EYE IADT MAGAZINE
LONG ISLAND SOUND RACHEL DROOP MUNKY
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So, this is it – the final issue of the Eye of the year, and the last of my tenure as editor. Over the last two years we have learned how to put together a magazine – sorting out printing and funding with a limited budget, arranging brainstorming meetings, putting together layouts, interviewing some of the most talented and interesting people within this college and distributing our efforts to every corner of the institute. It is a result that I am extremely proud of, and I hope it continues for many years to come. In this issue, we have interviews with two special past alumni – Niall Donnelly from the band Munky, who have just released their debut EP and are going to be hitting up Knockanstockan this summer, and former IADT student Rob Roche, who, along with his bandmate Timmy Nolan, comprise Long Island Sound, who have been a fixture on the Irish festival and club scene over the past few years. There will be hundreds off us in our final year who, in a few weeks, will be taking the next step into the adult world. These showcases of former students who have gone on to better things is illuminating – but we also have an article on the effect that the housing crisis has had and will have on our current generation, as well as articles on our reliance on alcohol, the pitfalls of content creation and the current movement for sustainable fashion. Also featured is Rachel Droop’s stunning photomontage work, which features on our cover, back-page and in her own dedicated section. Be sure to check her out on Instagram – you won’t be disappointed. Cheers IADT, it’s been a pleasure. Fionn
CONTRIBUTERS
EDITOR FIONN THOMPSON EVENTS EDITOR KATIE MALONE DESIGNER MICHAEL FORTUNE COVER RACHEL DROOP ‘Edinburgh Cover’
KATIE MALONE
KATIE MCCARTHY
NEIL WALSH
CHRISTOPHER O’FLAHERTY
AARON KAVANAGH MICHAEL FORTUNE
TS
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D N U O S D N A L S I G N O L 04. E D I U G T N E V E E M A 08. G E H T N I N I K S 09. UNKY M 10. P O O R D L E H C A R N O . I 4 H 1 S A F E L B A N I A T S U S . L O H 18 O C L A G N I K N I E R T D A T S D 22. E D N E T X E R U O E . C 3 N 2 E C S E L O D OF A
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Long Island Sound – ‘We Want To Be Part Of The Burgeoning Electronic Music Scene In Ireland’ Words: Neil Walsh
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‘We Want To Be Part Of The Burgeoni
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erlin-based Dublin producers Long Island Sound have been on a steady rise since joining forces in 2014. They are now a recognisable moniker on Irish festival line ups and are starting to make a name for themselves further afield. The pair – both 25 years of age – moved to Berlin two years ago in the summer of 2017; a move that has benefitted both their sound and output. One half of the duo, Rob Roche, graduated from IADT in 2017 having done Creative Music Production while the other half, Timmy Nolan, graduated from Maynooth with an Arts degree. The origin story for Long Island Sound is a classic tale of boredom and a shared taste of musical genres. As Timmy puts it: “Everyone was away on holidays, me and Rob were the only people left in Dublin out of our friend group and we both
made music.” The pair hit it off like a successful couple on First Dates – “We jammed in my house, like, twice, and it went kinda well, and we were like ‘let’s continue this.’” It has clearly blossomed into a successful relationship, and the pair haven’t looked back since. Of course, the key to any healthy relationship is striking a common ground and it’s obvious that Rob and Tim have a shared sense of what they should be doing and when they should be doing it. Whether it is their sound, location or label, they seem to agree on just about everything. Even with their Berlin venture, there was no disagreement with making the initial journey over, and there is no confusion about the desire to be based back in Dublin at some point in the not-so-distant future. As young men, making the most of their time and money is everything. On their move to
Words: Neil Walsh
nd sound
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“District magazine don’t care who I am Music or Electronic Scene In Ireland’ where I’m from, theyto live here so we Timmy harks back to how himself and Rob were Berlin, they said: “it’s cheaper have more time to spend on our music. We can in full agreement on how things should be done, just respect work two or three days here, get more gigs and as they seemingly always are. “Bobby Analog meet more people.” With the cheaper rent in (fellow Irish producer) helped us quite a lot, he my music” Berlin, for both a home and a studio, they have found they have been able to make and, in turn, release more music: “Our music has probably changed as a result (of moving to Berlin), but I’m not sure if that would’ve happened anyway if we were in Dublin, probably not” remarks Timmy, before acknowledging that Berlin has allowed them to become “way faster at making tunes. We have our own space and a lot more machines to work with. We wouldn’t have had the money to have our own studio space in Dublin because it’s quite expensive.” The move to Berlin has also seen a rise in their DIY ethic in regard to how their music is released. Earlier this year, they released their first EP on their own label, Signs Of Space.
gave us some advice. He put us through to some distributors and we sent them some music”, Timmy recounts. “It only became a viable option once we had a distributor sorted. Then, a general idea came about, and we realised that myself and Rob were on the same page in terms of what it was going to look like and what it was going to sound like.” Again, the cost of living in Berlin seems to have been an asset in setting up their own label. As Rob puts it “we had talked about it before but didn’t really have the money to do it”, while Timmy chimes in that it was “way less stressful than (he) imagined.” Rob and Timmy are both in agreement about what they want to be in years to come as Timmy prophetically proclaims that he wants to be
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“We wouldn’t have had the money to have our own studio space in Dublin because it’s quite expensive”
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part of the “burgeoning electronic music scene in Ireland, because there’s a lot of cool music being made.” For some, as two up and coming producers, leaving Berlin and coming back to Dublin may seem unwise, but for Rob and Tim, it is as much about home comforts, such as friends and family, as it is about their prospective music career: “Themaking music and then come back (to Dublin). I don’t want to be one of those people who fucks off and never comes back” Timmy states assertively, before Rob continues that “coming over here (to Berlin) was only ever somewhat temporary. It wasn’t like we were leaving Ireland forever. It was just to get away for like two years, like a ‘gap year’ type of thing. It will be a good time to leave (at the end of the year) - you don’t want to stay so long that you kind of end up hating Berlin.” They’re under no illusion that the closure of prominent venues such as Hangar and District 8 will make it more difficult for Irish artists to get gigs and more exposure. With the closure of these clubs and a struggle to get gigs and stuff released on the artists terms, it seems this might be feeding into a DIY, almost punk-like, ethic. “There’s a load of good music happening in Ireland at the moment, but there’s no venues. Maybe it is helping creatively, people are frustrated and are taking out their anger by making bangers” Timmy suggests, continuing that “it’s just such a shame because people don’t get to see producers or live
music in many settings. A lot of creatives just get up and leave (Ireland).” The pair were also critical of Ireland’s late-night licensing laws. “What’s the point of staying if there’s nowhere to go past 3 o’clock? One of the things that attracted us to come to Berlin was the fact that there is so many venues and so many opportunities.” It is easy to see – in terms of gigs at least – why the opportunities in Berlin far surpass those in Dublin. Compared to Dublin where nights usually consist of two or three artists on the bill, in Berlin you might have upwards of ten acts or, as Timmy puts it, “you have one act but they get to play for way longer. The thing about Dublin, or Irish laws in general, because the opening hours are so short but promoters want to pack out venues as much as possible, they get like five people to play over five hours so people only get to play for an hour each. You don’t really get to explore ‘new territories’ in electronic music, people just play bangers because they only have an hour.” Before they leave however, they do want to enjoy their last summer in Berlin and spend it playing festivals and producing more material for their next EP. “Hopefully we have a few more festivals and keep making as much music as possible because it’s kind of easy to get distracted during the summer. Studio early on in the day, get our music done and then enjoy our free time. Apart from that, get another record done I guess, maybe
two.” It is admirable to see the two lads have a clear goal and know that despite the hedonistic lifestyle that Berlin can offer, there’s no point in just wasting their time. Their advice for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation (aspiring artists just coming out of college), is a fairly simple one - be proactive. Rob says it’s simply a case of “put music out, start a label, get in contact with people. I think a lot of people who make music are too afraid to take the step of putting shit out, or starting a label, or getting in touch with a label they’d be interested in. Be productive.” Timmy advises that for young artists they don’t necessarily have to leave Ireland. “There’s amazing music being made everywhere. You don’t have to go abroad but spend a lot of time on it. It needs to be something you want to spend a lot of time on. We started getting more productive once we started going to the studio three or four times a week. People laugh if we go to the studio on a Saturday, they think we should take the weekend off, but we enjoy going to the studio. If you can, work as little as possible. That’s why it works over here because we can work (only two or three times a week). It wouldn’t work in Ireland.”
Facebook - https://www.facebook. com/LongIslandSoundEire/ Instagram – https://www.instagram. com/longislandsoundeire/ Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/ longislandsoundeire/
“People are frustrated and are taking out their anger by making bangers”
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EVENT GUIDE by Katie Malone
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Words: Aaron Kavanagh
e m a g e h t n i skin This is going to sound weird in a magazine aimed at predominately art and media students but, pretty please, could you stop creating stuff? The world is so focused on resources and management for overpopulation. One thing we won’t be short on – should we enter a global famine – is content vying for our attention. How about in addition to population control we have a World Summit on creation control? If you read the last edition of The Eye you may remember my attempt at being a poor man’s P.J. O’Rourke by-means-of Yahtzee Croshaw; an article so infamous and offensive it made Peter Sotos look like Roald Dahl, and just narrowly avoided me getting prosecuted in The Hague. It was called “An Asshole’s Guide to Anxiety�. I was originally flirting with the idea of calling this one “An Asshole’s Guide to Subsiding Your Ego and Realising Nobody Cares About the Shit You Make� but I didn’t want to cement myself to the “An Asshole’s Guide to [Blank]� format too early in my career. Also, who would read that? But here’s the problem – by writing this article I’m only adding to the influx. This article is content. But I justify it by imaging that the next generation of up-and-coming writers, who think they have something to say to the world, may read this and think, “Geez – this could be me. No thanks� and go and do something productive to society, like become a doctor, or a lawyer, or offer head in alleyways for crack. And the weirdo misfits who may read me and are so devoid of literary reference and comedic inspiration that they may actually cite me as a reference of inspiration – well, they’re destined for nothing anyway, so again, no stress. You’ve got to be some kind of mad egotist to see the endless barrage of content that we would need six billion lifetimes to consume all of and think “Yeah, I’ll add to that.� Because I appreciate such tenacity with such little common sense, I will offer you one advice – please yourself. I don’t
mean that as a euphemism for onanism. If you think, “What will others like?â€?, you’re outthinking yourself. Cut that shit out. It’s creative cancer. You’ve gotta do what pleases you, and hopefully, others will be pleased along the way. I know this verges on the Randian philosophy of “Selfishness is a virtueâ€? (I never actually had the lack of human spirit to read Ayn Rand’s philosophy; rather that’s the second-hand account of her philosophy I got from the song “Anthemâ€? by Rush), but it’s true. Write for yourself. And if you don’t like yourself, write to spite yourself, so you can really fuck with yourself, the prick. The comedy YouTube channel RedLetterMedia, in their Mr. Plinkett review of the 2009 Star Trek movie wrote: “In 1979, when Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released, there was like three channels, a TV, somebody had a radio, and a couple of movies were released each week. Today, there’s video on demand, mobile video, Netflix, Netflix Watch Now, satellite radio, digital cable, HD cable, Blu-Ray players, Redbox, internet porno, Amazon.com, Amazon.com Watch Now, Amazon.com Watch Instantly, Amazon.com Watch Spontaneously, iTunes, podcasts, iPhones, online webseries, IMAX theatres, internet porno, video games, Wii, Xbox, PlayStation, video games you play live, Facebook, Facebook for mobile phones, HD Flip Video camera videos, HD Flip Video camera video webseries, HD Flip Video camera video interactive webseries uploaded to Facebook via iPhone 4 Mobile Uploader app, 3-D movies, YouTube, vloggers, vlogs, Hulu, streaming video, and the zoo.â€? This video was originally uploaded in 2010 and now – almost a decade later – it’s only gotten worse. In their 2018 Year in Review, the pornography website PornHub did an internal evaluation (which, coincidentally, is my favourite category on PornHub) of their website. They found that “12 new videos and 2 hours of content are uploaded to Pornhub every minute‌â€? Besides me, who the fuck is that oversexed that they need that much porn? (And if the answer is you, HMU )
I have two solutions for this problem: one sinister, and one whatever the antonym of sinister is. I’ll start with the latter – first: as a global community we agree to take a sabbatical on making new stuff. I’d recommend a decade, just so we can all catch up on the shit that’s already out. The former, however, is borrowing principles from eugenics. Hear me out. Advocates of eugenics are sinister cunts. They believe, for example, that gay people have a “gay gene� that makes them gay. Here’s the thing: have you ever heard of the Sylvia Plath effect? If you haven’t, it’s a theory that states that more artistic people are prone to depression and suicide, and it’s named after the wonderful poet and author Sylvia Plath, who tragically took her own life at age 30. (And to the literary devoid kids reading this article that I mentioned earlier – read The Bell Jar!) Let’s say there’s a genetic element to this – let’s call it the “creative gene� – say we can screen it and isolate it as early as the child is in the womb, then I have a perfect solution. Here’s where I jump off the eugenics train, as eugenics advocates think that murder and genocide is the most benevolent means of dealing with things. My ethical approach is you identify the kids who have the “creative gene,� and we simply don’t educate them. All forms of education – public, private, home, even autodidactism - are all illegal to kids with the “creative gene�! Therefore, the kid who would go on to write the next Don Quixote can’t because they’ll be fuckin’ illiterate! You may find that cruel, but I say that if you’re so creatively devoid that you get pleasure from reading my writing, well, first of all, let’s be friends, but second of all at least your children won’t be missing their education, unless the “creative gene� skips a generation.
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Photo by Gary Morris-Roe
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Niall Donnelly is an IADT EMCS alumni who is now the bassist for
Words: Katie McCarthy
one of Ireland’s most promising funk metal bands, Munky. He is also the former head of the spoken word society, which is still active within the college. With their album Un, Deux, Trois, Cat being released at the start of April, I had the opportunity to talk with Niall about his time in IADT and what has happened since he left:
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Do you have a favourite gig you’ve performed at so far? Niall: Ah yeah but I don’t know what one! Two gigs last year stand out – we played upstairs in Whelan’s, and they were both sold out and both were class. The first night a lot of our mates were there, everyone singing along, singing back to us. I was like fuck yeah; it really was a ‘we are a band now’ kind of moment.
What has been the most challenging aspect of being in a band? Niall: (Laughs) Paying rent! Trying to manage time and also financially manage living in Dublin. (The most challenging thing) is probably trying to balance having a job and at the same time finding the time and energy to put yourself into the band.
Are you guys represented by a label? Niall: No, we are with MPRI artists who are a booking agency, so our mate Julian books loads of our gigs and gigs for other Irish artists. But other than that, it’s all funded by us – it’s the four of us, just the lads doing it ourselves, even when we make it look like someone else has done it (Laughs).
So, Niall, while at IADT did you have any musical aspirations? Niall: [Laughs] Absolutely not! When I was in IADT I was very much more focused on spoken word poetry and mainly getting drunk. I got into music through Zac, we were… inebriated, and he played me a demo off his phone and asked ‘’hey dude want to be the bassist in my band?’’ I woke up on his couch the next day and thought ‘fuck I’ve to be the bassist in his band now.’ That’s how I joined the band, I kind of fell into it.
How was the band formed? Niall: Pretty much that, the other members of the band were all in BIMM together (another college so we won’t fucking speak of it!). I’ve known Zac for years and I just showed up to a practise, met the other guys and they seemed fine. We just started practising together, the band gained speed and now we’re here!
Do you think your time at IADT
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helped you creatively? Niall: Yes! Being in a creative atmosphere and being around loads of artsy people who are involved in artsy things or sometimes just being ‘wasters’ (laughs) really exposes you to that world and really makes you try new things. It has an atmosphere where trying new creative things is accepted so it makes you more comfortable in getting involved in those kinds of things yourself. Peer pressure, fun!
Do you all contribute to the lyrical compositon of the songs? Niall: Well it’s pretty much Zac, the lead singer, coming to us with his ideas. He’ll basically come to us with lyrics which are generally pages and pages long and me and the rest of the band will help edit the stuff down with him. But yeah it depends, sometimes it’ll be all all four of us writing together, or sometimes Zac will just show up and be like this is the song and we’ll just work around that. Yeah so lyrically it’s mainly himself Zac but maybe a bit of me as well.
Do you prefer performing more political songs like ‘One in Five’ or more light hearted songs such as ‘Cuck Rock’? Niall: Ah, probably light hearted! We’ve only played One in Five twice now and it’s my personal favourite song from the EP, but it’s a tough subject in a live scenario. We’ve played it in places that weren’t Dublin before the EP was finalised and people seemed to have no idea what the fuck we were doing. There’s a noticeable shift in the atmosphere in the room – people said afterwards that they enjoyed it, but I don’t think it created the best vibe while we were playing. So yeah definitely prefer lighthearted, people jumping around having the craic.
What inspires you most as a musician? Niall: (Laughs) Feckin’ hell. Probably jamming with people who are your friends messing around, doing whatever. When you’re all just playing individual things and it all comes
together. The beginning stages of writing when everyone’s just jamming together having fun, getting into the flow of it. You all become in sync with each other, and then you just look at each other and say, “oh that was unreal what was that” It’s the pure love of it! Those moments help you through when you actually have to do work!
Do you have a personal favourite song - on the new album or in general? Niall: I love all the songs! ‘One in Five’ is my personal dark horse on the new album and I also like Miscommunication; it’s a long one though. We had that one for so long, we’d been playing it for ages and finally got it recorded so very happy to get that out there. We have new material that’s sillier funk music which I love. There’s a song called ‘Bootsy Collins’ about the bassist for Parliament Funkadelic – just about how he’s a deadly dude. We also have a song about Marty Whelan, called Mary Whelan. So either of those two are up there with the serious stuff as well.
What inspired the name of the band? Niall: Christ it’s such a bad, bad name. (Laughs) We were actually called something else, which I heavily vetoed. We were called Brother Nature, not a fan sorry lads. And then we were coming up to our first gig and literally until the day before we were still called Brother Nature, but we couldn’t let that happen. (Laughs) So then I’m not sure who said it but we’re kind of metal but funky, so Munky. It’s funky but with an M. We thought fuck it it’ll do for the first gig now three years later, it’s still funky with an M.
Do you guys have any gigs in the future that you’re looking forward to? Niall: We have a tour coming up in June with the Meat Puppets who played with Nirvana back in the day. So that tour will be going around Ireland, the UK, around Europe and then back to the UK. One of the Dutch shows is already sold out so that’s going to be cool. Really looking forward to going back touring again, and with this tour around Europe like a real band!
Do you prefer touring, or do you prefer small, local gigs? Niall: Well it is really different. Touring is a weird experience because after a couple days it all kind of blurs into one. It is great craic though, it’s like a holiday except you’re spending five to twelve hours a day sitting in a van with four smelly dudes in the baking summer heat! (Laughs) So yeah, it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, and it can be a manic experience. Whereas playing gigs in Dublin, you can go home and shower afterwards, it’s definitely more sanitary! (Laughs)
Does the band have anything in the works for new music? Niall: Yeah, we have a lot of new stuff coming. A new album is still a bit far away just because going to a recording studio is fucking expensive! We have enough material to be released to make up maybe three or four EPs, so whether we’re going to do those as EPs or individual songs has yet to be decided. We are going to release a lot of new music this year anyway.
Could you briefly describe your creative process? Niall: (Laughs) Make sure the bass is plugged in! But mostly it would be that someone comes up with an idea for a song and we’ll add our own parts, or it can be more of an organic flow, where we’d just mess around and see what works. So, it can be natural or more structure… but I just make sure it’s all plugged in to be honest!
What was the inspiration behind the new album? Niall: Well it includes some of our more serious songs. It just happened by chance that our heavier rock songs fit together on one EP and that they had a stronger lyrical message as well. As for one defining inspiration or message I’m not entirely sure.
What’s the inspiration behind the album art?
Niall: The cover was done by the amazing Barra Carlin (@Barra.Carlin.Designs). He’s great! Initially we were going to have a cat wearing a little jumper and the jumper was going to say ‘We can do better’ on it. So, if there was an overall message from the EP, it is that we can do better, specifically men.
Is there anything else you would like to add? Niall: (Dramatic pause) Is the pop bottle still tied to the tree in the orchard?
It is not unfortunately! Pop tree is dead. Niall: Damn! They tried to kill pop tree before but it just kept coming back!
I was lucky enough to attend the launch for the new album, which was held in the Grand Social in early April, and I can say that unlike the pop tree in IADT, Munky will not be dismantled by the authoritative powers that be, and they will continue to bring their unique funk-rock sound across the country and soon throughout Europe. Excited to hear more from this aspiring group of lads.
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FEATURED ARTIST
rachel droop My art is in mostly photomontage. Photographs are so commanding and that’s what I love about them. They’re sincere and pure or, fake and staged. They cause problems, they solve problems. It has been used to hearten, awaken and inform people. It has also been used to exploit, control and corrupt people.
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My work all have their own intentions or emotions. They’re fantasies, observations, reactions, jokes and stories. They enclose frustration, optimism, pleasure,
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distress and nostalgia.
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Bedroom I pick and choose what I share in terms of the vulnerability behind the picture. But I’m definitely getting better at not caring about other people’s impressions of me. I hope to share bolder, more unguarded work that will hopefully provoke worthwhile discussions about humanity. In regards to tolerance, consideration, inclusion and acceptance of others.
Words: Christopher O’Flaherty
e c n a i l e r y a D n r e d The Mo l o h o c l A g n i k n i r D on In our contemporary culture there is such a reliance on drinking alcohol – a large majority of people seem they need to rely on alcohol to ‘have fun’. This is so false. Yes, it makes you feel funny and seems to give you more confidence when talking to that good-looking girl or lad in the club but let me enlighten you for a second. That confident person that comes out when you’re intoxicated is still you: alcohol gives you an almost fail-safe if it doesn’t go your way. It lets you blame the drink if you do something embarrassing – that confidence is always there. What’s the worst that happens when you do it drunk or sober? The worst result is still the same and yet, one somehow seems to be worse than the other? The girl or guy will say no: that’s it. It’s the same sober or drunk. Drunk people often seem to get away with things much easier than sober people. If a drunk person was dancing on the tables having a laugh, people would think that’s amusing and entertaining to see. Now if a sober person does that, people would think you are absolutely off your head and a bit crazy. Why does it make a difference? You are still the exact same person at the end of the day. Money: we all need it to survive and to get through life, so tell me why people can spend hundreds of Euro on one single night out and then when they remember almost none of that, they consider it a ‘good night’. Why is spending so much money on a night that you can’t remember considered good?! It makes no sense at all. I asked a few of my friends how much money then would spend on a night out – some said 50, some said 100, others said more. The least amount of money I heard was about 40. That is just over four hours working minimum wage, and that’s the lowest amount. When you’re talking about 100s – that’s some people’s pay for a whole week! You can spend that money on something so much more worthwhile: food, bills, holidays, clothes. This list could go on forever. Another thing is health: according to The Journal ‘More than 1000 people die from alcohol related deaths a year.’ That’s 3 people per day. We are all aware of the effect alcohol has on your body, but we brush it aside. Why? It’s a very threatening and scary thing to just brush to the side. Becoming dependent on something like this will really bite you in the ass in the future. Serious extensive drinking can lead to health problems such as but not limited to – cancer, strokes and high blood pressure, and the list goes on and on. The risks extensively outweigh the benefits of alcohol. All considerably bad things that put your health at serious health. Any person who has suffered a serious health issue from alcohol will tell you that not only will they not ever drink again but they would also advise you to not drink as much.
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Doing something you’ll regret: more often than not alcohol makes you do things you will regret when you are sober, such as cheating on your girlfriend/boyfriend, hitting your friend or saying something you really weren’t supposed to say. On the more serious side of things, incidents such as domestic abuse, assault and drink driving are serious offences and are caused by the effect of drinking extensive amounts of alcohol. People can get seriously hurt mentally and physically from you consuming too much alcohol. Even if your friend accidentally spills a secret about you to some random person – or worse, to someone you know – something you told one person you trusted in confidence is now passed onto somehow else. Drink driving is also a serious problem: according to Alcohol Ireland in 330 collisions, 286 people died. 38% of people in driving related incidents or accidents are drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists or pedestrians who have consumed alcohol. The stigma: there is the stigma that is related to certain cultures and countries when it comes to alcohol. Irish people are one of them. A lot of the time when someone thinks of an Irish person, they relate it someone drinking Guinness or whiskey and being a drunkard. Similar things occur for other countries such as Russia – they more often associated with drinking vodka. Let’s do one more example: Americans are often associated with drinking beer. This stigma was built by alcohol companies marketing to a certain audience. All coming from a sense of nationalism, you weren’t a real Irish person if you didn’t drink Irish whiskey or you weren’t Russian if you didn’t drink Russian vodka. It’s all a bunch of waffle and most of the time it’s just companies wanting your money. The stigma is damaging to society because it promotes unhealthy living all the while neglecting great things about the certain nationality’s background. For example, Irish people are often quite polite, Russian are often quite prideful, and Americans quite often have a good work ethic (there’s a reason why they have the most billionaires.) They all have great qualities that are overlooked by this stigma on drink. In conclusion, should you stop drinking? Maybe. There’s a lot of benefits of not drinking and the list is quite large, but that’s not too realistic. It is important however to be careful about the amount you ingest in your lifetime. It’s reasonable to have a drink with your mates or enjoy a whiskey with your grandad. Just try cut down on the amount you drink next time you do, and you’d be surprised by how you will still have a good time. Just remember this. You do not need it to have fun. You do not need to get out of that dark hole you are in. You do not need it to do anything. Don’t let some liquid dictate certain aspects of your life. There’s no such thing as drunk you and sober you – they’re the same thing. You are your own person.
Words: Fionn Thompson
OUR EXTENDED STATE OF ADOLESCENCE
The housing crisis means that we can’t fly the nest – and our generation is suffering because of it.
T
he housing crisis. You’re probably sick of hearing this phase – dominating our media’s airwaves and the focus of any politically-minded pub talk, it has never been far from any description of contemporary Irish life. It has become emblematic of the generation reaching their 20s in the so called ‘Recovery’ (the infamous Fine Gael 2016 election slogan of ‘Let’s Keep the Recovery Going’ springs to mind) as we supposedly reap the benefits of an Ireland returned to its rightful, pre-2008 place as economic dark horse of the European Union. The cranes have returned to dominate Dublin’s skyline; Harcourt St. is full once more; and echoing calls of the ‘Celtic Phoenix’ reverberate around the lofty penthouses of Grand Canal Dock. Surely, opportunities are abound, the people are happy and our society is growing as a result. Not exactly. The rise of rent and the lack of availability of homes means that fewer and fewer of us are moving from our parent’s home. Coupled with the reduction in the availability of grant money from the Irish government, the rising cost of living and the rise in university fees, college students are finding it increasingly difficult to garner the funds to fly the nest – and that’s assuming that there would be a house for us to move to. But it’s not just affecting us in our bank accounts – it is stalling the development and maturity of an entire generation, causing us to delay key life events, extend our adolescence and remain indebted to the generation that preceded us. When those who have the means, luck or connections to move out are seen as an outlier, rather than the norm, and are seen as the lucky ones or the ‘jammy bastards’, that’s the time when we know we have a problem. When the vast majority of people in their 20s are still living at home, under the yoke of their parent’s control and lacking the financial autonomy to craft their own life’s path, it is a worrying indictment for their ability to cope with the wider world. The idea of spending four years (or more) of your
life in so many ways – through a baptism of fire, one must learn how to budget, how to cook, how to make executive decisions. It teaches cleanliness, order and respect for one’s surroundings, but also opens up the diversity of socialisation, providing a welcome centre-point for social interactions and the ability to take control and craft alternatives. This is ever more important in the wake of Dublin’s nightlife – already shackled by restrictive licensing laws, early closing times and high barriers to entry – being torn down in the quest for apart-hotels, as evidenced by the loss of Hangar and District 8. The ability to nurture and grow long-term relationships is inhibited; I think everyone reading this knows the difficulty of bringing a girl or lad home after a night out, being careful not to be too loud so as not to wake those with work the next day. Even those with significant others understand the struggles of being in a relationship while still at home – the lack of spatial independence means that you are confined to a space not owned by you, and playing by another’s rules, meaning we may as well still be 17 in that respect. This juxtaposition represents the complexity and contradiction of contemporary Irish life – for supposedly one of the richest economies in the world, the failure to provide the most basic of human rights – in housing, health and education – is startling as much as it is baffling. Gone, supposedly, are the old haunts of dole queues and emigration, the latter being such a fixture in the Irish psyche that it has reached mythical levels, caked into our national fables and tall tales in equal measures alongside Cúchulainn, Fionn mac Cumhaill or the Fianna (you’re probably more likely to hear the surnames Murphy, Kelly or O’Sullivan on the streets of Boston than Dublin.) But in their place comes the queues to view a one-bedroom flat, as I’m sure everyone has anecdotal evidence of vast swathes of people turning up for a chance of residence. Not everyone has to emigrate these days, we are told – unless you’re a nurse, teacher or doctor, unable to live in
land in the Greater Dublin Area – with Ireland’s biggest landlord, Ires Reit, owning a total of 2,679 residential units at the end of 2018, worth a whopping €921.3 million, and achieving 99.8% occupancy rates. Ires Reit are just one of many REITs, or real estate investment trusts, that are a tax efficient way for people to invest in a property market and were established in Ireland after the Finance Act of 2013. These REITs are basically companies that purchase large amounts of properties – usually at a cut-price cost – and the company is then traded on the stock market, enabling investors to profit from the property market without being directly involved with the ownership of the property themselves. The sheer scale of Ires Reit and other REITs schemes just like it renders it relatively impervious to government regulation – their high turnover of apartment leases mean that they aren’t necessarily bound by the government’s ruling that rent can only be increased every two years; rent can be increased every time a new rental contract is signed, which in their case is quite often. Trinity’s controversial Burkean Journal, in their September 2018 article ‘Why Career Landlords and Fine Gael Love #TakeBackTheCity’, rightly pointed out that government sanctions and rent control harm small landlords – those with just one property – who cannot absorb the loss of any missed payments, unlike those with larger portfolios, including 18 of the 50 Fine Gael TDs, who are registered as landlords. The rise of rent – 31% higher than the 2008 peak – and chronic undersupply as rental properties are regularly sold due to the increasing property prices, coupled with the rising costs of insurance, everyday items and the general stagnation of wages across the public and private sector, has reaffirmed the notion that ‘The Recovery’ is as big a myth as Fine Gael’s social progressivism. The number of people going to college increases every year – and the number of houses available to rent
life in an environment meant to stimulate your mind, open it to new ideas and challenge pre-conceived ideas falls flat when one cannot do the same when they are outside of that environment. A person’s first time flying the nest prepares them for adult
our supposedly fair city on pitiful wages as the costs of living go through the roof. But how did this happen? The disastrous mismanagement of NAMA enabled the rapid expansion of vulture fund property portfolios to purchase vast sways of property and
decreases subsequently. Going to college in the past was part and parcel with flying the nest, moving on to the next chapter, and placing a foothold on the first step to full adulthood. If we can’t even sort out a living space for ourselves, how are we supposed to sort out our lives?
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Words: Katie Malone
Re-fashion Our Relationship with Clothes
SUSTAINABLE FASHION AND THE IADT SWAP-SHOP Out of the large wardrobe that you own, what do you actually wear and how often? Now, picture your wardrobe, multiply this with your family, your friends, and their friends. This adds up to masses of items of clothing barely worn. Currently, we own four times the amount of clothes our parents would have, and that is only a small insight into one individual’s social network. What does this look like on a global scale? 80 billion pieces of new clothing are purchased each year - with this inflated expenditure on clothing happening annually, it seems that the more we consume, the more we waste. The Copenhagen Fashion Summit of 2018 reported that the fashion industry is responsible for 92 million tons of solid waste dumped in landfills each year. How have we ended up in this position? The fast fashion industry. Fast fashion is a term used to describe the readily available, inexpensively made fashion of today. The fast fashion model is a scheme curated
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by the fashion industry and its associated brands, which lures in its consumers by constructing the illusion that you will feel innately happier and more fulfilled by purchasing and consuming fashion trends. This image can be bought at a cheap price, but at what cost? The mechanisms of the fashion industry are seen through multiple marketing strategies perpetuated by the industry – such as the reconstruction of the clothing seasons, which were originally two seasons; a summer and a winter season. This has intensely multiplied on a large-scale to our current position with 52 fashion micro-seasons visible in the market. This reimagined season model is one of the many tools used to entice its customers to keep up with the fast-moving trends and consume more frequently. The construction of 52 micro-seasons drives the production of inexpensive clothing. How? The prices are kept down by outsourcing production to low and middle-income countries.
With the rise of globalization, neoliberal practices and the growth of transnational economies, supply chains have been able to outsource the growth of fibres, the manufacturing of textiles and the construction of garments to areas with cheaper labour and resources. Currently, 97% of our clothing is outsourced from developing countries. This has led to the increase of job opportunities arising from the clothing industry, with 1 in 6 individuals currently at work in the clothing industry globally. However, 98% of these individuals are working under the living wage. The people making our clothes are often in poor working conditions, enduring hardships in textile production factories with unethical employer’s rights and forced labour. This generates a binary opposition of human experience, but both linked to fast fashion. Privileged and westernised societies are gaining the advantages of cheap fashionable items and a large variety of styles at the expense of underprivileged nonwestern societies who are suffering the consequences of constructed capitalistic values and conspicuous consumption. The textile and garment industries transfer the environmental and occupational burdens associated with mass production and disposal from high-income countries to these under-resourced and low-income communities. This allows the fashion industries to maintain a façade that they are abiding to their governments policies while outsourcing the damage and effects to low-income countries, perceiving their landscape and labour as disposable. The exploitation of labour and land is evident within the fast fashion model. The clothing industry currently holds the title of being the second highest polluting industry in the world. The clothing industry encourages its consumers to perceive fashion as a disposable product, but our land is becoming more and more filled while we are still buying, wearing and disposing. We are tripling the amount of clothing we buy, but these items are no longer formed from natural, high quality materials, but made from high energy, harmful synthetic substances that are non-biodegradable. The synthetic textile polyester is derived from oil and is nonbiodegradable, while cotton requires large
The clothing industry currently holds the title of being the second highest polluting industry in the world
amounts of water and pesticides to grow. Fashion is a reflection of our times and we are the fabric of the fashion industry. Fast fashion is addictive, exclusive and hierarchal which influences its consumers to make quick decisions and choices. It uses unethical and oppressive methods and disregards safety levels in order to keep the price low to make people keep purchasing which is exploitative of both earth and experience. It sets up a juxtaposition of imagery, on one hand; the images of high street fashion, cat walks and advertisements and on the other hand; the images of landfills and sweatshops. How do we stop this extremely polarising juxtaposition of images? Slow and sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion is about deep thinking and making decisions that are responsible and careful. It is about finding creative processes and solutions that value and respects all parts of the supply chain. Sustainable fashion makes you engage with your garments and your relationship with them, while caring for the clothes that you already have. It is a system that is both ethical and empowering. Sustainable fashion is encouraging the clothing industry to steer clear of a linear system (take-make-waste) and to embrace a more circular approach instead (with a focus on durability and avoiding waste). The movement has seen brands and industries adopting various strategies and to take action against the fast fashion industry to incorporate sustainability into its decisions. One of the main areas that have been tackled has been introducing sustainable fibres such as recycled materials, hemp and linen. Industries and brands have been making changes in their trade policies and corporate regulations, which is the most effective solution in
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Sustainable fashion communities believe that together we have the power to make a significant positive change that will affect the future of our planet
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bringing about large-scale change to the fashion industry. Examples of sustainable brands include PeopleTree, Everlane, Veja and ABLE. However, the role of the consumer has a role to play in supporting companies and practices that minimize their negative impact on humans and the environment. Ways to do this include buying high-quality clothing that lasts longer, shopping at second-hand stores, repairing clothing they already own, and purchasing from retailers with transparent supply chains. In Ireland, the rise of sustainable fashion is emerging on a large-scale. The NuWardrobe, which was created by an Irish student Aisling Byrne, has seen the arrival of an online platform to share your clothes free of charge, which is a way of extending the life cycle of clothes and reduce waste. The Good On You app stores data for more than 2,000 brands and allows users to type in the name of a brand, or a type of garment, and instantly see a rating out-offive as well as a summary of how ethical the company is. Different forms of media are a great way to learn about the fashion
industry, the environment and how to change your own personal relationship with clothes. The documentary The True Cost is an eye-opening production which informs its viewers about the cycle of ‘careless production and endless consumption’. There are also grassroots events happening around Ireland on campuses, in cafes and by communities such as swap-shops and repair stations. Recently, for Fashion Revolution Week, the Dublin branch of Patagonia set up a free screening of The True Cost in their shop. Berlin D2, The Bernard Shaw and The Third Space café in Dublin recently hosted swap-shops for free and were open to the public. These events are becoming more of a regular occurrence. A culture based on protection of the environment is something that has been encouraged on the IADT campus through the active Student Union members, who recently won the award for the ‘Small SU Team of the Year’ this April. Our students have also always been greatly involved in activism; this was recently shown by student, Stevie Wilson, who has run two
we can re-fashion our relationship with clothing by engaging in slow, caring and sustainable fashion choices that eliminate the detrimental social and environmental costs swap-shops in IADT this semester. Stevie is in her second year of a BA(Hons) in Art. I spoke to Stevie, who told me about her interest in environmental activism. She gained compassion for ethical choices in clothing through attending different sustainable clothing events. She attended her first event about three years ago and has been cutting down on buying clothes since, as well as gaining a larger awareness of labels she buys from now. Stevie is also hugely invested in animal rights and is a practising vegan. I asked Stevie what inspired her to run a swap-shop in IADT, she said after attending sustainable fashion events she noticed that there was a demand for it. Stevie explained she was already used to swapping clothes with her group of friends so opted towards trying to do it on a larger scale. She expressed that she knew it was going to work out because of the ethos of IADT and its students. The first swap-shop was hosted in the courtyard of IADT on a beautiful sunny day and ended up being such a great success that two weeks later Stevie hosted a second event in the chapel. I asked Stevie if she had any personal advice on how to become more sustainable, and she recommended only buying clothes from second-hand, charity and vintage clothing shops and swapping with friends. I worked with Stevie on the first swap-shop and it was a fantastic
experience, I highly recommend students to join Stevie in future swap-shops and to help her grow the sustainable fashion community in IADT and aiding towards a greener campus! Sustainable fashion communities believe that together we have the power to make a significant positive change that will affect the future of our planet. Through events such as swap-shops, repair workshops and sustainable fashion talks, we can refashion our relationship with clothing by engaging in slow, caring and sustainable fashion choices that eliminate the detrimental social and environmental costs. The breadth and depth of social and environmental abuses that are evident in the fast fashion industry warrant its classification as an issue of global environmental justice. Let’s continue to explore the possible alternatives to the distribution, recovery and recycling of clothing together as a campus and encourage cyclical and conscious consumption!
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RACHEL DROOP ‘Bedroom’
RACHEL DROOP ‘defenceless’
