Verge Issue 11

VERGE

ISSUE XI

Bressie opens up about his depressive past ..... Lisa Madden’s experiences as a Miss Universe contestant ..... Taking Heroin to the stage Sheila O’Flanagan versus chick lit ..... Top gaming picks for the coming year ..... Experimental film, Celtic Tiger fashion and more .....

Editor’s Letter Diverged

Parks and Recreation Finale – Eoghan One of the last decade’s greatest sitcoms came to an end recently with the series finale of Parks and Recreation. Though it never reached the massive viewership or took over the zeitgeist as shows such as Friends or Seinfeld did, it consistently proved hilarious, touching and, sometimes, scathing in its portrayal of many of the hottest political issues of the day (see the recent episode lampooning the ‘Men’s Rights’ movement, for example). One of most sharply written and funniest TV shows there ever was; it will be missed.

GoldenPlec – Robbie The sad, but understandable news that music magazine sales are at an all-time low means that there really is no time like the present to save some of our iconic publications. NME sales alone have collapsed from 300,000 to 14,000, so it’s up to all of us to silence the deathknell of alternative culture publications.

For those who are ‘skint’, a number of Irish music websites are bravely bucking the trend by venturing into the world of freezines. Among these are GoldenPlec and The Thin Air, which aim to showcase the best music talent our island has to offer.

Girl Crush 02 V

Claire Fox Welcome to the first of three Verge editions for the merry month of March!

While some of us are still carrying lingering coughs and colds from R&G Week, the reality of assignment deadlines and exam woes has hit home for a lot of us, as the safety net that is the month of February has come undone.

One thing that I miss about secondary school is the phenomenon that was the Mid-term Break. Even if it was just two days, the relief from a wearisome workload was always welcoming for students. In college we are committed to a fairly strenuous 12-week semester routine without any break, something that is quite unnatural for most students fresh from second-level. Considering that extra demands have been placed on the student-body since the introduction of semesterisation, taking into account a week of rest would be appreciated by most.

One person in the public eye who always advocated taking a break, at least if her lyrics for ‘Holiday’ are to go by, is Madonna. Having reared her worldrenowned, bleached-blond head once again, Madonna is surely an inspiration for work ethic. Her 13th studio album Rebel Heart is due to be released this Friday and, even though she may have lost her balance during last week’s Brit Awards performance, Madonna remains firm-footed in maintaining her title as the Queen of Pop. Satisfied with having applied the thoughts of my girl-crush for March to the issue of student burnout, Verge offers plenty more on the subject. The positive-thinking Bressie offered a snippet of his college memories to us and, alongside Sheila O’Flanagan and many more, you are bound to find something to crush on in this week’s Verge…

If not, Madonna’s 2009 Celebration album is an absolute treat!

Verge Editor: Claire Fox

Gaming Editor: Steve Barry

Film & TV: Eoghan Scott

Fashion Editor: Nicole Clinton

Music Editor: Robbie Byrne

Design: Kevin Hosford

Arts & Lit Editor: Molly Forsythe

Fight Club – Molly Some great news for all you thugs, psychos and badasses out there: Fight Club is back! Chuck Palahniuk’s ultra-violent, 1996 cult classic is due to make a return this May in comic-book form. Fans can get a sneak-peak on Playboy’s website, which currently features a six-page preview of the sequel. The series will be illustrated by Cameron Stewart, known for his work on the Batgirl comics. Trapped in a boring domestic life, the main character (now going by Sebastien) appears to have severed all ties with Tyler Durden and Project Mayhem. However, as publishers Dark Horse Comics tantalisingly reveal, “Some imaginary friends never go away…”

DmC: Definitive Edition – Steve DmC: Devil May Cry may be one of the most infamous gaming reboots but it really doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Completely switching up the Devil May Cry franchise in everything but gameplay, we got an emo Dante, a militaristic Vergil and a plethora of really, really messed up demons. I mean REALLY, REALLY messed up. And now it’s being remastered for the PlayStation 4, with new difficulties and new skins for you to enjoy. Jokes aside, DmC is an experience you deserve to have and should not be avoided because it’s different. It arrives in stores on March 10th.

Campus Style Name: Aoífe Condon Course: Second year Nursing Favourite shops: Bershka and TK Maxx is great for designer clothes too.

Where did you buy your outfit?

Carma Boutique in Fermoy.

Why did you decide to wear this outfit? It suited my mood and I like layering.

Image by: Marc Moylan

Made in Dublin Claire Fox chats with best-selling author Sheila O’Flanagan about her problem with the word ‘chick lit’, career women and being published in China.

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ike most authors, Liberties native Sheila O’Flanagan didn’t set out to become a writer; in fact one of her first jobs was in the Irish Central Bank located on her Dublin doorstep.

While many would say an occupation in the banking profession would do little to perfect one’s writing, O’Flanagan believes that her time spent immersed in the world of commerce influenced her writing hugely, preferring to write about career women.

“It was one of the first jobs I got offered and I needed a job. It shaped my writing in one sense because I like writing about women with particular types of jobs for whom their career is not necessarily the most important thing, but is still an important part of their lives. I don’t like writing about people whose job is just a side issue; I like to write about women with careers,” affirms O’Flanagan in her distinct Southside accent.

Throughout this period of employment at the Central Bank, O’Flanagan dabbled in journalism for the Irish Times, writing articles that “made business accessible for people who didn’t know anything about business.”

All throughout this period she never forgot about fiction writing, finally getting her first book published in her mid-thirties. As O’Flanagan went down the traditional print-publishing route, she is wary at the hype there is to self and online publishing formats.

“It’s harder now. There’s a lot of noise in terms of self-publishing and the problem I have with this is that a lot of the time writers are bringing their stuff out for free, so they can get their stuff noticed. But it’s quite difficult to sort out the good stuff from the bad. So even if you are brilliant, it’s very difficult.”

O’Flanagan’s debut novel Dreaming of a Stranger was the first in a string of works which have earned her literary and commercial success. In 2011 she won an Irish Book Award for her popular novel All for you, while, by 2013, she had sold almost 4 million books worldwide.

Still, one thing that O’Flanagan struggles to come to terms with is the popularity of her books in far off lands.

“I’m surprised but it is nice when I know they are being published in places like China because it’s such a different

culture. I would never have imagined that somebody from China would be reading my books.”

With Ireland famous for its female literary exports, from Marian Keyes to Cathy Kelly, O’Flanagan is quick to point out the misconceptions people have about the word ‘chick lit’, a word overused in modern circles.

“I have a bit of a thing about the word ‘chick lit’, begins O’Flanagan. “A lot of people talk about it as these books being all the same and having an over-reaching theme in them all, but the only over-reaching theme in them is that they are written by women and that women are the main protagonists.

I don’t try to make my books stand out to a particular genre; I just try to write the best book that I can.”

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One female author that inspired O’Flanagan, like so many other Irish women, was the late Maeve Binchy.

For her, Binchy gave Irish writers “confidence in Ireland.”

“The only overreaching theme in them is that they are written by women and that women are the main protagonists” “Maeve was an inspiration to a lot of people because she was an Irish woman writing novels about Ireland and was successful outside of Ireland. Back then Ireland didn’t have the confidence and thought that if you were to write a book about Ireland, it would just be popular within Ireland. She made us realise that people will read good writing no matter who has written it.”

This empowerment that Binchy’s legacy provides is something that O’Flanagan tries to encourage in other female writers and working women. “If you see somebody succeed at something, you think that there’s no reason why you can’t do it either. I also feel pleased to get mail from the readers when my books help them through a similar problem that a character is faced with

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in one of my novels. It makes them feel, ‘yes, there are other people going through these things’ and that you’re not the only people thinking this.”

As her novels are largely focused on people and situations, especially in the workplace, does O’Flanagan feel the world of work has improved for women in the last 20 years?

they realise maybe they are not as straightforward or as boring as they thought. So it’s about looking at that generational thing and realising that an older generation isn’t as stupid as we think.”

“It’s improved insofar as there are a greater variety of jobs available. I’m not so sure if conditions within the corporations have improved as much as I’d like. There are more opportunities but there are still issues of sexism, wage imbalance and the glass ceiling. Though we don’t like to talk about it, there are still a lot of obstacles that women only realise are there when they enter the workplace.”

Due out this summer, O’Flanagan’s latest novel, My Mother’s Secret, is different from her previous novels in the fact that it deals with the generational divide between children and their parents and is essentially a ‘family book’.

“People think they know everything about their parents and suddenly

For information on O’Flanagan’s upcoming book and writing tips, visit sheilaoflanagan.com.

Film & Tv “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

Author L.P. Hartley highlighted the humankind’s infatuation with the past. In the past we appreciated life, danced harder, every day was filled with glorious sunshine and, even if we made mistakes, we learned from them. Of course this is a case of rose-tinted glasses syndrome but none of this seems to matter to the television viewing public.

From Downton Abbey to Channel 4’s latest effort, Indian Summers, we seem absorbed with the idea of reliving a supposed ‘grander age’.

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Upstairs, Downstairs was the period drama of choice for the 1970s; a show made so appealing by its romanticised, yet realistic portrayal of the ‘Bright Young Thing’s’ of the twenties. And this is perhaps one of the prime reasons as to why the world is in love with dramas of the past. When stuck in the mud of heart-breaking unemployment of

In love with Dramas – Period Claire Fox examines the modern viewers’ obsession with Period dramas. the 70s, young people got a chance to witness a time where their generation flourished – a welcome escape from reality.

This popular drama paved the way for the stalwart series that is ITV’s Downton Abbey. Its country house setting, hard-hitting story lines and beautiful stories of romance set it apart from the crowd. The beautiful dialogues between Lady Mary and Mathew Crawley in series one and two surely restored the modern

“Romance was usually slow-burning but worth the wait, unlike now where storylines sizzle and fizzle as soon as they’ve begun” viewer’s belief in romance, while the inclusion of historical events such as the sinking of the Titanic and the

Irish Home Rule Crisis make the drama relevant to a broader set of interests.

The period drama viewer in need of more action has also been catered for with Mr Selfridge and Indian Summers offering a more lively approach.

These dramas provide an element of escape and an Alice in Wonderland rush, relinquishing us from the doom and gloom of reality. Back

then the men are portrayed as true gentlemen, while women, although constrained, learned to dance in this constraint. Romance was usually slow-burning but worth the wait, unlike now where storylines sizzle and fizzle as soon as they’ve begun.

With Julian Fellows setting about writing a new American drama, The Gilded Age, even if Downton does come to a close, it seems like our needs for doting on the decadent past will be well and truly serviced.

Experimental film making the cut Ken Russell chats with filmmaker and Phantoscope organiser Maximilian Le Cain about the seminal films of iconic literary outlaw William Burroughs.

My first memory of Burroughs was a tape my brother gave me of Spare Ass Annie back in 1993. When did you get first become interested in Burroughs?

He snuck up on me gradually. I started with one of the earlier novels Junky or Queer in my early teens. I wasn’t quite ready for him at that stage; not ready for what he did later on anyway.

Burroughs worked on these films with the filmmaker Antony Balch and Brion Gysin who pioneered the cut-up technique, which Burroughs would use. A few of the films even feature dream machines...

These are films where sensory impact is important and seeing them on the big screen is going to make a huge difference. Footage was shot then divided into four sections each of which was measured out into the shortest length of film that the human eye would register. They were randomly assembled creating a flicker effect which has the same impact on the brain waves as the Dream Machine.

When first shown in the 60s in London they had walkouts, demands for money back and people were throwing up, even fainting. Burroughs’ constant preoccupation was battling structures of control found in society, our thought processes and our biology. He viewed this work as a way of upsetting and imposing control.

And your own ‘Operation Rewrite’ takes its name from the novel Nova Express…

‘Operation Rewrite’ is a project I have with a Spanish artist/ filmmaker Esperanza Collado who came up with the name. Burroughs’ ideas about the cut-up but also about psychic connections are very important to that project. It is hard to pinpoint the specific influence of Burroughs but I know that without what I have learned from him directly and indirectly it would be completely different; certainly in terms of the way I edit things.

Burroughs was pictured with everyone, from the early subcultures

of the Beats, Hippies, Punks and all the way up through Lou Reed, Sonic Youth and R.E.M. He was like a godfather to them…

Yes, Burroughs would have come first in a lot of ways. He was 10 or 15 years older than a lot of the Beats and was a mentor figure to them even before he started writing. He was Harvard educated; knowledgeable about literature as well as drugs. Of the three most famous Beat Writers: Kerouac had the fifties with the ‘On The Road’, the sixties were Ginsberg’s but the Punks belonged to Burroughs.

Although still jarring, how will Burroughs’ experimental films truly be experienced today?

I’d like to believe that the sensory impact of the cut-ups is still there. The subject matter will not be as shocking as it once was, certainly, but I think formally it is still pretty intense. But, in general, working with experimental idioms today in the postmodern climate you have to keep on your toes about getting complacent again. Not in terms of always trying to be cutting edge or always trying to shock people or anything like that, but more about being true to one’s own perception and impulses. That’s the only anchor, the only way of staying upright and not being blown away.

Maximilian’s film, Cloud of Skin, is due to be released this summer.

Predictable Pageantry as Boyhood and Birdman do battle Glenn Dunlea relives this year’s less-than-memorable Academy Awards.

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Film & Tv

he heavens were a little bit duller on February 22nd as the stars descended on the Dolby Theatre for the 87th Annual Academy Awards.

However the most anticipated night of the awards season was equally as dull, despite featuring the leading lights of Hollywood’s top industry.

After a rousing opening sequence performed by host Neil Patrick Harris alongside Anna Kendrick and Jack Black, the ceremony got underway with the presentation of the award for Best Supporting Actor. As expected, the winner was J.K. Simmons, whose role as a crazed music teacher in Whiplash has earned him consistent praise this year. With his victory, however, came the answer to the question everybody was asking: Would this ceremony be, as so many have been before, a predictable one? The answer: yes.

This year’s Oscars was neither here nor there. It wasn’t bad but it definitely could have been better. A huge contributing factor to this was the predictability of each category. The awards circuit this year has been dominated by the same names night after night and with the Academy Awards as one of the final ceremonies to take place, it would have taken some truly off the wall winners to cause any stir.

Best Costume Design and Best Production Design both went to Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, along with Best Make-Up and Hairstyling and Best Original Score, which marked the first win for composer Alexandre Desplat, after eight previous nominations.

Patricia Arquette succeeded in taking the statuette for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Boyhood. Her acceptance speech is one that is set to go down in Oscars history, calling all female members of the motion picture industry to demand equal rights and pay, something that evoked a near standing ovation from a visibly elated Meryl Streep.

Whiplash performed well, earning three wins out of five nominations.

Other than Best Supporting Actor, these included two technical awards for Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing. Watching the ceremony live as it aired on Sunday night, I considered leaving LA in favour of the Land of Nod half way through. Three things saved me from slumber, however.

Firstly, the performance of Best Original Song nominee and eventual winner, ‘Glory’ from Selma. There was no doubt that it would take home the

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award after a performance by John Legend and Common, with a chorus of over 50 performers, moved the audience not only to a standing ovation of considerable length, but also to tears.

The highly amusing return of Adele Dazeem to announce the winner also provided some much needed comic relief.

Next, a surprisingly well sung and exceptionally thrilling Lady Gaga performed a musical tribute to The Sound of Music, in honour of the film’s 50th anniversary. The performance itself was only surpassed by the surprise appearance of the iconic Dame Julie Andrews herself, whose class, grace and elegance reminded viewers of the Golden Age of Hollywood, when the Academy honoured stars such as Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor.

Finally, and perhaps most significant of all, was the acceptance speech of Best Adapted Screenplay winner for The Imitation Game, Graham Moore.

His charisma and character gave him an instant likeability when he stepped on stage, but it was the first-time Oscar winner’s words that truly captivated audiences worldwide: “Here’s the thing. Alan Turing never got to stand on a stage like this and look out at all of these disconcertingly attractive faces. I do. And that’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever heard,” Moore began.

“So in this brief time here, what I wanted to do was say this: When I

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was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different, and I felt like I did not belong. And now I’m standing here, so I would like this moment to be for this kid out there who feels like she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere: Yes, you do.

I promise you do.

“Stay weird, stay different and then, when it’s your turn, and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person who comes along.”

The evening concluded more or less as expected: Best Actor went to an adorably grateful Eddie Redmayne for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything; a very humble Julianne Moore accepted the award as Best Actress for Still Alice.

The evening then ended on something of a low note, when Alejandro González Iñárritu won for Best Director and Best Picture for Birdman. Both awards were expected to go to coming-of-age drama Boyhood and many were additionally disappointed that Iñárritu, who’s broken English was perfectly acceptable, felt it necessary to include several profanities in his acceptance speech.

Although not as spectacular as past events, this years Academy Awards was by no means a failure, with over 34.6 million people globally tuning in to view the live ceremony. Now, since the long drawn out awards season is finally coming to a close, we can all slip off our Choos, put away our Tiffany’s and finally settle down to try and make a Lego Statuette of our very own.

Art & Lit

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ollowing on from a sold-out show last year, Dramat, in conjunction with FemSoc and LGBT* Soc, will be reviving Eve Ensler’s celebrated play, The Vagina Monologues.

“As the proceeds go towards such a good cause, we decided to try to make it an annual tradition,” said director of the 2015 production, Keevsa McGrath. “Last year’s show created a safe, non-judgemental space for women to have a discussion about gender, identity and the position of women in contemporary Irish society. We wanted to keep that conversation going.”

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The Vagina Monologues draws inspiration from interviews carried out by Ensler with hundreds of women from a diverse range of backgrounds. The play has since inspired an international campaign, V-Day, which seeks to raise awareness of gender-based violence through a series of worldwide events from February to April. In keeping with the spirit of V-Day, all proceeds from Dramat’s production will go towards the Cork Sexual Violence Centre and the organisation’s founder, Mary Crilly, will be making an appearance before each show.

“As long as there are vaginas this play will be relevant to three billion people at the very least!”

The monologues tackle a wide range of controversial subjects, some of which are still very much taboo today. As Leah Cooke (‘My Angry Vagina’) observes many women adopt the “mentality that my womanhood – periods, my body, etc. – is something that I can’t really talk about.”

Despite the tricky subject matter, production manager Jennifer Egan remarks that actresses have been anything but shy: “One thing I have learned is that women actually love talking about their vaginas. When they get the opportunity to share their own experiences they can’t stop and they equally enjoy hearing about the experiences of others.”

Sometimes tragic, often funny, always honest; The Vagina Monologues is a prime example of great writing. For the cast, honesty is the cornerstone of the play. They constantly emphasise the importance of reaching out to the audience members and bringing subjects that are quietly brushed under the carpet out into the open. Cooke explains that the

My Revolution Begins in the Body Molly Forsythe interviews the cast and crew of The Vagina Monologues. play offers an opportunity “to learn about the experiences that all or most women have had but may not have heard talked about in public before.”

Admittedly, audience reactions can be mixed. For some the play can provide a cathartic experience, such as Becki Moore (‘My Vagina was My Village’) describes: “After the show last year, an audience member approached me. She had been abused when she was younger and said that that she had found a lot of strength in what I did.” It can also be mortifying as Egan cheerfully recalls: “There was a poor guy sitting near me and his face during ‘Reclaiming Cunt’ was priceless.

I had never seen someone so scared and horrified!”

Since the play’s release in the late nineties, society and the media have certainly become more open to discussion of issues around feminism and sexuality.

You could even argue that Ensler’s play laid the groundwork for the increasingly frank representations of female identity and sexuality which we have seen in TV shows such as Girls and Sex and the City. Although almost 20 years old, Becki points out that The Vagina Monologues

remains topical to this day: “As long as there are vaginas this play will be relevant to three billion people at the very least!”

The Vagina Monologues has been in the

news recently too, after students in an American university refused to perform it on the grounds that it was not feminist enough, arguing that: “At its core, the show offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman.”

However the cast of the Dramat production disagree with this characterisation and argue that the addition of new monologues, such as the 2005 piece ‘They Beat the Girl out of my Boy… or so they Tried’ highlight Ensler’s commitment to representing the experiences of all women. As Moore suggests; “Add 2,000 more monologues to it! This show is all about sharing and support so you can never have too many involved.”

So what subjects would the girls like The Vagina Monologues to explore in the future? The replies come back faster than you can say ‘Marxist-feminist dialectic’ – this is clearly something they’ve each given thought to: masturbation, victim blaming, accusations of ‘getting emotional’ and women turning on women, among other things.

Finding solidarity in shared experiences

is undoubtedly the driving principle of Ensler’s Monologues. As Egan puts it: “Everybody has their own definition of feminism and I believe the play reflects that.”

The intelligence, wit and emotional insight brought to each one of the monologues last year saw the actresses command the room in their own unique manner; so we just have to await the

changing representations of feminism that 2015 will bring to Ensler’s script.

You can catch The Vagina Monologues on March 9th in the Aula Maxima. Tickets cost €5 – €7 with all proceeds donated to the Cork Sexual Violence Centre.

Drug Republic Molly Forsythe catches up with Grace Dyas, director of TheatreClub creation Heroin.

Art & Lit

Early February saw TheatreClub storm stages across the country with a revival of their acclaimed play, Heroin. A play that makes a point of asking uncomfortable questions about a number of issues, including mental health and the economy, it also explores the current drugs crisis; an issue which is set to become ever more important as the consumption of hard drugs in Ireland is set to escalate over the coming years.

However, as a highly socially-conscious group, Grace Dyas notes that TheatreClub have always been “very mindful of the fact that theatre tends to be quite exclusive.”

“They were concerned about bringing young people to the show as they thought it might encourage drug use.”

Upon the realisation that “it was up to us to create diversity within the audience,” much like the diversity of those affected by the issues within the play, she launched the ‘Design the Audience’ initiative. After working out the project’s kinks in the Dublin area, TheatreClub then embarked on a national tour with performances in Galway, Cork, Waterford and Portlaoise.

Having premiered at the 2010 Dublin Fringe Festival, and subsequently winning the festival’s Spirit of the Fringe award, the seminal ‘Design the

Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Colm Furlong examines Ransom Riggs’ debut novel.

Ransom Riggs’ novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a spellbinding debut in the world of Young Adult literature. That being said, it does not remain stuck in the confines of this particular market, providing a read that will enthral people of all ages.

Having only previously published works of non-fiction (Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past and The Sherlock Holmes Handbook: The Methods and Mysteries of the World’s Greatest Detective), Riggs demonstrates his talent for fiction throughout the novel. In fact, Riggs provides an entirely different reading experience through his wonderful blend of the written word and found photos.

Audience’ concept seeks to expand the play into the community:

that the play’s reception in Cork was ‘amazing’.

“The first step was to profile who the play is relevant to and to ask why it was relevant to those groups,” Dyas explains. “Then we went out into the community, invited people in and let them know that they were welcome in the space.”

“The city of Cork supported the production more than any other city; there were about 500 people a night seeing it in the Everyman,” she adds.

“There was a lot of positivity from the organisations involved and the general feedback was that the play was the right thing at the right time.”

This process would be repeated in every town Heroin played in, including Cork: “I contacted the Cork City Partnership, some Garda Diversion Projects and I also connected with students from UCC.” Dyas remarks

However, some towns were not quite as enthusiastic about Heroin.

“I noticed that people tended to be more conservative outside of Dublin.

They were concerned about bringing young people to the show as they thought it might encourage drug use.”

Dyas argues that rather than promote drug use, Heroin’s objective is primarily educational: “The idea is to inform young people as much as possible and to let them make their own decisions.”

Heroin offers up an interesting model of the ways in which theatre can become more actively engaged with social issues, as well as all-importantly providing an original solution to the ever-present question of theatre’s lack of diversity.

The author tells his story of young Jacob Portman who, in the wake of a family tragedy, sets off to discover the secrets of his grandfather’s childhood. In the process he meets people who had a profound effect on his grandfather’s life and will go on to have a profound effect in Jacob’s own life. Jacob uncovers photos from his grandfather’s past; photos which Riggs provides the reader with, creating a whole new level of immersion in the world of the story.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children demonstrates Riggs’ flair for storytelling, as he weaves a tale together through subtle clues and hints, all the while building toward a larger conflict that will have drastic consequences for those involved. The novel’s final act is a page-turning tour de force with a masterful cliff-hanger that leaves readers begging for more. Fortunately, there is already a sequel, Hollow City, and a third novel is due to come out at the end of this year.

All in all, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar

Children is a stellar debut. Combining some of the classic tropes of the YA fiction with elements of sci-fi, Riggs is more than able to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable read for everyone. The evocative found photos add an unusual touch to the book and really en-

hance the reader’s experience. It really is no surprise the book has been picked up for a movie adaption which will directed by Tim Burton and set for release next year.

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Bressie: Facing the Blizzard In an incredibly frank interview, Robbie Byrne talks to Niall Breslin about a life with anxiety and depression, defeating J‘effery’, Catholicism in our society and a possible Blizzards reunion.

“The idea that a God can save you from depression is a bad, bad thing to me. Suicide – a Cardinal Sin? It’s a joke.”

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“It was a beautiful summer’s day, but the sun was switched off. Something had walked through me. I ran back to my apartment where I stayed for two nights. I felt safe – nobody could get me here.”

Songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, producer, professional rugby player, football captain, economics graduate - sex symbol. Depression and anxiety ignores our constructs, something Niall Breslin is acutely aware of. For almost two decades mental health issues plagued the Westmeath native’s every move, every choice, every single breakdown.

No light escaped the clutches of what he now calls Jeffery. But today is his day to claw back lost ground.

As it so often happens, Bressie’s journey with mental health grew from a single seed: Fear. His father, an army regular, was deployed to Israel while Breslin was in in his early teens. “The day we landed in Tel Aviv, Lebanon and Israel began to kick the shit out of each other,” he says. “I believe my journey with

anxiety began when I landed in Israel.

I remember thinking, ‘my parents must love me; they’ve dragged me to a wartorn country.’”

Bressie’s exposure to the conflict, though brief was irreparable. In the safety of Mullingar he would choke while trying to sleep. Duvets were ripped; hearts were broken. “My mother had this health encyclopedia. When I used to look it up I thought I had everything from appendicitis to asthma.”

But anxiety always took a backseat.

Having displayed incredible athleticism throughout secondary school, Breslin was awarded a sport’s scholarship for UCD. It was here that he experienced his first life changing anxiety attack: “I remember my first day at college. I was going up the steps into the Arts Faculty when 600 hundred people odd came rushing towards me. I ran to the nearest toilet and spent six hours in there. I was in complete panic. College was one of the loneliest times of my life when it really should have been the opposite.”

Hiding depression and anxiety was a skill long honed and, at 21, Leinster Rugby coaches offered Breslin a professional contract. “Physically I was at the top of my game. When I played sport I felt normal, but the minute I got into my car that profound pain would come back. I signed it but I was lying to myself.”

Three caps followed but anxiety tightened its grip. Desperate for an escape he self-induced concussion. “I sat at the edge of my bed and head-butted the wall as hard as I could, I wanted to rip the skin off my face,” says Breslin. “I retired from rugby stating that I had too many injuries. My injuries were mental – a wound that nobody could see.”

The following years witnessed the formation and disbanding of garagerock heroes The Blizzards, a move to London and a mentor role on The Voice of Ireland.

Bagging that role still surprises him. “I was an insomniac, so I was abusing

sleeping pills and alcohol. I saw drink as the lesser of two evils. I was experiencing things like horrific skin rashes, boils on my face, even my hair had started falling out – my depression had begun manifesting itself physically.”

“I retired from rugby stating that I had too many injuries.

My injuries were mental – a wound that nobody could see.”

While Bressie was deemed The Voice’s ‘go to good guy’, he was experiencing another crushing low; but one that forced him to turn a corner that he had walked away from as a teenager.

Three live shows ticked-by until

everything changed.

“The stage manager called me for the live cut but what he didn’t realise was that I was having the worst panic attack of my life,” Breslin recalls - visibly hurt in bringing the event to colour. “I got another knock, he said ‘come on, come on - come on!’ I picked myself up off the floor. My shirt was ripped, I had vomit in my shoe. I looked like a burnt welly, but I had to pretend I was ok.”

The time to pretend was over.

His anxiety was given a name, Jeffery.

Jeffery was forced to deal with cognitive behavioural therapy, midnight marathons, long distance cycles and a close shave with an in-heat seal – everything that he despised. Breslin labels it the ‘Forest Gump Technique’, before explaining: “Everything within my control I seem to have no control over. I figured that the reason I was having panic attacks was because my brain was in a pattern. It thought that I had to do it.”

Bressie makes no bones about not being a counsellor or a doctor – it’s his unique approach to deal with his own trauma.

Rather than telling people how to confront depression, he sees himself as an ambassador attempting to prove that there is nothing wrong in seeking help. “I’ve had people saying to me, ‘if you tell me to run I’ll fucking kill ya’ and I know there are people out there so acutely depressed that getting out of bed isn’t even possible.”

But does this narrative unearth some grave concerns about Irish society?

A firm nod follows. “Us Irish were blessed with amazing humour, but also cynicism. It’s toxic behaviour. We have to stop judging people for no reason, especially knowing the situation they’re in. You know what? I really wish depression had a physical presence.

“Shows like Celebrity Big Brother do not help. It’s disgusting and toxic behaviour that revolves around negative psychology. What the producers do is manipulate vulnerable people. Would they do the same to someone who had a physical disability? They’d be pulled out of their offices if that happened.”

While some may argue that our cynicism is a smoking gun from centuries of moral misguidance by the Catholic Church, Breslin believes Catholicism is Ireland’s emotional restraint.

“I’m not one for bashing the Church, but they really have done themselves no favours. They’ve shown no remorse for mental health issues. So yeah, they don’t help – they’re not the sole cause but people believing that a prayer will get rid of depression is far from ideal.

“The cool new PR Pope with the Twitter account has yet to bring up mental health issues. The idea that a God can save you from depression is a bad, bad thing to me. Suicide – a Cardinal Sin? It’s a joke.”

“College was one of the loneliest times of my life when it really should have been the opposite.”

It’s a DNA that twists and corrupts how we view mental illness. Even John Waters, whose views don’t always sit comfortably with Breslin, was a recent victim of sensationalist headline – guilty or otherwise – at the expense of the issue at hand.

With both Bressie and our music industry returning to health and a solo career all but deserted, is a Blizzards reunion on the cards? “I want to get back with The Blizzards,” says Breslin, drawing a sheepish grin. “I want to get back writing with them again. Some of the issues that might have crept up while we were in the band are now much clearer. By being completely honest with each other, we’ll come back a stronger and better force.

“We got together and talked about reuniting within the year. Right now we’re all up for it but if one of us changes our mind, it won’t happen.

If we do come back, we’ll be a

garage band again and just fucking jam out; that’s when we enjoyed it most. If its good, its good – if it’s not, it’s not.”

Two years ago in an Irish Examiner interview the then ‘hottest man in Ireland’ spoke about ‘being podgy’ as a kid, ‘burning out’ as a rugby player and ‘being saved’ by music. Confronting Jeffery is what has truly saved Bressie.

No longer hiding and no longer acting, it seems that that today’s mental health ambassador has finally turned that metaphorical corner ignored for too long.

As the crowds disperse around 10pm we get back to his first love, music. It’s a topic that perks up the now weary musician.

Once dispirited about a lack of innovation and the rise of piracy, Breslin firmly believes the tide is turning. “The fight with illegal downloading is gone.

It’s not something we’re trying to fight anymore. People used to say they BitTorrented albums because music was too expensive – it’s not, we just didn’t value it. Three coffees would buy an album. The money, time and sacrifice that goes into creating music should justify the cost.”

Artists are fighting back, perhaps the exemplar being Prince’s remark at this year’s Grammies. “I mean that’s a powerful statement,” says Breslin before getting sidetracked. “I still think there are brilliant people in the industry, Capitol Records have just brought on this guy whose ethos is development. That word is long gone in the music industry. Things are changing, it feels good.”

Despite releasing two albums in as many years, Breslin looks back at his solo career with cold aversion. “When The Blizzards broke up I thought that nothing was going to happen for a few years, so I put out two half-hearted singles. What do you know? They erupted.”

Despite putting everything into his recovery process, performing solo was far from enjoyable, something he blames firmly on the material at hand. “Most of the music I wrote for the album was created with other artists in mind, so I was performing songs that were only a shadow of myself.”

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Never Meet Your Heroes?

Music

Yes, it’s cliché, but it’s a tale that could only come from Hollywood.

In 1985, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were little more than a drug fuelled joke, one that captivated the fifteenyear-old John Frusciante. He moshed at every sweat soaked gig, saved for every album and practiced every riff fifteen hours a day, seven days a week.

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But unlike every other teenage fanatic whose fretwork never reverberates outside the confines of their poster-covered bedroom – death intervened. Hillel Slovak’s heroin overdose opened the door for Frusciante to audition for the dysfunctional band. Acceptance followed after extensive auctions, as did the band’s first gold record, a first world tour and the critically impeccable Blood Sugar Sex Magik. As the publicity juggernaut spiraled into increasingly moral sapping demands, Frusciante cracked: “Just tell them I’m Crazy.”

After seven years of idolisation, Frusciante had realised that his idols – his heroes eight years his senior – were far from perfect.

Midway through the band’s Japan tour, Frusciante dropped his guitar and took flight for his Hollywood mansion. He had quickly become the embodiment of his hero and predecessor Slovak.

Abusing drugs and increasingly hermetic, Frusciante’s drug issues became painfully apparent in an interview directly after his departure where he simply retorted to the offhand reporter, “I had 400 ghosts telling

As John Frusciante experiments with yet more electronica in his latest LP Trickfinger, Robbie Byrne examines the former Red Hot Chili Pepper’s most tumultuous period. me what to do.” The Red Hot Chili Peppers were not the band Frusciante loved; Frusciante was not the person he knew.

Depressed, unstable and now suffering from acute substance addiction, Frusciante abandoned songwriting to concentrate on painting. However it was drug addiction that would consume the guitarist’s already ghostly silhouette.

“Emerging from the coarse bubble of a crack pipe and the hiss of a four-track the most bewitching riff would emerge, an Eden amongst his demons” In 1993, then close friend, John Depp filmed Stuff, a short documentary that depicted the chaos and instability of Frusciante’s now hermetic life. Windows were smashed, walls were covered in graffiti and floors vanished under a layer of decaying food and used heroin needles.

Frusciante’s only interview from that period with Dutch music channel VPRO filmed the guitarist in a small downtown Los Angeles apartment.

Largely incoherent and under the grip of addiction, Frusciante attempted to explain why he hated playing with his idols: “I thought of them as huge stars but to them they weren’t famous yet… they wanted to be as big as Aerosmith. I

My Awesome Mix, Vol. XI

Bitch Falcon Boasting the best name in the business, rock outfit Bitch Falcon combine relentless reverb laden riffs with howling vocals, courtesy of Lizzie Fitzpatrick. Championed by Hot Press, Nialler9 and GoldenPlec for 2015 success, the band debuted at Cyprus Avenue on February 28th.

Before that, they gave Verge their very own Awesome Mix.

1. Jape –Breath of Life 2. Youth Code – Consuming Guilt 3. Participant – Plain Sight 4. Father John Misty – Hollywood Forever Cemetery 5. Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass 6. Thundercat – Them Changes 7. Ryan Adams – Gimme Somethin’ Good 8. Torche – Loose Men

wanted us to stay at the same level of popularity… I hated being told I was a rockstar.”

In the most unsettling part of the interview, Frusciante is questioned about his close friend and sometime songwriting partner River Phoenix who had just died as a result of an overdose – something Phoenix’s family blamed squarely at Frusciante. Clearly at unease, he replies: “I don’t think death is a big deal. I don’t care if I die right now; it doesn’t mean I’m selfdestructive.”

While under the grip of addiction, or what he called a period of “staying in touch with the beauty of the soul”, Frusciante released two records: 1994’s Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and 1997’s Smile From The Street You Hold. Released to fund now unrestrained drug consumption, both releases were erratic and muffled, though unnervingly beautiful. Emerging from the coarse bubble of a crack pipe and the hiss of a four-track the most bewitching riff would emerge, an Eden amongst

.

his demons A painful reminder of the guitarist’s squandered genius.

That year, an LA Times journalist reported that Frusciante was a mere “skeleton covered in thin skin” – the line between life and death had become too fine. In early 1997, Frusciante checked himself into Las Encinas Rehabilitation Clinic where he was diagnosed with potentially fatal skin and oral infections. After several operations and a lengthy cold turkey programme, Frusciante

was released. A fresh start was needed.

Hearing that their former guitarist was clean, Flea visited an invigorated Frusciante to join the band he once loved. He agreed and within twelve months the Red Hot Chili Peppers had crafted their seminal funkrock record, Californication. “I don’t need to take drugs... I don’t even consider doing them; they’re completely silly. Between my dedication to trying to be a better musician, eating healthy foods and doing yoga, I’m the happiest person in the world.”

Sia’s Mysterious Ways Claire Fox discusses Sia’s unconventional approach to the music industry and her shunning of media conventions.

Being a singer these days is far from simple. Tiresome touring commitments, crazy promotional campaigns, endless television appearances, incessant hounding by the press and the inescapable force that is social media all ensure that being a musician into something it shouldn’t be: a job – and a demanding one at that. Musical talents from Kurt Cobain to Britney Spears have buckled under this pressure, and that’s why Australian songstress Sia is shunning it all and putting music first.

dance-hit for French DJ, David Guetta, thanks to Sia’s explosive vocal skills displayed on the track. Not completely satisfied with being catapulted into the single and the public eye, Sia decided to approach the music industry and media in a different manner than she had ten years previously. She would play them at their own game – by not playing a game at all.

Non-music connoisseurs could be fooled into thinking that Australian singer-songwriter Sia is a new kid on the music industry block, but at age 39 and having released her debut album OnlySee in 1997, Sia is far from her assumed newcomer status. Poor record sales and little mainstream success categorised Sia’s early music career, leading to her abandoning live performance in 2009 in favour of writing for artists such as Rihanna and Beyoncé. Safe from the cold media glare, Sia could perfect her own songwriting technique and write songs out of sheer adoration of the craft.

In the last few months Sia’s unconventional attitude to all things conventional has come to the fore.

Well aware of the damage that media attention and crushing concert tours schedules can cause, Sia has made herself a stranger to us all. Appearing at the recent Grammy Awards wearing a white veil-like wig draped over her face and carrying out performances with her back to the audience are actions that have received both applauds and criticism from discerning music lovers.

While many claim that her abandoning of media constraints is admirable, others believe that it is all a cry for publicity and that she is letting her fans down in not providing them with tour dates and face-to face contact.

The musician’s bid to hide in the shadows of the music industry was futile, however, as two years later her song ‘Titanium’ became a worldwide

Yet with millions of YouTube views clocked up thanks to ‘Chandelier’ and ‘Elastic Heart’, Sia enthusiasts seem far from dissatisfied. Although the video

Album Review: Chasing Yesterday Eoghan Scott enjoys Noel Gallagher’s newest production.

Brilliant.

some people don’t seem to like that.

If I could just repeat that word a hundred or so times in a row for this review, I would.

Though the title of Chasing Yesterday suggests that Gallagher is in fact looking backwards, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Aside from the 23-yearold belter ‘Lock All The Doors’, the album is loaded with forward-thinking and strikingly innovative material that never feels too ‘try-hard’ or desperate across its 44-minute running time.

On Chasing Yesterday, Gallagher has genuinely moved out of his comfort zone, and for that alone he should be applauded. The fact that the album also plays host to his best collection of songs since Morning Glory (or even De�initely Maybe, one could argue) is simply a bonus.

Following the Oasis split, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds released their eponymous debut album in 2011 to widespread praise. What criticisms there were to be found focused on the somewhat safe material on the album.

Essentially, it was Noel Gallagher being Noel Gallagher; writing the kind of songs that Noel Gallagher writes. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind… but

Having firmly embraced sounds such as spacey keyboards and extended sax solos that, in all honesty, the Noel Gallagher of 1994 would have rejected, the 47-year-old Mancunian has well and truly matured and it certainly shows.

The aforementioned ‘Lock All The Doors’ harkens back to Oasis’s early 90s glory days and is one of many highlights on the album.

for ‘Elastic Heart’ has received its share of claims that there are elements of ‘perverse paedophilia’ in the relations between Sia’s side-kick Ziegler and actor Shia Le Boef, Sia affirms that the pair represent “two warring Sia selfstates.” Whatever the case, the world is

awaiting what Sia and Ziegler will do next. As Sia’s latest album 1000 Forms of Fear takes the charts by a storm, the singer remains as uncharted an enigma as ever.

Yet it’s when he leaves his comfort zone that the album really seems to take off. ‘The Right Stuff ’ is a jazzy mix of psychedelia and blues that features a female backing singer – it comes off as surprisingly sexy for a Noel Gallagher song. Yes, I said it – sexy.

‘Riverman’, inspired by a night out with Morrissey and Russell Brand, also proves to be the perfect opening track, subtly building itself towards an epic guitar solo midway through. The only shame here is that the album ends too soon. But what an ending the sixminute epic ‘Ballad of the Mighty I’ is.

Featuring Johnny Marr on guitar, the track is somewhat reminiscent of the excellent ‘AKA… What A Life!’ from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

It’s not De�initely Maybe, it’s not Morning Glory; and for many people, that’s just not good enough. However, despite his frequent critics, Chasing Yesterday does not see Noel Gallagher repeating himself. And it’s brilliant.

Rating: A+

Listen on

SPOTIFY

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2015 Game Plan

Gaming

Aoife Gleeson and Steve Barry discuss their top gaming picks for 2015.

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2015 is in full swing, with some notable games already having been released.

Some were hits (Evolve) and some were misses (The Order: 1886) but 2015 looks like it’s shaping up to be a great year. Given that this will be the third year on the market for the PS4 and the Xbox One, developers are really getting the hang of this not-so-new generation.

Here are thirteen of Verge’s most anticipated games of the coming year…

13 Tom Clancy’s The Division (TBA – PS4, Xbox One, Windows) Set in a United States recently ravaged by a weaponised virus, you play as a part of ‘The Division’, an elite tactical squad who, after the fall of the US government, are tasked with preventing the fall of society. Your squad is based in a post-pandemic New York where the majority of the population has just been wiped out. The Division’s world is dynamic and dangerous, as you fight to retain parts of the city against pockets of remaining gangs in an ever changing landscape, all while trying to figure out the source of the pandemic. The game’s ECHO system also allows you to see, in hologram, recent events around the city, allowing the game to tell the story of the fall of New York while rarely

switching to cut-scenes.

12 Just Cause 3 (TBA – PS4, Xbox One, Windows) Have you ever wanted to explore a 400 square-mile island, destroying each and every location as you go along? Have you ever wanted to destroy the regime of a brutal dictator who has taken over your home? Have you ever wanted to fly a massively over-powered compact plane into the upper atmosphere, jump on top of the cockpit and proceed to base jump down to the ground miles below? Yes? Just Cause 3 is your game then. It’s certainly ours.

11 The Rise of the Tomb Raider (Q4 – Xbox One, Xbox 360) Scepticism surrounded the Tomb Raider reboot a few years ago, due to cynicism inspired by a string of mediocre reboots. However Tomb Raider surprised with a refreshing update, renewing a series that had gone stale with a sympathetically repainted Lara Croft and a fantastic, varied gameplay system. The horror undertones of Lara’s

survival story also helped to set it apart from its action adventure peers, notably Uncharted. The Rise of the Tomb Raider will take place in Siberia, following Croft’s attempts to discover an ancient city. The sequel will be exclusively on Xbox platforms, unlike its cross platform predecessor.

10 Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. (May 15th – Nintendo 3DS) Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. may be the one game on this list that you may not have heard of, and you might be confused to the point that you wish you’d hadn’t.

The title is a Steampunk, turn-based strategy game where you play as a team of literary figures, including Tiger Lily from Peter Pan and the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, and then a few real life figures like Abraham Lincoln.

And what does this way-too-strange cast of characters do? Fight a race of aliens with wacky weapons ranging from an ‘unspeakable lure’ to a mechanical penguin bombs. Yup... This game is beyond weird, but that’s what makes it interesting.

9 Mirror’s Edge 2 (TBA – PS4, Xbox One, Windows) The original Mirror’s Edge (2008) was a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game. The first person parkour system was divisive; with some finding it clunky and others finding it refreshing (I’m firmly in that second camp). Mirror’s Edge created a clean, sterile dystopian world and then asked you to leap and slide off buildings to a pulsing soundtrack. Gaining momentum by stringing together perfectly timed moves, then sliding under a SWAT soldier, stealing his gun, knocking him out cold, then sprinting on without a beat was exhilarating. Although the chances of a sequel looked slim for a few years, Mirror’s Edge 2 is finally coming, hopefully gaining the larger audience that the first one deserved.

8 Star Wars: Battlefront (TBA – PS4, Xbox One, Windows) The games of the Battlefront series are lauded as the best Star Wars games available and deservedly so. Using DICE’s Frostbite 3 engine, while they say it is not being dealt with as a sequel

to the previous Battlefront 2, it will take inspiration from it; meaning that you’ll be trudging through snowy trenches on Hoth, shooting lasers at the Empire, Rebellion or the Separatists during the events of the Star Wars films. Now if that doesn’t sound appealing I don’t know what does.

7 The Legend of Zelda (TBA – Wii U)

LittleBigPlanet, it is not the prowess of the company that interests here – god knows they don’t have much – it’s the concept. Until Dawn sees you control a group of eight teenagers, in what is essentially a slasher flick; except you get to choose who lives and who dies. Except the correct choice is that Brett Dalton dies every time. Yes, because Agent Ward sucks.

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After the stumbling block of the Wii U’s console launch, which saw dismal sales and little to no games, Nintendo has been slowly, but surely, clawing its way back into the ring. The new Legend of Zelda game looks to be the next big step for the series, characterised by a massive, lush, open world for Link to explore. Nintendo also seems to be learning that graphics do matter to players, as this will be the first Legend of Zelda game produced with HD graphics. This could be the game to finally convince you to buy a Wii U (maybe). If their next announcement is Super Mario Galaxy 3, that’ll be my tipping point.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (May 22nd – PS4, Xbox One, Windows)

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Persona 5 (TBA – PS4, PS3)

Until Dawn (TBA – PS4) The utter failure that is The Order: 1886 makes everyone incredibly nervous for Sony’s other cinematic experience, Until Dawn. Developed by Supermassive Games, who have not worked on much other than ports of titles such as

The Witcher will eat up all your spare time. With an absolutely enormous, dynamic open world, described as ‘20% bigger than Skyrim’, and a slick looking combat system, this looks to be a great way to fill that dry summer release season. Following a fortunate trend of sequels on new consoles, playing the previous games is not necessary to enjoy this current iteration.

4 Ah Persona, we’ve missed you. After Persona 4: Golden released on PS Vita, enthusiasts have been itching for a new experience of playing a high-school teen possibly experiencing emotional trauma, with his inner- self manifesting itself in a demon-like creature known as a Persona. Yup, another weird game. In all honesty, though, the Persona series is

easily one of the most challenging and rewarding Japanese RPGs there is, and boasts incredibly complex and diverse characters. You are bound to find one character whose struggle you will relate to and that’s what makes, and what will make, Persona 5 a particularly special experience.

3 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (TBA – PS4) It’s been four years since Nathan Drake’s last adventure on a home console. In between, Naughty Dog released the incredible The Last of Us, a tour de force of storytelling and game design.

Taking this and the fantastic quality of the previous Uncharted games into account, this one is almost certain to be a winner. There have been questions surrounding the recent upheaval at Naughty Dog, involving many key employees leaving (including the creator of Uncharted, Amy Henning) and time will tell what effect this will have on the finished game. Trailers suggest a darker tone, which could be due to the creators of The Last of Us taking over the reins.

While I hope Uncharted retains the lighter Indiana Jones style of the previous games, we still eagerly anticipate this one, since we all know that Naughty Dog doesn’t make bad games.

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Batman: Arkham Knight (June 2nd – PS4, Xbox One, Windows)

Arkham Knight really doesn’t need much hyping. Cited as the finale to Rocksteady’s amazing Batman trilogy, the title sees Batman facing his biggest challenge yet. In the aftermath of the events of Arkham City, Scarecrow is bringing all of Batman’s foes together with one goal: to finally kill the Batman.

The Gotham City you will undoubtedly explore is five times the size of the previous game’s Arkham City, and while you will still be able to glide around as a man dressed as a bat would, the game’s biggest new mechanic is the Batmobile.

So you can look forward to driving in a hyper-mobile tank, ‘non-lethally subduing’ various thugs.

1 No Man’s Sky (TBA – PS4, Windows) No Man’s Sky has a lot of hype to live up to, since every trailer that has been shown seems to be more unbelievable than the last. The universe of No Man’s Sky inspires awe at first glance. You’ll hop in a spaceship to explore a vast, procedurally generated universe, which includes an infinite number of unique planets. Since No Man’s Sky is procedurally generated, you can conceivably never run out of new planets to mark as your new frontier. It sounds almost unbelievable but, if the game lives up to half of what it has promised, then it’s going to be a game changer.

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Fashion

B

eauty queen, diligent scholar and genuine. These are not three qualities that our fickle world would ordinarily place side by side but, then again, life at the moment for third year UCC Dentistry student Lisa Madden is far from the ordinary. Having been crowned Miss Universe Ireland last October and still fresh from her stint at the International finals in Miami, Madden admits that the competition was almost other-worldly.

“After the pharmacology book has been read, the make-up is slapped on!”

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With gruelling hours and often strained relations in the Miss Universe camp due to fierce levels of competition – other contestants even put gauze in the palette of their mouth to make eating solids difficult and avoid weight gains – Madden adds that the lack of shut eye and time to relax made the experience more difficult. Notwithstanding these difficulties, she takes great pride in having represented her country in such a prestigious competition.

“I was so surprised at having won Miss Universe Ireland, so to make it to the International contest was

Made in China Marita Moloney investigates the nature of high-end fashion and consumer habits in China.

March and April are earmarked by Mercedes-Benz China and Shanghai Fashion Weeks which will showcase the nation’s foremost talent in an event where a melange of fashions meet in presenting China’s finest sartorial offerings to the world. Although paling in comparison to the older and more illustrious famous-four Fashion Weeks, these two will curate the colossal country’s best designers. While Beijing and Shanghai compete to be titled China’s fashion capital, western retailers undergo their own battle in attempting to break into a market that is not easily cracked.

Model Student

Claire Fox speaks with UCC’s very own Miss Universe contestant, Lisa Madden – dentistry student by day and pageant queen by night. such an honour and I was delighted and still am. It was a completely different type of modelling to the type I had been involved in previously,” says the 22-year-old brunette, referring to her time on Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model in 2012, under the watchful eye of model and sometimes actress Elle Macpherson.

Having reached the final four in the reality TV show, performing a range of tasks from high-fashion shoots to dusting off her acting skills, Madden is acutely aware of how her time on the box shaped her, not only as a model, but as a young woman: “In both competitions, I met girls from different cultures and backgrounds.

Living with the girls in BINTM certainly prepared me well for the pageant life.”

Modelling was just something on Madden’s bucket list as a teenager – she was in fact scouted in Mahon Point Shopping Centre by an agent.

She is also a dedicated third year dentistry student, fully aware that modelling is not a reliable career path. In order to balance her hectic lifestyle of modelling and university duties, Madden follows a simple, yet effective mantra.

the slick pageantry life-style hasn’t slimmed down her sense of humour.

“My studies always come first, so after the pharmacology book has

“From my experience, the organisation expects the girls to have strong opinions and be very aware that they are representing women everywhere. It is vital to be well informed

been read, the make-up is slapped on!” laughs Madden, proving that Despite a penchant for luxury and ostentatious label-flaunting, brands like Burberry struggle to flourish, and online retailers such as Asos record millions in losses in sales from China. Even megaconglomerate LVMH, with a portfolio including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Fendi, who markets itself as a “worldleader in high quality products” has succumbed to uninspiring financial results there. So why is it that every high-end store outside of China is never without a plethora of shoppers from the world’s most inhabited country, ready to expend huge sums to attain the designer apparel du jour?

According to LVMH, a Louis Vuitton handbag can cost 30% more in Beijing than in Paris, and this is unsurprising considering import duties can go up to an astronomical 60%. Therefore affluent consumers must travel further afield to other Asian countries, Europe and the US, with the predominant aim of their trip being to acquire designer goods at a

Although always upbeat, one thing that irks Madden are the “ridiculous prejudices” against beauty pageants.

For her, Miss Universe is about empowerment, rather than disempowerment of women and has innumerable positive benefits for its contestants.

much lower cost than domestic prices.

Fortune Character Institute, a leading source of information on the wealthy in China, reported that 47% of the world’s luxury goods were purchased

by Chinese citizens in 2013.

There is no question that this land of rich heritage, overflowing with oriental panache, which consistently inspires designers is becoming progressively westernised. Despite this, China is not set to lose its population’s patrons entirely to beyond its borders. Reports indicate that $326 billion will be spent on clothing in China in 2018 and estimate that the Chinese fashion market will be worth $486 billion by that year.

Contemporary Chinese designers are gradually finding more welcoming embraces by buyers nationally, while internationally, designers such as Richard Wu and models like Liu Wen are receiving mainstream endorsement by the fashion pack.

on world affairs and how you can make a difference to improve the lives of women all over the world.

“People are entitled to their opinions and deserve to be respected.

At the end of the day I’m not always going to be everyone’s ‘cup of tea.’”

Although having returned to her studies in UCC, Madden is content to continue modelling as long as “the jobs keep coming.” Intelligent and optimistic in all of her answers, Madden is an inspiration to all students who have a dream to catch.

Eye of the Tiger Nicole Clinton explains how the Celtic Tiger devoured Irish fashion.

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Fashion

o be dramatic, the Celtic Tiger ruined our perception of style inspiration, leading to the extinction of fashion individualism.

From the strike of the millennium up to halfway through the recession, Irish people looked to superficial ‘celebrities’ to authorise their fashion sense. The tragedy here does not lie in the fact that people chose to copy a star’s style; citizens of the Western world had been doing that in a masterfully creative way since the sixties. The problem stems from the ‘stars’ that they were copying.

Those who lived through the 70s, 80s and 90s borrowed sartorial tips from famous people with a genuinely unique look, such as Joan Jett, David Bowie and the new romantic performers, Madonna and Gwen Stefani. The originality of these personalities’ looks resided in the idea, not only that they were showing us an image that the world had never seen before, but also that their image was intricately connected to their artistic work.

“The digital age and the group-think psyche that defined the Celtic Tiger standardised our style and supplied us with formulaic, inauthentic fashion icons.”

However, during the Celtic Tiger era, the fascination with innovative performers vanished and Ireland followed reality stars, socialites and the dreaded WAG, whose images could not be related to their work because they didn’t do anything except live their overindulgent lives for the tabloids. Cheryl Cole, Colleen Rooney, Paris Hilton, Heidi Montag and Kim Kardashian were worshipped for their bandage dresses, big handbags, tight jeans, vests and giant sunglasses.

Perhaps if one was to examine the psychological route of their popularity amongst Ireland’s noughties females, they would find that the glorification of reality stars rose from the narcissism that was infecting the population as people saw themselves as the stars of their own lives. Let us not forget that

the era in question ushered in the social media age, as the opportunity to almost competitively document our social lives gave everyone the false pretence that they were famous. They associated themselves with the likes of Hilton and Kardashian who made a living out of having their activities recorded by the media and therefore turned to them for style inspiration.

Hence, the digital age and the groupthink psyche that defined the Celtic Tiger standardised our style and supplied us with formulaic, inauthentic fashion icons.

The fashion habits that the Celtic Tiger endorsed destroyed our style logic. The newly acquired money gave people a crisis of how to spend their disposable income and how to look like they had excessive cash to spend. People who never had a glamorous thought began to confuse ownership of designer goods with style. Unfortunately, just because you are dressed head to toe in luxury brands does not make you fashionable because you cannot buy style. Rather, the High Street bargain hunter deserves more respect as they employ their own tastes to mix and match items to create their personalised look instead of supposing that a higher price will result in a superior sartorial aesthetic.

This nauseating creed spilled into other aspects of the conventional female image of the era also as ladies became obsessed with shrouding their natural appearance with artifice. The application of fake tan, fake eyelashes,

fake nails and fake hair became part of the ordinary girl’s night out preparation.

In fact, in some desperate cases, it was even part of their morning routine also. People were brainwashed with the notion that all these ‘enhancements’ would improve what they already had, for the sole reason that they could be purchased.

Regrettably, this ailment has been carried through to the present, continuing to affect a great proportion of society. Therefore Ireland’s economic boom had disastrous and long-lasting effects on our perception of good taste.

People were lured into a materialistic trap which taught them that they could effortlessly purchase a sense of style and that the more they paid, the more fashionable they would appear.

It could be claimed that the Irish fashion industry that grew out of the Celtic Tiger embodies everything that was wrong with the period. While the treatment of the industry in traditional fashion capitals like London, New York, Paris and Milan is innovative, reputable and influential, Ireland’s offering can be quite embarrassing. Legitimately talented Irish fashion professionals are lost in the ass-kissing, over- enthusiasm and cringe-worthy falseness of this country’s industry. Here, the fashion industry is more about celebrity culture and self-promotion than art or business.

To put it frankly, it needs a good injection of pretentious capitalism and artistic cynicism to catapult it out of the doldrums of frivolity and nepotism

15 V

and into alignment with its European counterparts. The majority of the media coverage of Irish fashion only adds to the catastrophe by choosing to portray it in a sensational, playful tone. Fashion abroad is select and cultured, yet the Irish industry is overtly concerned with catering to the masses who all wanted a piece of its action with their bulging wallets.

The sooner it learns that things produced solely for public consumption with little creative interest rarely turn out well, the better. Only then can the Irish begin to correct the dire damage that the boom era inflicted on our perception of fashion.