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Contents
Going Forward: A New Challenge The Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on us, like it has on many other magazines, organisations and businesses globally.
Page 5 Talking Point: Putin’s Folly
Ruth Grone: The Last Survivor
Unfortunately we are faced with a landscape that has irreversibly changed since the Big Issue first hit the streets in 1995. To meet this challenge Ireland’s Big Issue must also change.
We must support the Ukranian people. Shaun Anthony reports.
Ruth Grone was 8 when the Nazis came and forced her family into so-called Jew houses. Laureen Dreesch and Uli Matthias report.
We have reluctantly decided, albeit with a heavy heart, to host the magazine digitally only for the foreseeable future. From now on, Ireland’s Big Issue will focus our support on the Irish Homeless Street Leagues. This volunteer-driven, non-profit has been using the power of sport to transform the lives of men and women who’ve found themselves affected by social exclusion all across Ireland north and south. By continuing to support the magazine online you’ll be helping to develop resilient individuals and stronger communities, connecting people and promoting equality and diversity, inspiring and motivating those affected by social issues and essentially giving people the confidence and tools to become the best possible version of themselves. We will also be adjusting the content to reflect the times we live in. We thank you for your support to date and ask that you continue to help us help those on the margins of society. This has always been our aim and shall continue to be our driving force. Digital Edition Contacts: Editor: Sean Kavanagh Ireland’s Big Issue Email: info@irelandsbigissue.com
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Page 6 Letter to my Younger Self – Mat Oxley Motorcycle author and TT winner Mat Oxley takes on the challenge.
Page 16 Irish Books that Became Big Screen Hits Shaun Anthony looks at five Irish novels that were sucessfully adapted for the cinematic experience.
Page 8 Housing for the People
Page 22
“I was homeless on the road raising a child,” Detroit Richards, a victim of domestic violence tells her story.
Page 10 Ukraine Crisis Colleen Tait & Tony Inglis share the Ukranian situation from the ground.
Page 13 Unmasked A Masterpiece
Ulysses: One Hundred Years On Despite being banned in Britain the the U.K., James Joyce’s Ulysses would later be celebrated as revolutionising literary expression and inspiring the likes of Edna O’Brien to pen novels on everyday life. Sam McMurdock reports.
Page 30 What Causes a Tsunami? An ocean scientist explains the physics of these destructive waves? Sally Warner reports.
Page 39
Incognito 2022, Ireland’s Biggest Online Art Sale in aid of the Jack & Jill Foundation is back.
The Podcast Review We review some of the best new podcasts.
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Issues: Talking Point
Putin’s Folly W
e must support the Ukrainian people. Sean Kavanagh reports.
We should not be surprised by the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s army. They say the lessons of history are a valuable resource in understanding mankind. So why are some surprised at Vladimir Putin’s actions. In the 1930’s many saw Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the potential for world chaos, but all was ignored until it was too late. People underestimated the danger both in Germany and abroad and the world and its people suffered. Anyone familiar with Putin’s rise and consolidation of power can see the parallel between his regime and that of Hitler, both sustained in power by a handful of corrupt cronies in powerful The positions and an West has woken up. uniformed public. Putin is undoubtedly a shrewd version of Germany’s former chancellor. A former KGB colonel in an organisation that was past its best he was going nowhere fast. Until he switched to local politics in St Petersburg, making himself a reliable fixer in the Mayors office. He was recommended to Russia’s ailing president Yeltsin who placed him in charge of the FSB the successor to the KGB. With Yeltsins ailing health and unpopularity, those oligarchs who yielded power within the Kremlin saw Putin as a safe and amenable pair of hands (how wrong they were ). Named as acting President upon Yeltsin’s resignation but little known outside the Kremlin and lacking charisma it was unlikely that he would have won the upcoming election to be President. Using his KGB connections however and realising he needed an issue that would galvanise people to vote for him. He - it is widely believed was responsible for 4 bombing attacks on apartments in Moscow, which resulted in more than 300 casualties with the blame conveniently placed on Chechen rebels. This afforded Putin the opportunity to invade Chechnya, a war that gained him public popularity and assured his election. He then set about securing his position. Russian media outlets that were critical of him were 5
quickly shut down and replaced with a controlled friendly media. Independent journalists and editors murdered. Prominent businessmen who criticised the wisdom of his leadership were silenced, hauled to court on thumped up charges and stripped of their financial assets, many still languish in prison. Political Opposition was curbed, the constitution changed to allow Putin to rule until 2036. Opposition abroad was eliminated by use of poison induced chemical agents. Who can forget the tragic and agonising death of Alexander Litvinenko in London. More recently opposition critic Yuri Navalny so popular in Russia with his clever use of social media to expose corruption and his very popular rallies, was prevented from seeking election on the pretext of erroneous criminal changes. Exposing Putin’s lavish lifestyle on the internet was too much for Putin to bear and having survived poison by Novachak – with treatment abroad- Navalny found himself jailed on his return home on yet more thumped up charges. And so with opposition at home curbed, Putin set his sights further afield. Seeing the west’s meek response to his invasion of the Crimea, Putin was embolden and determined to restore Russia to its former Soviet Union glory and power base. Hence we are where we are now. The west has woken up, due in no small way to the Ukrainian people’s determination to have a say in their future. Ordinary people realise what’s at stake and have made their voices heard, political leaders can no longer stand idly by. Where this will end, nobody knows, people will have to endure pain and sacrifice, and we must accept that, because if we don’t support those in need today, it could well be us tomorrow.
Issues: Life
Letter to my Younger Self Mat Oxley
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ach issue we ask a well-known person to write a letter to their 16-year-old self. This issue, motorcycle author and Isle of Man TT winner Mat Oxley recalls a messy childhood, saved by fast motorbikes and punk rock in his letter to his 16-year-old self.
Sixteen-year-old Mat was going to join the British Army. I was clueless! I’d been set on this course since I was a wee kid, crawling through ditches with plastic rifles, then cadet stuff at school. Everything’s a dream when you’re that age. You daydream how things will be. Then reality catches up, overtakes and pulls a big, tyre-smoking handbrake-turn right in front of you.
I would tell my 16-year-old self to always listen to your heart, your soul and your gut. You change fast when you’re a kid, so what felt right five minutes ago may not feel right anymore. This was 1975 and my life was starting its own handbrake-turn. Punk rock and motorcycles were just around the corner – they’re what saved me. I probably come from the last generation of British children to be routinely terrorised by adults at school and at home – beaten by teachers and by my dad.
That happened to me during an interview Interviewing six-times MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez at Horse Guards, on London’s Whitehall. I was being assessed Boarding schools are evil for a university commission: the army pays your way institutions, a perverse British tradition that produces through uni, then gets its pound of flesh; three years of sad little men, some of whom go on to rule our country. your life! They shouldn’t be legal. I was sent away, aged Boarding eight, with my older brother Julian, I was sat in front of a panel army 150 miles from home. schools are evil top brass, scared sh*tless, when institutions, a perverse British suddenly it hit to me: I hate I used to pray that mum and tradition that produces sad little these people! dad would go bankrupt, so they men, some of whom go on to rule couldn’t afford to send us away. the country. I have an almost cinematic My prayers were answered when memory of the moments after the I was at this weird crammer school in interview: walking out of Horse Guards Devon, but the (barking mad) owners kept on a hot summer’s day, tearing off my tie (the tiniest act me on for free. I became their whipping boy. of rebellion, but a start) and asking myself: what the f*ck was I thinking?! If I could’ve spoken to myself in those dark days I 6
would’ve said: it won’t always be like this, you’ll soon have your freedom and you’ll never see these maniacs ever again.
I’m proud of what he did. Mad or not, he feared no one and, even when confronted by the highest authority, wasn’t afraid to make his feelings known.
My dad had mentalhealth problems, PTSD from fighting in Burma in the Second World War and some other stuff. His rages were volcanic – he would pick up the most expensive antique within reach and fling it at my mum. Or At Ballaugh Bridge, winning the 1985 Isle of Man 250cc Production TT on beat her up. a Honda NSR250R
But my poor mum, the hell she went through. Motorcycles were my big saviour. Julian got one when he was 17 and from that moment I counted the days to my 17th birthday. Once I’d got my first bike, a little Honda CB125S – I was never the same again.
He managed Motorcycles to avoid treatment until his eighties, when he was were my vehicle for revolution and diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic transformation. They embodied my ...returned and admitted to a secure elderly hatred of authority and my love to his briefcase, extracted mentally ill unit. of risk.
a handful of offal, which he flung in the judge’s face. “And that,” he I had found that magic said. “Is a symbol of the brains of the thing: an overpowering obsession that carries you British judiciary.”
His illness wasn’t much fun for any of us but certainly gave us some memories. Mum left him repeatedly, finally filing for divorce, which dad fought all the way to the Court of Appeal in the Royal Courts of Justice. He called Julian and I as witnesses against my mother. After that we were made wards of court, so the court became our legal guardian. The case reached its climax in March 1973 when dad took a meat cleaver from his briefcase, embedded it in the judge’s bench, shouting, “This is a symbol of the British judiciary as butchers of the British family!”.
along with such force that you can overcome pretty much anything.
I started racing bikes when I was 20 and got a job as a motorcycle journalist two years later. I’m still doing the same job now. I’d tell that to any kid find what you love and go with it.
He returned to his briefcase, extracted a handful of offal, which he flung in the judge’s face. “And that,” he said. “Is a symbol of the brains of the British judiciary.”
*Valentino Rossi: All His Races is available now from all good bookshops.
I was home on school holidays, watching telly. The sixo’clock news announced that a man had attacked a judge with an axe in the Royal Courts of Justice. That’ll be dad, I thought. 7
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Issues: Real Life
Housing for the People “I was homeless on the road raising a child,” Detroit Richards, a victim of domestic violence tells her story.
In this deeply personal piece for INSP’s ‘Housing for the People’ column, the writer tells a story of displacement and homelessness that spans continents in an attempt to escape the horror of domestic violence and to give her child the chance of a better life, even if it meant experiencing a period of transition living outside first.
towards me, but towards him. I threw us both onto an uncertain future, but one we had a better chance of surviving. I had been homeless before. I knew what it was like to sleep outside and have no privacy. To be constantly cold and wet, or too hot and parched. I understood what it was like not to get clean or have a bathroom to use. I feared how my child was going to cope but knew anything was better than the violence we were both facing. We walked out the door and did not look back.
I remember leaving my apartment. I had one last long shower, put some make up on my black eye, grabbed my seven-year-old child’s hand, put his backpack over his shoulders, and hauled mine onto my back.
It had taken me eighteen months to work up the courage to go — knowing I did not have another home to go to. We were living in the far east, with my dual passported An old friend had a van, and lived on the road in the husband working between there and the USA. There USA, and invited us to join him. We jumped into would be no hope that my husband the small elderly class C camper would renew my visa. My child van, that came to be named I took my child out of a and I would both become ‘The Beast’, and took off situation where he was constantly undocumented as a result. out of California, driving downtrodden and ridiculed north up the 101. I felt The violence had become simultaneously free and frequent and extreme, causing me terrified. I figured if I kept permanent injuries. My husband often moving around, my husband would not told me he was going to kill me, and no one would care. be able to find us. There was only one problem: we were The police in the jurisdiction did nothing to protect us. now unhoused and penniless. When my husband asked me to go look at houses in Los Angeles, as his work was moving him permanently to the USA, I took the opportunity to run. I took my child out of a situation where he was constantly downtrodden and ridiculed, with abuse that was turning not just violent
We found a space in a Walmart parking lot where a few unhoused people were staying. There was a bathroom that was open much of the day and night. We had access to water. We stayed there, for a couple of months, moving around occasionally. We tried to stay quiet and 8
low profile. Eventually Walmart security called the cops on us. They banged on the door at 7am, screaming that we needed to get out of the parking lot immediately. Life continued like this for more than five years. Living in parking lots and campgrounds, mostly up and down the west coast.
the campgrounds closed. There were no showers or bathrooms open. We were being moved daily. It would have been so simple to let the homeless campers stay for free at state or national campgrounds, and let us socially distance that way, but the campgrounds refused to allow this, and threw out all the people who were living in tents and RVs.
It was a constant We stayed in struggle to an Airbnb, find a place paid for by to exist. In a housed the summer, friend who vacationers took pity took all the on us. I spots in cheap managed to campgrounds. find a place They closed in a shelter in winter. We in San had a tent to Francisco. sleep in, as the Eventually, van was small, we were and my friend given a hotel didn’t always to get on our want us living feet. There in there with were beds. Warm food for the poor and homeless. him. When it Hot water. was possible, Privacy. I I’d start a think I must campfire and play the guitar and get my son to sing have had four showers on our first day inside. We had not along with me trying to distract him from the situation. slept on beds with access to a bathroom and shower since We would often wake up cold and wet in winter, the rain 2015. having soaked through our sleeping bags when the tent leaked. Getting clean water was a daily Living outside, I could only chore. The very basics of living afford to eat a few times A housed vacationer informed became all consuming. a week. For the first me and my child that we had spoiled her time in years, I had vacation by being unsightly. People never had the decency daily access to food. not to stare or have an opinion After ten months in about my homelessness. A housed the hotel, we received a vacationer informed me and my child subsidy for a year and moved that we had spoiled her vacation by being unsightly. into a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. My son has just started high school and has friends. He feels We were often moved on from campgrounds even when like he is now part of society and has a future. I am very we had money to pay. The shame of having to steal concerned about how I am going to be able to pay the showers from state campgrounds sometimes became too rent, but at least for now, we have a break from being much to bear. I had tried to ask for support, but the fact I outside. The help we received saved our lives. hadn’t managed to take any documentation with us when Detroit is a regular contributor to Street Sheet, the street we fled made things almost impossible. I felt safer living paper in San Francisco, USA. outside than relying on people I did not know. I have no Housing for the People is a column produced by the family, and at the time, I had no assistance beyond the International Network of Street Papers from people friends who were also homeless alongside me. Obtaining on the frontlines of the housing justice movement in a divorce proved to be impossible, even though my America and beyond. husband was now based in the USA. Courtesy of INSP North America / International The pandemic made it impossible to carry on. All Network of Street Papers 9
Issues: World Issues
Ukraine Crisis Street papers respond to conflict in Ukraine
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s Russia invades Ukraine, it’s anticipated that more than a million people may flee the country to seek refuge in neighbouring nations like Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Street papers in those places respond to the ongoing conflict, standing in solidarity with the Ukrainian people’s right to democracy and in support of all those who may flee. Colleen Tait and Tony Inglis report.
UPDATE: Former Ukrainian street paper The Way Home shares the situation on the ground
Street papers stand with the innocent people affected by the unfolding conflict in Ukraine and the aid organisations working urgently to respond to their needs. In Ukraine, high levels of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and displacement meant people were already struggling to live and access basic needs. We are deeply concerned for these vulnerable communities, the innocent lives under threat and the humanitarian crisis unfolding alongside the conflict. The Way Home, a charity based in the southern port city of Odesa, Ukraine, which is currently occupied by Russian troops, has reached out to INSP with an update from the conflict zone. The organisation previously published a street paper, also titled The Way 10
Home, however INSP is unaware if the paper is still a going concern. The Way Home otherwise works with vulnerable and marginalised people in the area. Sergey Kostin, the charity’s director, said: “At the moment we are surviving very hard times, but we do our work steadily. We were asked by public activists to place women with children from combat sites at our shelters. Besides them, our regular clients are the most vulnerable people who, even in peaceful times, live in terrible poverty. At the moment, I don’t even know how they survive. We are collecting money to help them.” You can assist The Way Home with their work at this time by donating to their fundraising page.
It is estimated that more than a million people passports, so it will not be possible to legally could flee Ukraine for neighbouring countries cross the border and stay. We are waiting for Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. the position of the Polish authorities and the The street papers in those countries are relevant regulations. responding to the ongoing crisis. “Many organizations offer support in the form “We are horrified and moved by the situation of translators, places for short-term residence, in Ukraine,” said Dagmara Szlandrowicz legal advice, psychological support. We display of Gazeta Uliczna in Poland. “Suddenly, we Ukrainian flags at our headquarters, wear witnessed the beginning of a new war and the them on our hearts and on our photos on social violation of peace or a sense of security. Today media profiles. We look for reliable sources of we express information our and share solidarity, them. That’s friendship all we can do and today.” fraternity Dagmar with the Kocmánková, people of managing Ukraine. director We will of Nový organise Prostor in possible the Czech forms of Republic, help and said: “We are support. very saddened We are with by what is you.” happening in Patrycja Ukraine and Zenker, the we support Polish street the innocent paper’s civilian editorpopulation in-chief, affected by the Ukrainian soldier with national flag added: war. We are “Despite the ready to help information people who that Russia was planning to attack Ukraine, will leave their country and provide them with many of us did not believe that it was possible humanitarian and social assistance in the Czech in the modern world. We conjured up reality, Republic.” believing in historical memory, Sandra Tordová, editor and ... in diplomacy, in reason. CEO of Slovakian Therefore, the war that street paper Nota “Despite the information that began today came as Bene, said: “Our a surprise to us. hearts are with Russia was planning to attack Ukraine, “Many Ukrainians the people of many of us did not believe that it was live and work in Ukraine, who possible in the modern world. Poland - they did are experiencing not come to it as war the unimaginable refugees. Most of them suffering of war, fear came to a pre-arranged job. for themselves, their loved Today, the situation has changed dramatically ones and a feeling of helplessness. - we expect that those people who are already in In these uncertain times of the pandemic Poland will be joined by their families, that from and growing poverty, war is closer than ever the areas attacked by Russia, their inhabitants before. It is important that we turn our fears will get to the west of Ukraine and to the Polish and insecurity into solidarity and courage to border. We know that many of them do not have stand up for the values of humanity. We must 11
approach the people who are experiencing the [In line with other news outlets, INSP has chosen horrors of war today, who will seek refuge, to use the Ukrainian derived spellings of cities as we would like them to treat us in a similar in the country rather than those derived from situation. We can easily become those who need Russian. For example, the Ukrainian ‘Odesa’ as help as well.” opposed to the Russian ‘Odessa’, and ‘Kyiv’ as Now street papers in countries further afield opposed to ‘Kiev’.] are speaking out in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Courtesy of the International Network of Street Jörn Sturm, managing director of Hamburg, Papers Germany-based street paper Hinz&Kunzt, said: “We are deeply dismayed that one ... country in Europe is attacking another. War always hits the poorest hardest. It is estimated that more than Our thoughts are ... Donate a million people could flee Ukraine with the Ukrainian homeless in here: for neighbouring countries Poland, Czech particular.” https:// Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Donate to The Way www.redcross. Home to assist their ie/latestwork during the crisis appeals/ukrainehere.
Could you make a donation?
crisis-appeal/
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Unmask A Masterpiece! Incognito 2022, Ireland’s Biggest Online Art Sale in aid of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, is back! - Collection Goes Live on March 31 It’s the whodunit mystery question of the art world. Incognito 2022, Ireland’s biggest online art sale that sees artists donating their art ‘incognito’ for a great cause, will take place this year on Thursday, April 21. What’s different about Incognito, unlike other art sales, is that the buyer has no idea who the artist is until after the sale closes and the mask drops, when the artist’s name is only then unveiled. Now in its sixth year, with over 1,500 artists taking part, not just from Ireland but internationally, the €60 price for each postcard-sized artwork supports the work of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation and translates into home nursing care hours for 412 children with highly complex medical conditions around the country, including endof-life care. For the buyer, of course, this may also be a very shrewd investment decision too! Who’s Who of Artists . Some surprise celebrity guest artists are also on board for Incognito 2022 – art lovers and Incognito fans are encouraged to keep an eye out on Jack & Jill and Incognito social channels for updates. Each piece of art is presented on a postcardsize canvas. A diverse and wide-ranging collection, the pieces come in a range of media, including watercolour, acrylic, pastel, charcoal and oil, as well as some more unusual media such as crayon, collage, embroidery, wood, glass, ceramics, plaster, and, even, diamante!
The way Incognito works is simple. The collection goes live to view online on Thursday, March 31 at www.incognito.ie. People have three weeks from then until the actual Incognito sale on Thursday, April 21, to browse the art and register for an Incognito account, so that they can include their favourite pieces (by collection number) into a Wish List in advance of the sale. When the sale goes live, all art works on Wish Lists are automatically entered into a lottery where the lucky purchaser is selected at random. The remainder of the collection will also be available for purchase on the day. Previous Incognito sales have seen over 3,000 artworks sold out within hours, and nothing guaranteed, so art fans are encouraged to sign up today, to be in with a chance to secure their favourite pieces! The artist names will be revealed after all the artworks have been sold. To register with Incognito 2022 and create your own account, visit www. incognito.ie. For more information on the work of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, visit www. jackandjill.ie. Follow on social media at Facebook @2022Incognito; Instagram @ jackandjillcf; Twitter @jackandjillcf; and LinkedIn @Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation and use #Art4Care or #Incognito22
Issues: Historical
Ruth Gröne: The Last Survivor
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uth Gröne was eight when the Nazis came. They forced her family and other (part-) Jewish families in Hanover to leave their homes and move into so-called ‘Jew houses’. This was the Nazis’ first step towards deporting the Jews to labour and concentration camps. They called it the Lauterbacher campaign. Here, Gröne (née Kleeberg) calls the day 80 years ago, 3 September 1941, on which her childhood ended. Interview by Laureen Dreesch and Uli Matthias.
What was your experience of the Lauterbacher campaign?
drawers and a chair, some bedding, a few clothes and some crockery – the things that would fit into the three-square metres of space that they were allocated. Whatever property was left in their apartments was secured by the Gestapo and taken to municipal depots.
“We had to leave our apartment within 24 hours – [my] grandparents, parents and I. We then stayed at Sedanstrasse 42 for a little while. We’d hardly got things organised – well, I say organised, but we were hardly How was your life in Ohestrasse? allowed to take anything with us – before we had to leave again and move “We stayed there Memorial wall: Gröne in front of the memorial wall in Ahlem. to Ohestrasse. for nine weeks, and On the wall, among countless others, are the names of Gröne’s And that was there was barely father and grandparents. really horrific. any opportunity to It was awful wash our things or enough in ourselves properly. Sedanstrasse, We couldn’t cook but anything. We got Ohestrasse... food from this It was a kind big kitchen. They of depot, prepared food Ohestrasse 8 there in big pots, and 9. We were and it smelled so in the back awful that I can still house, under imagine the smell the roof. We in my nose today if shared a room I think about it. I with a family just couldn’t eat that we didn’t know. food.” We thought our situation wasn’t too bad, because there were also big rooms with families who’d divided off their While during the day the residents of the ‘Jew houses’ own corners using blankets. They put up had to perform forced labour for Hanover Gestapo washing lines so they could have businesses, at night-time there was a officers regularly burst a bit of personal space. So strict curfew. This meant that we were in this room that Gestapo officers regularly burst into the houses at night for roll had two double beds – one calls and raids, which led to frenzied into the houses at night for for the Bein family and one roll calls and raids, which led beating and sexual assaults for my grandparents. My to frenzied beating and sexual mother and I slept on a small assaults being carried out by these chaise longue, and my father on the men, who were frequently drunk. Family boards of a broken wardrobe. He laid mattresses on Kleeberg, too, witnessed these outrages, after being it, and that’s where he slept.” moved from Ohestrasse to Herschelstrasse due to their ‘mixed marriage’ status. Each person was allowed to take a bed, a chest of 14
Did you also experience something like that?
grandparents are on there too: Hermann and Frieda Kleeberg.” “In Herschelstrasse, the Gestapo came in the night During the heavy bombing of October 1943, father, and beat the men, and we all had to watch. Even the mother and daughter hid in a nearby railway underpass. children.” The Kleeberg family then fled to the grounds of the For the Jewish population, the ‘Jew houses’ became former Israelite Horticultural School in Ahlem, which depots from which state authorities organised the was now a ‘Jew house’ and Gestapo prison. Mother and deportation to daughter concentration stayed there camps. As early for ten years as 15 December after the war. 1941, the first The father 1,001 Jews were was arrested deported from in late autumn Hanover and 1944 for its environs to “economic Riga. Between war crimes”. 1941 and 1945, He’d been around 2,400 sweeping up Jews from grain in the the city and courtyard to surrounding area feed to his were deported (GestapoThis is the ‘Jew house’ on the site of the Israelite Horticultural School, where the Kleeberg family to ghettos and approved) was incarcerated. One of 15 buildings in Hanover where the Nazis locked up their Jewish citizens extermination rabbits. before transportation to concentration camps. camps in eight “But he transports. Only hadn’t stolen a few survived this regime. In around 1930, 6,000 Jewish anything! My father was kept in a police cell for nine people lived in the city; fifteen years later, at the end weeks. From there he was deported to the concentration of the Second World War and the National Socialist camp in Neuengamme, near Hamburg. Then he was persecution, there were barely 100. moved to Sandbostel, which he did not survive.” Gröne is one of the last people to have lived through What was your experience of the National Socialism as a Things like deportations? victim, and she has that you remember, even as a child. made it her life’s work “On 15 December 1941, they to educate people about penned the Jews in greenhouses for the first the black years of increasing big transport to the ghetto in Riga. But in December discrimination and exclusion of Jews in Germany – years it’s cold, of course. The winters used to be even more that culminated in their deportation and murder. She severe back then. They were in greenhouses, and it was speaks at memorials, schools and in the media, to ensure raining and snowing. My grandparents were there too. that what happened is not forgotten or repressed. Her They were transported in third-class passenger carriages, biography, which she’s been working on for four years, with wooden benches, for two or three days. They didn’t was released on 15 October 2021. But it wasn’t until the know where they were going. My father had asked the Ahlem memorial was founded in 1987 that she was able Gestapo if he could help with loading. That was at the to talk about her experiences with anyone. Fischerbahnhof [train station]. He helped put his own parents on the transport. I can still remember how he What happened to you after 1945? came home, threw himself on the bed and cried so much. I asked my mother, ‘What’s wrong with him? Is “My mother and I lived together for another twenty he ill? Is he in pain?’ Then my mother sent me to the years. My mother had a photo of my father in the living neighbouring family: ‘Go to the Manns. Papa will get room, and whenever it was a holiday or his birthday, I better.’ After many years I asked my mother, ‘Why did silently put flowers next to the picture. But we still never Papa cry so much when he threw himself on the bed?’ talked about it.” And my mother said, ‘That was the day when Oma and Translated from German by Jane Eggers Opa were deported. He had a nervous breakdown at Courtesy of Asphalt / International Network of Street Papers home.’ Things like that you remember, even as a child. The names on the memorial by the opera house – my 15
Issues: Film
Irish Books That Became Big Screen Hits I
n part one of a two part series, Shaun Anthony looks at Irish books that have been successfully adapted for the Big Screen.
Author, Scott Turow once said, “I really believe that the movie will never be as good as the book … because books are internal.” I get that, I’ve watched countless movies adapted from muchloved books and because we each view a character, an environment and even a scene differently, we’ll seldom prefer the film to the book, however many works of Irish fiction translated very well to film.
Screenplay and served as his father’s assistant, aware of the secret being kept from the world, - how sick his dad really was. Shooting began in January 1987, finished in April, and at the end of August, John died, aged 81. The Dead is considered “one of the greatest short stories ever written” (T.S. Eliot) and is the final tale in the 1914 collection, Dubliners, however, Huston initially felt it was unfilmable and who could blame him?
The story takes place in Dublin in 1904 at a holiday party (Feast The Dead of Epiphany) Unwell Director John Houston with Daughter Angelica and Donal McCann on set. (1987) hosted by two elderly, spinster John Huston was dying when he directed The sisters and their unmarried niece, who have The Dead, based on the novel by James spent their lives performing or teaching Joyce and written for cinema by his music. The guests arrive, we survey Dead is considered son Tony Huston. Despite being them as they watch one another. “one of the greatest short dependent on an oxygen tank, At the end of the long night, stories ever written” wheelchair-bound and frail with Gabriel Conroy, played by Donal (T.S. Eliot) emphysema and heart disease, he was McCann, nephew of the Morkan a perfectionist who threw body, mind ladies leaves with his wife Gretta (played and spirit into this picture. Tony, then 37, was by John Huston’s daughter, Angelica) to go nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted back to the hotel where they will spend the night before 16
going home the next morning. Gretta speaks of a boy Grahame). So when British authorities advertise a reward who loved her when they for information about his best were 17, a sickly boy, who friend, current IRA member stood in the rain on the Frankie (Wallace Ford), Gypo night before she was to leave cooperates. Now Gypo can Galway and go to a convent buy two tickets on a boat school. “I implored of him bound for the States, but can to go home at once and told he escape the overwhelming him he would get his death guilt he feels for betraying his in the rain,” she remembers. friend? “But he said he did not want to live.” When she was Directed and produced by only a week in the convent John Ford, it’s unsurprising school, he died. Gabriel, a that Graham Greene, when very proud man, realises for writing in The Spectator in the first time in his life that 1935 praised the production his wife might have loved as “a memorable picture” someone other than him. the substance of which made Like all Joyce’s work, the “superb material for the story is heavy and full of screen”. The film was big at nuance and some feel that the box office, was nominated Huston failed to capture for six Academy Awards that in directing McCann (winning four). McLaglen won and Angelica in this delicate Best Actor for his portrayal of situation. I disagree the film Gypo Nolan, beating Charles was obviously not going Laughton, Clark Gable and to be a big commercial Franchot Tone for the bettersuccess given its subject matter but it did remembered Mutiny on the Bounty and Ford Dublin catch evocatively a moment in time won Best Director. Dudley Nichols won of a Dublin and its people rich in Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay but would soon welcome characterization and atmosphere turned it down because of union nationalities from all over the you almost feel you are at the world and become richer in many disagreements. It was the first time dinner table. It is forty odd pages an Oscar was declined, though he ways for it. of Joyce’s tale brought to life on a claimed it three years later. The film cold winter’s night. An admirable effort. had a budget of $243,000 and took in $950,000 at the The Commitments The box office. The Informer Informer remains (1935) one of John Ford’s most widely The Informer referenced films. was adapted by Dudley The Nichols from Commitments the novel (1991) of the same name by When Alan Parker novelist Liam brought Roddy O’Flaherty Doyle’s novel The and tells the Commitments to tale of Gypo the big screen no Nolan (Victor one guessed the McLaglen) a effect it would have former IRA man who drowns his sorrows in the bottle. on Ireland - and indeed the world. A rousing musical He’s desperate to escape his depressing Dublin life set in a deteriorating Dublin, the movie now looks like and start over in America with his girlfriend (Margot the last account of a city that was about to change 17
immensely. Booms and busts were on the way. Dublin would soon welcome nationalities from all over the world and become richer in many ways for it. The film tells the story of Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins), a selfproclaimed promoter, who decides to organise an R&B group to fill the musical void in his hometown of Dublin. The band comes together but ends up consisting entirely of white musicians who have little experience with the genre. Even though their raw talent and haughty aspirations gain the group notoriety, the perils of stardom begin to tear at their newfound friendships as they prepare for their big show.
by Christy Brown starred Daniel Day-Lewis as Brown, a man born with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot. Brown grew up in a poor working-class family, and of course became a writer and artist. With a budget of £600,000, the film raked in an impressive $14.7 million at the box office. Day-Lewis who’s known for being a strict method actor became interested in the film when he read the opening scene, which features him, as Brown, using his left foot to place a record on a player and then placing a needle onto it so that it will play. Day-Lewis said of the scene: ‘I knew it couldn’t be done... and that intrigued me.” Many scenes were filmed through a mirror, as Daniel Day-Lewis could only manipulate his right foot to perform the actions seen in the film. Day-Lewis spent some time preparing for the film at Christy Brown’s alma mater in Dublin. He later returned there for a visit, with his Oscar. Day-Lewis insisted on staying in character during the production of the film, refusing to do anything that Brown couldn’t do. This meant that members of the film crew had to move the actor around in a wheel chair, lift him over obstacles, and even feed him.
Alan Parker was actually offered the chance to film Les Misérables in the late 80s but instead chose The Commitments, as after making a few films in the U.S. he had a deep yearning to do something closer to home and indeed something that resembled his working-class roots. Parker felt that the Northside of Dublin was very similar to Islington of the 1960s where he The film received widespread critical acclaim. With grew up - and Roddy Doyle’s book Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a budget of £600,000, struck a chord with him, as he four out of four stars and stated, “My too wanted to join a band to Left Foot is a great film for many the film raked in an escape a bleak urban landscape. reasons, but the most important is impressive $14.7 million Parker decided that the cast that it gives us such a complete picture should improvise, which meant the of this man’s life. It is not an inspirational film had the most swearwords ever used in movie, although it inspires. It is not a sympathetic a film (which is why it got an R-rating in the US - and movie, although it inspires sympathy. It is the story of a perhaps why it only made $15m on first release). stubborn, difficult, blessed and gifted man who was dealt a bad hand, who played it brilliantly, and who left us The Commitments is still the number one Irish film ever some good books, some good paintings and the example made - although, when we say Irish, it was actually made of his courage. It must not have been easy”. by the British and funded by the Americans! At the 62nd Academy Awards the film received five My Left Foot (1989) nominations, including for Best Picture. As mentioned, Day-Lewis woman Oscar for Best Actor and Brenda The biographical comedy-drama My Left Foot, directed Fricker picked one up for Best Supporting Actress. by Jim Sheridan and adapted by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton from the 1954 memoir of the same name 18
Issues: Images of Ireland
Kylemore Abbey K
ylemore Castle was built in 1868 as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a wealthy doctor from London and took the total of one hundred men and four years to construct. The castle had over seventy rooms with a principal wall that was two to three feet thick. There were 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants. Other buildings include a Gothic church and family mausoleum containing the bodies of Margaret Henry, Mitchell Henry and a great grand-nephew. The castle was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903, who resided there for several years before being forced to sell the house and grounds because of gambling debts. In 1920, the Irish Benedictine Nuns purchased the Abbey castle and lands after they were forced to flee Ypres during World War I. The nuns, who had been based in Ypres for several hundred years, had been bombed out of their Abbey during the war.
They were rescued by men of the 8th Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, After they left Ypres they were evacuated to England where they remained until 1920. The nuns continued to offer education to Catholic girls, opening an international boarding school and establishing a day school for girls from the locality. The school was the main educational establishment for most girls from Renvyle, Letterfrack and further afield for almost a century but it was forced to close in 2010. The nuns have since been developing new education and retreat activities. University of Notre Dame - Kylemore Abbey Global Centre Since 2015, the Abbey has a partnership with the University of Notre Dame of the US. The abbey hosts academic programmes for Notre Dame students, and the university renovated spaces in the abbey. The programmes started in 2016 with about 100 students moving to Kylemore.
A Little Bit of Irish Phrase:
Translations:
Pronounciation:
Go raibh maith agat “Thank you” with a literal translation of “may you have goodness.”
Gur-uv mah ah-guth
Maidin mhaith Good Morning. MA-jin vah Tá Yes Taw Níl No Nee-al Le do thoil “Please” with a literal translation of “with your will”
Lay- du-hoil
Gabh Mo Leithscéal Excuse me. Gaw-mo-lesh-gail Déan deifir! Hurry up! Deen-defid
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Images of Ireland
Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.
Issues: Arts
Ulysses - One Hundred Years On
D
espite being banned in Britain and the United States, James Joyce’s Ulysses would later be celebrated as revolutionising literary expression and inspiring the likes of Edna O’Brien to pen novels on everyday life. Sam McMurdock reports.
One hundred years ago last month (2nd February 1922), James Joyce’s Ulysses was published by Sylvia Beach in a small Parisian bookshop - a book that would radically change the trajectory of modern literature, not to mention Irish culture. Growing up I knew of Ulysses; I knew it was a “dirty book”, much like Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the Mills & Boons my friend’s big sister hid under her bed, “…the fun all kicks off about around page 55”, my friend would giggle as we read the so-called raunchy bits over the hum of the latest Kylie record.
Greater Literacy Inspires in the Censors At the end of the 1800’s and early 1900’s, literacy was improving dramatically amongst the working class and books were becoming cheaper year on year and so a mass market had emerged for fiction; the powers that be, however, were getting a tad nervous about the influence of books on their countries’ citizens.
As years went by, like many others, I started realising that we’re doing a literary giant like James Joyce, and his sevenyears-in-the-making pièce de résistance a disservice when we view it as nothing more Literacy was than a trashy novel, ignoring a treacherous the nuance. Yes, it is sexual tool in the - Leopold Bloom pleasuring hands of Joe himself on Sandymount Public - or so Strand as he leers at a young the censors felt, woman and Molly Bloom which is why the U.K. and America basking in the memory of an afternoon tryst, Literacy delineated obscenity as material to name a couple of instances that surely was a treacherous tool with a “…tendency to deprave had people clutching their pearls in the hands of Joe Public - or and corrupt” anyone “whose back in the day, but despite Ulysses’ minds are open to such so the censors felt…. ‘scandalous’ passages (inspiring legal immoral influences” – which challenges and outright bans) we have to implied, children and teenagers, ask why, and if Joyce was trying to even out women, the poor and immigrants. Even the playing field by portraying a woman as more than the one obscene scene in the novel would have been enough carrier of children and carer of the home. to ban this book for this lowest social stratum. 22
At a time when [many men believed] women needed protection from themselves, scenes like the phantasmagoria in the brothel where Bloom morphs into a woman before the madam, Bella Cohen, turns into a man and auctions off Bloom’s services must have been quite the shock. Cohen, demonstrates Leopold’s honour by pushing his arm “in Bloom’s vulva” before thrusting it into a bidder’s face. Instead of viewing this through the logical lens (Joyce illustrating double standards, perhaps?) - censors viewed it as pure filth.
Ulysses Might Inspire Anarchy
Perhaps the real problem wasn’t the coprophilia, the anal sex or the vulgar language - perhaps Ulysses was so countercultural that it threatened the very status quo of the home, of the marriage, of gender complementarian as it stood. Molly, an assertive woman who knew what she wanted, Leopold, an effeminate man; Corruption of many argue there’s an undercurrent our Girls of homosexuality in the text and Many editors and suggest this is censors believed that why Bloom the new generation of didn’t intervene “girl undergraduates” in Molly’s affair. would be corrupted Bloom is quite by the likes of Gerty, often portrayed who unashamedly as submissive - a stereotype of gay men (and at that takes pleasure in Bloom’s self-pleasuring whilst fixated time, Jewish men too). The very notion would have been on her, Bella, the man/woman prostitute and Molly, unthinkable in 1922 - a submissive man who the wife who enjoys recalling memories of enjoyed anal sex and enjoyed sex with the aggressive and welltransvestism in a dream scene endowed Blazes Boylan. Perhaps, ...he turned culture - but again, censors failed to at a time when women were on its head and brought female either viewed as the Madonna sexual freedom and pleasure to the realise that Joyce gave Bloom these characteristics as a way or the Whore, a character, who masses... of depicting his alienation unashamedly understands men among the bolder, self-confident (at the beginning of Molly’s interior men of Dublin. A scene in which monologue she intuits that her husband Bloom carefully prepares Molly breakfast was has already had an orgasm) and clearly loves sex and kink would not have been received well and these censors shocking to many male readers at the time. Some censors feared that gender roles would be blurred; what would believed they’d become a nation of broken families, happen if women got out of the kitchen? There’d be radical feminists and sexual deviants. Who knows, maybe they’d like sex so much and want more out of life mayhem! than perpetual motherhood that they might even seek At a time when non-reproductive sex acts like onanism, contraception! fellatio and cunnilingus were viewed as sinful by the 23
Church - and so, society at large, Ulysses was never going need to be shocked into facing truths and equalling out to be accepted. For the playing field, because many, fantasies that the freedom that Joyce’s Marilyn Monroe enjoying her copy remained in people’s Ulysses brought to Ireland of Ulysses minds and at the (and beyond) has benefited confession box were countless female writers on the pages before since - people like Edna them, bold and proud: O’Brien and Mary Costello voyeurism, androgyny, credit him as inspiration. bisexuality, cuckoldry, coprophilia, porn, nympholepsy, love Female triangles, adultery… One cannot help but view Joyce as a feminist. In 2022, we might fall into the mistaken belief that all people in the past fall into a limited set of categories, thinking that back in the day men were men, but humans were just as diverse and incalculable in 1922 as they are now. Oral and anal sex were viewed as degrading and oppressive acts in Joyce’s day, representing a loss of control and power - traditionally associated with weakness or taboo - dominated Dare a woman enjoy and explore women, or gay men, but Joyce her sexuality .... was quite subversive, inviting the reader into the brain of a male character who takes pleasure in female sexuality.
Challenging Polite Society James Joyce challenged polite society, he turned culture on its head and brought female sexual freedom and pleasure to the masses front and centre - unapologetically. Yes, his work was bold, it was brash, but sometimes we 24
Liberation
Molly’s soliloquy was hailed as “liberating” for the way it acknowledged, one hundred years ago, the power of female sexual desire. Like the novelist Anne Enright stated recently, “Ulysses is a seriously anti-patriarchal book” and as such, even female detractors of Joyce’s work should realise this.
* An anniversary edition of Ulysses (Penguin Clothbound Classics) is available now in all good bookshops.
St. Patrick’s Day H
appy St Patricks Day to all peace loving people wherever you are in the world from all at Ireland’s Big Issue magazine.
Since around the 9th or 10th century, people here have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on 17th March. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place, not here in Ireland but in America. Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on 17th March 1601 in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The parade, and a St. Patrick’s Day celebration a year earlier were organised by the Spanish Colony’s Irish vicar, Ricardo Artur.
our patron saint. Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston and other early American cities only grew from there and arguably, the holiday is celebrated equally (if not more so) in the United States now. Even during the pandemic, New York had a socially distanced St.Patrick’s Day parade (see image below). Whatever you’re doing this St. Patrick’s Day, whether it’s having a relaxing green beer with your friends or enjoying music at a Paddy’s Day festival - have a good one!
More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in New York City on 17th March 1772 to honour 25
Screen Scene CODA ****
Saol Clainne ***
Starring: Emelia Jones, Marlee Matlin. Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant. Run Time: 111 mins Streaming on: Apple TV+ Available: Currently
Starring: Various individuals (personal accounts) Streaming on: TG4 Catch-Up Available to stream: Currently
CODA (which stands for Child of Deaf Adults) is a wonderful coming-of-age comedy-drama written and directed by Sian Heder telling the story of Ruby, the only hearing member of a deaf family from Gloucester, Massachusetts in the USA. At seventeen, Ruby works tirelessly every morning before school to help her parents and brother keep their fishing business afloat, but after joining her high school’s choir club, Ruby finds herself drawn to her duet partner and her latent passion for singing. Things become even more complicated when she wants to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston and fears what will happen when she (in her mind) ‘abandons’ her parents who rely heavily on her. Beautiful picture.
Alice Ní Fhlanagáin
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During 2021, the series Saol Clainne spent time with families arcross Ireland facing great difficulties, fighting to overcome obstacles for themselves and their loved ones. These are families that are struggling and suffering, day after day, from tragedies, illnesses and the twists and turns of life. In the first episode of the series we meet Aoife Nic Sheáin, who has discovered Mica in her home. Alice Ní Fhlanagáin tells her personal story of grief and Jaqueline Walsh shares her emotional story of her mum who is missing for 36 years. Intimate and very touching viewing.
The Adam Project ** Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner. Streaming: Netflix Run Time: 106 mins Available to stream: 11 March.
Who you are and who you were are two different people. Literally! Well, in this film anyway! In The Adam Project get ready for the past and future colliding as a time-traveling pilot teams up with his younger self and his late father to come to terms with his past whilst also saving the future.
The Dropout ****
Sci-fi lovers will love this; for those who like their films a little more believable, this isn’t for you. Interestingly, the film was written by Jonathan Trooper, the New York Times best-seller of ‘This is Where I Leave You’ and ‘One Last Thing Before I Go.’ Not for everyone but Ryan Reynolds has such a fanbase that this will be a huge hit.
Reacher *** Love Actually****
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Michaela Watkins. Streaming: Disney+ Run Time: 8 x 60 mins The Dropout, strangely bought by Disney, is a must-see TV series that chronicles Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ attempt to revolutionise the healthcare industry after dropping out of college and starting a technology company. Interesting watch.
Starring: Malcolm Goodwin Starring: Alan HughRitchson, Grant, Martine McCutcheon Streaming: Streaming: Prime Prime Run Time: 8 x 49 mins Run Time: 129 mins. Available to watch: Currently
Based on the Jack Reacher series of Lee Child novels, Reacher is a crime-thriller about Jack, a former U.S. Army military policeman who visits the (fictional) rural town of Margrave, Georgia and quickly becomes embroiled in a violent clash with a brutal criminal conspiracy. The eight-episode first season is based on Child’s debut novel, the highly successful 1997 title, Killing Floor. The second season has just been commissioned so one can imagine the whole series of Child’s books will be dramatised.
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Issues: Sport
New York to Host Homeless World Cup 2022
I
t is the news Irish Homeless Street Leagues have been waiting for. Shaun Anthony reports.
We can reveal advanced discussions are underway to bring The Homeless World Cup to New York in September 2022. It will be the first time the HWC has been held in the USA since the tournament began in 2003.
The venue, size, exact dates in September, the duration of the tournament, countries involved and other logistics are in discussion and will be shared once confirmed. Mel Young, HWCF President and co-founder, said:
As you can imagine, there are still many factors, such as travel restrictions, vaccine requirements etc related to the pandemic that are impossible to confirm at the moment. However, the Homeless World Cup Foundation (HWCF) felt that it was important to share the information they have right now, so that we can at least be thinking of the cost and logistical implications for later this year.
“Since 2003 we have proved that using the power of football can change lives and through our annual tournament and our partnerships across the world, we are committed to tackling and ending homelessness.”
Tournament Hasn’t Been Held Since 2019 Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the last Homeless World Cup competition was held in Cardiff in 2019 with Ireland bringing home the Glemmyle Cup. Like all sporting endeavors during Covid, we have managed to just about keep going and the announcement of the return of the Homeless World Cup is timely. New York, if confirmed to host the tournament in September this year, will bring together a network of HWCF Street Football Partners from around the world to celebrate the beautiful game. The Homeless World Cup is a unique and pioneering tournament that uses football to inspire and demonstrate the power of sport in changing people’s lives. After the postponement of two tournaments in 2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this announcement is a step in the right direction in bringing this much loved and much missed tournament back on a global stage. 29
“Everyone at the Foundation, our global Street Football Partners and our loyal supporters have deeply missed our annual tournament, so we are delighted, excited and encouraged to be in a position to announce that the HWCF and partners in New York are in advanced discussions to host the Homeless World Cup in 2022.” Ireland’s Homeless Street Leagues founder Sean Kavanagh is delighted with developments, “ While it will mean a ton of work in terms of logistics and finance to get to the USA what a boost and incentive to those who thought the chance of representing their country in a world tournament had passed them by and now the opportunity is there to be grasped.” The Irish Homeless Street Soccer leagues national finals will be held on April 27th it is part of the process from which a panel of players will be chosen from which a team will be selected that will represent Ireland in the HWC finals in 2022.
Issues: Science
What Causes a Tsunami?
A
n ocean scientist explains the physics of these destructive waves, Sally Warner reports.
Deep Displacement
On 15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga erupted, sending a tsunami racing across the Pacific Ocean in all directions. But how are tsunamis different from other ocean waves? What generates them? How do they travel so fast? And why are they so destructive?
Most waves are generated by wind as it blows over the ocean’s surface, transferring energy to and displacing the water. This process creates the waves you see at the beach every day. Tsunamis are created by an entirely different mechanism. When an underwater earthquake, volcanic eruption or landslide displaces a large amount of water, that energy has to go somewhere – so it generates a series of waves. Unlike wind-driven waves Photo by Chris Henry on Unsplash where the energy is confined to the upper layer of the ocean, the energy in a series of tsunami waves extends throughout the entire depth of the ocean. Additionally, a lot more water is displaced than in a wind-driven wave.
As word of the volcano eruption spread, government agencies on surrounding islands and in places as far away as New Zealand, Japan and even the US West Coast issued tsunami warnings. Only about 12 hours after the initial eruption, tsunami waves a few feet tall hit California shorelines – more than 5,000 miles away from the eruption. The physics of how tsunamis move is fascinating. It is so simple and elegant.
Imagine the The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed Waves that are a difference in the 225,000 people. few feet tall hitting waves that are a beach might not created if you were sound like the destructive to blow on the surface of a waves the term calls to mind, nor what you see swimming pool compared to the waves that are created in footage of tragic tsunamis from the past. But tsunamis when someone jumps in with a big cannonball dive. The are not normal waves, no matter the size. So how are cannonball dive displaces a lot more water than blowing tsunamis different from other ocean waves? What on the surface, so it creates a much bigger set of waves. generates them? How do they travel so fast? And why are they so destructive? Earthquakes can easily move huge amounts of water and 30
cause dangerous tsunamis. Same with large undersea landslides. In the case of the Tonga tsunami, the massive explosion of the volcano displaced the water. Some scientists are speculating that the eruption also caused an undersea landslide that contributed to the large amount of displaced water. Future research will help confirm whether this is true or not.
This equation is what oceanographers use to estimate when a tsunami will reach faraway shores. The tsunami on 15 January hit Santa Cruz, California, 12 hours and 12 minutes after the initial eruption in Tonga. Santa Cruz is 5,280 miles (8,528 kilometres) from Tonga, which means that the tsunami travelled at 433 miles per hour (697 kilometres per hour) – nearly identical to the speed estimate calculated using the ocean’s average depth.
Tsunami Waves Travel Fast No matter the cause of a tsunami, after the water is displaced, waves propagate outward in all directions – similarly to when a stone is thrown into a serene pond.
Destruction on Land Tsunamis are rare compared to ubiquitous wind-driven waves, but they are often much more destructive. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 225,000 people. More than 20,000 lost their lives in the 2011 Japan tsunami.
Because the energy in tsunami waves reaches all the way to the bottom of the ocean, the depth of the sea floor is the primary factor that determines how fast they move. Calculating the speed of a tsunami is actually quite simple. You just multiply the depth of the ocean – 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) on average – by gravity What Makes Tsunamis and take the square so Much More ....average speed of tsunami is about 440 root. Doing this, you Destructive get an average speed miles per hour.... than Normal of about 440 miles Waves? per hour (700 kilometres per hour). This is much faster than In the open ocean, tsunami waves can be small and may the speed of typical waves, which can range from about even be undetectable by a boat at the surface. But as the 10 to 30 mph (15 to 50 kilometres per hour). 31
tsunami approaches land, the ocean gets progressively shallower and all the wave energy that extended thousands of feet to the bottom of the deep ocean gets compressed. The displaced water needs to go somewhere.
where the vast majority of tsunamis occur – be sure to know your tsunami escape route for getting to higher ground, and listen to tsunami warnings if you receive one.
The only place to go is up, so the waves get taller and taller as they approach shore. When tsunamis get to shore, they often do not crest and break like a typical ocean wave. Instead, they are more like a large wall of water that can inundate land near the coast. It is as if sea level were to suddenly rise by a few feet or more. This can cause flooding and very strong currents that can easily sweep people, cars and buildings away.
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano severed the main communication cable that connects the people of Tonga to the rest of the world. While the science of tsunamis can be fascinating, these are serious natural disasters. Only a few deaths have been reported so far from Tonga, but many people are missing and the true extent of the damage from the tsunami is still unknown.
Luckily, tsunamis are rare and not nearly as much of a surprise as they once were. There is now an extensive array of bottom pressure sensors, called DART buoys, that can sense a tsunami wave and allow government agencies to send warnings prior to the arrival of the tsunami. If you live near a coast – especially on the Pacific Ocean
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Sally Warner is assistant professor of climate science at Brandeis University. Courtesy of The Conversation / International Network of Street Papers
Issues: Competition
Mother’s Day Competition “Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.” George Eliot
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here’s no one quite like mum. If you fancy winning a treat for that special woman in your life, be sure to enter one of our competitions below to give mum a great day on 27th March.
5 to Giveaway The STYLPRO Squeeze Makeup Sponge Cleaner deep cleans your sponges in 1 minute, squeezing and spinning them until they sparkle. The Squeeze uses a combination of our specially made sponge cleanser and recently boiled water to clean your sponges of bacteria, makeup and dirt, leaving them ready to use instantly. Use the STYLPRO Squeeze with the STYLPRO Sponge Sparkle Vegan Cleanser for best results, we know you’ll love it! Invented with love by BBC Apprentice winner Tom Pellereau. The Stylpro is available in Boots and retails for €49.99
1 to Giveaway Almond Gift Set - £49 L’OCCITANE’s best-selling Almond range is the ultimate pampering treat. Soothe your body and mind with the radiant power of Provençal almonds. Iconic asset of the South of France, our almond trees blossom with clouds of white flowers that drift on our warm breeze. We have bottled this phenomenal nut, known for its firming and nourishing properties, into our Almond Collection.
To be in with a chance of winning: StylPro Squeeze: Answer the following question: Who invented the StylPro? L’Occitane Gift Set: Is this set Almond or Cherry Blossom? Answers to: info@irelandsbigissue.com (and state prize in subject line) by 28th March 33
Issues: New Book Releases
Patricia Scanlan’s Book Club
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atricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. She is a #1 bestselling author and has sold millions of books worldwide. Her books are translated in many languages. Patricia is the series editor and a contributing author to the award winning Open Door Literacy series.
This issue, Patricia brings her favourite books of the moment. Again, Rachel –Marian Keyes – Michael Joseph
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t’s hard to believe that Marian Keyes’s much loved character, Rachel Walsh made her appearance - in what many believe is the bestselling author’s most popular novel, Rachel’s Holiday – twenty-five years ago. Then, our flighty heroine is partying hard in New York, with her great friend Brigit. An accidental overdose ends with her going to rehab in the Cloisters, back home in Ireland. The author has written with searing honesty about her own journey with alcoholism, and Rachel’s story is written with a tender, but razor sharp authenticity that touched a chord in readers worldwide, and made Marian Keyes an international best selling author. Now, in Again Rachel, Keyes revisits her beloved character’s life, 20 years later. Rachael, now in her forties has eschewed the partying, girl-about-town lifestyle of yore, and now loves gardening and the serenity of holidays in the rugged west of Ireland. She is back in the Cloisters working as an addiction counsellor, emulating her own relentless and ever probing therapist, Sister Josephine, who with forensic skill all those years ago, brought Rachel to the realisation of her addiction. It is in the group therapy sessions in particular that Marian Keyes’s shows her great skill as a writer, as the reader is drawn into the patient’s lives, dealing with a multitude of issues, addiction, depression, abuse, self-loathing, and grief, as Rachael firmly but kindly brings her group along their difficult path, all the while having to reassess her own continuing recovery, and having to face some unpalatable truths about her past. As ever, Keyes has a huge palette of background characters, in the boisterous, chaotic Walsh family and there’s much affectionate humour as Rachel and her sisters plan a surprise 80th party for their feisty mother. And what of Rachael’s ex, the sexy Luke Costello, who, after their bitter divorce, returns to Ireland for his mother’s funeral. The past returns to torment Rachel and again, she has to acknowledge some bitter truths. Keyes’s deft, assured handling of her characters brings us a book brimming with compassion, forgiveness, humour, love and redemption. A very worthy sequel indeed one, that will make her millions of readers very happy.
A Cloud Where the Birds Rise. Michael Harding. Hachette Books Ireland
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n this stunning collaboration, bestselling writer Michael Harding’s most memorable musings on the human condition are brought to life by illustrator Jacob Stack. In these pages, the reader is held in moments of belonging, solitude, love and healing as we witness the beauty of falling snow, the pain and love of goodbyes, and the shared lives and deaths of neighbours amid the sweeping landscape of Ireland. A Cloud Where the Birds Rise is a beautifully illustrated collection of observations and stories from one of Ireland’s best-loved writers - a celebration of finding beauty and hope in the ordinary. An exquisite book to dip into. Balm for the soul. 34
It Could Never Happen Here - Eithne Shortall- Corvus
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f there’s one thing Beverly Franklin knows, it’s that if you don’t at least try to get your kid into Glass Lake Primary, you’re basically negligent. Determined to hang on to her crown as Queen Bee of the ‘Lakers’, Beverley will do whatever it takes to protect the school’s reputation. So when a scandal involving her own 12-year-old daughter threatens to derail the annual school musical’s appearance on national television, Beverley goes into overdrive. But in her efforts to protect her daughter and keep the musical on track, she misses what’s really going, both in her own house and in the insular Glass Lake community, with dramatic consequences... Small town politics and personality clashes, a dead body, and a twist in the tail, Eithne Shortall’s it could never happen here is her best yet.
Buried Angels – Patricia Gibney - Sphere.
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hen Faye Baker discovers a fragile child’s skull behind the walls of her new home, Detective Lottie Parker is called to investigate. The house has been owned for years by the family of Faye’s boyfriend Jeff, so when Jeff starts acting suspiciously, Lottie wonders what he might be hiding. Lottie doesn’t have long to dig deeper before a child’s bones are found by eleven-year-old Gavin on nearby railway tracks. The bones don’t match the small skull behind the walls, but Lottie can’t ignore the coincidence. Someone out there must be missing their loved ones and it’s up to her to put right a terrible wrong. Unable to shake a feeling of foreboding, Lottie goes to speak to Faye, and discovers that she hasn’t turned up for work. When Faye’s body is found stuffed in the back of her car, Lottie needs to find out who wanted her to keep quiet. As Lottie hunts for Faye’s killer, the case takes a darker turn when Gavin goes missing. Faye and Gavin are connected only by the grisly body parts they discovered. But who are these little victims and why has their killer come back? Can Lottie find the answers before another precious life is taken? Buried Angels will keep you immersed from the first page. Patricia Gibney just gets better and better. A
AGE PROOF: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life - PROFESSOR ROSE ANNE KENNY- Lagom
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e all age. But why do some of us live longer than others? Why do we live twice as long today as our ancestors did 200 years ago? And can the latest science teach us not only to live longer lives, but also to live fitter, healthier and happier lives, deep into our later years? Professor Rose Anne Kenny has 35 years of experience right at the top of ageing medicine and is at the forefront of scientific research into the subject - hers is ground-breaking, award-winning research in this area. Age Proof reveals why and how some people have a lower biological age (how our body looks and feels) than chronological age (the number), and the role played by food, genetics, sex, physical exercise, cold water, expectations, friendships and much more. From the nuns who lived into their nineties, to the septuagenarians taking up sport for the first time, via the revealing, if unlikely friendship of Jojo the monkey and Alan the cat, and the existence of ‘Blue Zones’ (areas of the world where inhabitants live longer), Professor Kenny’s work lifts the lid on the importance of family, friends, laughter and good sleep and emphasises that we are all just as young as we feel. Informative, pragmatic, holistic and ever encouraging, this is for readers of all ages who wish to age healthily. A very positive uplifting read. 35
Issues: Environmental issues
How COVID is Transforming our Cities
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arklets, traffic-free zones and outdoor eating: Cities are adapting. Michele Acuto and Dan Hill report.
The pandemic, as the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, acknowledged in July 2020, is a deeply urban crisis. COVID has flourished due to the things that are a city’s strengths: population density and diversity, concentrations of logistics and mobility networks, fluid population bases.
In response to the crisis, city governments have altered the urban environment rapidly and effectively. A 2020 review of city-based COVID-19 innovations by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows how councils have tinkered, trialled and retrofitted in ways that were unthinkable before the pandemic hit.
It has also flourished due to the deep, structural flaws in many of our Tactical cities: poor air Responses quality, food inequalities, crowded or Both cities and citizens have often shown that they unaffordable housing, poor provision of public space, can adapt rapidly under crisis conditions. A twooften unhealthy populations. Long-standing systemic day transport strike in London in 2004 prompted health and social inequities have exacerbated the approximately 250,000 commuters to impact of the pandemic on city residents, reconsider their regular routes, disproportionately affecting changing their mobility racial and ethnic Pop-up bike lanes have aphabits permanently. minority groups. peared everywhere elsewhere too, from Bu-
dapest and Bogotá to Mexico City and Dublin.
Centuries earlier, the rebuilding of London after the great fire of 1666 ended up being more improvised than planned. But it also resulted in English physicist-architect Robert Hooke helping to develop the city’s first meaningful building codes.
When the coronavirus first hit, people speculated that it might even bring about the end of the city. Evidence from around the world, however, suggests that cities are simply adapting, as they have always done.
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More broadly, responses to infectious diseases have influenced the way the urban environment has evolved. The British surgeon apothecary John Snow is known for his experiments on a Soho water pump in 1854. He identified cholera as a water-borne disease, which led to systemic transformations in the urban water supply. During COVID, street usage in cities around the world has shifted, partially, and at least temporarily, towards walking, cycling, outdoor eating, greenery and the local economy. Small parks – sometimes called parklets – have sprung out of reconfigured car parks or taken over on-road parking spaces. Diners have eaten out on temporarily rethought pavements.
From Fix to Fixture More broadly, the Covid Mobility Works website has collated examples of fixes, from more than 245 cities, that have sought to aid equity and accessibility, the transport of goods and people, public engagement and health and safety, among other categories. In Berlin, some new bike lanes were designed and approved within ten days, rather than the months it had previously taken. Pop-up bike lanes have appeared everywhere elsewhere too, from Budapest and Bogotá to Mexico City and Dublin. The city of Mumbai has appointed cycle councillors to all 24 of its civic wards.
In England, the quieter, safer and sometimes modified streets meant the number of cycling trips made by women rose by 50% in Embracing such al fresco possibilities has of course 2020. London fast-tracked its low-traffic neighbourhoods been a health necessity, precipitated by the by some years, even if the rush to implement pandemic. It has also emphasised them meant engagement and planning the essential value of convivial The pandemic can be was sometimes lacking. Similar places with cultural activity, seen as having instituted a period schemes in New Zealand’s local engagement – and of forced experimentation and forcities and Vancouver to fresh air. create healthy, sustainable ward thinking. New York offers an example neighbourhoods have been of how cities might capture comparatively well considered. data and learn from these tactical, reactive solutions – which can be thought of These aren’t exactly new endeavours. Urban development as prototypes – to improve people’s lives in the long term. experts have been working on such concepts for years. With its Open Restaurants program, the city has focused These include Barcelona’s superblock car-free zones on expanding outdoor seating options for thousands and the 15-minute city concept – which aims to have of food establishments, documenting everything via a residents live, work and shop all within a 15-minute publicly accessible platform. radius – that has been implemented in Paris. In Sweden, meanwhile, the hyperlocal one-minute city model At the same time, many of these changes have simply involves planning focused at single-street level: residents been about projecting some tangible sense at normality. have a say in how much space is given over to cars. And They have often only served a relatively small number of in Seattle, the local government is opening up 45 miles of residents. neighbourhood greenways – not only as a COVID-19 37
fix, but a step towards making the city liveable in the long term.
links between these patterns associated with COVID-19 and other, deeper crises – the climate crisis, mass migration, social justice – there may be much to gain from the apparently mundane COVID-induced changes to our urban environments. Cities thrive not simply as economic powerhouses but also as inclusive, diverse communities and regenerative places.
The impact of increased shopping and working online also predates the pandemic, yet a diverse array of urban lockdowns has pulled focus on these awkward ...the 15-minute city Michele Acuto is professor of questions too. Only a concept – which aims to have reshandful of cities are global urban politics and director idents live, work and shop all within a of Connected Cities Lab at The coherently addressing all 15-minute radius.... University of Melbourne. Dan Hill of these linked challenges is a visiting professor of practice at systemically. the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public The pandemic can be seen as having instituted a period Purpose. of forced experimentation and forward thinking. But beyond the immediate tactical responses by local Courtesy of The Conversation / International Network of Street Papers governments, and the visceral experiences of residents, cities face deeper strategic challenges. If we can see the
Word Power O
ver the next few issues we’ll be attempting to increase your word power. Have a look at the words below and afterwards see if you know their meaning.
Word
Pronunciation
Answers
1. Denigrate 2. Didactic 3. Disparate 4.Gratuitous 5. Obdurate 6. Soliloquy 7. Orthodox 8. Nonplussed 9. Commensurate 10.Accretion 11.Trifling 12. Formidable
Den-i-greyt Dahy-dak-tik Dis-per-it Gruh-too-i-tuhs Ob-doo-rit Suh-lil-uh-kwee Awr-thuh-doks Non-pluhst Kuh-men-ser-it Uh-kree-shuhn Trahy-fling Fawr-mid-uh-buhl
1. Criticise in a derogatory manner. 2. Inclined to teach or lecture others too much. 3. Distinct in kind. 4. Given without payment or charge. 5. Unmoved by persuasion, pity or tender feelings. 6. The act of talking while or as if alone. 7. Conforming to the approved form of doctrine. 8. Completely puzzled or perplexed. 9. Corresponding in amount, magnitude or degree. 10. An increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition; growth in size or extent. 11. Of very little importance; trivial; insignificant. 12. Causing fear, apprehension, or dread.
U score? How did YOPerfection!6-9 – 10 or more Brilliant. ne. 3-5 Well do o better. 0-2 Must d
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The Podcast Review W
e source the best selection of podcasts each issue. This time we bring you Maintenance Phase, The Dave Chang Show, Revolutions, The Indicator and SmartLess.
Maintenance Phase (Health)
revolutionary events and characters.
The Indicator (Economics)
The worlds of wellness and weight loss are awash with questionable products and advice, so a podcast to debunk fads and junk science with reasoned argument and research is welcome. It’s more fun than it sounds, thanks to the entertaining hosts, and there’s even a fascinating episode on the popular idiom “snake oil” that recounts the history of health scams.
This Planet Money spin-off delivers digestible, fast-paced, well-told stories on business and the economy that tackle disparate topics like TikTok marketing, opioid nasal sprays, and ticket scalpers. Each enlightening episode comes in under ten minutes and serves as a quick primer that will leave you feeling well informed.
SmartLess (Celebrity)
The Dave Chang Show (Food)
Charming and goofy, this conversational show stars Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, and they always have a surprise celebrity guest, like Ryan Reynolds or Reese Witherspoon. It is warm, gentle, easy listening, and often laugh-out-loud funny, but don’t expect challenging questions or bared souls.
Celebrity chef Dave Chang, whom you may know from his Netflix show Ugly Delicious, talks mostly about food, guilty pleasures, and the creative process with other chefs and restaurateurs. There is plenty here to satisfy foodies, but some of the funniest moments come when the show covers other random topics, like the perfect email sign-off or wearing shoes indoors.
How to:
Revolutions (History) The modern world was shaped by some of the ideas that drove revolutions, and this deeply researched series runs through the English Civil War, American, French, Haitian, and Russian revolutions, Simon Bolivar’s liberation of South America, and more. The writing is concise, the narration is engaging, and host Mike Duncan does a fantastic job contextualising
Search “Google podcasts” in the Play Store app (if you’ve an Android phone). iPhones comes with Apple podcasts app installed. Open the app and type in the name of the podcast you want or you can just browse categories whilst there.
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s e k o Because laughter is J the best medicine!
Dentist; I have to pull the aching tooth, but don’t worry it will take just five minutes. Patient: And how much will it cost? Dentist: It’s €90.00 Patient: €90.00 for just a few minutes work? Dentist: I can extract it very very slowly if you like.
Mattie’s missus was in the Rotunda Hospital, ready to give birth to their first child. When they arrived, the nurse asked, ‘How dilated is she, sir?’ Mattie replied, ‘Delighted? She’s over the f**king moon!’
A Dublin man a Cork man and an Cavan man wander into a little old pub in Kildare. They each ask the barman for a pint of Guinness. After the pints are placed onto the bar, three bluebottles drop into each man’s freshly poured pint. The Dub pushes his pint away in disgust and orders up another. The Corkman reaches in and plucks the fly out. The Cavan man reaches in, picks the fly out, holds it up close to his face and shouts, “Spit it out you little fecker.”
An English lawyer was sat with his Irish client. ‘Pat’ he sighed, ‘Why is it that whenever you ask an Irishman a question, he replies with another question?’ ‘Me arse , Who told you that?’ asked Pat.
Why did St. Patrick drive all the snakes out of Ireland?
An Irishman was in New York patiently waiting to cross a busy street. There was a traffic cop manning the crossing.
What do you call a fake Irish diamond?
It was too far to walk.
A shamrock
The cop stopped after a few minutes and told those waiting to cross the road,
How did the Irish Jig get started?
‘Okay pedestrians’, he said, ‘Let’s go’.
Too much water to drink and not enough restrooms.
The Irishman stood waiting, growing more and more frustrated. After five minutes he shouted to the cop, ‘Here! The pedestrians crossed ages ago – when’s it time for the Catholics?
A husband and wife entered the dentist’s office. The husband said, ‘I want a tooth pulled. I don’t want gas or anything because I’m in a terrible hurry. Just pull the tooth as quickly as possible.’
Question: Do you know what an Irish husband is?
‘You’re a brave man,’ Said the dentist. ‘Now, show me which tooth it is’
Answer: A man who has not kissed or touched his wife in 20 years but would kill the man who tries to.
The husband turns to his wife and says, ‘Open your mouth and show the dentist which tooth it is, dear.
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D is c o u n
t Corne
r
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@
Is í ár dteanga féin í. It’s our language.
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