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Gay Byrne - Filling the Hall
SINCE 9.15 HE HAS HELD THE NATION IN thrall: reading bits from the papers, playing the Mystery Sound, putting on records, talking to housewives on the telephone, using funny voices. BY Colm Toibin...
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Nell McCafferty - Keeping the Faith
IN 1970, WHEN NELL McCAFFERTY BEGAN to write for The Irish Times, everything was up for grabs. The certainties of Irish life were in the balance and only one thing was sure: there was going to be change around here and people would at least be given the chance to attack the church, the criminal justice system, the treatment of minorities, the social inequalities. Fifteen years later things have settled down: there is a new consensus, a lot of people are quite happy with it, DART comes on time. T
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Jack O' Shea - Talent and Commitment
WHEN JACK O'SHEA WON HIS FIRST ALL-Ireland as a minor in 1975, and afterwards cheered the Kerry seniors to victory over . Dublin, he could scarcely have foreseen, even in his daydreaming, how these two teams were going to dominate a decade of Gaelic football. One or other of them has contested every final since that day and the most memorable finals of the decade were those fought out between them....
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Vincent O'Brien - Sangster: Racing as Big Business
IN THE FIRST OCTOBER WEEKEND, SEVEN years ago, on which Magill appeared on newssstands, an Irish trained horse called Alleged won the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe. An Irish win in what is arguably Europe's most prestigious all age, mile and a half race is always important, but this victory had especial significance. For Alleged's win not only cliimaxed an unprecedentedly successful season for his connecctions (owner, trainer and jockey) but it also ensured that European racing would henceforth be i...
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Brian Friel - The Healing Art
ON 6 JULY 1979, WHILE HE WAS WORKING on the play Translations, Brian Friel wrote in his "sporadic diary": "One of the mistakes of the direction which the play is presently pulling is the almost wholly 'public' concern of the theme: how does the eradication of the Irish language and the subbstitution of English affect this particular society? How long can a society live without its tongue? Public questions; issues for politicians; and that's what is wrong with the play now. The play must concern ...
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The Women's Movement - One bold step forward, followed by a deluge of apologies
ON FRIDAY, THE 13TH OF OCTOBER, 1978, an ecstatic Nell McCafferty told the thousands of women who had marched through Dublin in an anti-rape protest: "The streets are ours. We are not looking for jail for men, we are not looking for casstration for men. We are not looking for men at all." That relatively tame remark caused havoc. By Pat Brennan
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The Class of 1977
1977. Elvis Presley died and King Lear was on the LEaving Cert. Mark Twain on the Inter and Thin Lizzy played in Dalymount Park. Dublin won the All-Ireland and the Clash played in TCD. Punk music was just beginnning to take off with a bang. We had a general election as well and the Soldiers of Destiny got back with Jack.
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As Time Goes By - January 1985
YOu're going to Kerry, they say. Be God, and aren't you the lucky one, they say. Fell on your feet there, they say. Lakes of Killarney. The Ring. The mountains. The clear air. The fish. Dick Spring. Sure, you're landed, they say, you're landed....
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The Bishops and the North
WHO?" ASKED THE PROTEST ANT SCHOOLchildren blankly as we asked directions to Bishop Cathal Daly's house on Somerton Road in Bellfast. "Oh, you mean the priest." The Catholic crozier still doesn't rate much in North Belfast. In Derry the stones in the street could have directed us to where Bishop Ned Daly, or Fr Daly as he's still known since his curate days, lives overlooking the Bogside and the Foyle. By Olivia O'Leary
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Top Job at RTE
Last April RTE advertised the job of Head of Sport (Programming) internally. Fred Cogley, the man in possession, was to move sideways! upwards. by Eamon Dunphy
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Music to my Ears
At about the time I stopped going to the pictures which was obbviously before the time the place went all hoity toity and started calling itself a cinema, I saw a film called "The Seven Year Itch". It featured an actor who was theatrically splendid and physically unprepossessive called Tom Ewell. It also featured an actress who, theatrically and physically, was quite theiLreverse. Her name was Marilyn M~Xroe although in according her the accolade of being physically splendid I have to admit that
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