a clue what they’re missing.

A feel good movie with a feel great soundtrack , it shows why some of the best punk ever produced came out of the wee six counties. There’s a hilarious cameo from Martin Cowan and Petesy Burns could have found himself a whole new career. Older punks like myself will revel in the nostalgia and younger ones can see where it all started for some of our greatest bands .

Honestly you just have to get this movie get a few cans turn the telly up LOUD and enjoy!!!!