Go-Rail Dec 2013-Jan 2014 by Hot Press Publishing

DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2014 VOL:03 ISSUE:06

Irish Food Heroes Special with Darina Allen & Dylan McGrath

He’s A Keeper! Ireland No. 1 David Forde

Boyzone

The gang’s all here

HIM N O S ’ JOKE

PAT SHORTT THE

• RAY WINSTONE • IGGY AZALEA • ANNE RICE •

sa r e m o t r cus u o l l a ish w o t e lik would

s a m t s r i h C y p p a H y r e V ng... i v r e s d to r a w r o ok f

and lo

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www.fairtrade.ie

CONTENTS GO

DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 2014 VOLUME: 3 ISSUE: 6

P A T S H O R T T P20 6 GO FOR IT A rundown of what’s hot and happening throughout the country. 16 TRAIN NEWS Up-to-date train news from Iarnród Éireann. 20 SHORTT AND SWEET Working with Harry Potter and hanging with Withnail? Irish comedy icon – and something of a renaissance man these days – Pat Shortt recalls a whirlwind 12 months . 24 BOYZ TO MEN Mikey Graham talks Boyzone turning 20, getting over the loss of Stephen Gately, and recalls their crazy days as teen idols. 28 RAY OF LIGHT Known for portraying East London hardmen, actor Ray Winstone proves an amiable character, opening up about his tough upbringing, financial troubles and current big screen success.

30 IGGY'S STARDUST Preparing to launch her debut LP, Australian rap sensation Iggy Azalea comes clean about an isolated childhood and talks 'haters'.

and death.

32 RICE TO MEET YOU Renowned gothic writer Anne Rice on her influences and own influence on the genre, as well as vampires, werewolves and New Orleans.

50 GO BUSINESS Soundwave CEO Brendan O'Driscoll on his revolutionary new social media app and Fleet Connect founder Patrick Cotter on his plucky Dublin start-up.

34 HE'S A KEEPER A case of 'better late than never' as David Forde cements the number one spot for Ireland. The footballer talks about his dream year. 36 GO EAT A 'food heroes' special, featuring Darina Allen and Dylan McGrath as our country's top culinary cheerleaders. 46 BRAND NEW GILDEA Comedian and 'Nuala' Anne Gildea sits down to dinner with Go Rail to talk matters of life

49 GO HEALTH Embracing a healthier lifestyle in the New Year.

54 GO FASHION Your guide to being a 'winter warrior'. 58 GO PLACES We travel to the coastal city of Genoa. 61 MY FAVOURITE TRAIN JOURNEY Comedian Colm O'Regan on Cork to Dublin. 62 GO REVIEW Go Rail’s crack team of reviewers cast their eye over the latest albums, books and DVDs.

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CREDITS DEC - FEB 2014 VOLUME: 03 ISSUE: 06 MANAGING EDITOR

Máirín Sheehy

COMMISSIONING EDITOR

Roisin Dwyer

CONTRIBUTORS

Stuart Clark Craig Fitzpatrick Dave Hanratty Roe McDermott Colm O'Hare Anne Sexton Robert Higgins Ed Power Eamon Sweeney James O'Brien

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Dublin 2

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

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Monika Karaliunaite Niall Warde

STUDIO MANAGER

Graham Keogh

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Boylan’s Print

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PUBLISHER

Niall Stokes

Terror through the Philippines. Photo by Kieran McConville

GO RAIL IS PUBLISHED FOR IARNRÓD ÉIREANN BY: Osnovina Ltd 13 Trinity Street Dublin 2

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LETTERS

The Editor, Go Rail Magazine, 13 Trinity St Dublin 2

While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, the publishers cannot accept any responsibilities for errors. The views contained in this magazine are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Iarnród Eireann. All material © Osnovina 2013. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material without permission of the publishers is strictly prohibited.

SEASON’S GREETINGS W

hat an extraordinary 12 months it has been. Looking out the window of the train, you catch the ever-changing colours of the landscape in a particularly immediate, and often breathtaking, way. Nicely ensconced in a carriage, even a rainy day has its own, singular appeal. But there is something especially lovely about the Irish countryside in fine, clear weather. There has been so much of that in 2013. The climate here in Ireland has been exceptional. We had a pleasantly moderate spring, a warm summer that extended almost to the end of October and, so far at least, a mild and relatively dry winter. The gorgeous russets, browns and yellows of autumn lasted far longer than normal. Only over the past week or so have the trees finally shed their leaves, covering the ground in a blanket of brilliant, eye-catching shades. It is one of the great pleasures of life in this country, watching those seasonal shifts and changes, especially when they happen in such a slow-motion style. Elsewhere, Mother Nature has been far less benign. It is terrible and deeply moving to see the impact of a powerful event like Typhoon Haiyan in The Philippines, where close to 6,000 people died, early in November, when the deadliest typhoon on record hit the islands. In addition, some 10 million people have been displaced, ensuring that the effects of the typhoon will be felt for many years to come. Estimates of the cost of this exceptionally powerful

tropical storm vary, but it will be at least €550 million. That, however, is considerably lower than the last major weather incident in the region, dubbed Typhoon Bopha, which hit as recently as 2012. On that occasion, while the loss of life, at just over 1,000, was far lower, the economic cost ran to €750 million. Typhoons have become an annual occurrence in the area. In 2009, there were two, at a combined cost of €650 million. It is hard for us to even begin to imagine what it must be like, living under the constant threat which typhoons, hurricanes and severe earthquakes represent for people in less temperate parts of the world. Other people’s misery, of course, is never a comfort. But it is worth bearing in mind all the same, in the midst of the dark times that have prevailed here over the past five years, that we are in many respects very lucky to have found ourselves on this small island off the coast of Europe. It may be a constant struggle. For many, there are doubtless times when it all seems to be too much. But, as we look forward to 2014, it is a good thing to start by acknowledging that we are living in what remains a relatively privileged, beautiful and secure part of the world – and to enjoy the extraordinary bounty that nature bestows on us at every opportunity. It is a marvellous gift... On which positive thought, I’d like to say a big happy Christmas to all the readers of Go Rail – have a wonderful new year... Máirín Sheehy, Editor

GREAT

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A R U N D O W N O F W H AT ’ S H O T & H A P P E N I N G b y d av e h a n r at t y

FLANN THE MAN It’s been nothing but plain sailing for soft-spoken Cork troubadour Mick Flannery since the release of best-selling and critically-acclaimed third album Red to Blue. Having spent three weeks at the top of the Irish charts, Flannery found his live audience growing and growing as sell-out shows and packed festival tents quickly became the norm for the humble former (and still occasional!) stonemason. Having decamped to Germany to write his fourth record, Mick has shown no signs of pressure, letting the world know that they’ll get it when he’s good and ready. In the meantime, fans will more than make do with a series of Irish headline gigs as Flannery gets set to step onstage at The INEC, Killarney (December 27), Galway’s Seapoint Ballroom (28) and Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick (29).

xxx

ORIGINAL SYNTH Calvin Harris has come a long way since he ushered modern dancefloor classic ‘Acceptable In The 80s’ into the pop lexicon in 2007. Now one of the world’s most successful DJs, producers and songwriters (his long list of credits includes work for Rihanna, Example, Scissor Sisters, Dizzee Rascal and more), Harris is unquestionably at the top of his game. Despite regularly rubbing shoulders with such luminaries, he’s arguably most at home behind the decks, looking out over a mammoth crowd. He’ll get that opportunity come December 19 with his biggest Irish headline show to date at The O2, Dublin. A key figure in the evolution of mainstream pop and dance music over the past two or three years, Harris packs considerable punch in the live arena.

©Snowman Enterprises Ltd. 1982-2013

MAROON

The National Concert Hall’s

Christmas Concert 20 December 2.30pm & 5pm 21 & 22 December 12pm, 2.30pm, 5pm & 7.30pm

IS THE COLOUR

The

Snowman Featuring

Originally set to play these shores last summer, American pop sensations Maroon 5 unfortunately ran afoul of unforeseen scheduling conflicts. Fret not, however, as Adam Levine and co. are set to lift those winter blues when they finally touch down in Dublin’s O2 on January 16. Widely recognised as global pop royalty, the Los Angeles quintet have been dominating charts ever since ‘Harder To Breathe’ and parent album Songs About Jane burst onto the scene in 2002. Since then, it’s been business as usual with the likes of ‘She Will Be Loved’, ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and 2012’s monster hit ‘Payphone’ establishing serious pedigree. A new album is expected at some point in 2014, so expect their Dublin date to (hopefully!) feature some eagerly-anticipated new material.

narrator Pauline McLynn special guest Eimear Quinn RTÉ Concert Orchestra Child ¤15 • Adult ¤20 Family ticket ¤65 (2 adults/2 children) 15% discount for groups of 10 or more 20% discount for Friends of the National Concert Hall 20% discount for Young Maestros All Discounts are on Full Price tickets only

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VILLAGE

PEOPLE

McMORROW GOES NATIONAL Don’t be surprised if 2014 ends up being the year of James Vincent McMorrow when all is said and done. Sure, he’s continued to impress since debut album Early In The Morning emerged in 2010, racking up memorable festival appearances, headline shows and giving us a beautiful take on Steve Winwood’s ‘Higher Love’, but his next step promises to be his biggest yet. New record Post Tropical is expected in mid-January and McMorrow has whetted appetites considerably with gorgeous lead single ‘Cavalier’, marking an exciting new direction in the process. Often referred to as Ireland’s answer to Bon Iver, McMorrow possesses a truly stunning voice, one which should sweetly fill Dublin’s National Concert Hall when he pitches up for a three-night residency from February 4 – 6.

strong year for Irish music saw the likes of Kodaline, Little Green Cars and The Strypes make a huge impact both home and abroad, but one homegrown act delivered their masterpiece in typically delicate fashion. {Awayland}, the second album from the Conor J. O’Brien-led Villagers, takes the dreamy signature sound established on 2010’s Becoming A Jackal and ups the ante without ever going over the top. No mean feat, yet carried off with grace and precision. Like its predecessor, {Awayland} received a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize as it rode a wave of deserved critical acclaim. How to see out such a brilliant 12 months? Why, with an intimate nationwide tour, of course. You can catch Villagers when they play The Seapoint Ballroom, Galway (December 14), The Savoy, Cork (16) and Dublin’s Vicar Street (17 and 18).

KEITH DIXON

A REAL CHRISTMAS CRACKER BYRNE NOTICE Boasting the seal of approval from none other than President Michael D. Higgins, the Monica Loughman Ballet production of Russian classic The Nutcracker comes with notable prestige. This much-loved ballet has been delighting audiences of all ages for over one hundred years and given the talent and grace on display, it’s easy to see why. Widely considered the most popular ballet in the world, The Nutcracker runs for four

Irish performances beginning with the INEC, Killarney on December 15 before moving to Dublin’s Convention Centre from December 21 – 23. Boasting an impressive cast, terrific choreography and a stunning score by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker and grand ballet go hand in hand, step by glorious step. And remember, in Russia, they say that the more you applaud, the higher the dancers will jump. Worth a go!

Dublin funny man Jason Byrne is known for being a bit of a live wire. Whether he’s presenting on TV, turning his comedy arena into a big top or simply waxing lyrical on the microphone, Byrne tends to keep both himself and his audience on tenterhooks. His new show, Special Eye, has won rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and beyond. A typically raucous yet strangely candid affair, Special Eye finds Byrne casting his, well, eye over

his time growing up in the suburbs of ‘70s Dublin and reflecting on, amongst other things, his problem with astigmatism. In lesser hands, such serious material could prove disastrous, but the ever-inspired Byrne brings a heavy dose of humour alongside the heart. Catch him doing his thing in Vicar Street on January 11 and 18, Drogheda’s Barbican Theatre on February 1, the INEC, Killarney (7) and Portlaoise’s Heritage Hotel (22).

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THE SOUND OF THE STREETS

IN THE GROTTO Welcoming over a quarter of a million visitors (and counting!) over the past decade, the historic mines of Arigna, Co. Roscommon are home to the most unique Christmas experience on offer as Santa Claus brings his grotto deep underground to deliver a very special encounter. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Arigna Mining Experience takes you deep into the heart of the mines, offering the most authentic grotto experience this side of the North Pole. But don’t forget, Santa is a very busy man so make sure to catch him on the following dates: December 14, 15, 21, 22 and 23. The last two weekends also feature a special Christmas market. Advance booking is advised. For inquiries, call 071 964 6466 or email santa@ arignaminingexperience.ie

Dublin’s Temple Bar will play host to the ninth annual TradFest for five days and nights (January 22 – 26) of music and dance in the city’s cultural quarter. One of the biggest traditional music festivals in Ireland, Temple Bar TradFest has gained a reputation for being an exceptional showcase of Irish music and culture. Featuring established and much-loved musicians such as Paul Brady, Altan and Frances Black as well as giving upcoming acts the opportunity to perform as part of their IMRO showcase, the festival is set to be another big one in 2014 with over 200 performances taking place. More than just a music festival, TradFest will feature a jam-packed programme suitable for all the family, with film screenings, street performers, outdoor markets and much more. For more information and a full programme of events, visit www.templebartrad.com

WICKED WINTER The award-winning musical Wicked is set to cast its spell over Irish audiences when it arrives at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Based on the untold story of the witches of Oz, the show has been captivating audiences around the world for almost a decade and is already the 16th longest-running musical in London theatre history. Winner of several prestigious awards including a Grammy and three Tony awards, Wicked tells the story of a profound friendship between two sorcery students and the adventures that lead them to become Glinda The Good and The Wicked Witch of The West. Experience the magic this festive season as Wicked flies into Dublin, broomsticks and all, until January 18. Tickets are available from ticketmaster.ie and bordgaisenergytheatre.ie, as well at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre box office on 01 677 7999.

THE REEL WORLD

Ireland’s largest feature film extravaganza, The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, returns for its 12th year this February. Over 11 days and nights, there will be film screenings, interviews, workshops and much more, along with Irish and international guests from the world of cinema. Taking place across Dublin city centre, venues include the Savoy, Cineworld, the Irish Film Institute, the Screen and the Light House Cinema. This showcase of world cinema is widely acclaimed for its dedication to supporting Irish as well as international film, with many Irish premieres taking place at the festival each year. The festival also honours films, filmmakers and actors with various awards including the Audience Award, the Volta Award for career achievement and the Irish Talent Spotlight, which aims to highlight both new and established talent in the Irish film industry. For information on ticketing and, of course, the festival lineup for 2014, visit www.jdiff.com

Mill Times Hotel Competition

In Association with Golden Ireland

Win a 3 Night Stay in the heart of Westport Town Enjoy a friendly and welcoming stay for two people compliments of The Mill Times Hotel, Westport.

TO BE IN WITH A CHANCE TO WIN, SIMPLY TELL US WHICH TOWN IS THE MILL TIMES HOTEL LOCATED IN? Email your name and contact details to: competition@goldenireland.ie Closing date for receipt of entries is: 31/01/2014 For more information, see www.goldenireland.ie

OVER 55’S BREAKS AT THE MILL TIMES HOTEL

3 Nights for the price of 2 €75 per person sharing Midweek Bed & Breakfast With 1 Evening Meal Valid for the Month of January

4 Nights for the price of 3 €119 per person sharing Midweek Bed & Breakfast With 1 Evening Meal January – March 2014 Bookable before 15th January No Single room supplement // T&C apply Tel: (098) 29200, Email: info@milltimeshotel.ie

www.milltimeshotel.ie www.goldenireland.ie

VISIT THE ORIGINAL

JAMESON DISTILLERY

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DISCOVER

Learn the true meaning of the Angels Share & Triple Distillation while on your Tasting and Tour.

EAT Enjoy lunch or simply a snack in our Restaurant.

SHOP Browse our Jameson Gift Shop for that exclusive gift idea.

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The Old Jameson Distillery Dublin, Bow Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7. E: reservations@ojd.ie T: +353 (0) 1 807 2355 F: +353 (0) 1 807 2369 The Jameson Experience, The Old Distillery, Midleton, Co.Cork. E: bookings@omd.ie T: +353 (0)21 461 3594 F: +353 (0)21 461 3704

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CLASSICAL BAY Galway’s midwinter festival brings some seriously refined sounds to the Town Hall Theatre between January 17 – 19 for three days of classical music. Featuring works by Brahms, Debussy, Strauss and more, the festival will open with an exhibition from students of GMIT’s Campus of Creative Arts and Media that responds to the festival programme. Tickets for all three days of the festival can be found at www.tht.ie and concessions are available.

Kilronan 2829 Winter Warmer Advert_Layout 1 14/11/2013 10:28 Page 1

Upcoming Events

Kilronan Castle Estate and Spa Ballyfarnon, Co. Roscommon.

An Evening with Gay Byrne Thursday 23rd January 2014 from 7.30pm

Winter Warmer

Following the success of his sell out show in January, Ireland’s foremost legendary broadcaster, Gay Byrne joins us again for an evening of memories & laughter. This is an exclusive opportunity to enjoy Gay Byrne at his best.

An Evening with Dermot O’Neill Thursday 13th March 2014 from 7.30pm

Special presentation of expert gardening tips from Ireland’s best loved gardening personality.

Neven Maguire Cookery Demonstration Wednesday 7th May 2014 from 7.30pm

Mid Week Specials from

€109

B&B per room plus access to the thermal suite

January Specials

€99

Bed & Breakfast per room

Neven Maguire joins us again for what promises to be another brilliant demonstration. Neven will be displaying a number of his favourite dishes using only the finest ingredients whilst explaining his methods and giving pointers and tips along the way.

2 Nights B&B plus 1 Dinner

€149 per person sharing

Valid from December 2013 through to February 2014.

TICKETS ONLY €20 PER SHOW EARLY BIRD DINNER ONLY X25.00 PP

FOR MORE INFORMATION

071 96 18000

www.kilronancastle.ie

Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa, Dunboyne, Co. Meath Tel: +353 1 801 3500 Fax: +353 1 436 6801 Email: events@dunboynecastlehotel.com Web: www.dunboynecastlehotel.com

WHISKEY

IN THE JAR

GLO FOR IT

Exclusive to the Old Jameson Distillery, Dublin, this 12 yr Jameson Distillery Reserve harks back to the time when John Jameson always kept some of his private stock for his visiting guests and this tradition lives on with this personalised bottle, only available for the visitor centres. Easily processed for you on-site and the shop is open 7 days a week, you can also order online ; www.jamesonwhiskey.com or call 01 8072355

A feast of festive family entertainment, GloHealth's Christmas Wonderland at the RDS runs until January 12 and features a wide range of fun activities for all ages including Funderland, a special Santaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Christmas Circus, an adventure journey through the Jingle Town grotto, the famous Custard Pie puppet company and award-winning international illusionist Guy Barrett. With plenty to see and do, the magic of Christmas comes alive as festive music and brilliant lights set the scene. Whether you fancy yourself an Olympic-level skater or are set to lace up a pair of ice skates for the first time, you'll want to give iSkate Ireland's largest ice rink a try. There's also a traditional Continental Christmas market inspired by the German Chriskindelmarkt, boasting everything from traditional sausage and schnitzel to gluwhein and gingerbread, all housed in a cosy wooden chalet-laden village atmosphere. Check out www.christmaswonderland.ie for more.

Parkgate Street, Dublin 8, Ireland Tel: +353 1 677 23 24 Web: www.ashlinghotel.ie

Christmas Gift Vouchers www.finnstown.com

Newcastle Rd, Lucan, Co. Dublin (Exit 7 off the M50) T: 00 353 1 601 0700 E: online@finnstown-hotel.ie

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GOLDEN DAWN

JEDWARD & THE BEAST

There's plenty of exciting travel options available to the over 55's with Golden Ireland, your one-stop website for the numerous 'Golden Years' offers from hotels all across Ireland. There's also a broad range of over 55's offers from Irish visitor attractions, self-catering accommodation and other tourism providers. Golden Ireland also publishes the annual Golden Ireland Guide, an extensive array of travel offers and info on various regions worth travelling to, which is available both as a free download from the website and from Failte Ireland tourist offices nationwide. Check out www.goldenireland.ie for news, reviews, competitions and great deals. But if you're not planning on venturing out and are instead opting for a traditional Christmas at home, be sure to think of those around you. That's the message from Active Retirement Ireland, who say, "Don't be a stranger", should you have an older relative or neighbour. Just one phone call or visit this festive season could make the world of difference. If you're an older person, living alone or otherwise and in need of a chat, the friendly team at the Senior Helpline on 1850 440 444 will be glad to hear from you.

The all-singing, all-dancing, unstoppable duo that is Jedward return to the Olympia once again this year with fun and frolics galore in Beauty & The Beast, the Dublin Bus Christmas panto. Directed by Moone Boy’s Simon Delaney, this whimsical production of a much-loved classic sees the double-act joined by Eurovision winner Linda Martin and rib-tickling comedian Al Porter as part of a hundred-strong cast for a run of 34 shows this Christmas season. Expect songs, wicked dance moves and the odd bit of wild improv courtesy of the brothers Grimes. This event for all the family runs from December 18 to January 5 and tickets are available from www. ticketmaster.ie or at the Olympia Theatre box office.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

resident Michael D Higgins was among those celebrating the diversity and creativity found in Irish language literature at the recent 'Leabhar na Bliana' (Book of the Year) awards in Dublin. Held in Temple Bar's Gallery of Photography, the ceremony saw two very different types of book scoop the top prizes as Ireland's songwriting tradition and the nation's 'Pirate Queen' took centre stage. Organised by Oireachtas na Gaeilge and sponsored by Foras na Gailege, the all-island competition recognises two categories comprised of five shortlisted entries; Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin for adult books and Gradam Réics Carló for younger readers. This year's Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin was won by Cló-Iar Chonnacht's Leabhar Mór na nAmhrán, a collection of four hundred sean-nós songs, many published for the very first time, all in one magnificent volume. The hugely impressive collection was edited by Mícheál Ó Conghaile, Lochlainn Ó Tuairisg and Peadar Ó Ceannabháin and contains notes on the history and origins of the songs, as well as crediting the composers where possible. The Gradam Réics Carló was awarded to a quite unique effort; a graphic novel version of Gráinne Mhaol, the pirate queen, written by Gisela Pizzatto and illustrated by Bruno Bull. Both Ms Pizzatto and Mr Bull live and work in Brazil and their book was translated directly to Irish by Iarla Mac Aodha Bhuí on behalf of publisher Cló Mhaigh Eo. Speaking at the ceremony, Director of Oireachtas na Gaeilge Liam O Maolaodha acknowledged each shortlisted entry as a work of art, highlighting the variety on display and noting that it was important for each title to "receive due recognition for their creativity".

RINGING IN THE NEW The NYE Dublin Festival returns for its third year celebrating the New Year in the heart of the capital. This exciting occasion kicks off with the Procession of Light through the historic city of Dublin on New Year’s Eve, accompanied by performers and musicians. This event is both free and family friendly. The main event of the festival is the Countdown Concert, which takes place at College Green, featuring performances from Madness and Ryan Sheridan to help you ring in the New Year. The event will also be broadcast live by RTÉ. The fun doesn’t end at the stroke of midnight, however. Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square is set to host The Big Brunch on New Year’s Day, with live music, children’s entertainment and interactive performances planned for this free, non-ticketed event. For more information, including details about registration for the Procession of Light, and to obtain tickets to the Countdown Concert, visit www.3nyedublin.ie

LET THERE BE LIGHT A

s Dublin city centre shimmers under resplendent Christmas lights - switched on in mid-November by the Dublin GAA team and X-Factor star, Melanie McCabe - things have never felt so warm and festive. The pathways and thoroughfares of the city have never looked so dazzling, either. With over 30 streets united in the spirit of the season by Dublin City Business Improvement District, the city is truly a winter wonderland. Shoppers can bask in much more than the brilliant glow, though, with tons of fantastic offers, Christmasrelated events and shrewd innovations to be found across the capital as the big day approaches. Back by popular demand, the Shop & Drop free bag minding service provides an easy and hasslefree Christmas shopping experience, allowing you to focus more time on celebrating the season with your friends and family. Think of it as a shopping bag crèche – simply take your items to either of the convenient locations, (Upper Liffey Street, next to Arnotts side entrance on the North Side or the middle floor of Stephens Green Shopping Centre on the South Side), leaving you free to take in the unique Dublin at Christmas atmosphere. Either pick up your shopping later or, if you’d prefer, have it ferried to your door thanks to An Post. Meanwhile, for the ultimate online guide for Christmas in Dublin city centre, check out www. dublinatchristmas.ie. The site features a selection of family-friendly events; wide variety of exciting Christmas-themed activities; essential parking and traveling information; excellent special offers

in shops, restaurants, bars, and hotels; interactive galleries; and much, much more.

KEY EVENTS ACROSS THE CITY THIS CHRISTMAS INCLUDE: The Dame District Christmas Market Back for its third successive year, the Dame District Christmas Market brings a seasonal hustle and bustle atmosphere to Dame Court on a daily basis from December 13 – 22. There’s something for everyone with over 23 stalls busting at the seams with crafts, hot food, drinks, fudge, wooden toys, hand-crafted jewellery, and gourmet food options. A free concert takes place each night on the Market’s Christmas Stage while two other stages aim to pack more festive entertainment than you could shake a candy cane at. Every Saturday and Sunday is Kids Christmas Day with face painters, games and a children’s disco. See www.damedistrict.com The Christmas concert featuring the Snowman A veritable Christmas classic, the Snowman is a delight for both young and old. The National Concert Hall welcomes an electric production of the famous tale from December 20 – 22. Father Ted actress Pauline McLynn narrates the story of James and the flying snowman as Raymond Briggs’ picturesque film unfolds on the big screen. There’s also spectacular live puppet animation by Matthew Robins featuring excerpts from The Nutcracker and a beautiful performance from singer Eimear Quinn. Orson Welles’ Christmas Carol The Powerscourt Theatre hosts a clever and

unique take on the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, from December 20 -22. Young radio superstar, Orson Welles battles to rescue his on-air production of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve 1938 in New York. Can Orson and his overworked cast survive the last-minute chaos and deliver the timeless tale? This exciting play features a 50-minute version of A Christmas Carol in 1930’s radio style with live sound effects and carols mixed in amongst all the wacky shenanigans. The Risen People Running until February 1 in the Abbey Theatre, this new version of James Plunkett’s The Risen People marks the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lockout. The inspiration for Plunkett’s bestselling novel Strumpet City, The Risen People exists in the shadow of the Lockout and paints a compelling picture of struggle and solidarity, as seen through the eyes of rich, genuine characters. This new production is particularly engaging, and it remains a defining moment in Irish history through music, movement and song. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs The hallowed halls of the Gaiety Theatre play host to this year’s Gaiety Christmas Panto, the beloved Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from December 18 – January 3. The fresh take on a timeless adventure sees actress Megan Cassidy embody the famous Snow White as she runs afoul of her wicked stepmother and falls in with seven whimsical and very different dwarfs. As lively and animated as the famous Disney cartoon, this new production is the perfect festive treat for all the family.

GONEWS Dana Kucharova, from Cork who works as a Train Host on the Cork/Dublin service has been named Iarnród Éireann Customer Service Person of the Year for 2013

Tara Donnelly and Grainne Landers from the Taxsaver Department, Connolly pick up their award from Gerry Culligan, Commercial Director, Iarnród Éireann and Phil Gaffney, Chairman, Iarnród Éireann.

L-R Jim Meade,Director, Railway Undertaking, Michael O’Sullivan, Revenue Protection Officer, Cork, Dana Kucharova, Train Host, Cork/Dublin service, Niamh McHugh, Payroll Department, Connolly, David Franks, Chief Executive, Iarnród Éireann, Kieran Kelly, Kilkenny Station, Joanne Bissett, Corporate Communications, Connolly and Teresa Keenan and Joseph Sloan, Corporate Cartering.

for an award for the second year in a row, Dana won the Overall Award this year with judges saying: “Dana is a very pleasant person and has only ever received good reports from customers regarding her attention to them on board. She is very helpful and obliging and will not hesitate to go the extra mile to assist.” The Iarnród Éireann Customer service awards are now in their 3rd year and are designed to acknowledge those across a range of roles who have excelled in customer service. The categories for nominations were: Station Staff, Contractors, Onboard Staff, Customer Relations & Sales Agent, Commercial Excellance and Overall Customer Services Winner.

OTHER WINNERS

TRAIN HOST WINS NATIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD

ana Kucharova, a Train Host on the Cork/ Dublin service, has been named Iarnród Éireann Customer Service Person of the Year for 2013. Based in Cork, Dana is popular amongst customers, and takes pride in providing information and assistance to customers on board, and beyond, including assisting customers with mobility issues to their cars. Nominated

As well as Dana’s win, Kent Station, Cork is celebrating on the double and Michael O’Sullivan, Revenue Protection Officer, Cork has won the On Board Customer Service Award, for 2013. Kilkenny Station is delighted with the news that Kieran Kelly wins the Station Staff person of the year. Joanne Bissett from Skerries wins the Customer Relations & Sales Agent award, for her work on the company’s award-winning @irishrail twitter account in Connolly Station, communicating with over 35,000 followers daily. The Taxsaver Department in Connolly Station has come out on top for the Commercial Excellence Award. Taxsaver ticket sales has grown from strength to strength over the last number of years, with the team promoting the excellent value and savings for customers by encouraging more companies to participate. Niamh McHugh from Bray wins the Internal Customer Service Award. Niamh works in the payroll department and is always on hand to assist and inform colleagues in an informative and helpful manner. Our Contractors award was won this year by Teresa Keenan and Joseph Sloan who work for Corporate Catering on the Connolly – Belfast service. They are based in Belfast and provide excellent service to customers on board, helping customers with service information while providing catering services in a very professional manner.

START UP EXPRESS ROLLS INTO TOWN!

WESTERN RAIL CORRIDOR TRAINS NOW AVAILABLE TO BOOK ONLINE FARES BETWEEN LIMERICK & GALWAY FROM €5.99 EACH WAY

ustomers using Western Rail Corridor services between Limerick and Galway will now be able to book their journeys online at irishrail.ie . Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail has confirmed the facility has now been introduced, with best adult fares online of €5.99 each way, and €2.99 for children, between the two cities. The company has upgraded its online facility to add trains on the route onto its booking system, with open seating on Western Rail Corridor trains for customers who book online. A spokesperson for Iarnród Éireann said “we’re delighted to introduce online booking for Western Rail Corridor customers. We know this is something which our customers and the wider community have been anxious to see provided for some time”.

“In particular, we’re pleased to be able to provide this in the run-up to Christmas, to give an opportunity to those who have not used the route previously to experience the service, and do their Christmas shopping and other activities without worrying about traffic congestion and parking charges. Our fares from €5.99 each way for adults and €2.99 each way for children are extremely competitive, giving big savings to families at a time of year when every cent counts.” Trains can be reserved online up to 60 days in advance. Five trains each way operate on the route daily. Connections through the Western Rail Corridor, including Galway to Cork and Galway to Tralee train connections, are also now available on the irishrail.ie online booking system.

Trustev, PCH International & Voxpro jointly funded a special train from Cork to Sandymount Station on Tues 29th October last. The train departed at 16.10hrs and ran directly to Sandymount via the Phoenix Park tunnel arriving just before 20.00hrs. The train carried 180 customers who were attending the Web Summit in the RDS over the following two days. Present was the CEO of Trustev, Pat Phelan, Caitriona Halloran (MD of Microsoft Ireland), former Skype COO Michael Jackson as well as a number of CEO’s and experienced entrepreneurs. Ten Cork start-ups were also invited to travel and pitch their ideas to their team of experts and other customers flew in from eleven countries to make the journey up to Dublin on the Startup Express. Also present were members of the National Press as well as Bloomberg TV, who filmed a number of interviews onboard. The train was divided into 3 sections • A speaker carriage for guest speakers to address guests on their own experiences • A startup carriage to pitch your ideas to a panel of experts (all filmed) • A hardware carriage hosted by Microsoft Ireland US accelerator Techstars compered the three carriages and kept everyone involved creating a fantastic atmosphere for the duration of the journey. In addition we also created a secondary wifi channel to cater for any additional demand on our regular offering. Customers onboard were very complimentary of the service. If you’re organising an event or a business occasion, and want to add a special element, why not charter a train? Contact: sales@ irishrail.ie for more information.

GONEWS

(L-R) Catherine Cahill Killarney Station Highly Commended Award, Small Stations Category. John Mc Loughlin Connolly Station Winner of the Large Stations Category. Jacqui Rogers Pearse Station Winner of the Metro Station Category, and Jackie Reid Heuston Station winner of Major Station Category.

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN SCORES HAT-TRICK AT INTERNATIONAL STATION AWARDS PEARSE, CONNOLLY & HEUSTON ACHIEVE WINS AS KILLARNEY IS HIGHLY COMMENDED.

he eighth International Best Stations Awards ceremony recently took place at Cardiff Castle, Wales, with Iarnród Éireann proving to be a big winner. Three of the company’s stations walked away with top honours from the eight award categories. Pearse Station was named Best Metro Station. With high praise from the judges, Jacqui Rogers was on hand to collect the gong. Dublin’s Connolly Station, the busiest in Ireland, was also honoured. John McLoughlin from Connolly picked up the Best Large Station award. The hat-trick was completed with Heuston taking the Best Major Station. The busiest Intercity station on the network, it was praised by judges as Jackie Reid collected the award. In addition, Killarney Station was Highly Commended in the Small Station category, won by Chiltern Railways’ Ailesbury Vale Parkway. Catherine Cahill, Station Manager, Killarney picked up the commendation. Iarnród Éireann was instrumental in setting up the competition as a way of comparing best practice and knowledge sharing with railway colleagues across a number of different organisations, thus to improve overall standards.

The panel of adjudicators were comprised of operations staff from all the participating companies. Karl Sutton, Station Manager, was Iarnród Éireann’s representative on the adjudication panel. The following Railway Operators participated in the Awards: • Iarnród Éireann • Translink (Northern Ireland) • First TransPennine Express • Arriva Trains Wales • First Great Western • Arriva Chiltern Railways The awards are an excellent opportunity to showcase stations and promote and learn from best practice. They encourage employee engagement and motivation to deliver the best possible service for rail passengers. The stations are judged on appearance, facilities, transport links, customer focus, staff commitment, pride in service delivery, investment and maintenance for the future. Speaking after the ceremony, Chief Executive of Iarnród Éireann, David Franks said: “I am delighted with the success that we have achieved at the International Best Station Awards. These awards are a tribute to all the hard working staff at Pearse, Connolly, Heuston and Killarney who go the extra mile to provide excellent customer service and keep the stations in pristine condition.”

THE WINNERS IN FULL: BEST METRO STATION: Pearse Station, Iarnród Éireann BEST SMALL STATION: Ailesbury Vale Parkway, Chiltern Railways Highly commended: Killarney, Iarnród Éireann BEST MEDIUM STATION: Bath Spa Highly commended: Portadown, Translink BEST LARGE STATION: Connolly Station, Iarnród Éireann Highly commended: Scarborough, First Transpenine Express BEST MAJOR STATION: Heuston Station, Iarnród Éireann Highly commended: Chester, Arriva Trains Wales HERITAGE AWARD: Antrim, Translink CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD: Phil Cadwell, Arriva Trains Wales. INTERNATIONAL STATION OF THE YEAR OVERALL AWARD: Bath Spa, First Great Western

CHANGING TRAINS IARNRÓD ÉIREANN IRISH RAIL IS IN THE PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTING NEW ENERGY SAVING FLEET UTILISATION INITIATIVES TO GENERATE FUEL SAVINGS, WHICH WILL REDUCE FUEL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS BY €3.2 MILLION PER ANNUM.

THE RANGE OF ACTIONS INCLUDE: • reconfiguring Intercity railcars to allow for greater train size flexibility, and more efficient use of carriages • reducing train size for off-peak DART services • managing DART peak capacity

INTERCITY For Intercity services, Iarnród Éireann is reconfiguring the Intercity railcar fleet. Previously, the 234 carriages in the fleet had been configured to form 48 three-carriage trains and 15 six-carriage trains. The inflexibility of only operating 3, 6 or 9 carriage trains has led to capacity shortages on some services and oversupply on others. The fleet is being reconfigured to form 45 fourcarriage trains and 18 three-carriage trains, allowing greater flexibility in train size, with 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 carriage Intercity trains possible as a result by combining train sets together. These

changes will be implemented on a phased basis by year's end. While this reconfiguration is taking place, some services have been shorter than planned on a temporary basis, but these are corrected as quickly as possible. Furthermore, the company is also monitoring the impact of the planned changes, and will adjust train sizes should demand require it.

DART Currently, 65% of total daily DART passengers travel in the four hours of either morning or evening peak, with the remaining 35% travelling across the remaining 14 hours of travel. In place of longer trains used previously, the company will predominantly use 2-carriage DARTs at offpeak times from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and after 7pm, to eliminate unnecessary energy usage and reduce maintenance costs, while continuing existing service frequency to customers. This approach also allows the flexibility for

capacity to be increased on off-peak trains at times of higher demand, such as for major events, or regularly at times of higher demand such as Wednesday afternoons when many schools have half-days. Furthermore, the company is continuing to monitor peak train sizes, which operate as a mix of 8, 6 and 4 carriage DARTs. Using passenger number figures, the company are working on an ongoing basis to ensure train sizes meet demand for all services. Since September 2013, this has seen capacity increased on 22 different DART services on a daily basis. The measures are the latest in a range of initiatives introduced by Iarnród Éireann to reduce energy consumption, yielding environmental and cost benefits. Since 2007, energy consumption – the vast majority of which is for diesel and electricity to power trains – has reduced by over one-third in Iarnród Éireann. The company’s energy bills were €16 million lower in 2012 than they would have been had these measures not been implemented.

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T A U C O T

OR T S G LO N

TTER RY PO TO R A H ITH ANT OUT W HARD E. GR WITH G N I C G I HAN ING R CIPES FROM RSHIPP TRADING RE KABLE 12 O W N AR AND FA PINTS AND A REM T SHORTT. N E E G B A PULLIN ALLEN, IT’S KING P TI-TAS L A U N I M R E DA TH S FOR MONTH

RK T CLA R A U : ST OGH VIEW M KE R A E H T A N I R OS: G PHOT

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entlemen, the next time somebody berates our gender for not being able to multi-task, hit them with the list of job titles that Pat Shortt successfully juggled in 2013 – stage, TV and film actor, stand-up comedian, musician, scriptwriter, publican, restaurateur and cattle-raiser. There’s probably a few we’ve forgotten, but you get the gist. It’s hard to know where to start, so let’s just eenie miney mo and ask Mr. S about his co-starring role alongside Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, in Martin McDonagh’s West End revival of The Cripple Of Inishmaan. “It did cross my mind, ‘Am I going to be working with some big ‘I am’?” Pat admits over a mid-morning shot of caffeine, “but Dan couldn’t have been nicer and more grounded, which I think comes from the fact that, like Saoirse Ronan, his folks worked in the industry. Alan and Marcia were top agents in London, so he was immersed in acting from the moment he

was born and landed his first major role, in John Boorman’s The Tailor Of Panama, when he was nine. “We’d hang out every evening in the Green Room and you’d be lying on the floor laughing and chatting like you would be with your mates. You forgot he’s done Harry Potter and all the rest because he’s such a normal guy. “There was a funny incident that brought that home to me; Justin Bieber was having one of his wobbles and somebody in the cast said, ‘Spoilt brat, obviously knows nothing better, just grew up in the industry...’ before stopping in their tracks. There was a silence before all of us, Daniel included, started roaring laughing! Maybe he was the world’s most insufferable teenager, but a nicer, more professional 24-year-old you couldn’t hope to meet.” Pat’s used to being the star turn in the likes of Mattie and Killinaskully, but on this occasion had to settle for second billing. “Not even that,” he says ruefully. “I’d enter/ exit the stage-door each day and be completely ignored, whereas from early in the afternoon there’d be 200 people – mainly hyperventilating women – lying in wait for Dan who’d sign as many autographs and pose for as many photographs as he could. “The energy of the guy as well; for the last month of the run he was getting up at five every morning and heading to Pinewood Studios to do the A Young Doctor’s Handbook series with Jon Hamm. He’d get back to the theatre around six, have an hour’s kip and then go into makeup before doing what was a very, very physical show. I’m not sure I’d be as dedicated to the cause as that if I had his bank balance!” According to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, on which I am mysteriously nowhere to be seen, young Mr. Radcliffe is worth a cool £54 million – and rising! “That’s because he never has any money on him – ‘Pat, would you mind paying for my coffee?’ being a familiar refrain!” Shortt divulges. “Actually, he’s a very generous guy who was always treating us to gifts and nights out where he’d pick up the usually rather excessive bar bill!” Whilst describing The Cripple Of Inishmaan as an “absolutely amazing experience”, it’s not one the Thurles man is overly eager to repeat. “By the end of it, I was totally wiped,” he admits. “I lost a stone-and-a-half while I was over there – ‘No harm!’ says you – because it was eight shows a week on a massive stage. The Noel Coward Theatre is old school; it’s a thousandseater but there are no microphones so you really had to project. We had voice coaches and stomach exercises we had to do. I came up with an impressive array of excuses not to do them, but even with an element of skiving it was the toughest thing professionally I’ve ever done.” West End duties taken care of, Pat hotfooted it over to Romania to appear in the aforementioned Mr. Boorman’s latest movie, Queen And Country. “One of the great things about that was working with Richard E. Grant who is Withnail. That persona is in his blood and his bones. We had an SAS guy over to coach us – the film’s set in the run-up to the Korean War – and he was like, ‘Jesus, how many men has this brute garroted?’ I was dying to tell him Withnail & I is my favourite film of all-time and ask loads of nerdy questions, but somehow I managed to keep myself in check! David Thewlis, another absolutely brilliant character, is in it too so it’s a quality cast.” It’s no accident that Pat’s is the face gracing the cover of this special Irish food-celebrating issue of Go Rail. When not doing his myriad

Pat with Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple Of Inishmaan

“I’VE TWO HEIFERS AT THE MOMENT WITH A LOCAL FARMER FRIEND OF MINE” other jobs, the 46-year-old is the extremely genial mein host at his own Castlemartyr gastropub, Pat Shortt’s. “It took me ages to come up with the name,” he deadpans. “East Cork is a great foodie enclave – there’s Darina and Rachel and the rest of the gang down the road in Ballymaloe; we get our fish from Trevor McNamara on Ballycotton Pier; Clifford’s Craft Butchers is just up the road here in Castlemartyr; you’ve Ardsallagh goat’s cheese and Knockanore cheddar and other great spots to eat like Sage in Midleton and over the border in Waterford Paul Flynn’s Tannery in Dungarvan and The Cliff House in Ardmore where Martijn Kajuiter is producing the most extraordinary food. It’s all about seasonality and local sourcing.” Pat Shortt’s Bar was packed to the rafters last month to commemorate the passing of his curiously named heifer, Angus. “Let’s be honest now, we eat her!” he confesses. “I’ve two heifers at the moment with a local farmer friend of mine. When I come back from tour, I go down and see what stage they’re at. You feed them certain organic foods like nuts, which brings up the fat content in the animal. When they’re hanging it reduces down and you’re left with wonderfully tender meat. One of the things we do in the bar is a 16-hour oxtail soup, which comes in a bread bowl that I’ve got this Polish baker to make for me. It’s stunning.” 2014 looks like being another crazily busy year for Pat with the BBC green-lighting a sitcom he’s written; the return to these shores of his oneman show, I Am The Band; a reprise of his Island Joe role in the Emmy Award-winning Moone Boy and another starring role alongside fellow Irish thesps Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd and Aidan Gillen in Calvary. “Yes, Calvary as opposed to Cavalry,” he smiles. “Loads of people I’ve said it to have gone, ‘Oh, you’re in a cowboys and indians film.’ One day maybe, but this is about an essentially good priest challenged by the evil surrounding him. It’s another wonderful cast with a story to match.” Pat Shortt brings I Am The Band to The Strand Theatre, Carrick-On-Suir (December 21); Glens Centre, Manorhamilton (January 9); An Grianan, Letterkenny (11); Briery Gap, Macroom (17); The Venue, Ratoath (18); Arts Centre, Ballina (23); Crystal Hotel, Cavan (25) and St. Michael’s Theatre, New Ross (February 1).

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

FROM RAIL GOURMET A busy year of dining as you travel comes to a close...

013 was an exciting year for Rail Gourmet Ireland, beginning with the launch of our brand in February. A number of new initiatives have been implemented, including new uniforms for staff, new menu design and new products like Bewley's Fairtrade coffee, Barry’s Tea and Broderick’s Gluten Free Brownie. We carefully select our suppliers and work closely with them to bring only the highest quality products to you. With each menu change, we strive to introduce fresh options and winter 2013 brings two new Irish suppliers. New products include hearty meals and fresh soup in first class and dining car and we are proud to introduce American-style Empire Donuts on board. “Rail Gourmet has developed a relationship with Irish Rail and its customers over the past five years," says Key Account Manager Trevor McBride. "During this time we have identified the needs of Irish Rail and our customers and we strive to meet these needs on each service. The onboard catering environment is a diverse and dynamic industry to work in and can be challenging. However, with a skilled and experienced work force we believe we consistently deliver on our message of 'Great Food Freshly Delivered 2U'.” Predominantly offering 'in seat' services, customers also have the option of purchasing hot snacks on trains with a buffet car. On all catered services, stewards pass through the train with a trolley offering hot/cold beverages and a selection of snacks. On services offering first class and dining car, our stewards serve meals to your seat. We have a wide variety of breakfast options, including our freshly-cooked Full Irish and lighter options such as porridge, tea & toast, and breakfast ciabatta. Selected bistro services offers a wholesome special of the day meal,as well as hot and cold snacks. Rail Gourmet also provides catering options for groups travelling on Irish Rail, ranging from providing hot beverages and sandwiches to offering a four course meal on board. We cater for small and large groups, working closely with the customers to meet individual requirements. Of course, as Trevor McBride notes, none of this could be achieved were it not for our dedicated team of staff: "We currently employ approximately 175 people in Ireland, all equipped with the skills and experience to provide a first class service to all.” Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their valued business during 2013. We wish you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year and look forward to serving you on board.

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BOYZ K E E P

S I N G I N G

BOYZONE’S MIKEY GRAHAM TALKS ABOUT THE GROUP’S ROLLERCOASTER CAREER AND THE HEARTACHES THEY HAVE SURVIVED ALONG THE WAY WORDS JAMES O’BRIEN

hey were Ireland’s original boyband, racking up a string of hit singles in the ’90s. But their 2007 reunion was blighted by the shock death of Stephen Gately. Now Boyzone have returned stronger than ever. In an exclusive interview, Mikey Graham talks about the challenges behind their success and explains why they are more ambitious than ever. Let’s talk about your new record, BZ20... Like every album we do, it’s a representation of where you are in your life, as an individual and collectively. In principle, we try to make music that we love. But because we are in the music business, it has to sell too. You are aware of both in the studio. You try to make it lyrically and melodically interesting. Where are you right now? We just signed off on our record deal that we had with Universal Records and inked a new deal with Warner Music. This is the first of those four albums. It is not a one-off. This is the beginning of the Boyzone future. Apparently there was more demand for this tour than One Direction or The Wanted. Are you surprised? Twenty years ago, nobody including us thought we would have such longevity. Nobody at all thought Boyzone would work. It really a David v Goliath situation. Ireland is famous for its rock bands. We’ve never been renowned for pop. So Boyzone were up against that, especially starting out. We felt we had to prove ourselves. However, we are now at peace with making pop music. We embrace who we are and work as hard as we can. That we have reached our 20th anniversary is proof that, if you are determined, you can achieve a great deal. In that same period lots of rock bands have come and gone. We’ve grown into ourselves in some respects. Take interviews for example. Back in the day, we were under orders to be squeaky clean. We weren’t allowed say we had girlfriends - none of that. We stuck to those rules then. Not any more. We are comfortable with who we are. Starting out, did you get a hard time for being in a boyband? We did, of course. You have to remember 20 years ago boybands were unusual - especially in Ireland. We got an awful lot of slagging. It got at us, depleted our confidence in many ways. We’d ask ourselves ‘what on earth are we trying to achieve here?’ We were loved by our fans, hated by their fellas.

Did you have to put up with a lot of abuse? One of our first gigs was at The Limelight in Glenties, up in Donegal. This was when we were slogging around Ireland in a little transit van. It was a little nightclub. There were teenagers there, old enough to drink. The girls were up front, screaming and getting friendly while the boyfriends were at the bar, pints in their hand, getting quite angry. First they were throwing abuse at us, then cans. I think Ronan got hit in the mouth with a coin. We basically had to fight our way out. These are the kind of things that happened all the time. It made us tough - tough enough that, 20 years on, we are still here. Looking back, was it fun? We got to travel the world in style. There were great parties. There was many a rock n roll star that couldn’t keep up with Boyzone. They had to go to bed early! Did you like the female attention? It was fantastic. I was 21 when I joined Boyzone. What 21-year-old wouldn’t like all that attention? We certainly did. On the other hand, guys didn’t like us at all for what we did. Did you indulge in that lifestyle? All of the excesses were available if you wanted them. Fame is a very strange thing. I still haven’t got my head around it. I think because we were so young and, if you like, were torn from the security of our home lives and thrust into this media bubble, we struggled to find out who we were. The people around you, where you live – they determine your identity. When you’re taken from that altogether, you’re left in a vacuum. What did you make of Keith Duffy’s acting in Love/Hate? I haven’t seen it. I’ve heard about it. I think it’s fantastic for him, for his own personal growth as an actor. If any member of Boyzone does well outside the group in their own personal project, it can only be good for the band. What about the negative comments and backlash? Celebrities always get stick. We’ve dealt with that for 20 years. For every negative comment, there were hundreds of positive tweets. You can’t please everyone all the time. There will always be people who like Boyzone, and people who don’t. Keith has worked hard at his craft. If he wasn’t right for the part, he wouldn’t be cast. Is Louis Walsh still involved in Boyzone? No, he’s not involved in the project anymore. We had great crack in the early years. We have a lot of memories, a lot of laughs. It’s a shame that things go the way they do sometimes.

When did that relationship sour? It didn’t really sour. It was always sweet and sour. Again, that’s another thing we had to get used to. Even when Louis was managing Boyzone, there were times he might say negative things about us in the newspapers. It isn’t something we pay attention to anymore. We know Louis very well, know his character and his nature. For the bad things he does, he’s got a good side as well. We’ll meet him along the road too and all that stuff will be forgotten in a heartbeat. Did you ever really know what Louis was like? I think your actions define the type of man who you are. If that’s the way he does things, well that’s what Louis has to deal with himself. I hope he can find a way where he is not as sour because, really, what have we ever done on him? We worked hard for him, he worked hard for us. Are you disappointed you don’t have a better relationship? Every man is on his own path in life. There are many things in my own life that I didn’t like that I had to learn to accept and embrace and move on from. Bitterness is its own punishment. It can grow into a cancer in your character. Louis is on his journey. It’s up to him, as far as we are concerned. It’s not something we feel bitter about or want to be involved with. It’s his issue, not ours. If he does have an issue. Ronan Keating has been dragged through the tabloids after the end of his marriage. How is he coping? Well, it’s difficult, living in public. Anything that goes on in your private life is there for all to see. Ronan is a strong character. He’s doing good and has his life to live. He has the support of the rest of the band. We’ve been through tough times and have supported each other. There is a reason why Ronan has been in the business 20 years. Boyzone went on hiatus for several years. Was that a hard time for the group? I was actually quite happy to take a break, to ‘re-find’ myself, musically speaking. To find out who I was as an individual. I didn’t have anything against Ronan’s decision to go on a solo career. I know some of the other guys did. There were different perspectives. Who can blame a young guy of his age for trying to make the most of the opportunity before him? Did you have any meetings with the other guys and ask what the hell is going on? I knew it was going to be a long-term break. I was never under any illusions. The others thought differently. That’s where the problems

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came from. Was there a sense of betrayal? The reality is, as you become older you learn more about the business. “There’s no business like show business” – ‘business’ is mentioned twice there. That’s the way it rolls. Talk to me about your own depression and how did you turn it around? One of the main things that turns your opinion around is the responsibility of fatherhood. I no longer had to be just concerned about ‘me’ in my life. You try to kind of go, ‘I am who I am, I’m good at some things, I’m not good at other things’. You want to be the best you can because others depend on you. If you wallow too long in the mud you end up stuck there. Ireland has a real issue with suicide. Has it touched you? Yeah, I’ve lost five friends over the last seven years to suicide. The stigma attached to it needs to be removed so people can talk about their problems openly. As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved. Depression is stigmatized in Ireland. Have you ever experienced this? Growing up in the public eye was great, but the pressure tests your mental limits. There were times mine were very, very fragile. In Ireland we are not allowed talk about these things as much as we may need to, particularly at this time of economic downturn. We hold the feelings inside. Sooner or later that kettle is going to boil. Bono talked about having something to prevent him falling under the floor... I went under a couple of times. When? A few times through the years. We have support groups for alcoholics and gamblers.

But there isn’t a ‘Depressives Anonymous’. It might be good if people feel they have nobody to talk to. In Ireland, we could certainly do with something like that. What are your personal Boyzone highlights? You have to go through so many different experiences. One for me is the gig we did with Pavarotti. I believe it was in Verona, for the charity War Child. I kept thinking, ‘how did a kid from Coolock make it here?’ Shane opened up about his dyslexia recently. If anyone is carrying too much weight or having a struggle, the others are always there for them. A problem for one person in the band is a problem for everyone. Did you have to help him write things? No, to be truthful, I think it was something Shane hid for many years. Eventually he felt comfortable in his own skin and was able to talk about it. Any exclusive plans for the future you’d like to share with us? From a music point of view, it’s the record deal with Warner Music. For those who like Boyzone, you’ll be able to enjoy us for another 20 years. We’re also talking about a movie. Behind the scenes there is a lot of Irish humour that colours who we are. I think that would translate well to the screen. How was Celebrity Apprentice? It was a great experience. First and foremost, I did it for charity: for the prevention of suicide. That aside, it was a great experience. It is a real testament to your nerves, as you’re put in a position you’ve never been in previously. You are way outside your comfort zone. There were times I felt I had made a mistake, that I was in

way over my head with some of the things. A few years on from the tragic passing of your dear friend and bandmate Stephen, has it become easier to cope with that loss? It’s a tough question. It will never get easier. Maybe you learn to accept that it is what it is. The future goes on. You have to take part in your future. We have to accept, unfortunately and against our wishes, the new shape of Boyzone. I suppose maybe we are beginning to fit into that skin a little more each time. Stephen will forever be with us. Do you have a place that all of you go to remember Stephen? Yeah we do, that place is the stage. Before any performance of any kind prior we have a little chat – a few words with Stephen. That is the best place to pay homage. His memory and spirit always lives on, whenever we are together. He had a great wit. He left us with some great one-liners, personal jokes within the band: not anything you could print. He is always with us, never forgotten. What was your relationship with Stephen like? To be truthful, myself and Stephen from 1993 up to 2000 weren’t that close. We were working colleagues, so to speak. We were never involved in each other’s lives outside of Boyzone. It wasn’t until 2007 that our great friendship began to develop. We began to realise as older men that we had more in common. We never connected or really gelled in the early years like we did in the reunion years. To have made a new friend with this guy and then to lose him was horrible.

The new album BZ20 is out now

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The

WINSTONE T

Ray Winstone has graduated from the school of hard East End knocks and been declared bankrupt twice. But today, meeting the actor as he films in Ireland, Eamon Sweeney finds a contented gentleman that really doesn’t fit the ‘geezer’ stereotype at all…

n Irish soil as he shoots Moonfleet, a Sky 1 HD two-parter going out over Christmas, Ray Winstone is pondering his easy, man-ofthe-people charm. The East End actor isn’t quite sure

what the appeal is.

“I don’t know and I don’t appeal to everyone,” Winstone laughs heartily. “If I knew the answer to that question, I’d bottle it. I’m a kid off the streets off East London. I’m a very lucky boy. I should have never been in the arts. I’ve no family in it. My education has been working in this business. I couldn’t read until I was 12 or 13. I couldn’t read properly until I picked up a script.” He’s had planty of practice since. The latest script the 56-year-old has been leafing through is a rather epic affair – he will soon grace a massive production of Noah (he of the ark and flood fame) with Anthony Hopkins and Russell Crowe. “I’ve worked with Anthony Hopkins before and he’s a great man,” Ray reveals. “I’ve never worked with Russell before. You hear all these things about Russell. He was terrific. I had a ball with him. When I was told Russell was playing Noah, I thought, ‘You’re ‘aving a laugh. Russell playing Noah? He should be playing the Devil!’” Winstone is refreshingly honest on why he chooses a mixture of blockbusters and art films. “The big movies are sometimes the one you read and go, ‘Oh no’, but you do them to pay the rent,” he says. “It’s a terrible way of looking at it. However, it’s true. It’s the small ones that have no budget that you want to do because they’re the characters you want to play. You get over that and you go on set on King Arthur and there’s a wall that’s a quarter of a mile long that’s just been built. You start thinking about how many people they need to go to the cinema for them to get their money back.” “If it’s a good film then fine, but if it doesn’t go well, you think you could have made 30 films for

that. I’ve got a feeling about Noah though. I think it’s going to be a very good film that people are going to be watching for a very long time.” When he returns to the set post-interview, his focus will be Moonfleet, a two-part adaptation of English novelist J. Meade Faulkner’s famous tale about smugglers. “It’s the kind of show you could put on on Christmas Day and watch it with your five-year-old and watch it with your Nan. It’s a family kind of thing. You’re dealing with a time when there was blood and guts and there’s quite a bit of that, but what I love about it is that it’s an adventure, but for the older audience there is a message about the world today. It’s about revenue and where the money goes.” There’s a part of Winstone, known for playing ‘hard geezers’ but a gentle, amiable soul in person, that’s just happy that this acting lark pays at all. “It’s a lovely day and I’m earning a crust,” Winstone burrs in his famous thick East End accent. “When you’re on half days and half nights, it can be a killer with odd hours. It’s alright. We could be unemployed, couldn’t we?” Born and Hackney and brought up on a housing estate in Plaistow, East London, Winstone’s Dad sold fruit and veg and his Mother emptied fruit machines. “When you’re a kid living on an estate it’s tough,” Winstone says. “If you do go to university and learn something, where do you go to get a job? Then, you see a kid driving by in a nice big car and he’s a drug dealer. Everyone seems to think there’s an easy pound note out there. There’s not. You get 15 years. That’s the reality of it. The alternative is that you end up dead or killing someone.” “There’s no easy way out of it. On TV we can portray that this is quite a glamorous lifestyle. It isn’t. The reality brings tears and tragedy. That’s a sign of the times, I’m afraid.” Ray Winstone bounced back remarkably well from being declared bankrupt twice in the ’80s. What advice would he offer to anyone in such a devastating situation? “It’s not the end of the world,” Winstone

answers. “I was a young fella and started earning some money. I always thought that, with the next pay cheque, I’ll pay what I owe. I’m sure loads of people have made that mistake. I went further down the road and ended up owing a hell of a lot. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. They can’t hang you for that.” “What I decided to do was work and work and work and pay it back. It was a lesson for me, because I couldn’t allow myself to get in that situation again. I couldn’t not pay them back. But where do you go from there? You’ve got to be a man and be straight. In my position, there’s no way back. There are no backhanders. Everything has to go through the system. You’ve got to understand that and work your nuts off and pay.” He sits forward, to emphasis his point. “My big problem with tax is where does it go? It doesn’t go towards education, building hospitals or more nurses. It doesn’t go on a police force. It goes on a new Olympic stadium or a new rail link that knocks off 15 minutes on the time it takes to get to Birmingham and costs billions. We can have that when the country is a good state. Right now, it isn’t. I’m think I’m entitled to ask the question where does my money go, because it seems to me it doesn’t go anywhere I want it to go.” A born survivor, Winstone twice won the London schoolboy boxing champion title and represented England at junior level. The actor won an impressive 80 out of 88 bouts in a career that spanned a decade. “I’ve seen my fair share of violence in society,” he says. “Boxing was a great thing because it channels your aggression into a certain direction. It’s a plus. I met some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life through boxing. They’re gentlemen. I only met one boxer I didn’t like. The rest of them I had great respect for and I think you take that into the workplace. You respect the people you go to work with and who are very good at what they do, or even the ones who aren’t, because you respected the fact that they actually stepped through the ropes.”

GOFEATURE

POP y g g I

As she prepares to unleash her much-anticipated debut album in 2014, Australia’s IGGY AZALEA talks to Eamon Sweeney about inspiration and the perils of launching a rap career when you hail from Down Under.

f the chance of a major rap talent emerging from the wilds of Australia and subsequently thriving seemed unlikely to you, don’t worry: it seemed unlikely to a young Iggy Azalea too.

Today, the 23-year old former model and Australian face of Levi’s jeans with the ultra exotic original moniker of Amethyst Amelia Kelly is looking back at her childhood in Mullumbimby in New South Wales, which is nicknamed ‘the biggest little town in Australia’. “What that actually means no one knows,” she laughs. Apparently Mullumbimby is also renowned for its counterculture in the ‘60s and ‘70s? “All that means is smoking a load of weed and being a hippy stealing from farms,” Iggy says. “That would be the only counterculture of note.” When it came to musical inspiration at home, “there was nobody,” she confesses. “I couldn’t even tell you of anyone the same age as me who was into music, apart from one who was the geekiest and quietest girl ever who performed at our assembly and won some country music award. I was the only girl who had aspirations of doing anything like this.” Looking further afield, Iggy eventually found the one and only Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott, who presented her with a profound pop, rap and fashion epiphany. “It wasn’t just about the music but wanting to dress like her and be like her. I thought she was super cool. I loved Tupac

too. I was always fascinated with Hollywood and performers because I’m from the country where nobody ever does anything that glamorous or interesting. I adored dance and rap. I never felt particularly confident acting or singing, but I could sing along to rap songs really well, so I figured I could write my own rap songs.” Moving to Florida at 16 and then living in various southern states, Azalea’s nascent career found her creating her own particular blend of hip hop, which still serves her well today. Iggy has since gone stratospheric, but that hasn’t silenced all the naysayers. In one of her typically childish Twitter spats, Azealia Banks argued that privileged white Australians shouldn’t be allowed to rap. “It’s soooo weird,” Iggy drawls. “For a lot of people in this world, there are things that will never necessarily make sense. Some people are so straight up and down that they just don’t understand it. I suppose that’s life though. Even though part of me wishes that I could slightly suffocate those people at night time while they’re still asleep!” She can take comfort in her fans. There is even a Twitter page dedicated to Irish Iggy Azalea fans amongst the countless online shrines devoted to the Australian. “Really? Wow, that’s amazing!” she exclaims. “I really feel very, very welcome in Ireland. My fans are very sweet. One time someone gave me a homemade cake. Everybody told me not to eat, because it could be poisoned and I might die and so on.”

“I figured that seeing as I had the girl’s twitter name that if I did die, she’d be traced, and let’s be fair, she just wouldn’t do a thing like that. I ate it and it was delicious. It had gorgeous lemon icing. It smelt so good, so even though it goes against everything they teach you about taking food from strangers, I just had to eat it. She likes me. Why would she poison it?” Expect the offers of cake, and just about everything else, to start flooding in, as Azalea is poised to finally release her first album proper and follow-up release to her 2011 mix tape Ignorant Art in early 2014. “It’s been such a long journey,” she sighs of the road to releasing her audaciously-titled The New Classic. “They want to wait until February. I’m not happy about it but what can you do? I see the point about Christmas and I don’t want to be on the road then promoting an album. OK, I get it. But now they just said the other day they can’t put it out at the beginning of February because of the Brit Awards. For some reason if you put out an album at the same time as the Brit Awards you die or something!” “Apparently, right after the Brit Awards I’ll FINALLY be able to put this album out that I actually finished ages ago. I’m very happy with it and the label are very happy with it also. It’s not like a situation where they didn’t dig the tunes. I guess they just want to wait for the perfect time, but in my opinion, there isn’t really a perfect time. You just have to put it out and get on with it, but they have to wait until it’s a good 30 degrees and there’s a rainbow in the sky and four dogs swiping past or something. Then, that will be the day they want to release my album.” Regardless of the weather conditions, it will certainly be sunshine and rainbows for Iggy fans everywhere when they finally get their mitts on it.

GOFEATURE

RICE THE

IS RIGHT

Something of a ‘scary godmother’, Anne Rice is a titan of modern gothic fiction. She talks to Roe McDermott about werewolves, New Orleans and religion.

on’t you dare mention Twilight. Yes, a novelist who created sultry vampires is now penning works about attractive werewolves. However, this is no Stephenie Meyer nonsense. This is Anne Rice, Godmother of Gothic, and she got here first. The prolific American author has spent decades amassing fans and awards alike with her impressive bibliography of gothic fiction. She is perhaps best known for her popular and influential series, The Vampire Chronicles, revolving around the character of Lestat. Books from The Vampire Chronicles were subject to two film adaptations; Neil Jordan’s Interview With The Vampire in 1994, and Queen Of The Damned in 2002. Now 72, and having sold over 100 million books, you’d think Rice would be keen on taking a break – but not so. The New Orleans native has several projects in the pipeline, and has just released the second book in her new werewolf series, The Wolf Gift Chronicles. “These were werewolves I could live with,” says Anne Rice, explaining how she came to interpret the creatures as conflicted, rapist-killing vigilantes. “It’s been exciting trying to being my own gothic and romantic sensibilities into the twenty-first century, and that’s what drove me. Finding a new texture, a new atmosphere and a new cosmology.” Growing up in New Orleans, “a city of beautiful old gothic houses, shadows, legends, darkness and ghost stories”, Rice discovered these romantic, gothic sensibilities early. “I

wanted stories with shadows and dramatic music, with beautiful women falling into the arms of beautiful men as sea crested on rocks. I understood ambience before I even knew the word ambience.” Rice describes Great Expectations and Jane Eyre as major influences on her as a child, embodying her love of the gothic genre. It’s surely no coincidence either that they are the stories of orphans who spend time in huge, lonely buildings. At 15, Rice’s mother died after a long battle with alcoholism. Rice’s father sent his daughters to St. Joseph’s Academy, which Rice describes as “a dilapidated, awful, medieval type of place.” She admits that it took her a long time to recover from that painful period, and she couldn’t even find solace in writing. “I didn’t really write a lot during that period. I was just living life and suffering. It was later that I figured out a way to write about it. I wrote stories as a child and found it very exciting, but there was a huge period from high school to college where I couldn’t express what I was going through. It took me years to be able to write what I was feeling.” But it was a later tragedy that inspired Rice’s most famous works. When her six-year-old daughter Michelle tragically died of leukaemia, Rice turned to writing to exorcise her grief. Perhaps attracted to the idea of endless youth, she turned an unpolished short story into a thrilling novel about vampires, entitled Interview With The Vampire. The book notably featured a young girl, who is given the gift of mortality

thanks to a vampire’s kiss. The novel and Neil Jordan’s subsequent film adaptation attracted legions of adoring fans. Following the death of Stan, her husband of 41 years, Rice also felt the need to leave New Orleans. She sold not only her home, but the several properties she had amassed there, including the sprawling 19th-century deconsecrated Catholic orphanage where she had thrown infamously elaborate Hallowe’en parties. The ghosts of the city were now all too real. “I had to move. My husband had died, and my son had moved to the West Coast. I was there alone, and I didn’t want to try to continue the kind of wonderful life we had had when we were all together. So I sold my houses and am living in California now. I thrive on novelty, on writing about different settings. And the great Hallowe’en parties we threw in New Orleans are still going on; the Vampire Lestat Fan Club keeps them going, and people come from all over the world, they’re famous. I went back this year for the first time in eight years and I really enjoyed it. It’s a nice legacy to have there.” And her legacy is set to grow, as the prolific author has several projects in the pipeline. “I have so many plans right now I don’t know where to turn. I want to write more about the wolves, and to write more about Tony O’Dare from my Angel series, which CBS want to turn into a series. I want to do an Atlantis novel too, and I have an idea about a ghost detective. I’m at a very happy crossroads – right now my challenge is choosing which way to go.” Wolf City and its prequel The Wolves Of Midwinter are available now.

GOSPORT

Looking After

NUMBER ONE He had to wait until he was 33 before staking his claim, but David Forde has enjoyed a fantastic year as the Irish goalkeeper. Martin ‘n’ Roy, Trap, Germany, GAA and big Wembley day outs are all on the menu as he meets Stuart Clark

t’s been a long, arduous search but we’ve finally tracked down the sole member of the Irish People Who Fondly Recall The Republic’s 2014 World Cup Non-Qualifiying Campaign Club. His name is David Forde; he’s 33, lives in London and is gainfully employed by Millwall FC as a goalkeeper. “Not qualifying for Brazil is a heartbreaker because realistically it was my only chance of playing in a World Cup but, yeah, to get picked for Sweden away in March and in the process become the oldest player to make their competitive debut for Ireland was amazing,” Forde enthuses after completing his day’s work at Millwall’s South Bermondsey training complex. “I’d prefer to have done it earlier in my career, but, as they say, better late than never. I’ve a lot of gratitude to Giovanni Trapattoni for giving me the No. 1 shirt. He qualified for a European championship for the first time in 20 years, and in some circles was harshly treated. I still have the utmost respect for the man. I think quite a bit – the ‘Ireland has no league’ thing for instance – was lost in translation. “Just before I broke into the side, I’d kept 20 or 21 clean sheets for Millwall, which caught his eye so he certainly knew what was going on in the Championship.” Which party-pooping swine brought that record-breaking run to an end? “Jeez, I can’t remember to be honest; it was that long ago. It’s my name attached to it, but it was all the lads defending brilliantly. It’s a cliché but you really do score together/win together/ lose together. If you don’t have that spirit in your team, there’s something wrong. “Anyway I kept a clean-sheet against Sweden and then had probably one of my best games ever against Germany. They’re a phenomenal team who’ve a real chance of winning it next summer.” When released in 2004 by West Ham – they could do with him now as they get sucked ever

deeper into the relegation mire – David returned home to Galway thinking his professional sporting career was over. “The plan was to resume playing Gaelic Football and hope the Galway team were in need of a 6ft 4” centre-midfielder who’d played at junior level for St. Michael’s,” he laughs. “There are loads of GAA fans in the Ireland squad – Seamus Coleman obviously who did play county for Donegal, John O’Shea, Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle and Shane Long…” Who, according to some members of the Twittersphere, has been playing sufficiently well for West Brom this season to merit an England call-up. “I think Sean St. Ledger started that wind-up! He dangled a little carrot and loads of people jumped on it. I’ve got Dan – the video analysis guy whose parents are from Donegal and Mayo – to talk GAA with at Millwall. Some of the lads here think it’s just a crazy sport.” So what stopped David pursuing his Gaelic dreams? “Stephen Kenny at Derry City came calling. He twisted my arm to get back into soccer. When that went well, I started thinking, ‘Maybe I’ve got unfinished business in the UK.’ Stephen had a huge impact on my career, as did my coaches at Galway United, Joe Reilly, Tommy Lally and Don O’Riordan, and Kenny Jackett who was the Millwall gaffer up till last season. They’re real footballing men.” Talking of gaffers, did Martin ‘n’ Roy coming in present the Ireland squad with an instant lift? “Yeah, they’re two men who demand tremendous respect for what they’ve done in the game,” David nods. “Just the presence and aura of them – it’s given everyone a boost. Ultimately it’ll boil down to whether or not we qualify for the next European Championships, but at present you’d have to say that the FAI scored a major coup in getting ‘the dream ticket’. We had a great 10 or 11 days when we met up, which will be built on in the New Year. The friendlies feel more like

competitive games because we’re all fighting for our places.” Having played there in two League Play-Offs, an FA Cup Semi-Final and May’s 1-1 draw against England, Forde is a veritable Wembley regular. “It’s like the Colosseum in terms of doing gladiatorial battle there,” he reflects rather poetically. “That’s where you wanted to play as a kid. Club-wise, losing and then winning the League One Play-Off Final with Millwall would have to be the worst/best moments of my career. From total despair to sheer joy and elation – the contrast couldn’t have been greater. Getting promoted was a huge thing for me personally because the Championship is the minimum level you need to be at to feature for your country. “England was a special night too. Everybody wanted to play in that. The atmosphere was great and there wasn’t any trouble. It’d be great if they made it a once every couple of years fixture because it’s really competitive.” What sort of homework does David do before Ireland games? “Our video analysis guy, Brian McCarthy, trolls through hours of videos. He’s got everything in terms of corners, set-plays, free-kicks – Brian does great work and then we try to implement it. Probably the most stuff he came up with for me was in relation to Zlatan Ibrahimovic who’s just a ridiculously good striker.” Before we let David head home to the family, any Irish lads he’s played with and/or against that Messrs. O’Neill and Keane should be running the rule over? “They’ll both already know about Robbie Brady,” he concludes. “He’s a good character; really bubbly and chirpy. Robbie’s got a fantastic left-foot and looks very comfortable in the Premier League with Hull. Someone not so wellknown is former Cork City lad, Dave Mooney, who’s banging them in this season for Orient in League One. He’s in his prime now at 29 and good enough to play at a higher level. There’s a lot of Irish talent out there.”

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Enterprise

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FoodFor

THOUGHT DARINA ALLEN discusses the negative effects of cookery programmes on TV and the prevalence of cheap convenience food...and suggests we all pay a little more attention to the inestimable value of eating well.

“T

hirty years is quite a long time, so things have changed!” laughs Darina Allen. Since 1983 the Ballymaloe Cookery School has been at the forefront of the Irish food industry, and if anyone is well placed to discuss the remarkable changes in our attitude to food it is Darina. “People have travelled much more, their tastes have changed and palates developed. One of the most exciting things is people’s understanding and appreciation of the quality of the produce we have here in Ireland.” “People used to say things to me like, ‘I don’t eat garlic, it doesn’t agree with me.’ People were just starting to become familiar with herbs, and in more recent times, spices and ingredients from around the world.” The popularity of cooking programmes has been a double-edged sword, says Darina. “The rise in the number of food programmes on television has increased awareness of food, but I don’t know if people are cooking less or more. In the US people spend an average of twenty-seven minutes a day cooking, which is less than the time it takes to watch a cooking programme.” “Some programmes serve to frighten people and they think, ‘I can’t possibly do any of this.’ That’s not real life. Even from the point of view of the cooking school, people sometimes feel that unless they are doing all the twiddles and bows they are not really cooking. That can be a problem as people who can’t cook feel intimidated and that they can’t even start. It is really important to give people back the basic cooking skills they can build on.”

Our increased appreciation of Irish produce and our willingness to try new flavours are both positive trends but, notes Darina, our desire for quick, cheap and convenient food is a very worrying one. “It is really astonishing how in a short time we have given the power over our food choices to the multinationals and big food manufacturers, who can’t honestly be expected to have our best interests at heart. Their responsibility is to their shareholders.” “All of these crises and food scandals – at the time people are totally shocked but after a while they forget about it and go back to their real lives again. But at the same time each new scandal brings up awareness about what’s happening in our food system and how our food is being produced.” “We’ve all been led to believe that cheap food is our right, but the reality is it’s being produced below an economic level. We’re forcing farmers to produce food below an economic limit. It can’t be done. The real price of food – and people don’t like to hear this – is the price of organic food. Cheap food is a myth – the cost in health terms is far too high. If you don’t put money into the food on the table, you’ll pay it to the doctor or chemist. We have somehow forgotten that our food should be our medicine.” In addition to scandals like horsemeat in ready meals, the constant price pressure on producers has been linked to significant animal and human rights abuses, such as the slavery-like working conditions of migrant farm workers. “With the big multinationals, they say to their buyers, ‘Source it’ and oftentimes they don’t know, or may not want to know, how they get

it. They just want it for that price and it can’t be done. If something is too cheap, it’s too cheap for a reason. So much depends upon the quality of the food we eat – our health, our vitality, our ability to concentrate. We can’t do anything about our genes but we can certainly do something about the quality of the fuel we put in the tank. I feel quite strongly about this.” Being able to cook is an essential life skill, argues Darina, and it is one we don’t pay enough attention to. “If people have jobs and children, balancing all the balls is a very difficult task, and I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is a question of priorities. People say, ‘It’s all very well for you’ and the perception is I can afford whatever, but good food doesn’t have to be expensive, but you sure as hell need to be able to cook. Otherwise people simply can’t nourish themselves or their families.” “Teaching kids how to cook — and how to grow things, for that matter — should be embedded in the educational system. It should be looked on as equally important as maths, and science and languages. The one thing people absolutely have to do every day is feed themselves.” One easy way of ensuring you get good quality food, pay a fair price, support the local economy and cut down on food miles is to shop at farmers’ markets. Darina is a big supporter of farmers’ markets and was key to reviving them in Ireland over twenty years ago. “It is important for the economics of farming. The farmers can get the full price for their product, which a lot of small producers really need to get. You can speak to the producers, you get a real taste of a place, and it really connects you with your food.”

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Dylan

UNPLUGGED A philosopher among restauranteurs, Dylan McGrath discusses the pursuit of perfection with Anne Sexton PHOTO RUTH MEDJBER

“P

erfection is the eye of a needle, it’s so small,” says Dylan McGrath. We are sitting in the latest addition to his expanding food empire, Fade Street Social, and the chef is explaining the food philosophy behind the restaurant. “Even though I want the food perfect, perfection doesn’t have much room. Mint was about aiming for the eye of the needle; it was precision. That I enjoyed. Today I enjoy the looseness of Rustic Stone and here. Salvador Dali said don’t concern yourself with perfection, it’s the one thing you’ll never achieve and I believe that. Here, I want a casual way about it, a removal of the formality, that it’s okay that one napkin isn’t folded exactly the same way as the others. Perfection would ruin this, it would ruin next door.” “Words like ‘perfection’ and ‘genius’ get tossed around. I’ve seen it with every big chef in Ireland – one day you’re a genius, the next you’re a business failure. If I was to believe my own hype… We’re here now at a time; we’re inventing things; we’re being creative; and there is a reason that every ingredient is Irish – every piece of fish, every piece of meat, every vegetable, everything. It’s written around flavours we were familiar with when we were young, even the dessert menu. The reason I’ve done that is we got more credit from our suppliers than we did from the bank.” “We were clear on what we wanted to offer and today I can sit here – thank the Lord Jesus that it has worked – but the reason that I have chosen all Irish produce was that the suppliers supported me and I want to give back.” The recession has brought out creativity, says Dylan, and chefs and restauranteurs have had to innovate to get customers through the doors. “Dublin is a very tough market, Ireland is a tough market. There are a lot of restaurants opening all around us, there is a lot going on, and the customer is really benefiting from it. It’s

become so innovative and at such a good price. Restaurants are delivering on a consistency price-wise. I went to San Sebastian and to the Michelin-starred restaurants and the lower-priced restaurants, and at the lower end of the scale Dublin is so much better.” “Flavour always comes first for me, and when I was in Mint, my little pea brain as it was had no real business ethic. I hadn’t developed yet. I was a cook – you don’t waste money, I’m not a wasteful person – but at the end of the day you have to get the covers. The reality was a high street restaurant in Ranelagh doesn’t really deliver on the luxury of some of the other restaurants, the whole restaurant experience. My chef brain is one thing; my life didn’t start changing until I began thinking like a customer instead of a chef.” Rustic Stone is Dylan’s flagship restaurant.

worried about. “I already did that!” he laughs. “I genuinely don’t get annoyed at food critics. A lot of them have been incredibly generous to me over the years. Tom Doorley, Lucinda Sullivan – they’ve been brilliant. You need food critics – you’re accountable for your performance – but I don’t believe any one critic has the power to close a restaurant based on a review. Once you know that, you’re free creatively.” Dylan may not be aiming for precision, but that certainly doesn’t mean the quality of the food is any less important. During the course of our chat, a chef comes over to get his feedback on a new dish. Dylan eyes it critically, notes the good and makes several suggestions. Seeing this, I can’t help but wonder if his friends are ever brave enough to cook for him. Dylan laughs heartily at the question.

"THE REASON THAT I HAVE CHOSEN ALL IRISH PRODUCE WAS THAT THE SUPPLIERS SUPPORTED ME AND

I WANT TO GIVE BACK.”

With its stress on health, it is a very different proposition to Mint, but an achievement he is understandably proud of. “It’s doing phenomenally well and everything about it is about simplicity and produce. There will come a time for me to go back to precision, but I want to cement and show what’s possible with the right attitude to the recession.” Starting a restaurant – or two – in the middle of a recession is no easy feat. Fear of failure, and public failure at that, was not something Dylan

“The last friend that cooked for me roasted a sausage under the grill, buttered the heel of batch sliced bread, put Super Noodles in the middle, put brown sauce on it, folded it and said ‘There you go!’ When my friends cook for me it’s very much ‘Eat it and don’t give out!’ They forget I am a chef because I never talk about cooking. I spend so much time working and thinking about food that it’s the last thing I want to talk about if I’m having a drink. If I’m out and people want to talk to me about spices, I run!”

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Ireland's

FOOD HEROES Ireland is blessed with an abundance of great grasslands perfect for dairy farming; and as an island surrounded by the sea, we have some of the finest fish in the world. In the last few years, artisan and boutique Irish food manufacturers have been producing world-class, award-winning foods. Here we pick some of our favourites.

A selection of Burren Smokehouse salmon

Burren Smokehouse

The Burren Smokehouse in Co. Clare is a familyrun business and the brainchild of Brigritta and Peter Curtin. Brigitta, originally from Sweden, and Peter, from Ireland, have brought together the smoking traditions of two cultures to produce a unique smokehouse taste. Their kilns were designed and patented by Peter, and no other smokehouse in the world has them, which means no other smoked salmon tastes quite the same. The Burren Smokehouse speciality is salmon, which is available in hot and cold smoked varieties, but their smoked trout and mackerel is equally delicious and not to be missed either. And if supporting Irish food is important to you, you’ll be glad to hear that the fish is 100 percent Irish, sustainably produced, and for the most part, locally sourced. The Burren Smokehouse salmon is a favourite of Ireland’s most notable chefs. Michelin-starred chef Ross Lewis of Chapter One restaurant requested their wild Irish smoked salmon to serve to British monarch Elizabeth Windsor during her visit to Ireland in 2011. Luckily you don’t have to be royalty to get your hands on their smoked fish as it is available in a number of selected supermarkets and food stores across Ireland as well as online. Better still we have a hamper to give away… (I don’t have the

competition details or what’s in the hamper so this has to be added)

Bodega Waterford

In the last few years, the importance of supporting local food has caught our imaginations. It is better for the environment and the economy, and offers diners a chance to enjoy a food experience unique to a particular part of the country. Bodega in Waterford City has taken this philosophy to heart, using world-class produce from local farmers and fishermen. You can also enjoy the famous Waterford “blaa” fresh from the artisan bakery 500 metres away. This is a

Visit Wines Direct at House of Fraser, Dundrum (Level 3) throughout November and December.

YOUR SOURCE OF FINE & ARTISAN WINES Wine; it’s not just another drink. It’s about people. It’s about places. It’s a melting pot of history and culture. And most of all, it’s about pleasure. At Wines Direct we go out of our way to avoid boring, mass-market wines by directly sourcing from dedicated and ﬁercely independent winemakers. So if you want to taste critically acclaimed wines and learn about the passionate men and women who make them, choose Wines Direct; your direct link to the world of wine.

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Killowen Farm

€15. 30

€12. 05

€16. 45

“classy savoury fruits; “supurb single vinyard “sort of Italian red I wish I could ﬁnd more of” smooth but grown up” Sauvignon Blanc” - John Wilson, Irish Times

- Thomas Clancy

- Jancis Robinson

Luc Lapeyre L’Armourier

Paddy Borthwick Sauvignon Blanc

Ciu Ciu Bacchus

Proud recipients of the McKennas’ Guides Award for the 15th consecutive year Choose from over 350 of our exclusive artisan wines, available to buy online today

winesdirect.ie 48 HOUR, NATIONWIDE DELIVERY, GUARANTEED! 49 Lough Sheever Corporate Park | Mullingar | Co. Westmeath LoCall: 1890 579 579 | Tel: 044 934 0634

“If you drank nothing but Wines Direct wines you would drink well and live well.” Bridgestone Irish Good Food Guide

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restaurant with a difference and an affordable treat as well – early bird menus start from as little as €19.95. Nice!

A selection of the fine fish available at Glorious Sushi

Killowen Farm

Killowen Farm’s yoghurts have won more awards than we could possibly mention here – they’ve picked up more than a handful between the Great Taste Awards, the Irish Food & Drink Quality Awards, the Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards, the Bord Bia Irish Food & Drink Awards and many others. Killowen Farm is run by the Dunne family, and since they’ve been farming in Courtnacuddy for nine generations, they know a thing or two about raising cows! Killowen’s cows enjoy plenty of fresh grass, clean air and a varied diet. Keeping the cows healthy and happy is essential because cows raised in the traditional way produce better quality milk, and a better-tasting yoghurt. The Wexford Blackcurrant premium yoghurt is particularly good and won two Gold Stars at the 2013 Great Taste Awards. The eminent judges described it as “delicious creamy yoghurt, clean and fresh, with a good blackcurrant flavour, sweet and smooth and moreish.” We agree. After all, you can’t argue with the experts.

Darina in action in the Ballymaloe Cookery School

Bodega in Waterford

THE ALLTECH INTERNATIONAL CRAFT BREWS & FOOD FAIR Within a few short years the craft beer craze has swept the nation, taking town, city and village by storm; and you’d be hard pressed to find a pub or off-license that doesn’t stock at least a few craft beers. So it is hardly a surprise that last summer’s Alltech International Craft Brews & Food Fair was a resounding success. If you missed it, you’ll be pleased to know that it is returning to Dublin’s Convention Centre in February. The Fair brings together brewers, distillers, foodies and world-renowned beer judges as well as craft beer and spirits lovers from across Ireland. The Fair will be open to the public from 5pm on Friday 7 February and from 12pm on Saturday 8 February 2014.

Alltech Brewery

Wines Direct

Yes, you can pick up a bottle of plonk at almost any corner store, but if you want quality, value for money and convenience, Wines Direct should be your first port of call. Wines Direct have been the recipients of the McKennas’ Guides Award (formally Bridgestone) for fifteen consecutive years and were named the Best Wine Website by the Sunday Business Post in 2013. Wine Direct stock a number of award winning wines, such as Crios Malbec. This won the Gold Medal Decanter World Wine Awards – no small feat. Hundred of tasters tried thousands of wines and this was the overall winner. You can also pick up Fillaboa, named the best Spanish White by “Guia Gourmets de Los Mejores Vinos de Espana”; Mas Jullien, regarded as the top red wine in Languedoc; and the Carles Andreu Cava Brut, which has been described as similar to high quality champagne, but is of course, much, much less onerous on the pocket.

Ballymaloe Cooker� School

Ballymaloe Cookery School is world-famous, and justifiably so, being the only cookery school in the world set on its own 100-acre organic farm. Ballymaloe runs a number of different courses, including a 12-week certificate course and over 60 short courses including afternoon and halfday courses. Cookery demonstrations take place every weekday afternoon and best of all, you get to taste all the wonderful dishes prepared. Before you leave, stock up at the farm shop on delicious homemade soups, pates, sauces and stews made with ingredients grown on the farm. See www. cookingisfun.ie for details.

Glorious Sushi & (below) A small selection of the wines available from Wines Direct

Glorious Sushi

The name says it all really! Since being established in 2011, Waterford’s Glorious Sushi has been winning awards, including a number of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals from Blas na Herrmann. Glorious Sushi was set up by Tetyana Zhemerdyey, who was inspired to create by the difficulty in finding healthy food for her children’s lunch boxes. “I wanted to give them something that was not only healthy but interesting and tasty as well. Providing them with sushi for lunch generated a lot of interest among other children and parents and I could immediately see a gap in the market,” she explains. Originally from the Ukraine, Tetyana moved to Ireland fifteen years ago and has extensive sushi experience, which she used to create a sushi range that is healthy, colourful and incredibly tasty. At the moment Glorious Sushi is available in supermarkets and grocery stores in Waterford, Midleton, Skibbereen, Wexford and Kilkenny. Luckily for those of us not in the South East, the company continues to expand. Tetyana has also set up a sister company, Glorious Kitchen, which offers a range of healthy, tasty salads, sandwich fillers, sauces and Asian dishes from original recipes. All Glorious products are free of additives and preservatives and are created from locally sourced produce.

GLORIOUS SUSHI AWARDS 2011 “Best Bisness Women Of The Year” from Waterford Micro Business Network, 2011 Gold medal for “Rainbow mix” from Blass na hEireann 2012 Gold for “Large assorted platters” from Blass na hEireann 2012 Silver for “Six maki mix” from Blass 2013 Gold for “ Classical assorted” from Blass 2013 Gold for “ Lecho souse” from Blass 2013 Bronze “Smoked salmon pate” Blass 2013 Spatial pries from “ Blass na hEireann” “The Best New Product On The Market“ for “Lecho Sauce” 2013 Best Emerging Producer in County Waterford -Sponsored by Waterford County Enterprise Board 2013 McKenna’s Guides 2014 McKenna’s Guide

MIX 14 MUSIC INDUSTRY XPLAINED

Get Ahead

the Music in

INDUSTrY INdustry

The MIX course (Music Industry Xplained) is for those seeking careers in the music industry or music media.

Brought to you by Hot Press, the course is aimed at those who want to succeed in music, management, media, publicity, promotion, publishing, record labels and lots more. Perhaps you’re a musician who wants to maximise your income? Want to manage a band? Want to work in PR or the media? Or do you simply want to find out more about the business? If so, read on...

MIX is a 13-week lecture based course (one each week) by top professional exponents of the Irish and international music industry.

LECTURERS FOR 2013 INCLUDED: Jackie Hayden (Journalist) Mark Crossingham (MD, Universal Music Ireland) Steve Lindsey (Publisher) Duan Stokes (Chief Operating Officer, hotpress.com) John McMahon (Head of RTE 2FM) Paul Walsh (Roy Seven)

Edison Waters (Music Manager) Neil O’Gorman (MD, BespokeWithDirection) Steve Averill (AMP Visual) Liam Murphy (Financial Specialist, Live Wire Business Management) Nick Seymour (Crowded House)

KEY AREAS COVERED INCLUDE:

• Record Companies • Music Marketing • Publicity • Publishing • The Independent Route • Music Online • Radio • Record Production • Music Publishing • Songwriting • Management • Finance • Touring • Image Development • Working with the Media

FOR MORE INFORMATION or TO SECURE YOUR PLACE:

Contact Elena Healy at Hot Press Tel: (01) 241 1500 Email: elena@hotpress.ie or

LOG ON TO: www.hotpress.com/mix

LIMI TE AVAI D PLACE CALL LABLE- S SECU NOW T STAR RE YO O TS JA URS NUAR ! 2 0 1 4 Y 2 8 TH

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Enterprise

That’ll Be

THE GILDEA Over dinner, comedian Anne Gildea talks about her recovery from cancer, her love of literature and bringing Irish comedy to America

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“T

his is lovely!” exclaims Anne Gildea as we sit down for dinner at The Magpie Inn, in Dalkey, Dublin. “They have oysters. I’m going to have some of them.” The bar and restaurant is indeed lovely. The wooden interior is both cosy and modern, and the large windows look out onto the bustling village of Dalkey. The menu is more extensive than most gastropubs and I am pleased to see that the food is locally sourced, sustainably produced and organic where possible. There are some people you can’t help but warm to immediately. Anne is one of these charismatic types. It doesn’t hurt that we share a first name and a mutual love of bivalve molluscs; we even like them the same way – raw with lemon juice and Tabasco. “These are great to have as starters, and I'm obviously trying to stay size zero!’ she laughs. Before Anne arrived I had been reading, and she pulls Donna Tartt’s new book, The Goldfinch out of her bag. “Have you read it?” she asks. Indeed I have. What’s more, we even find we have the same mixed feelings about the book and that it is not nearly as good as most of the reviews would have you believe. “They said it was a great invocation of what’s happening in contemporary American society. I didn’t find that at all. It doesn’t feel redolent of real life. She seems like a writer locked in her tower. I like stuff to feel real.” You could hardly get more real than the book Anne released earlier this year – I’ve Got Cancer, What’s Your Excuse? The book details her experience of the disease from diagnosis to recovery and is a biography of her life so far. You’d think given the subject matter it would be a difficult read, but Anne is foremost a comic and the book sparkles with warmth and humanity. “I’m in the middle of having my reconstruction,” she tells me. “I choose to have a reconstruction where they take the tissue from the stomach. It’s quite a big operation and long complicated surgery, but the brilliant thing is, it’s your own tissue on your chest.” It also sounds a little like a twofer – breast reconstruction and a tummy tuck.

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“It is a little like a tummy tuck, but when you gain weight it just goes in a different place!” she laughs. “I didn’t get it done for that reason. I choose that one because I didn’t want a silicone implant. The silicone implant is a medical device at the end of the day and it has to be replaced in ten to fifteen years. There’ll always be operations. With this one there can be complications and it took ages to heal but it looks amazing in my clothes and it is absolutely, categorically, the gold standard for breast reconstruction.” Throughout her treatment the staff at St. James’s Hospital were incredibly supportive, Anne says. “Everyone – from the technicians to the nurses to the registrars to the interns to the consultants – they were just amazing. I slightly fell in love with all my doctors. I was just in awe of them.” Our mains arrive, both of us having chosen classic favourite dishes – lamb for Anne and steak, nice and rare for me. ‘It’s really nice to sit down and have a meal,” says Anne who has been very busy in recent weeks with The Nualas. “We just did our Christmas show in the Button Factory so we’re kind of winding down for Christmas. We’ve been doing a lot of new stuff. We do everything ourselves, even making the costumes. When we’re doing our autumn gigs, we’re booking our summer gigs and doing promotion. We’re in touch with New York at the moment about whether we should go there next autumn, and we’re in touch with Edinburgh – we’re just doing it all ourselves. It’s a bit overwhelming at the moment.” The Nualas have toured the States in the past, and found that only a few small changes to the shows were needed as the cultural references were easily understood. “When we first went to New York at the time, our thing was we were like an Irish country Spice Girls and everybody got the idea of the girls from Hicksville who think they are great. Now the vibe of the show is more that we’re middle-aged women and kind of slightly jaded but from a very positive Irish point of view – kind of knowing and not for one minute taking on a received idea that we might not be as sexy as ever.” Anne believes there is a huge appetite for Irish

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comedy abroad, but that this is not really being taken advantage of. “In America the way the writers get developed… Over the years I’ve known a few writers who’ve worked on Saturday Night Live and it’s like they own you but you’re working with an overall producer who is the best in the world; your peers are the best comedy writers in America; and you’re doing a live comedy show every week, live on telly. You may be working 20 hours a day but week on week on week, you develop into an extraordinary writer. There is no infrastructure like that here or even really in the UK.” “There is a such a market internationally for Irish comedy and such a huge diaspora that it has always seemed to me that there is no reason why Ireland shouldn’t be an export centre for comedy. Culture is important and soft power is culture power. It is a real shame there is not more support for that.” Winter brings out a hearty appetite – at least that’s my excuse – and both of us had three courses. We began with six Carlingford oysters (€9) each. We both chose to have them raw, as Carlingford oysters don’t need any fancy cooking. These were sweet and incredibly fresh and I could have easily managed another six. The menu offers some interesting twists on old favourites, such as a Moroccan lamb burger and a hake with a pancetta crust. Anne chose a Irish classic dish, a slow roasted rump of lamb, but this came with the not-so-Irish accompaniment of wild mushroom polenta along with glazed beetroot and caramelized onions (€22). I had the char-grilled 28 day aged rib eye steak with wild mushrooms, thick cut chips, horseradish cream and béarnaise sauce (€24). “That’s delicious!” exclaimed Anne when she tried a bit of my steak. It was a large portion and I wasn’t able to eat it all. Her lamb was equally tender. “I should have offered you some,” she joked. “It was fantastic so I ate it all!” The desserts are all very reasonably priced at €6 or €7. Anne had a selection of sorbet; I was far less sensible and had a childhood favourite – warm chocolate sundae with cream, toffee ice cream and dark chocolate sauce. As well as a large selection of craft beers from

GOEAT EAT

A MATTER OF TASTE ST UART CLARK BRI NGS YOU T H E L AT EST FO O D IE N E WS BULLY FOR YOU! Fans of nose-to-tail eating – I’m afraid that’s Morrissey ruled out – will adore The Irish Beef Book (Gill & Macmillan), which has been lovingly compiled by fifth generation Tipperary butcher Pat Whelan and food writer Katy McGuinness. Described by Darina Allen as “a noble end for the animals he rears and butchers” – again Mozza will disagree – the handsome 238-page tome runs through all the different cuts and then lets you know how to make, among others, the perfect Steak Diane, Stroganoff, Goulash, Tournedos, Oxtail Stew and Ragu.

home and abroad, the Magpie Inn has a well-considered wine list of both old and new world wines. We washed dinner down with a bottle of Domaine de Ménard, Cuveé Marine, Cotes du Gascogne (€31.50). The service needs a particular mention. The waiter gladly let us try the wine and the house white, Valdecaz Verdejo Zamore (€23) before we made our selection. I should also add that having arrived a little time before my guest, the barman happily talked me through their incredible array of craft beers, offering me tastes of this week’s featured choices and when I settled down at the table with my book to wait, he brought me a lamp so I could read comfortably. That is service above and beyond what was expected and it all added to the charm of the experience.

THE DAMAGE

ARDMORE THE MERRIER Finicky so-and-sos that we are, Go Eat is usually able to find fault with any meal but we experienced perfection when we sampled the eight-course Tasting Menu at The Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore where chef Martijn Kajuiter is fully deserving of his Michelin Star. While not adverse to Heston Blumenthal mad-scientist experimentation – no bouche has amused us quite as much as his goat's cheese macaroon – it’s what the exiled Dutchman does with locally sourced ingredients like halibut, scallops, salmon and squab pigeon that really impresses. Accompanied by watercress porridge, beetroot & foie gras, the last on the list gets our To-Die-For Dish of 2013 Award. The paired wine selections are equally as imaginative, with a Bulgarian Chardonnay – yep, the first time we’d sampled one ourselves – stealing the honours. We’re not going to give any

THE MAGPIE INN, The Cliff House Hotel

15 Coliemore Rd, Dalkey, Co. Dublin. Tel: 01 202 3909 Winter brings out a hearty appetite – at least that’s my excuse – and both of us had three courses. We began with six Carlingford oysters (€9) each. We both chose to have them raw, as Carlingford oysters don’t need any fancy cooking. These were sweet and incredibly fresh and I could have easily managed another six. The menu offers some interesting twists on old favourites, such as a Moroccan lamb burger and a hake with a pancetta crust. Anne chose an Irish classic dish, a slow roasted rump of lamb, but this came with the not-so-Irish accompaniment of wild mushroom polenta along with glazed beetroot and caramelized onions (€22). I had the chargrilled 28 day aged rib eye steak with wild mushrooms, thick cut chips, horseradish cream and béarnaise sauce (€24). “That’s delicious!” exclaimed Anne when she tried a bit of my steak. It was a large portion and I wasn’t able to eat it all. Her lamb was equally tender. “I should have offered you some,” she joked. “But it was fantastic so I ate it all!” The desserts are all very reasonably priced at €6 or €7. Anne had a selection of sorbet and I was far less sensible and had a childhood favourite – warm chocolate sundae with cream, toffee ice cream and dark chocolate sauce.

more secrets away, suffice it to say that by the time we got to the 80% dark chocolate with coffee, olive oil and sea salt we were smitten. Martijn’s Let’s Go Disco clarion call to his kitchen-staff is also the title of a beautiful coffee table book, which reveals a good few of his alchemic secrets. Find out more at thecliffhousehotel.com Incidentally, there’s also less formal dining to be had in the boutique hotel’s funky, bayoverlooking bar… HOPPY CHRISTMAS As regular readers will know, Go Eat has been an ardent champion of the Irish Craft Beer revolution, which has been spreading like wildfire round the country. Keep your eyes peeled – and taste buds ready – for such superb limited-edition winter warmers as Eight Degrees Brewing’s chipotle-infused Aztec Stout and A Winter’s Ale; Dungarvan Brewing Company’s Coffee & Oatmeal Stout; O’Hara’s Winter Star Spiced Amber Ale; Kinnegar Brewing’s Long Tongue Pumpkin Ginger Rye Ale and Smithwick’s Winter Spirit, the first in a series of small batch beers from the legendary Kilkenny brewery. FLOUR POWER Finally, a doff of Go Eat's top-hat to the mighty blaa, which was granted Protected Geographical Indication status in November by the EU. Particularly good with homemade corned beef and mustard, it’s the perfect excuse (if you don’t already happen to be from around those parts) to hop on the train to Waterford!

GOHEALTH Get support It is not easy changing bad habits, and is even more difficult without support. A friend determined to make the same lifestyle changes can spur you on. However, someone who has already made the necessary changes is even better as he or she is less likely to fall back into bad habits. If you have a family, their support can make all the difference as well. It is also important to consider if you could benefit from the support of a health professional. Your doctor can be a first port of call. For example, if you are obese or are a heavy smoker, you really should make lifestyle changes under a doctor’s supervision. Don’t forget there are free support resources online. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has a free booklet on healthy eating guidelines; you’ll find ideas for healthy recipes and exercise on Nutrition and Health Ireland; the Irish Heart Foundation has heart-healthy recipes and walking routes across Ireland for everyone to improve their fitness levels; and Quit.ie offer invaluable advice for smokers who want to kick the habit. Get organised A bit of pre-planning makes all the difference. It is all very well having vague ideas about changing your diet or getting more exercise, but to really affect lifestyle changes you may need to re-organise your life. This is particularly true if you have a demanding job or children, or both. Take your diet for an example: you are more likely to stick to a healthy eating regime if you plan a week’s menus in advance. If you are stressed out and busy it is easy to fall back into old cooking and eating habits. Careful pre-planning of your menus also cuts down on food waste, so it is better for your budget too. Choose an exercise you’ll enjoy There is very little point signing up – and paying – for gym membership if you hate the gym. It sounds obvious because it is: if you chose an exercise programme you’ll enjoy, you’re much more likely to stick to it. Would you prefer swimming, yoga, dance classes, hiking, roller derby or boxing? In addition, it is a great idea to make small changes to your lifestyle as these can increase the daily exercise you get. Walk instead of catching a bus – or get off a few stops early; take the stairs instead of the lift; add some yoga exercises to your morning routine. Ideally, we all need 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, and even little changes can make a difference, particularly if you have been slothful for a long time.

NEW YEAR NEW YOU!

Keep the energy levels up As the expression goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If you are tired, stressed or sleeping poorly, your desire to exercise will hover around the zero mark. A good diet and more exercise will improve your sleep and energy levels, which will in turn, make it easier to stick to your health plan. It takes a while for the benefits of healthy eating and exercise to be felt, so you may need a little help. Consider adding Berocca Performance to your daily routine. Berocca Performance is a clinically proven high dose formulation of B and C vitamins tailored to improve physical and mental performance and is ideal for people with demanding and hectic lifestyles. Some times we all need a little kick to get going!

Post-Christmas, many of us want to embrace a healthier lifestyle. Anne Sexton has some tips to get you started.

h, New Year Resolutions – the bane of January! As if the restricted budgets and bulging waistlines that follow Christmas were not enough, we compound the misery by feeling guilty that we have not completely reinvented ourselves by the first week of February.

Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Don’t give into despair if you fail to stick to your plan. Pick yourself up and continue. One cigarette, gorging on an entire packet of biscuits, or a week of no exercise doesn’t mean you have failed entirely – it means you lapsed. There is no reason why you can’t start again, and very many reasons why you should. Heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes are called “lifestyle diseases” because they share common risk factors such as poor diet, lack of exercise and stress. A healthy new you in 2014 is not just about looking better or being fitter – it is about reducing your risk for lifestyle diseases too. And that is certainly a New Year’s resolution worth sticking too!

There is nothing wrong with New Year’s resolutions per say. Indeed, there is an appealing logic to the idea of ‘out with the old, in with the new’ as 1 January rolls around. The problem, then, is not with resolutions themselves but rather with unrealistic expectations. In the New Year many of us decide we want – and need – to be healthier. This is an admirable goal. Your Get Healthy plan could have aspects such as more exercise, a better diet and weight loss – and indeed drinking less or stopping smoking. Perhaps you overall goal has a number of these – all of them worthy and important. The question is: where do you start? To make sure you stick to your guns in 2014 we have some advice. First things first Let’s be realistic – if you have spent all of December snuggled on the couch tucking into a selection box, you are not going to turn into a carrotchomping, alcohol-avoiding, avid gym bunny overnight. Decide what the most important first step is and concentrate on this. For example, if you quit smoking (a very wise choice indeed), you will certainly have more energy to exercise, but many people find they replace cigarettes with another bad habit, such as chocolate or sweets. Over-indulgence in sugary food is obviously not the ideal way to eat better or lose weight. Is it worse than smoking? No. Because once you get over the initial withdrawal period, your desire for sweets should abate too. It is not easy deciding which of your health aims should be given primacy – it really depends on your lifestyle. If you never eat fresh fruit and vegetables, but only smoke a few cigarettes on weekends, concentrating on your diet may be a better solution. The point is to break your overall goal down into component parts and concentrate on the most important first. This allows you set attainable goals.

GOBUSINESS

MAKING

WAVES

Soundwave SXSW

Soundwave Team

Brendan O'Driscoll

A REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL MEDIA APP THAT LETS YOU TRACK WHAT YOUR FRIENDS ARE LOOKING FOR IS TAKING THE TECH SECTOR BY STORM – AND IT’S ALL THE WORK OF A PLUCKY IRISH START-UP WORDS COLM O’HARE

hey say the best business ideas can happen by accident. Soundwave, a smartphone app that tracks songs people are listening to, is one such brainwave. Available on iPhone and Android, it allows users play music as they normally do, or via streaming apps such as Spotify. The Soundwave app will then instantly update their profile, allowing friends, family and “favourites” (whether musicians, professional athletes, celebs etc) to see what songs they are listening to, and to discover new music along the way. A unique “music map” feature allows users to draw a circle with their finger on a map over any country, city, street or building in the world and instantly see what songs are playing there.

the app launched in June of 2013, the project funded by Mark Cuban and ACT Venture Capital. The Soundwave app was downloaded 750,000 times in its first hundred days and has tracked over 35 million songs, growing by 250K per day. Apple featured it as the coveted “Editor’s Choice” after being live for only six hours with Google following a week later. Celebrity fans include Stephen Fry, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, rugby stars Jamie Heaslip, Cian Healy, and Irish bands Kodaline and The Coronas among many others. One reason for the runaway success of the Soundwave app is that it comes with the imprimatur and close cooperation of Apple – a crucial element in the success of any such venture. O’Driscoll: “There are millions of apps being developed out there at any given time yet we managed to capture the attention of the right people. We’ve been delighted that they have been so responsive and I think it comes down to the strength of the idea and the execution of the product.” O’Driscoll is no stranger to startups; in college, he set up a Dublinbased “Rickshaw” company and later moved to Sweden to join Minesto, an innovative tidal energy technology company based in Gothenburg. Soundwave operates with a team of twelve from their Rathmines, Dublin office. “It takes a lot of work just to maintain the product and to build new versions of it as well as responding to the users, for example when they say they like one feature but don’t like another feature.” The Soundwave app, is he says now showing potential beyond its original intent. “As well as people finding out what other people are listening to, we discovered that Soundwave was a good way of people finding out what they themselves were listening to – almost like a music diary. It has endless possibilities in other ways,” he says. “We have a sharing facility and we found that couples would court each other by sending suggestive song titles.” It also has business applications and could, he says, be used by the music industry to predict trends in particular territories. “We’re giving an objective overview of what people are actually listening to, not what they’re purchasing or talking about. Record companies and bands, as well as radio stations don’t have access to this kind of data – so it can inform them what’s going on in their markets.” He sees future expansion of the concept taking it beyond tracking music. “Right now we’re focusing on music and not getting distracted from that but down the line we would be keen to explore what other kinds of media we might track – whether it’s allowing people to see what movies or TV programmes their friends are watching or what books they’re reading or even what podcasts they’re listening to. We’ll be very much led by feedback and response from our users.”

Brendan O’Driscoll, co-founder and CEO of Soundwave, says the idea grew out of a mixture of curiosity and necessity. “I spent a few years working away in Sweden and I used to chat regularly with a cousin of mine over Facebook and Skype,” he explains. “We’d talk about all the usual stuff including the weather. We would regularly ask each other, ‘have you found a new band?’ or ‘could you recommend some new music or a new song that I should be listening to?’ We used each other as a source of information that way.” Around the same time, O’Driscoll, a Corkman who graduated from UCD with a mechanical engineering degree, noted that there was a resurgence of “big” headphones among mobile music listeners. “You’d see people walking around the streets with these huge headphones plugged into their smart phones. We used to say to each other jokingly, these smart phones are the most connected devices in the world and the technology inside them could bring a man to the moon. However, there isn’t a way for one smart phone to tell another smart phone what song is playing. We thought if we were both listening to music on our phones, wouldn’t it be great if I could see what you’re listening to and vice versa? O’Driscoll and his cousin (Aidan Sliney, who holds a BSC in computer science) embarked on a period of research, mainly by going online and looking around at music forums in particular. “Almost every one of them would have a thread titled, ‘what are you listening to now’ and people would be sitting on these forums all day, manually typing in the songs they were listening to. At around the same time there was a viral video on YouTube where this guy in New York would take a camera down to Times Square and walk up to people with headphones and ask them what song they were playing. The conversation we were having was recurring and we thought it would be cool if we could solve it. I suppose the best way to find a business idea is to identify a problem that you have in your own life. It all spiralled out from there, really.” Fast forward to 2013 and the result is an Irish start-up success story. Founded by O’Driscoll and Sliney, now Soundwave chief technology officer,

www.soundwave.com

GOBUSINESS

MAKING THE SOON IRELAND WILL HAVE ONE OF THE MOST EXTENSIVE PUBLIC TRANSPORT WI-FI NETWORKS IN THE WORLD. AND IT’S ALL THANKS TO A PLUCKY DUBLIN START-UP.

here are some business ideas that seem so blindingly brilliant you wonder why nobody thought of them before. One such idea is Fleet Connect, the award-winning Irish company that provides wi-fi across Ireland’s public transport system.

PHOTO IULIAN GUTU

Fleet Connect founder and MD Patrick Cotter is modest about his moment of inspiration. “I just had the idea,” he says. “I come from that background in static wi-fi.” Before founding Fleet Connect, Cotter worked as an IT consultant. He developed a passion for W/LAN technologies and saw a gap in the market to deliver high-speed broadband on transport services. Founded in 2008, Fleet Connect won the 2011 National Enterprise Award for ‘Best New Business’ and the 2011 Fingal Enterprise Award as part of Fingal Enterprise Week. In 2013, Fleet Connect won the Wi-fi Alliance Award. Fleet Connect began rolling out wi-fi services on mainline train services in 2011 and now provides free internet access across the entire Iarnród Éireann network. “We fit each carriage out with a router or with an access point. We have head end equipment at the top of the train and we draw down from multiple mobile networks,” explains Cotter. In the past, mobile data services were slow and clunky, making for an unsatisfying (and often deeply frustrating) consumer experience. While mobile services have significantly improved and can now provide broadband-like connectivity speeds, this can be expensive, particularly for pay-as-you-go mobile customers. Fleet Connect’s technology acts as a bridge between the cellular data network and wi-fi hotspots, switching between providers so that passengers get the fastest internet connection available, depending on where their train happens to be. This means full

wireless connectivity on the move is now available to passengers whether they use laptops, smart phones, tablets or any other wi-fi enabled device. Fleet Connect is a small company with a staff of twenty, based in Blanchardstown. Covering the entire Iarnród Éireann network must have been a difficult task. “It took us nearly a year but it’s been operational since 2011. It was a challenge. The whole thing was a challenge!” laughs Cotter. “It took us a while to get it to where it is now, particularly for the amount of people who are using it. We had to make sure there was enough bandwidth available and that took a while. At the moment they can get up to 8MB download speed. They can get 14MB. It depends on how many people are using it. We block all streaming sites so it’s fair for everybody.” Blocking sites that hog bandwidth, such as YouTube, was a decision to ensure fair usage, explains Cotter. It was not enough to provide a free service; it also had to be consistent. “A lot of people use the service now for work; they can work on the way to Cork or Limerick or wherever they are going, and most people want to be able to check their email, Facebook or Twitter on the move.” With the increase in the number of people using smartphones, the demand for the service has certainly been high. In September of 2013, 562,380 passengers used the service on Iarnród Éireann. With this in mind, from next year, Fleet Connect will be launching data allocation for all users across the Iarnród Éireann network. This will mean an even better user experience. Fleet Connect may be a small company, but it is one with big ambitions. “Per capita in the world, Ireland will have the biggest passenger wi-fi network – fitted with our solution,” promises Cotter.

GOFASHION

You don’t have to end 2013 dressed like a miserable eskimo. ROE McDERMOTT shares some season-appropriate style tips to keep you looking great.

W B

ith New Year’s looming, it’s really easy to keep your resolution to be fashion forward as, this season, everything goes. From furs, jumpers, metallics, incredible jewellery and dark blooms, this look is a veritable treasure chest of trends, adding up to an incredible, elaborate and ornate and ensemble that’s ready for battle. Drawing on the most dramatic of this year’s trends – from fur, to sharp tailoring, studs and tribal jewellery – this season, when you armour up, you’ve got to bring out the big fashion guns.

attlefield fashion has reverberated across the catwalks forever, and has been interpreted in a myriad of ways, from traditional camouflage to last summer’s tribal Amazonian trend. Your winter wardrobe is a combination of all of these electrifying aspects, creating a layered look brimming with cultural references and unique touches. Christopher Kane let this armoured look dominate the Autumn/Winter catwalks, while Jean-Paul Gaultier’s metallics inspired the monochrome and jewelled palette. For winter, warmth is key, and fur is always a fashion favourite. Combining fur with tailored pieces and dramatic jewels makes it merely the comforting base of your outfit. Statement coats are also key, with full-length, sharply tailored military coats bringing a stunning Russian influence to your wardrobe. Combining these Doctor Zhivago-leaning Cossack styles with waist-nipping, metallic belts and sharp, armoured hats; the look is pure power.

will ensure your look is utterly unique, and lend some inspired eccentricity to your ensemble. So get blending to create a look that’s sheer eclectic elegance and feisty femme.

COVER ALL No longer the safe, reliable staple of mothers and Aran lovers, this season the modest jumper has become the veritable star of the catwalks. Yes, that once-forgotten practical throw-on has been elevated to the dizzying heights of fashion’s most covetable piece. To transport this look from the catwalk to the brisk walk to work, be sure to combine contrasting and conflicting elements. Metallic jumpers can be paired with intricate autumnal designs, while cutesy cartoon graphics can be given a tough glamour by teaming them with dramatic maxi skirts in leather or sequins. Likewise, chunky knit jumpers can be made more delicate with silk slip skirts. Finally, edgy cropped jumpers with camouflage prints or bold graphics can be given a sense of sophistication when worn with highwaisted, figure hugging skirts in simple silhouettes.

FABULOUS FURS However, while the military influences may be strong, Russian influences lends a deeply romantic opulence to the accessories and fabrics. Rich fur gilets are a must, while velvet skirts and dresses add a further air of extravagance. To accessorize, large jewels and statement necklaces are must-haves, allowing the femininity of this look to shine through the masculine tailoring. Leather is also a key fabric, toughening up softer silhouettes of skater dresses for a formidable look. Combining both trends in your shoe-wear, look for thigh-high leather boots that ooze strong, femme fatale sexuality, or gladiator-style stilettos that evoke a definite warrior princess look.

ARMOUR UP This Amazonian aspect is highlighted in this season’s jewellery, which combines medallions, cuffs and shoulder pieces with feathers for a strikingly modern adaptation of tribal armour. Unique pieces like feathered ear cuffs or jewelled headdresses

FLOWER POWER Though fashion florals bloom every spring, as the autumn chill sets in this trend is coming up with some thorns, as dark and moody florals dominate the catwalks. No longer the meek and mild wallflowers we’ve seen for so many seasons, this sharper, edgier look is just the right combination of gothic romanticism, film noir and punk. Combining dark ebony tones with bright prints can bring you from the office to the bar with a quick change into some killer heels. Or if you just can’t do without your light and bright prints, look for body-con styles and black accents to take your look from sweet to sexy and show that you fashionista flowers are all grown up. If you’re not a fan of the dark palette, fear not, for florals can be given a ferocious edge by playing with fabrics. Bright sequins can be crosspollinated with metallics and coloured fur for a rebel edge, while bright bloom-print mini-skirts can look seriously high fashion teamed with a leather t-shirt.

GOFASHION GOFASHION

STOCKLIST 1. Statement necklace €37, River Island 2. Cropped sequin jacket, coming soon to River Island 3. Sineao Sequin Mermaid Maxi Skirt e47.59 Missguided 4. Feather Necklace, River Island, coming soon to stores. 5, Kardashian Kollection feather jacket £150, Lipsy.co.uk 6. Le stone cuff, coming soon to Penneys 7. Sequin shorts, coming soon to River Island + Dunnes St. Stephen’s Green S.C, Grafton Street, Dublin 2 William Street, Co. Galway North Main Street, Co. Cork Parkway SC, Dublin Road, Co. Limerick + Lipsy.o.uk + Missguided.eu + Penneys 35-39 Lower O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 47 Mary Street, Dublin 1 Unit 225 Eyre Square S.C, Co. Galway O'Connell Street, Co. Limerick St. Patrick Street, Co. Cork + River Island 102-103 Grafton Street, Dublin 2 Unit C1-C7, Ilac Shopping Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 1 14-15 Shop Street, Co. Galway 39 Patrick Street, Co. Cork 9 Cruise's Street, Co. Limerick

GOPLACES

Gorgeous GENOA

GENOA

ROBERT HIGGINS reports on the sights and sounds that set the coastal city of Genoa apart from other Italian destinations.

enoa is on the northwest coast of Italy. It may be the country’s largest seaport. But there is much more to it than docklands. Genoa, known as ‘La Superba’ due to its rich history and exquisite architecture, offers many surprises. There is plenty of magic waiting to be uncovered down its narrow streets. On top of that, it has some of the finest wine, food and culture the country has to offer. There is a little work involved in getting to Genoa from Irish shores. But you will find it is well worth it once you have arrived. The quickest way is to fly from Dublin to Milan and then either catch an internal flight or take the Trenitalia train over to the city on the Med.

The train is comfy and takes less than two hours. You’ll be in the administrative capital of the Liguria region before you know it. OUT AND ABOUT There is much to enjoy in Genoa’s ‘old town’. Here you’ll find the kind of Italy that exists in old films. There is much pleasure in ambling through the narrow streets, known locally as caruggi. These connect the various squares. Hours can be spendidly frittered away wandering around, pretending you’re in an old Fellini feature. In the summertime, there are plenty of sandy beaches within reach by public transport. They are perfect for lounging around in the sun if you’re not feeling up to trekking about the place.

If you’re looking for something a little different, head over to the Biosfera at the port. The Biosfera is a humid ecosystem, housed in a giant glass dome greenhouse and home to many species of butterfly, birds and tropical flora. It’s fascinating to observe and is something for the whole family to enjoy. CULTURE AND CRAFT Genoa is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. One of the city’s most popular tourist attractions is undoubtedly Columbus’ restored home on Piazza Dante. There is plenty of architecture to admire. The remnants of the ancient city’s walls are still visible in some parts. Also worth a visit is the Lanterna, the

world’s oldest lighthouse, originally built in approximately 1126. For something more modern, head over to the vast aquarium, built for the 1992 Expo to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ invasion of the Americas. The aquarium houses a massive collection of marine life and is also an important scientific research facility. DINNER, WINE & NIGHTLIFE There are plenty of options when it comes to eating out. The local cuisine is somewhat different to that which you might expect from a port town in northern Italy. Local legend goes that when the fishermen had returned home after weeks at sea subsisting on nothing but fish, they would demand CONTINUED OVER >>

GOPLACES

Making of Ravioli

Pesto

Limoncello bottles

A fine glass of Grappa

variety in their diet. Whether true or not, there are a range of culinary delights for you to feast on: you owe it to yourself to try some of them. Pesto is believed to have its origins around the area. This worldfamous sauce, made from locally harvested basil, garlic, olive oil and pine nuts, is an enduring favourite. Another classic dish to emerge from the Ligurian seaport is ravioli, originally a food of the poor, prepared using leftovers. Today, ravioli, folded pasta stuffed with a variety of different ingredients, is served on practically every menu where you can order it with the stuffing of your choice. In terms of wine, you’re most certainly in the right place. The Chianti from nearby Tuscany is revered across the world while Liguria itself produces a number of fine wines, amongst them Cinque Terre, a white wine that originates from the cliffside vineyards of La Spezia. If you’ve eaten quite a lot of dinner why not sample one of the region’s digestivos? Some of the most famed stomach settlers include Limoncello and, of course, Grappa. If you’re not worn out at this point and are looking for a few after hours drinks, head over to Piazza Delle Erbe, Porto Antico and Piazza Fontane Marose where you’ll find most of the city’s pubs and nightclubs. Many of the city’s late bars offer live music and many stay open until the small hours, but be prepared for your share of cheesy pop tunes.

GO DESTINATION: LEITRIM

HAVING A RAIL OF A TIME Comedian and author Colm O’Regan has travelled by train through some of the biggest cities in the world, but nothing beats his very first time on board…

know it sounds a little parochial, but my favourite train journey is still the very first one I took, which was Cork to Dublin.

I was young, only about five or six, so there was a real magic about it. Every time I go on the train, I remember that time. The first time you get on a train, it’s amazing. Even the old ones with the magic toilets! They were like no other toilets you’d ever seen in your life, very futuristic in the eyes of a child. Plus, getting a train at seven in the morning was the earliest you’d ever been up as a kid except for Santa. It was in the winter and the station was glowing in the dark. You’re there way too early, of course, so you’re sitting there waiting for the train to take off and when it finally

does, it’s smoother than anything else you’ve experienced. This was back in the ‘80s when a lot of the roads were rough and others were dirt tracks so the shock absorbers on our 1977 Fiat Mirafiori wouldn’t have been the best option! There’s no gear change or handbrake action on the train when it takes off, you’re just immediately moving. And then, before you know it, everything goes dark for five minutes because you’re going through the tunnel coming out of Cork. That was a magic moment too, the first tunnel. I remember feeling like I was on this enclosed adventure, all warm and glowing inside the train. It was this island of warmth going through the cold outside. There was also a real social aspect to it, too. It

was always a lottery of who you’d end up talking to. If I was going up to visit siblings in Dublin at the age of 10 or 11, I’d always wonder what kind of characters would be on the train with me. Would you have an interesting conversation or would it be the guy with the shaky eye or the guy obsessively looking through an old Dunnes bag? It was a mystery – what slice of life would you see this time? That’s when I first fell in love with the train as a method of transport. It’s a luxury that’s within reach of everybody. Once you can afford the ticket, you’re away. And it’s the kind of luxury that you never get sick of. I don’t really need to commute that much but more often than not I try to get a train to gigs if at all possible, because there’s a sense of letting your thoughts drift away and it being an oasis of ‘other’ in the midst of constantly checking your phone. It’s great that trains have broadband and that but I was almost disappointed when it came along because the train feels like one of the last refuges where you can read or think. And I’m a bit of an obsessive compulsive when it comes to checking my phone! I’m not mad but for some reason I can’t seem to stay off it for ten minutes. I have some excuse, with the Irish Mammies Twitter account, as there’s always something going on there, but the train is definitely an oasis of calm. It’s fun to see how they’ve changed since that first time, too. The toilet says ‘thank you’ now! It’s like the toilet is nervous that people don’t understand the difference between ‘close’ and ‘lock’. I guess it doesn’t want repetition of a number of incidents where people opened the door on somebody. I’ve done that myself and you can’t un-see that! It’s quite traumatic. I’ve actually travelled by train around the world. I took a train across America on my J1 from New York to New Orleans to Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon to Chicago and back. I’ve also gone from Paris to Budapest via Berlin and Vienna, but I’d say my favourite of all exotic train travels would be Japan. I’ve been there three times and it always feels like you’re in the future. For about €300, as a non-native, you can get a pass that will take you around most of Japan, using most of the bullet trains. The subways are beautiful, spotless and air conditioned and come with little TVs with helpful cartoons on how to get around. But the Shinkansen – which is the Japanese term for ‘bullet train’ – is just unbelievable. I’ll never get over it. I’ve never experienced such speed on a train. You’re watching the digital clock go up to about 290 kilometres per hour. It’s amazing to be in a station where the train you’re not getting on passes through at bullet speed. It’s the fastest thing you’ll see that close. It’s like that bit of the plane journey where you’re travelling on the ground, only you never get to watch it that close! It’s like watching a mouse move, you know how they move faster than you expect and it scares you? Well, scale that up to a bullet train flying past and you’ll get some idea. The train itself has a futuristic look, but one from around 1984, when grey was cool. Still, even the old things in Japan look like you’re watching Battlestar Galactica or something...

REVIEW A L B U M S .

LADY GAGA

M O V I E S .

B O O K S

PG 63

GOLISTEN.

GOWATCH.

GOREAD.

THREE SOLO STARS RETURN, AIMING TO SOUNDTRACK YOUR CHRISTMAS. SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, TOO, WITH JAKE BUGG FLYING THE FRESH-FACED INDIE ROCK FLAG, CHRISTY MOORE KEEPING THINGS TRAD AND LADY GAGA EXCITING THE POP BRIGAGE...

ROE McDERMOTT CASTS A FORENSIC EYE OVER THE FESTIVE SEASON'S DVD RELEASES, INCLUDING THE MODERN FABLE THAT IS THE SELFISH GIANT, HONEST ROM-COM DRINKING BUDDIES AND RICHARD CURTIS' ABOUT TIME, FEATURING OUR OWN DOMHNALL GLEESON...

THERES'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN OUR BATCH OF LITERARY STOCKING FILLERS, WITH DONNA TARTT'S ACCLAIMED DEBUT, DONAL RYAN'S EXAMINATION OF POSTCELTIC TIGER IRELAND, AND MURDER AND INTRIGUE FROM AIDAN MCKINTY...

GOLISTEN. SAVING YOU FROM A SOUNDTRACK OF CHRISTMAS CAROLS

A TRIO OF WINTER RELEASES FROM BIG SOLO NAMES HOPING TO FIND THEIR WAY INTO YOUR CHRISTMAS STOCKING. THE GO RAIL TEAM ASSESSES THE FINAL HIGHPROFILE ALBUMS OF 2013.

If you’re looking for a way to shake off those winter blues, you could do worse than bring some new music into your life. A busy time for releases following the relatively quiet, festivalaffected summer/autumn schedule, the Go Rail team have rounded up three releases that will be getting plenty of press attention. But are they worthy of your attention? Read on… Up first, the latest offering from an Irish icon. Involved heavily in the music business for almost half a century, Christy Moore shows no signs of slowing down, either in touring terms or when it comes to new studio efforts. A relatively swift two years on from Folk Tale (which itself followed hot on the heels of ‘09’s Listen), Where I Come From is a sweeping collection that lives up to its title by tracing his evolution from young Kildare troubadour to the Irish elder statesman of protest music. A triple album boasting a whopping 43 of Moore’s own songs, it makes a strong case for the ‘Lisdoonvarna’ singer’s genius, touching on personal, political and social subjects as he melodically mixes wit with sincerity. Spanning five decades, we move from his early, heavily traditional beginnings when he took inspiration from the likes of Woody Guthrie, Ewan McColl and The Clancy Brothers to the broader range he would develop over the years. With live versions sprinkled throughout, most of the songs have been re-recorded specifically for Where I Come From, which gives the collection a unified air and deftly sidesteps problems the varying production styles of the originals might have brought. Throughout, Moore is in fine voice, imbuing these ‘covers’ of his own work with the same passion and respect he has shown on countless occasions with other

people’s songs. Having built up a sinuous, organic and sometimes seemingly telepathic playing relationship with Declan Sinnott over the years, the music augments it all beautifully. ‘Yellow Triangle’ and ‘Strange Ways’ are just two highlights, but we could pick dozens. A treasure trove for ardent fans and casual listeners alike, Mr. Moore has arguably never been so powerful. Enjoy every second of it. Next to a young man in thrall to classic songwriting who would do well to follow Moore’s artistic arc. Eager to avoid – or at least rocket past — any ‘difficult second album’ discussions, Jake Bugg arrives with the followup to his year-old eponymous debut. Recorded with esteemed producer Rick Rubin over several summer weeks in Malibu, Shangri La is unashamedly American-sounding, scattered in places with his more familiar guitar-driven Britrock. ‘There’s A Beast And We All Feed It’ cribs from mid-’60s Dylan, whilst Neil Young influences abound. A tight, energetic backing band excel throughout, particularly on the infectious ‘What Doesn’t Kill You'. So take a bow, bassist Jason Lader, guitarist Matt Sweeney and drummer Pete Thomas (The Attractions). Lyrically, Bugg's gaze remains firmly fixed on his old hometown of Nottingham. He occasionally offers a sharp insight, but cliches still dog his work, and he’s yet to have a truly original musical idea. Understandable given his age – he himself has admitted that he was in a rush to get two albums under his belt before hitting the ancient age of 20. There are plenty of highlights: in the Wire-like rocker ‘Kingpin’, in the soulful ‘Kitchen Table’. An enjoyable, if flawed, album that shows plenty of promise. Finally, we come to an LP that has been

promised for a long time. You would have had to be living under a rock for the past year to not have known Lady Gaga’s third release was imminent. We’ve been teased with details of the ambitious Artpop for an age and tracks have slipped out here and there – indeed, Interscope’s marketing campaign reportedly cost $25 million, meaning even a No. 1 Billboard debut would result in heavy losses. But let’s put that all aside and concentrate on the record in hand. Forget the hype – Artpop is Lady Gaga as you have heard her before. The overexposure and ‘shocking’ outfits are just distracting from the fact that, musically, the New York star is stuck in a time warp. Fizzy pop borrowed from Madonna and given a beat-driven EDM update is the order of the day once again, as Dr Luke and Max Martin produce Artpop to within an inch of its life. If the sound is the same, the overall results are lacking. Crucially, there isn’t a stone-cold classic in the vein of ‘Poker Face’ or ‘Bad Romance’ in sight. The supposedly ambitious ‘mandate’ is to create a space between ‘art’ and ‘pop’. Hardly revolutionary when you consider that acts have been doing exactly that since the ‘80s at least – take, for example, the Pet Shop Boys, who even have a greatest hits collection bearing the same name as Gaga’s newie. There are some saving graces. ‘Venus’ will undoubtedly become something of a club anthem, whilst a duet with R Kelly, ‘Do What U Want’, proves that she would have been better served by slowing things down. Whilst likely enjoyable if you are a Little Monster, even Gaga obsessives will probably admit that this is an album for Christmas, not for life.

GOWATCH. WARM YOUR COCKLES IN FRONT OF SOME OPEN DVDS THIS WINTER WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR STOCKING FILLERS TO GIVE AWAY OR CHRISTMAS TREATS THAT ARE JUST FOR YOU, ROE McDERMOTT TELLS YOU WHICH DVDS ARE ON OUR NICE LIST THIS YEAR...

his January, director Clio Barnard transforms the lyrical prose of Oscar Wilde into Bradford mumbles, and trades the picturesque idyll of his magic garden for decaying post-industrial estates. The Selfish Giant presents us with a modern version of an old-fashioned fable, where adults can wrong children, through greed or merely neglect; where paths to adventure are deathly dangerous; and where love may or may not save you. As striking opening shots of mossy green fields and midnight blue starry skies give way to the drab greys of scrap-yards, Barnard introduces our two young heroes, 13-year-olds Arbor and Swifty (Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas; both newcomers, both extraordinary). The former is an ADHD sufferer with a vicious temper, mischievous wit and impermeable swagger; the latter a sensitive old soul with a protective streak. As they begin stealing metal and copper cable for shady dealer Kitten (Sean Gilder, intimidating and heart-wrenching), the film moves from keenly observed urban milieu, to a dark coming-of-age film, to a hugely emotive friendship tale. The bleak social commentary and poetic style evoke a blend of Ken Loach and Steve McQueen, as the bold, brooding cinematography lends a vividly mythical quality to the boys’ small journeys. Their petty thieving becomes treasure hunting, their acts of cruelty become tests of character, their cart horse becomes their noble steed, and their inevitable tragedies become their making. A heartbreaking tale about two boys realising they’re not indestructible – but their friendship is. In February, it’s not just you who is feeling the hurt of a little post New Year’s indulgence. In indie comedy Drinking Buddies, it seems alcohol makes everything a little hazy, including the line between friendship and romance. There’s a refreshing, toast-worthy simplicity to mumblecore guru Joe Swanberg’s largely improvised, observational dramedy about two intersecting relationships. The striking and crass Olivia Wilde and New Girl’s irresistibly unkempt Jake Johnson play Kate and Luke, best friends who, over time, have built a magnetic, wildly flirtatious chemistry, layered with innately understood shorthand, duet-like riffs and a palpable attraction. Swanberg’s brilliance lies in understanding the real emotional complexities that exist in life – but don’t necessarily look strong up on paper, or in film pitches. Though Luke and Kate seem perfect for each other, it’s because they’re identical, stuck in childish banter, partying, drinking and adventure. Meanwhile, Luke’s relationship with his quieter, vulnerable fiancée Jill (Anna Kendrick, charming as ever) holds a subtler beauty; one that brings out a

softness and maturity, the potential for marriage and fatherhood and growth. Johnson navigates the two relationships beautifully, and as well as being hilarious and personable, his dramatic scenes with Wilde brilliantly explore the anger, betrayal and jealousy that aren’t officially allowed in friendships, but are sometimes inevitable. Early weather reports suggest that February may see a lot of localised rain – on your face. That’s right, get the hankies out, because Richard Curtis is back, and he’s determined to make you sob. The incredible Domhnall Gleeson easily overtakes Hugh Grant as Richard Curtis’ most effortlessly charming muse, playing the foppish if awkward Tim in About Time. The radiant Bill Nighy plays his erudite father who passes on his unique ability to travel through time. The power is limited; better suited to changing small, personal moments than the history books. And so the time-travelling conceit becomes merely a way for the characters to chase their modest, wonderfully relatable desires. To fall in love. To not mess it up. To read more books. To spend one more day with someone you’ve lost. To be happy. Spanning ten years, this isn’t a film just about romance; but family, love and growing up. Nighy and Gleeson share a divinely warm and witty chemistry, while Lydia Wilson is stunning as Tim’s kooky but troubled sibling. The relationships are the most beautifully observed and gut-wrenching that Curtis has written in years, and Gleeson is wonderful as a husband, father, brother and son, just trying to make each day count. There may be tropes and schmaltz, but underneath is a heart that will kick your teeth out. Let it. A rom-com for adults, Le Week-End is a witty, bitter and bristling drama about a couple in their sixties struggling to find reason to stay together. Roger Mitchell’s film is laden with thorny truths and bitingly funny banter, featuring two powerhouse performances from Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan. As a weekend in Paris fails to reignite the romantic idealism and naiveté of youth, the problems plaguing Meg (Duncan) and

Nick (Broadbent) are thrust to the fore. Nick, for all his hangdog commitment, has a desperate need to be loved, which has led to infidelities. Meg, on the other hand, is full of vicious selfdoubt and restlessness. Railing through life with a deeply cutting tongue, she almost dares people to leave her. The Parisian cityscape is filled with metaphors; spiral staircases charting the cyclical elevation of their fights; and apparent shortcuts and quick fixes that lead them right back to their problems. The two leads are incredible; complicated, funny, intelligent and emotional, they create an honest dynamic with a real sense of a history. They more than compensate for the script’s occasional veerings into theatricality and explore jealousy, sex, parenting, infidelity and ambition with the grace and force of a violent tango. Also available is the stressful but brilliant hostage film Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks; the outrageous and divisive Filth, written by Irvine Welsh; the brilliant family drama What Maisie Knew, and the hilarious Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra. But if you’re looking for party favours, don’t punish anyone by putting these turkes in their Christmas stockings, films to avoid this season include the painfully bad rom-com Austenland, disappointing uber-violent sequel Kick-Ass 2; the anaemic thriller Closed Circuit; and absurd thriller The Call.

GOREAD. TURNING OVER A NEW PAGE AS WE HEAD FOR 2014. ANNE SEXTON ROADTESTS THREE NEW LITERARY WORKS YOU MIGHT JUST FANCY SETTLING DOWN WITH DURING THOSE LONG, LAZY CHRISTMAS DAYS. MURDER, INTRIGUE AND MORE AWAIT...

here is something incredibly satisfying about cracking open a good, long book on a chilly winter’s day for hours of uninterrupted reading bliss. You hunker down on the couch, ideally with a pot of tea and a packet of biscuits, to delve into a fictional world of wonder, mystery or murder. This month we have a little of each of those for you. Donna Tartt’s first novel, The Secret History, was a phenomenon equally loved by readers and critics, and established her as one of America’s most exciting young novelists. Tartt works slowly, and the release of her third novel, The Goldfinch, was something of a literary event. The Goldfinch opens with Theo Decker hiding in a hotel room in Amsterdam. Theo has killed someone and we don’t know who or why. What we do know is that when he was 13, Theo survived a museum bombing in New York which killed his mother and set the course for the rest of his life, not least because he removed Carl Fabritius’ 1659 masterpiece, ‘The Goldfinch’, in the confused aftermath of the tragedy. Tartt takes us back through Theo’s childhood and youth – his love for his mother; his feckless, alcoholic father; Theo’s boyhood friends; his secret love for a fellow survivor of the bombing; and his growing fascination with antique furniture. Through all

of this, Fabritius’ painting is both a talisman and a curse. And, of course, it is the painting that eventually lead to Theo’s bloody encounter in Amsterdam. Tartt’s reputation is such that you can’t help but suspect her editors took a softly-softly approach. The book is overlong in parts, and anachronistic details jar; the novel slowly leads up to Theo’s bloody encounter, but although this has been foreshadowed in the opening chapter, the violence feels rather more like a Tarantino splatterfest than an organic or inevitable part of the narrative. The Goldfinch is both a highly enjoyable and somewhat frustrating read. Irish author Donal Ryan recently won the Guardian’s ‘First Book’ award for his remarkable debut The Spinning Heart. The Spinning Heart was an excellent novel, but his follow-up, The Thing About December could top it. December explores the corrosive effects of the lure of filthy lucre – the novel is set in a rural community smack bang in the middle of Celtic Tiger Ireland. Ryan’s narrator is Johnsey Cunliffe, a socially awkward young man. Bullied by his boss, and terrorised by a gang of local thugs, Johnsey’s already difficult world is challenged after the death of both his parents. Johnsey inherits the family farm, and his land is part of a parcel rezoned for commercial purposes. The sale of the land will make millionaires of many of the locals, setting neighbour against neighbour, as greed and self-interest prevail. The Thing About December is a remarkable achievement – Ryan has created a narrator who is in turns sympathetic and frustrating, but never less

than believable. Ryan’s subject matter may be bleak, but the novel itself is not. His prose is so beautifully nuanced you’ll find yourself savouring it slowly and he finds laugh-out-loud black humour in the heart of darkness that beats at the centre of this novel. Our third book this issue is by another Irish author, but at the other end of the spectrum. Adrian McKinty is one of Ireland’s most consistently exciting crime novelists and if you haven’t yet read his Sean Duffy series, you’re in for a treat. Set in northern Ireland in the early 1980s, Duffy is a music-loving, hash-smoking Catholic cop in a largely Protestant RUC, and McKinty mixes fact with fiction to create police procedurals that are page-turning thrillers and an exploration of social and cultural history of this most unlovely period of Irish history. In The Morning I’ll Be Gone is the third instalment; it is a stand-alone novel so, although you don’t need to have read the previous two books to enjoy this one, you should – simply because they’re great. The novel opens in 1983 with a mass breakout of IRA prisoners from HM Prison Maze. One of the escapees is Dermot McCann, a former schoolmate of Duffy’s. He’s sure their paths will across again, and this being fiction, they do – especially since Duffy is moved to Second Branch to help with the manhunt. An informer may be willing to talk, but only if Duffy agrees to investigate the death of a young girl that the police have ruled as accidental. In The Morning I’ll Be Gone is a murder mystery, wrapped in a manhunt, inside a period drama of recent history and a highly enjoyable one at that.

G O F I G U R E

GO RAIL'S BRAIN TEASERS

QUIZ (A)

(B)

(C)

IN THE LONDON OLYMPICS OF 2012, THE COUNTRIES THAT WON THE MOST GOLD MEDALS WERE:

THE FIRST THREE BOOKS IN THE HARRY POTTER SERIES ARE:

LAST YEAR'S BARCLAY'S PREMIER LEAGUE TOP THREE WAS:

1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

1) Manchester United 2) Manchester City 3) Chelsea

What comes next?

What team finished in fourth place?

1) United States 2) China 3) Great Britain What country came fourth?

WIN A BURREN SMOKEHOUSE HAMPER Answer the above questions for your chance to win a fantastic bumper hamper which contains Burren Cold Smoked Irish Salmon, Burren Hot Smoked Irish Salmon, a round of Cratloe Hill Sheep Cheese, a bottle of Bunratty Póitín, Lough Derg Chocolates in a decorative box and a jar of Mount Vernon Burren Hedgerow Jelly, courtesy of Burren Smokehouse. Iarnród Éireann are also offering 5 runners-up, 5 pairs of intercity tickets, please email your answers to gorail@hotpress.Ie Terms & Conditions: The prize is valid for one year, and subject to availability. No cash alternatives will be offered. Entrants must be aged 18+. Go Rail may contact competition entrants with details of future special offers. Your details won’t be passed on to any third party. Please specify in your email if you would like to opt out of this.

WIN AN IRELANDHOTELS.COM VOUCHER WORTH €250 The official website of the Irish Hotels Federation, Irelandhotels.com offers guests the widest choice of accommodation in the country, featuring exclusive packages for top 4 and 5 star hotels, stately country houses, luxurious castles and homely guest houses. There's a great special offers sections, giving instant access to the latest and greatest hotel deals nationwide. Visitors can choose from an enormous range of great value packages for Christmas, New Year, weekend and family breaks, spa retreats and over 55's getaways. The Irelandhotels.com gift voucher is valid for over 600 hotels in Ireland and allows users to book all hotels, guest houses and offers via the website. To be in with a chance of winning, simply email your answer to the question below to gorail@hotpress.ie. Please include your contact details and let us know on which train route or at which station you picked up your copy of Go Rail. Good luck!

Which country will host the 2014 FIFA World Cup? (A) Qatar

(B) Brazil

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13/11/2013 15:51