Motley Magazine - Heritage - December 2024

VOLUME 17, ISSUE III

HOW TO DECIMATE A HERITAGE

FINN MANNING OF ‘CARDINALS’

INTERVIEWED BY ADRIAN QUINN

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE 4B MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

DOLORES O’RIORDAN

A FASHION ICON TO REMEMBER

the HERITAGE issue

DECEMBER 2024

T

he Oxford dictionary definition of heritage is “the history, traditions, and qualities that a country or society has had for many years and that are considered an important part of its character”. I think for Irish people in particular a major part of our genes is to always have this sense of pride for our heritage. Especially, when we move away from our homeland. I found this in particular for myself, when I left Ireland for 10 months to live in Boston. The friends I made on this study abroad experience were in majority Irish, also on exchange programs. On nights out we would gravitate towards other Irish people in the pub and instantly try to make connections through our aunt’s, cousin’s friend. It was like we were searching for this closeness to home 5000 km away.

What is in our heritage that makes us feel like this? As Irish people we take alot of pride in being Irish and being recognised for being Irish. We were only a free state for the last century, we did not always have this strong identity, being under the rule of the British Empire. Even going further back in our history, during the 19th century, Irish people were driven from their green lands due to a famine. Their only chance of living was to travel the same distance I travelled but in “coffin ships”. With so many of our people having to flee our land, did the people who travelled all those kilometres, 200 years ago, also cling to this idolised idea of their Homeland? Did they also try to hold onto their heritage as much as we do? Did they take pride in being Irish? Has this trait always been in Irish blood?

Once again, Irish people have to hold on to their heritage across the seas due to the rise in cost of living.

In the route the country is going, unfortunately,the fate that our ancestors had is also becoming a reality for so many young Irish adults today However, these young adults still hold Ireland in their hearts as they travel to sunny Oz, and show off their Irish heritage with pride. Realistically, we can expect to see 100 more Irish pubs pop up around the globe, a clear sign of Irish heritage in an area, due to the high influx of emigration.

In this Issue, we get a glimpse into different stories of heritage, through different pasts people have lived and how a person’s heritage is represented in today’s age. In our Features and Opinions Editor, Cian Walsh’s piece ‘Not Defined by Origin’, recounts a story of adoption and discovering your heritage. Contributing writer Dante Kunc discusses their past with accepting their Jewish heritage when they first moved to Ireland.

We also have an exclusive interview with up band member Finn Manning of the up and coming Cork band Cardinals, where he discusses Irish roots, withdrawing from SXSW along with other Irish bands, and the Irish language with our own Current Affairs Editor Adrian Quinn. Tess O’Regan our Entertainment Editor examines Irish stereotypes that are portrayed in the media with examples of Martin McDonagh’s movie The Banshees of Inisherin and Oasis.

Heritage is unique to each individual, but also a source to connect us with people. I hope you find some of these articles relatable and eye opening in a world where one’s heritage should be celebrated. I can only speak of my own Irish heritage and experience but there are so many different stories and perspectives to be told and we are glad that here at Motley we give a platform to share yours.

editor in-chief LISA AHERN

Lisa is coming back to Motley after studying abroad in Boston for a year. She is in her final year of BA English and is returning to her Rory Gilmore wannabe role as Editor in Chief.

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meet the

TEAM

Tiernán Ó Ruairc, Deputy Editor In Chief Tiernán Ó Ruairc is a final year history and politics student with an interest in current affairs, and is looking forward to another year at the Motley Magazine.

Adrian Quinn, Current Affairs Editor Adrian is a final year arts student studying History and Economics. He loves music, cooking and playing sudoku whilst tanning on Mediterranean beaches.

Kate O’Hanlon, Deputy Current Affairs Editor Kate O’Hanlon is a second year BA English student who loves to travel and go to concerts in her free time. She is also extremely interested in politics making her prefect for Current Affairs.

Tess O’Regan, Entertainment Editor Tess is returning to Motley this year while pursuing an MA in English Literature and Modernities. Always reading or watching something, Tess is particularly fond of the work of Cormac McCarthy, Hilary Mantel and Pat Barker, and will happily spend the rest of time rewatching The Wire.

Darren Keogh, Deputy Entertainment Editor Meet our mature student Darren Keogh who is the Deputy Entertainment Editor in his final year of BA Arts studying History and English. He loves music, films, books and trying to find the cheapest vinyls around now that he is a student again.

Cian Walsh, Features and Opinions Editor Cian Walsh is a third year History and Politics student. He wanted to get involved with Motley for the way it culminates a lot of the creative endeavours he has always had a passion for. Different avenues like poetry, short stories, opinions, etc. Besides that, he ’s also good at getting told he looks like any male actor with dark hair and sleepy complexions.

ISSUE THREE - DECEMBER 2024

Luca Oakman, Deputy Features and Opinions Editor Luca is a second year Arts student. One of their biggest passions is Ancient Greek Culture and Mythology. Stephen Fry’s books are some of their favourites. They have always loved reading and writing, hence they are excited to get started working for Motley as they one day want to pursue a career in publishing.

Stephen O Brien, Fashion Editor Stephen is in Final Year of BA English.

He is deeply interested in Pop Culture, including music, film, and fashion, and is even a member of the Pop Culture Society!

Sinead Sheridan, Deputy Fashion Editor Sinead Sheridan 2nd year English Student. Sinead has a huge interest in fashion along with photography. Writers Sinead looks up to are Anthony Bourdain and Hunter S. Thompson Ester de Alcantara, Graphic Designer Ester is a second-year International Law student with a passion for graphic design.

She loves books, movies, good music and Tom Hiddleston (mention him at your own risk). Will spend her free time making pizza and brigadeiro for her friends.

Brayden Spencer, Web Designer Brayden is a third year Digital Humanities and Information Technology student.

Brayden is the Web Designer for this year’s motley team. Brayden is a tech geek and also a huge cinema and TV nerd!

Joanne Ryan, Social Media Manager Joanne is a third year English and Politics student. She loves sport, coffee and film and she is looking forward to joining the Motley team as Social Media Manager

CONTRIBUTORS Richard Scriven Dante Kunc Gabriela Peñate López

INSIDE

CURRENT AFFAIRS HOW TO DECIMATE A HERITAGE: A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE 4B MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

P. 5

ENTERTAINMENT

FEATURES AND OPINIONS

FASHION

A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S ON IN CORK: DECEMBER

NATIONHOOD

CLADDAGH RINGS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IRISH ACCESSORY

P. 9

P. 17

P. 29

Sarah Elizabeth O’ConnorLia Daskalopoulos Adam Murphy

Motley welcomes letters from readers, emailed to motleyeditos@ucc.ie Motley is published by Motley Magazine, The Hub, UCC, Western Road, Cork. Printed by City Print Limited, Victoria Cross, Cork. Copyright 2024 Motley Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. All efforts have been made to ensure that details and pricing are correct at time of print. Motley magazine does not take responsibility for any errors incurred. This magazine can be recycled either in your green bin kerbside collection or at a local recycling point. Images provided by Unsplash.com, StockAdobe.com. Vectors provided by Vecteezy.com, StockAdobe.com and Freepik.com

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HOW TO DECIMATE A HERITAGE: T

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE 4B MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

his November Donald J. Trump was elected for a second non consecutive term, making him the first convicted felon in the Oval Office. His campaign largely centred around ‘Project 2025’ which proposed an expansion of presidential powers as well as the imposition of ultra conservative social morals and mores which would primarily affect women’s civil liberties. Approximately 45 million men from a shockingly wide range of ethnic and class groups, as well as a surprising number of young men, voted for Trump.

This choice by a significant number of American men has left the world in a state of shock, as liberal American women broadly feel betrayed by family, friends and neighbours because their own bodily autonomy is something that these Trump supporters are supposedly apathetic to. This is where the 4B movement comes in.

Originally founded in South Korea, the 4B movement began as a reactionary movement to the increasingly authoritarian pressure on young women to meet societal expectations, such as taking on domestic roles in marriage like housekeeping and motherhood, as well as a dramatic increase in intimate partner violence and hidden camera pornography. The “B” stands in lieu of the Korean word bi, which means “no” and reflects the movement’s four principles: bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbirth), biyeonae (no dating) and bisekseu (no sex). While this movement has been relatively popular in South Korea since 2019, it came to the forefront of the western imagination when a convicted felon was voted in over a well respected prosecutor on what some Americans believe to be the merit of racial and gender biases.

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Trump’s extensive and well documented history of misogyny makes it difficult to separate his supporters from the devastating effects of his policies. A lot of American feminists feared that a vote for Trump was a vote against the protection of women’s rights. This worry manifested itself nearly immediately on social media. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank focussed on extremism found a “4,600% increase in mentions of the terms ‘your body, my choice’ and ‘get back in the kitchen’ on X 24 hours after Trump was elected. Known misogynists like Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate provoked their followers to the point where men online were calling for the creation of “rape squads” to “keep women in line”, saying things like “you no longer have rights” in Trump’s America. While this is taking place online for now, how long until this sentiment seeps off of our keyboards and onto the streets?

In response to all of this, the 4B movement began to trend across most social media platforms, primarily TikTok and Instagram. At the time of writing this article, exactly 7 days after Trump’s election, the 4B movement hashtag has been attached to 24.8K videos on TikTok alone. The movement has brought attention to women’s growing discontent with the power imbalance within heterosexual relationships and their anger at the normalisation of online misogyny. ‘Manosphere entrepreneurs’ like Tate and Fuentes have been profiting off of feeding into young men’s resentment towards women for years. The internet provides easy access to malleable young minds and this election has shown us the effects of voting demographics who are allowing their ‘for you page’ to fill in their ballot paper.

As one woman (who chose to remain anonymous) said to Guardian reporters: “It’s heartbreaking to know that in this country you only matter if you’re a straight white man… It’s just devastating that we’re at this point. So I will not let another man touch me until I have my rights back”. The 4B movement, which in this case could be more aptly described as a reactionary movement, has been labelled misandrist or ‘man hating’. While these criticisms are valid, especially since the movement’s principles alienate men who don’t align themselves with the values of the far right, they ignore the actual danger faced by women if they engage in sexual relationships under Trump’s administration.

Multiple women have already been killed because they didn’t have access to medical care under the strict abortion laws that came into place when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Women like 18 year old Nevaeh Crain have died waiting in emergency rooms begging medical staff to “do something”. There are hundreds of stories circulating where women died from completely preventable complications because of the fear surrounding the consequences of performing reproductive health surgery or just the blatant stigma in American medical spaces.

However this movement does limit women to just their sexual power and ignores whatever political or economic sway they may have, which in its own way can be quite demeaning. Kami Rieck of the New York Times states that women would instead “be best served by rejecting unequal household duties, engaging in a consumer strike or boycotting discriminatory companies”. The 4B movement isn’t exactly a new concept, as sex strikes have taken place as far back as Ancient Greece and in the last century have been held in Liberia, Kenya, Colombia, the Philippines, Belgium and other countries. While they do garner a great deal of media coverage they often don’t do much more than that. The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee, who was an active proponent of and participant women’s protest movements wrote in her memoir that sex strikes “had little or no practical effect.” But could this incarnation of the 4B movement be different?

BY DEPUTY CURRENT AFFAIRS EDITOR KATE O’HANLON 6

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND PROTECTING WORLD HERITAGE

BY RICHARD SCRIVEN

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he International Criminal Court Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi case in 2016 was a landmark ruling as it was solely concerned with the destruction of cultural heritage as a war crime. It was a crucial international criminal law case that highlighted the importance of protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict. It recognised the devastating impact of such destruction on communities and their identity. While international attention is rightly focused on the human toll of on-going conflicts, there is concurrent irreparable harm to cultural treasures.

In 2012, Islamist groups took control of the city of Timbuktu in Mali. One of these groups, Ansar Dine, imposed a fundamentalist interpretation of Sharia law. Al-Mahdi, a local commander, intentionally led attacks against historic and religious monuments as they were deemed to be heretical. These attacks drew international condemnation as they included the destruction of nine mausoleums and a mosque that were part of Timbuktu’s UNESCO World Heritage site. The designation of World Heritage status recognises the outstanding universal value to humanity of a location.

Reflecting the serious nature of this transgression, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for al-Mahdi. He pled guilty to the crimes and he was sentenced to nine years imprisonment, which was later reduced to seven years on appeal. Also, a reparations order was made for members of the local community directly affected. His conviction and sentencing were seen as a significant step forward in the protection of cultural heritage during armed conflict.

The case is extremely significant for several reasons.

Firstly, it demonstrated that the destruction of cultural heritage can constitute a war crime. The case recognised the devastating impact of such destruction on communities and their identity.

CURRENT AFFAIRS

The judges emphasised this point when saying that ‘destroying the mausoleums, to which the people of Timbuktu had an emotional attachment, was a war activity aimed at breaking the soul of the people of Timbuktu’. As the offence involved the damage of World Heritage sites, it was also a loss to all humanity. There was, nonetheless, a caveat in the judgment, with the court acknowledging that although these were serious crimes, the target was property, which is a lesser crime than attacks on people.

Secondly, the case recognised the range of victims that were affected by the crime. It outlined three broad categories of victims: the residents of Timbuktu, the Malian people, and the people of the international community.

Although the loss of these structures was felt more locally, it was nonetheless an assault on cultural and spiritual artefacts that belonged to all humanity. The grant of reparations to people in Timbuktu is seen as an important development in acknowledging the impacts of cultural heritage crimes. Also, UNESCO separately coordinated the reconstruction of the mausoleums which were destroyed.

Finally, the case highlights the on-going destruction of heritage in armed conflicts. Prominent examples include the wide scale razing of ancient monuments by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as well as the alleged systematic targeting of Ukraine’s cultural and artistic sites by Russian forces. The wide scale destruction in Gaza has inevitably led to the erasure of Palestinian cultural properties. Although different from the loss of human life, the loss of heritage is a significant assault on the identity and dignity of a people. The Al-Mahdi case shows us that international legal bodies can hold individuals accountable for heritage crimes, however it is yet to be seen if his case was the beginning of a new form of justice or an exception.

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A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S ON IN CORK: DECEMBER ENTERTAINMENT

MUSIC

Cyprus Avenue -Pillow Queens – tickets €25 – 5th December -Swiftgeddon (Taylor Swift club night) – tickets €12 – 6th December -The Undertones – tickets €32 – 19th December -Live Forever (Oasis tribute band) – tickets €22.50 – 22nd December -Aslan – tickets €30 – 27th December -Abbaesque (ABBA tribute band) – tickets €20 – 30th December

FILM

Triskel Arts Centre – tickets €7.50 (before 5pm)/€10.50 (post 5pm) – Tobin Street -Sean Baker series (Tangerine and The Florida Project) – 5th December -Anora, dir. Sean Baker, Palme d’Or winner Cannes 2024 – 8th to 11th December -Selection of Christmas films (The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone, Gremlins, It’s A --Wonderful Life, Die Hard, Scrooged) – 14th to 22nd December The People’s Picturehouse - tickets from €5 –The Pav – last Wednesday of the month

OPEN MIC NIGHTS

The Underground Loft – The Liberty Bar - 3rd and 17th of December Litreacha – Nudes Bar – Last Sunday of the month

GAMES NIGHTS

Dungeons & Dragons MeetUp – The Courtyard of Sober Lane – Tuesdays and Wednesdays

ART

Lavit Gallery – Winter Exhibition – 1st November to 17th of January

SPORT

Rebel County Wrestling – The Pav – 6th December

PUBLICATIONS

Marvel Comics: Alien: Paradiso #1 – Out December 11th – €4.99 DC Comics: Two-Face #1 – Out December 4th- €4.99 DC Comics: MAD Magazine #41– €4.99

RECORDS:

Iron Maiden – Powerslave (Zoetrope picture disc LP) €35.00 John Williams – Home Alone OST (2 LP Red & Gold Vinyl) €34.00 Pixies – The Night The Zombies Came (Clear Base/ Red Smoky Vinyl) €35.00

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CHATTING HERITAGE WITH CORK MUSICIAN FINN MANNING OF ‘CARDINALS’ In November, I managed to sit down with musician Finn Manning - one fifth of the Cork based indie-rock group, Cardinals. Going from strength to strength, the band were preparing to go on tour in the UK, Europe and across the pond to the US this winter after the release of their self-titled EP in April this year.

With heritage as the theme of this month’s issue, we discussed all things Cork and Irish. We chatted about Finn’s influences as a musician, his grá for his heritage and impact that has on the band’s music and identity.

A

DRIAN QUINN: How did your surroundings and upbringing shape your musical identity?

FINN MANNING: Kinsale wouldn’t have been a particularly musical town when I was growing up there, but I was lucky enough to have some members of my family who were interested in music. My grand uncle was an accordion player and I suppose that’s probably where I first heard the accordion. That’s what made me want to kind of get into it and start playing accordion myself. My grandfather would also play the accordion. But Kinsale itself and its surrounding areas, particularly around the old head of Kinsale, where I was raised, would have had influence on how I viewed the world and how I viewed what was going on in my life growing up. The landscape, particularly where I’m from, would have really influenced how I thought about playing and how I thought about music. I always found it very beautiful and interesting - the sea, and the cliffs and the fields. I have a distinct memory as well of hearing the foghorn from the lighthouse on the old head every morning, and I suppose starting your day, every day, as a child with that kind of booming, droney kind of note, it’s something that really sticks with me in terms of sonic memories I have.

ENTERTAINMENT

ADRIAN QUINN: You’re an accordion player - how did you come from playing in sessions in pubs to playing the accordion in a band that plays rock?

FINN MANNING: Yeah, I’m an accordion player. I’m kind of a dab hand at a few instruments. I’d say a jack of all trades, a master of none. But the accordion would have been my first instrument and I would have played a lot in the Comhaltas in Ballinspittle.

And it was in Galway as well that I kind of first got my real interest in playing for audiences. I was a guitarist in a couple of rock bands. And I think being a guitarist influenced me a lot. I would like to take ideas from my guitar playing and translate it over to the accordion, and vice versa. And that’s probably how I dipped from playing more traditional music into kind of more rock music. I think mixing traditional music with contemporary music in Ireland is a very difficult thing to do and there’s a lot of people that try it. There’s a few artists who’ve done it and done it fantastically.

People like Shane McGowan, Sinead O’Connor, or even someone like John Francis Flynn today, shows that if done right, it can be absolutely fantastic, but definitely a hard thing to do.

ADRIAN QUINN: This year, you made the decision along with other Irish bands, to withdraw from the SXSW festival due to sponsorships by arms manufacturers with connections to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Do you think the decision by yourselves and the other Irish bands to withdraw, was motivated partly due to your Irish heritage?

FINN MANNING: Yeah, we pulled out of SXSW in March along with a score of other Irish bands. And it was massively influenced by our history and our heritage. You know, as struggling artists, we don’t have a lot of money and we were relying on a funding group to help us out financially for the trip. And when we kind of heard what was happening about sponsorship from the U.S. army and from arms manufacturers, we were worried that if we pulled out because we weren’t comfortable with these sponsors, that we’d have our funding pulled and we’d be at a huge financial loss. But, I think when we sat down with all of the other bands together, we all had the same worries, but we also were all saying the same things about what was happening in Palestine. And we were seeing how the situation over there mirrored some of our own history and how it cut quite deeply with us. Every single Irish act pulled out of the festival. I don’t think that there are any other countries that can say that.

ADRIAN QUINN: To finish up, is it correct to say that you have a strong appreciation for Irish culture?

Do you believe that there is a newfound appreciation for our heritage amongst young people and artists in Ireland?

FINN MANNING: Yeah, I’m a Gaelgoir and I’m a traditional Irish musician. I have a serious appreciation for Irish culture, many, many different aspects of it. I think it’s absolutely fascinating and it makes me very proud to be Irish. And I think there is a newfound appreciation for our heritage amongst young people in Ireland and artists as well. And we can see that in a kind of a traditional Irish music revival that seems to be going on. And these revivals have happened in the past. Like, there was the famous Gaelic revival and the various literary revivals. And I think we’re seeing a revival at the moment. I think we’re seeing a revival in the Irish language and I think we’re seeing a revival in music, traditional Irish melodies. And it’s great to see artists kind of jumping on board as well, and the artists are the people that are able to give the revival legs, I suppose, and make it run and really give it strength.

BY CURRENT AFFAIRS EDITOR ADRIAN QUINN

ADRIAN QUINN: How much of an impact do the connections - both to Cork and Ireland - have on yere music.

FINN MANNING: Yeah, we like to see ourselves really, as a Cork band. You know, I’m a very proud Irishman, and we’re all very proud to be Irish, but in many ways, you do kind of say that you’re from Cork first and you’re from Ireland second. I think that’s a real Cork thing. And Cork City, particularly, is a huge influence on our music. I think Irish music definitely has a huge influence on our music in terms of songwriting. My brother Euan is a songwriter, and he and I would have a lot of the same interest in writers and in musicians and, you know, a huge interest in heritage as well. And I think that the storytelling and folklore in Ireland has always been such a strong tradition, and that rubs into things like literature and Irish songs that I listen to. So it’s kind of what you hear, what my brother hears as the songwriter, that really kind of influences the art you create yourself.

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FONTAINES D.C,’S MUSICAL

HERITAGE

F

ontaines D.C., the critically acclaimed Irish postpunk band, draws heavily from a rich lyrical heritage steeped in literary and cultural traditions. Their lyrics are often poetic and introspective, reflecting influences from Ireland’s vibrant literary history, including poets, novelists, and storytellers. This article will discuss some key aspects of their musical heritage.

Dogrel, released in 2019 on Partisan Records, takes its name from “doggerel”, meaning poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme. This of course was a homage to the working class Irish poets, such as the ones the band look up to the most. Grian Chatten says that at the time they felt as a band: ‘disconnected from what was going on around them musically and in terms of poetry and stuff like that.’ And so the band passed around a ‘notebook and encouraged each other to write down a line or two.’ They released two collections of poetry; Vroom, which is inspired

by American Beat poets, and Wingding, inspired by Irish poets. The average listener of Dogrel will note that most songs are associated with their Irish heritage, literature and cultural emblems and indeed with living in a decaying city with gentrification on the rise. The band felt this needed to be documented and so they put their feelings down for the Irish people to react to, or not!

The band frequently references Dublin, much like James Joyce did in his works. Their lyrics capture the urban grit and charm of the city, painting vivid pictures of its streets, characters, and moods. At the time the album was written, some members of the band were living in the Liberties in Dublin. Their song “Liberty Belle” gives way to just some of the domestic issues that the lads saw around Dublin.

Grian’s “ready-steady violence” chorus was motivated, he told Uncut magazine, by his confrontation with “domestic violence, bloody noses, heroin addicts curled up in phone boxes,” on his daily commute to work and his only coping mechanism was to listen to his iPod. The boys are not shy about referencing their Irish lyrical heroes, with such songs as: “Boys in the Better Land”, and lyrics like: “With face like sin and a heart like a James Joyce Novel”, they bring one of their favorite writers into the song who they say they felt like while they were living in Dublin during this period, as if they were suffering the same sort of ‘entrapment’ as the character Leopold Bloom suffered in Ulysses. In this song it could be said that they are singing about getting out of Dublin eventually, as this influence can be heard in their stream-of-consciousness delivery and free-flowing verse, which molds well with the punkish energy of their music.

Aside from the lyrics of the songs, their album and singles artwork must get a mention. The cover for Dogrel has a well known Irish circus, Duffys on it and was taken in the 1960’s, which would be a common childhood memory for many Irish people. The singles that followed had popular Irish characters from around Dublin in the twentieth century. “Liberty Belle” has Thomas ‘Bang Bang’ Dudley on the cover and “Too real” has a popular character that used to go around lighting the lamps at Phoenix Park. This shows pride and honor, to have these Irish characters on their discography.

One could say that the history of Ireland has been handed down to these lads for musical use. Their sophomore album, A Hero’s Death, has The Dying Cú Chulainn statue (a nod to last month’s Motley crossword) on the cover which is often invoked by Irish nationalists. In fact the statue was adopted as a memorial to the 1916 Easter Rising, which took place in Dublin’s General Post Office. The statue was unveiled in 1935 by Eamonn de Valera and he described it as “symbolizing the dauntless courage and abiding constancy of our people.” The unveiling of the statue marks the beginning of the Irish Revolution and so it says a lot about the band, as we can see a clear vision of Irish heritage they are passing down to their fans when they put this statue on the cover of their album. Not only are they showing their love for Irish hero’s but also lamenting the fact that such Irish heroes as Cú Chulainn are embedded in the Irish psyche and have been in the past, as a part of the poem’s and stories of so many Irish writers’ like: Pádraig Pearse, W.B. Yeats and Samuel Beckett. This album cover proves that the Fontaines are proud of their Irish heritage and that they are willing to continue this tradition of Irish literature and nationalism through music. Themes of identity, nationalism and a relationship with Ireland show up in the song “I don’t belong”, and these are themes that resonated with Irish writers also such as W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney. Their poetic style often blends raw emotion with a lyrical depth reminiscent of Heaney and Yeats’ poems. This is a skill the band have produced as a recurring theme throughout their early career.

BY DEPUTY ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR DARREN KEOGH

ENTERTAINMENT

Their third album Skinty Fia was given an Irish title, translated as Bearla as ‘damnation of the dear’, which was a common saying Grian’s grandmother used and is rough slang for: ‘for f@*k sake’, which sits heavily in his memory of an older Ireland he knew as a child. One song to mention is the tune “I Love you”, which sounds like it could only have been written from abroad, looking back on their homeland, as there is both anger and love expressed at the same time. By now the band had moved to London, as their record label was based there. This is something that Thin Lizzy and many other Irish bands also did in the 70’s and 80’s to gain a wider audience, tour and produce more albums. Living in London and looking back on their beloved home, the band seem to reflect on Ireland’s socio-political history, its harsh atrocities and its catastrophic brutality. Grian tells NME that it is “the first overtly political song we’ve written”.

Their fourth album Romance just released this year, and received two nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance (for “Starbuster”). The references to Irish literature are minimal, the album is a big step away from their musical heritage. It is more influenced by dystopian futures, as the band are said to have watched Japanese manga and science fiction movies while on the road. Their image has changed also and it is something that I think many fans are trying to adapt to. With that said, there is no grudge against this new sound and look, but one might ask: have they lost their Irish musical heritage, or are they just having a short Romance with change. Only time will tell, but then again, as Grian says; “Never let a clock tell you what you got time for, it only goes around, goes around, goes around.”

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DIASPORA AND REPRESENTATION: MARTIN MCDONAGH, OASIS, AND IRELAND I

reland loves a diaspora success story. If there’s a rising star who has any connection, no matter how tenuous, to this island, they are sure to be claimed. “They’re Irish, you know,” a chorus of journalists, radio hosts and mothers will proclaim, pointing to an Irish parent, grandparent, surname, or distant aunt who lived here once for a summer. These “gatekeepers” of Irishness stand with the door ajar, doling out the céad míle fáiltes to anyone who’ll look twice at us. A familial connection isn’t even a necessity for these passports. In 2020, Matt Damon went for a swim in Dalkey carrying a SuperValu bag, and endeared himself to the entire island. Earlier this year, Ayo Edebiri became an honorary citizen when what began as a joke on Letterboxd ended with her thanking Ireland in her Emmy acceptance speech. This habit of adoption is by far one of the more wholesome aspects of Irish culture. In a time where xenophobic attitudes have gained unfathomable traction, it’s heartening to see such a liberal application of the word “Irish”, where anyone who wants to be Irish can be just that.

That’s not to say, of course, that the relationship between famous members of the diaspora and Ireland is alway straightforward. In 2022, Ireland was quick to celebrate the success of The Banshees of Inisherin. Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the film garnered numerous Oscar nominations, and was a hit not just here but in America too. In fact, it was Banshees that kickstarted Ireland’s love affair with Edebiri, after she “confessed” to playing the role of Jenny the Donkey in her Letterboxd review of the film. But despite its commercial success, Banshees was received with trepidation from many critics.

McDonagh’s parents hail from Sligo and Galway, and he describes himself as London-Irish. Born in England in 1970, and emerging as a playwright in the late 1990s, with titles such as The Cripple of Inishmaan (1996), McDonagh’s early work often revolves around the west of Ireland. As Patrick Lonergan notes in his book on McDonagh, it is the west ‘in particular [that] has been romanticised in art and literature and tied to notions of Irish identity.’ Banshees, originally written as a play during this early point of McDonagh’s career before being adapted for the screen, is a monster of such romanticisation.

ENTERTAINMENT

A clumsy metaphor for the Irish Civil War, the film traces the deterioration of a friendship on the Aran Islands, as battles rage on the mainland. Lonergan notes elsewhere in his book that the ‘fighting, drunken, religiously superstitious, slovenly, feckless but pleasantly humoured and good-natured Irish [is] a stereotype…propagated across different forms of popular culture.’ The characters of Banshees stagger around the island, more often than not finding themselves in the local pub, where they drink or talk or fight. They are flat caricatures, devoid of much interiority and all originality. McDonagh leans fully into the stereotypes, painting Ireland with the same colours its biographers always choose: alcoholic and melodramatic.

Yet there is a tension between irony and sincerity in McDonagh’s writing. His medium of choice is, afterall, comedy—a genre infamous for subversion. Could it be that, by employing them to such a heightened degree, McDonagh is poking fun at Irish stereotypes? Possibly. But an author’s intent is only the set up to a joke. It must stick the landing as well.

Depending on who you ask over here though, the Gallaghers are either completely one-hundred-percent our own, or Britpop messers that we want nothing to do with. This divisive reaction is characteristic of public reaction to Oasis, who came out of Manchester in the mid-nineties with uncompromising lad-ish behaviour that either endeared or outraged audiences.

News coverage of their reunion in late August is a great example of this. On the one hand, you had fans rejoicing in the fact that Cain and Abel finally decided to forgive and forget, after their turbulent split in 2009. Meanwhile, critics saw the reunion as nothing more than a cash-grab, scandalised as the brothers pulled a Taylor Swift on it, employing dynamic pricing for their 2025 tour on Ticketmaster.

What was once a working class band, which you could see for the price of a pint, was now charging a month’s rent for a show. Audiences felt betrayed. Irish journalists, especially, seemed eager to distance themselves from early reactions to the reunion, when they had interviewed old GAA coaches and extended Irish family members indiscriminately. No longer was the line: “Remember the ’95 gig at Slane? Or ’96 at the Point Theatre?” Instead, the main question in the Irish media became: “Do we really want to be associated with these hooligans?”

McDonagh might represent Irish stereotypes on the page, but, to the press, the Gallaghers are those stereotypes made flesh. After their shock rise to fame in 1994 and 1995, with back to back platinum selling albums Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, the brothers were torn to shreds by the tabloids. From leaked stories to completely fabricated fictions, the pair were painted as drunken, brawling idiots, with a bit of “champagne” sprinkled on top, to keep things current.

BY ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR TESS O’REGAN To be sure, Oasis were no angels. But you have to wonder, would the band’s publicity have been as negative if they weren’t working class and Mancunian-Irish? Their contemporaries and rivals, Blur, were seen as cheeky but clever; ironic upstarts, but not riotous. No one subtitled Damon Albarn’s accent on television.

As with everything in Britain, the reaction to Oasis boils down to classism, with a bit of anti-Irish sentiment thrown in for flavour. Nobody wants their culture to be represented at its worst—reduced to stereotypes for the purpose of eliciting laughs or selling more magazines. But that’s the thing: the negative images of Irishness the Gallaghers seem to put forward were shaped by press and audiences more than their behaviour alone. McDonagh, as a writer, holds the pen, and has more power over his reception. But his ink is blotted by Hollywood and drained of its irony. Neither the Gallagher brothers, nor McDonagh’s character, are what you would call “role models for good behaviour.”

But should they be? Oasis were (are!) a rock band. They are musicians, not diplomats. The same applies to McDonagh. For all three of them, good representation is not the order of the day, art is.

Heritage is a complex, malleable thing, but maybe that’s the beauty of it; in the uncertain spaces between ironic and sincere, Irish and not, the boundaries of national identity can be broken down, re-negotiated and interpreted. And through these deconstructed boundaries a living, breathing, ever-changing and open culture emerges.

Banshees was not a small production, made with an Irish audience in mind, where we could laugh at the people who laugh at us. It was screened globally, and that global audience was ultimately entertained at the west of Ireland’s expense. It’s a shame, especially considering other McDonagh films that succeed in lightly mocking both Ireland and its portrayal in international (read: USAmerican and British) media. Yet, despite the likes of In Bruges, it’s hard not to feel as if McDonagh has turned his Irishness into something to be exploited for inspiration.

McDonagh is far from the only famous member of the Irish diaspora that has a complicated relationship with Ireland.

Like McDonagh, Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis were born to Irish parents. Growing up, they spent their summers in Mayo, with their mother’s family. Paolo Hewitt’s book Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis, which follows the band during their 1996 tour, over-romanticises the band’s Irish Catholic roots to no end, but it does offer a detailed analysis of the brother’s connection to their heritage and its influence on their music.

16

NATIONHOOD

T

CATHOLIC GUILT IN EVERYDAY LIFE

BY DEPUTY EDITOR TIERNÁN BERHE Ó RUAIRC

here is something more to being part of a nation, a word that means first and foremost a people who share a government the word also describes people who share a history. If someone were to ask a question ‘what do you owe the nation?’ would you respond, ‘Nothing.’ because you were dissatisfied with the current government or do you look deeper at what makes the nation?

Surely our nation is more than the 174 Teachta Dála who attempt to govern the country day to day, surely the nation is our heritage and history, in which case we owe the nation a great deal.

Each one of us are of course a mixture of history and memory, and our history and identity with the nation is muddled and varied from individual to individual. In that regards are we all like earth worms burrowing through the soil, which represents our history and heritage, to find our own identity; in doing so we mix up what’s there to create new and better soil so that the next generation of individuals can ascertain ‘what do you owe the nation?’.

Some find their heritage in tales of epic warriors running through the Curragh plains in the summer training while others find it in steep cliffs and glens of Leitrim. These images are part of our connection with the nation (and the soil) and are part of why many are willing to die to protect such heritage and history. Dying for your nation is rarely, if ever, meant to mean dying for your local politician in their capacity as a Teachta Dála but rather you would claim to be doing it for something greater, often intangible concepts that stems from the village you grew up in, to the stories you were told as child.

FEATURES AND OPINIONS

The classic phrase ‘For God, King and Country’ personifies that need to devote oneself to something more; proclaiming one’s willingness not to die for the politicians but rather for God something which transcends all nations, King or nation who is so often seen as more than a mortal man but anointed by God and country where your kin and worldly possessions remain. The devotion to country most of all is important, country is our heritage and our history, its home to our nation and beliefs. It is our memories of greater things and hopes for better times that are grounded in said nation. The pride in the nation is the tense feeling you get when you see someone disrespect that heritage or miss represent your people, it’s the pent up rage and anger that has led countless men and woman to pledge their lives for not just a flag but travel to fields in the middle of nowhere so that their kin can enjoy the same privileges and perhaps even more.

What you owe the nation is more than just a thanks to the government for paying part of my tuition or funding public bus services, what I owe the nation is the upkeep of the memories which serve its existence. It is the stories that give meaning to the rocky outcrops and the vast green plains. One’s fidelity to nation is the same devotion that someone had to the nation that existed eight or nine hundred years ago, one’s fidelity is rarely to the government but to the soil beneath their feet, the air that we breath and the water which nourishes us.

BY EDITOR IN CHIEF LISA AHERN

W

hen I was eight, there was a tradition the day after your First Holy Communion, you dressed up in your little white gown, went to mass and got your Second Holy Communion.

However I was unable to take my Second Holy Communion the following day. I went to school the following week and it was a massive shock amongst my friends that I hadn’t had a Second Holy Communion yet. There was this feeling that I had done something wrong. A few weeks later I begged my mother to take me to mass, so I finally had my Second Holy Communion. The guilt eight year old me felt literally drove me to the church. That my friends, is Catholic Guilt.

What is Catholic Guilt you may ask? It is this feeling of culpability for not maintaining this standard Catholicism has set within our heads. Unfortunately growing up as Catholics, guilt plays a major part of our genes. It sticks to us from a very young age. Now I wouldn’t be a practising Catholic anymore, but still it is always in the back of my mind even if I try to ignore it, something there that makes me feel like there’s something I should be doing.

So I decided to ask the people in my life if they ever felt like they did small things, innocuous habits, that arose from being brought up Catholic. The most common one was blessing yourself when you passed a church, a graveyard and or when an ambulance passed. Another one is following the rules of lent, you may say it is for “health” reasons, but really the origin is from our Catholic upbringing.These are only habits, the guilt comes when you “forget” once and are flooded with this distaste for yourself. One of my friends told me that once she had chocolate on Good Friday and she was so overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, she felt like “sin” was written across her forehead.That exact feeling is instilled into our culture which is still stacked full of traditional catholic values.

Along with these habits Catholicism aids in this stigma of “what will other people think’. Another friend of mine reminisced to me her experience of when she chose to stop practising the Catholic faith. Still to appease her mother she went to mass but decided not to go up the altar for the Communion. In her mother’s eyes this act was seen as a major protest, and was mortified at the thought of everyone in the parish seeing her. Once again there is this over conscious feeling of not being a good enough Catholic.

The same guilt I felt when I was only eight years old.

When I was asking the people in my life about Catholic Guilt, I discovered one thing that I have from my Catholic upbringing. It is this need to get married within a church. I do not go to mass, so I obviously do not want to sit through it on my own wedding day. That is the main factor that turns me away from having my future wedding ceremony in a church. However, I just can’t shake the feeling that I “must” get married within a church or else I am breaking family tradition. That being said, no one in my family ever puts this pressure on me. It is my own mind and guilt that pushes this thought. My friend put it into perfect words when she described how she would not feel really married if it wasn’t done in a church. I think this is what crosses my mind. I was brought into a society where getting married in the church was the way, and I have this guilty conscience if I step out of the “norm” and don’t get married in a church.

There are so many different small things in life that have shaped the way we are and Catholic Guilt is a big one for many people in Ireland. It is this habit we cannot shake even if we have not stepped into a church in many years.

18

NOT DEFINED BY ORIGIN

“I

never held any animosity towards the situation.”

Those were the words uttered by the gentleman whose brain I picked going into this month’s theme of articles. Heritage. A concept defined by origin. He, however, is quite the opposite. This gentleman who will remain nameless told me his story about recently trying to get in contact with his birth mother after being adopted in 1970.

His is a story of understanding heritage and origin and the way it cannot be changed. Heritage in the sense of who his birth family were and still are, but heritage is maybe not all that matters. We can’t choose where we come from, or who we are born from, but maybe we don’t need to know in the end.

It was a snowballing curiosity he had maintained in the midst of The Birth Information and Tracing Act that had been put into place in July of 2022. The act submitted that “It confirms the right of a person to know their origins.

People who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration or born in a Mother and Baby or County Home Institution, will have clear and guaranteed access to information and records about their birth and early life,” as per the BITA Public Information Leaflet. By the time that the access to birth and early life information had been fully amended on October 3rd of 2022, this gentleman in question was in his early fifties with two kids of his own. Just over two years later, he’s been in contact with two out of his seven half-siblings.

His first thought however, was contacting his mother who also will remain nameless. There was only a record of her once he had received his document. The gentleman had found out that his mother was twenty-two when she had him and in fact that he had a half-sister sixteen months his elder. With this, came a lot of context to the situation.

It didn’t seem overly difficult to understand the challenges of being a woman in her early twenties now pregnant with a second child. Add the fact this was rural Ireland in the 1970s and it starts to make a lot of sense. But still, there was much to make sense of for this gentleman. There was much to understand, and to accept over the situation.

What I never asked him was what he would have said if he ever got to meet his birth mother. It seemed a step too far for the time I had to speak with him. The truth is I’ll never know and nor will he. His mother passed away a number of years ago.

FEATURES AND OPINIONS

BY FEATURES AND OPINION’S EDITOR CIAN WALSH

What he did say was that he never regretted being who he was–stating that “I can’t regret the things I never had. I never had any animosity towards the situation. And I never let it define me.” I couldn’t even begin to put to words how much I was moved by what he said. Me being the person I am, I wondered about the impact of seeing that woman’s face and hearing her voice would have had on this gentleman who never got to. I thought about his own two kids who would have seen a grandmother they never knew or his wife who would have the privilege of meeting another in-law twenty five years into their marriage. I wonder most of all how long it takes to call a stranger ‘Mam.’ How long would it have taken for her to no longer be a stranger or until she could see herself as his mother.

What I found the most beautiful part of this gentleman’s story besides receiving a text from his half-brother reading “Hey, I hear your my brother from the same mother!”, is that he never felt he needed to know any of that.

“I’m grateful for the parents I did have. Not regretful of the ones I didn’t.”

He then went on to discuss the fact that he wouldn’t have a single notion of where he would’ve ended up if not for his adopted parents. He understood the trajectory of his life was altered the moment they took him home. He told me there was never any reason to ask questions about a life he could’ve had when he was so in love with the life he ended up with. It’s bizarre the way we attach ourselves and our familial relationships to the phrase “blood is thicker than water,” when blood was out of the question to the people this gentleman would call his mother and father. They looked at adoption believing they couldn’t have kids themselves. It was as clear as day that they couldn’t conceive. A few years later, his mother was pregnant. As bizarre as the situation was, there is something beautiful knowing that they were ready to be parents no matter what. That they were ready to love and care as much as a child requires you to regardless of blood relation.

In my opinion and as I’ve found out sometimes the hard way in my own life, family is simply what you make of it.

Family can be an F word to some. It has been for me in some cases like I’m sure it has been for many people. We are all born into this world innocent and naive, they say.

We are blank canvases waiting to be painted by the virtues that those who bring us into this world carry. Is it strictly those who bring us into this world that can instill those virtues? I’d like to think that familial roles like mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are found anywhere. I, for instance, am one of the many men in this world burdened with having just one older sister. It’s brought me great levels of anxiety and guilt about who I am as a person but I don’t feel like getting into that right now. Jokes aside, despite lacking any blood related siblings besides her, I think I’ve found myself with many people in my life where the term ‘friend’ seems like an understatement. Family is a term that we, as a society put all this weight into and I ought to believe that its application can spread wider than what the typical definition allows.

I learned a lot about what family means to me from that gentleman. More than he could ever realize. He told me about this recent development in his life that would quite honestly, make shit of me if I were in his shoes. I know I’m too young to have an idea of what things like marriage and children do to one’s perspective on the rest of the world.

I unfortunately can’t even say for certain that I’ll ever see either of those things in my life. I’d like to think however, that the best traits in the families we make for ourselves are just as inherited as the traits in those with whom we share blood.

20

THE NANNY AND THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF GENERATIONAL TRAUMA

I

am 6 and sat in front of the TV with my mum. We are watching my favourite show, The Nanny, and Fran Fine says something to the effect of “Oh, that’s because I’m Jewish.” My mum turns to me and says “Oh, so are we, by the way.” And that was that. Most Jewish people grow up within the religion, or at least the culture, but I did not have that privilege. Even after World War 2 ended, being publicly Jewish was just about short of a death sentence, and besides, my family simply did not have enough resources to worry about trying to defy the Communist regime. I did not know any of this when my mum told me about our heritage, so I just said “cool” and that was that.

Fast forward, I was 14, and the boys at my school were pretending to be a weird amalgamation of Hitler and Stalin. The boy I had “dated” at 11 was there, playing along with the rest of them. This was the first time I truly understood that people did not take the past all that seriously. I do not think they actually meant anything by their strange play-pretend, maybe other than attempting to outdo each other with their edginess. And yet, I did not find their jokes and imitations of Nazis very funny. At that point, I was what people called a “social justice warrior,” so dark humour was very much lost on me at the best of times, but this one felt personal. My mum owned a large collection of books about the Holocaust, and though we rarely talked about our family’s past, it loomed over me with every breath I took.

At 19, I moved to Ireland, just as I finally started feeling connected to my Jewish identity. Ireland does not have a large Jewish population, so finding other Jews felt like the biggest blessing I could wish for. When I told people I was Jewish, most would just reply “oh, I have never met a Jew before.”

By Dante Kunc Suddenly, in the eyes of the people I spoke to, I became the spokesperson for all Jews. I could once again feel the weight of millennia of history on my shoulders.

Most Jewish holidays exist to commemorate the past, and most of that past is not particularly joyful. We have gone through a lot as a people – slavery, genocide, diaspora, to name a few – and so it makes sense that we want to honour those who came before us and fought for us to be able to live our lives in relative peace. And yet, it is hard to visit a single historical Jewish site and not see at least one part of the exhibit dedicated to the Holocaust. And again, it makes sense. We rarely focus on the good parts of history, on times of peace and plenty. Besides, most people know about Jews from the Holocaust and conspiracy theories. But, and I ask this carefully, with respect – is it too much to ask for one space that celebrates our lives, rather than commercialising our deaths? When will we be able to talk about the beauty of community, of the happiness that comes with getting together for Shabbat, without having to talk about the Nazis? We are here, now, alive, and we deserve to live on. The past is important, yes, but sometimes I fear that, in remembering, we forget to look forward.

When I was 6, I knew very little of our history and tradition.

But I knew the joy of watching The Nanny and relating to the main character’s relationship with her mum, I knew the joy of latkes and challah, I knew the joy of being alive. And I think that that’s the most important part of heritage – making sure that we do not let it stop us from building our own communities and making up our own traditions, whilst still honouring and remembering the past.

In TheBy Gabriela Modern World Peñate López W

hat will remain of our heritage in a world driven by profit? Where history and culture are sacrificed for economic gain? As cities transform under the pressures of capitalism, are we losing our roots and shared spaces to the demands of utility and production?

Various factors contribute to the rise and relentless expansion of utilitarianism as the dominant model for affordable living in modern society. In a globalised society that exploits resources as a constant means of production, usefulness translates into capital value. Is it worth my time?

Will it give me money? Without that currency, I could never afford to live, so why should anything else matter?

Where will heritage go if the land beneath our feet is not promised? This mindset, which rules entire governments, constructs hostile cities. It erases collective memory due to ‘monetary necessities’ that benefit only a few selective multimillionaire pockets.

What about the legacy of our ancestors? What about our roots— whatever they may be, wherever they come from?

What about their language—which is still embedded in our variation? What about historical buildings? Third spaces, originally meant to be gathering spots for community building and cultural traditions, even the foundations of local variants of language, are transformed. Local central markets, where the elderly once passed on oral tradition, are now co-working spaces run by digital nomads, whether locals or not. Historical buildings are bought by international tech companies or left to rot due to their lack of ‘monetary utility’ instead of being used by the people.

FEATURES AND OPINIONS PHOTOS BY GABRIELA PEÑATE LÓPEZ

PHOTOS BY GABRIELA PEÑATE LÓPEZ

As cities are devoured by western banks, locals have no other choice but to leave. An endless cycle. Low-cost flights. Cheaper indigenous or post-colonial destinations in comparison. The same questions once asked by those who left behind, are repeated again and again: is it useful to still speak our native language? You know it’s over when English as the lingua franca starts appearing on traffic signs. Yet, the fingers are not pointing to the actual perpetrators. Those accountable are never held up to the light.

This cycle seems to occupy every single space left in the modern world—wanted or not—through violence or passive aggression. But there are possible answers, all leading back to building community. Acts of resistance against the relentless force of production can take multiple necessary forms: reinvigorating our sense of community, fostering affordable public housing, creating communal gardens, and showing interpersonal care.

This answer gains importance as the utilitarian capitalist mindset has led to the defunding (and elimination) of many humanities programs in universities worldwide. Investigating the close understanding of the world we inhabit is not “useful” when the answer contradicts the utilitarian system. The expansion of artistic, creative, social, and scientific explanations of the current crisis are signs of social and communal resistance. On the other hand, the lack of worldwide governmental funding is a sign of systemic deterioration.

What kind of heritage will we recognize when there is nothing left to preserve? What heritage will we pass on in five years, given the many global changes since the 2000s—or even since the pandemic? Will we even be here five years from now?

22

EXPLORING CULTURAL HERITAGE INTERVIEWS Deputy Features and Opinions Editor Luca Oakman To explore some of the vast cultural heritage that is a part of the UCC school community, I interviewed four students from across the world and asked them various questions on their culture and traditions.

I interviewed Cătălin “Zenby” Luntrașu (CL), Vilma “Will” Autio (VA), Boris Leon Hoskins (BLH) and Francesca Seigel (FS).

LUCA: WHAT’S YOUR NAME AND WHERE ARE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY FROM? CL: My name is Cătălin Luntrașu. I’m from Romania, Sibiu specifically, in Transylvania. My mom is from the countryside, in the mountains. My dad is from Moldova.

VA: My name is Vilma or Will Autio and I’m from Finland, I’m from western Finland in a town called Parkano, both my parents are from the same area.

BLH: My name is Boris,I was born in Ireland but I moved to Slovakia. My dad is Irish and my mum is from Slovakia, she’s from a little village called Pokryváč.

FS: My name is Francesca Seigel, I’m from Hamden Connecticut in the US, both my parents are from there but my mom’s parents are from Transylvania. My dad’s parents are from New York, but their parents are Ashkenazi Jews from Lithuania.

FEATURES AND OPINIONS

LUCA: WHAT ARE SOME TRADITIONS FROM YOUR HOME? CL: For Easter, we boil eggs in coloured water, traditionally you would use beets and that dyed the eggs red. The religious idea of it is when Jesus died on the cross, a servant of Jesus put a basket of eggs under him and his blood dripped and dyed the eggs red. But we play a game, where everyone has an egg and we say ‘Hristos a înviat!’ which means ‘Jesus has resurrected’ and then you’d say ‘Adevărat a înviat!’, meaning ‘true, he did’. Then you’d hit each other’s egg together and whichever one cracks, loses. When I was little I had a wooden egg, a red one, and everyone pretended not to know. It’s fun for the kids and now I always do it for my cousins and they love it.

We have Mărțișor, the story is a girl went to a river to wash clothes in the winter and it was harsh and she didn’t think she could do it so she started crying.This prince came to her and he was basically an angel with white hair. She then touched the clothes and they were suddenly clean.

He then gave her this red flower and that’s the Mărțișor.

They’re little red and white bows that sometimes have charms. On the 1st of March every year, the boys would have a load of these to give out to the girls.

VA: We’ve got the Sauna, so it’s every building in Finland or every house, and some apartments have saunas. Some apartment buildings have communal saunas downstairs in the basement, basically you have access to a sauna wherever you live. People would go to a sauna once or twice a week, some people go every day.

BLH: Historically for Easter, boys would dress up in traditional costumes and run around the village with buckets of cold water, little whips made out of plastic, they’ll have perfume or cologne spray and they’d visit houses. They’d pour the cold water on the girls, whip them with the little stick and spray cologne at them. The girls have to give them back money, chocolates, or little decorated eggs.

FS: There’s not particularly many from the US, but this is a thing that is specifically a tri state area thing. The night before Halloween is Mischief Night. Where the local kids go around and cause mischief, they’ll throw eggs on things, TP houses and cover things in silly string

LUCA:DO YOU HAVE ANY EXAMPLES OF FOLKTALES, MYTHS, FAIRY TALES OR LEGENDS? CL: The Ielele, they are the fairies, they are ethereal female beings in the forest, they are known to dance around in circles. They lure young boys to the forest and kill them there so that they would stay young. It’s really dark but a really fun story. It was a warning not to go into the woods and if there was ever a fire in the forest it was said that it was the Ielele.

VA: We have a National Epic and it’s called Kalevala and it’s problematic because it’s known as the Great Finnish National Epic, but there is cultural appropriation tied to it.

Because a guy in the 1800’s went around Eastern Finland and took their traditional oral poetry and decided to change it from Karelian, and made it Finnish. So that’s where it all comes from, a lot of them are based around animals, nature gods and different elemental spirits.

BLH: It’s half folk legend, half true story, during the reign of the Habsburgs, there was a guy called Juraj Jánošík. Slovakia was a part of the Monarchy/Empire that was around at the time, and this guy adopts a Robin Hood persona from the town of Terchová, he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. He was real and is a national hero.

During Easter, there is Death Sunday. During this, they made a little figure of a lady out of straw and she was made to represent the goddess of death called Morena.

People would then walk around the town to ward her off and to ward off evil.

On the 13th of December, on St. Lucia’s day, the girls would dress up in white and put sheets over their heads. It was supposed to be that they go around and sweep away evil but it became more of a mischief day FS: There’s the legend of Sleepy Hollow, of the Headless Horseman. The legend is that if you see a guy riding a horse but the guy has no head, then it’s the Headless Horseman! None of the legends tend not to go into any more detail, that is kinda all there is to know about it.

LUCA: ARE THERE ANY TRADITIONAL SONGS, MUSIC OR DANCES WHERE YOU ARE FROM? CL: We do Hora, it is so cool, it happens at every wedding ever. It is so hard though,it gets really fast. [We] also have Manele, which is like Balkan music, which is associated more with dancing and culture. People won’t admit they like Manele but if it comes on at a party they will enjoy it.

VA: There’s the traditional folk dance called Tanhu. We’ve got instruments like fiddle, accordion, harmonica but we’ve got a traditional instrument called a Kantele. So in our epic poetry there is some singing and when it gets to a specific metre you’d use the Kantele.

BLH: We have a lot. Survival of Folklore is a big thing in Slovakia. Our national anthem comes from a folk lullaby, the melody is a lullaby and the chorus was written during the uprising when trying to get the language and country recognised.

FS: People do consider Sea Shanties, there a lot of New England Sea Shanties. Square dancing is also a thing a lot of people did in schools, especially for May Day.

24

HOW DOES HERITAGE AFFECT US

W

hen we talk about heritage, we talk about how important it is, how it lets you feel connected to your past and to people who share the same past. This is not the only aspect of the idea however, for as much as it brings people together, it can also separate them. Heritage can be a great driving force for a community as well as a tool used for oppression and conflict. Indeed, many conflicts both past and present boil down to this idea of heritage, in fact it is rare that a conflict would exist without some element of it in play. Heritage can be used to drive people apart, “othering” them and thus making it easier to see them as something less. The idea of a shared heritage is usually little more than a group of characteristics, and because these can be changed so easily by those in charge it can become a very potent weapon in the right, or wrong hands.

While heritage seems as real as anything else, it can be viewed as a set of arbitrary groupings, “imagined communities” of people who differ as much as they are similar. Being from rural Cork, my life is different in comparison to someone from Dublin city centre, but we both define ourselves as Irishmen. Is it really fair to group us together when we lead such opposing lives?

These imagined communities of people can be used to justify the control and oppression of others, in fact it was a mainstay of the colonial oppression strategy.

In Rwanda two tribes (the Tutsis and the Hutus, with the Tutsis making up about 15% of the population, Hutus 75%) were pitted against each other in order to be distracted from their common enemy, the Belgian empire. The Tutsi tribe were given preferential treatment in almost everything as the Belgians saw them as more “European” and therefore superior.

Each tribe was fed so much rhetoric about the other tribe that they no longer saw them as individuals but as a group of traitors, power-stealers etc. The result of this was the Rwandan genocide where an estimate of 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi tribe were killed because they were deemed as different to the Hutus.

They did this as they felt that the Hutu tribe was under threat after the president of the Hutu’s Tribe was shot down. These two groups were treated each other differently, simply because of their heritage. They became so wrapped up in this idea of “us versus them” that they became blind to the real perpetrators, the Belgians. In this way, it is clear that heritage can be a dangerous tool, especially in the hands of those in power, to divide people and prevent them from rising up together.

The truth of the matter is that as we scale up, we lose our individuality. Protestant people in Northern Ireland became “Dirty Unionist Oppressors” while Catholic people were “Terrorists” and “Car Bombers” specifically during the Troubles. These negative ideas become attached not towards the perpetrators but towards the group of people they happen to align with.

We refuse to let go of irrelevant details in favour of grouping people together, saving mental energy by viewing them as “other”.

FEATURES AND OPINIONS

SAVE OUR SAND DUNES

BY ADAM MURPHY Zadie Smith put it succinctly when she stated “stop worrying about your identity and concern yourself with the people you care about…you can’t live by slogans, dead ideas, clichés, or national flags. Finding an identity is easy. It’s the easy way out.” By aligning ourselves within a group rather than as an individual that is within a group, we cease having individuality and start becoming a statistic.

Globalisation has made us more connected and yet divided as we struggle to find ourselves amidst the billions of people. We feel lost in the crowd if we do not have a banner to fly under, yet by flying a banner we alienate others who are “not the same” as us. Things like social media do little to help this. Misinformation is rife online, making xenophobia absurdly easy to propagate, even if unintentional. These actions or minor quirks are taken as indicative of a whole group of people, for little reason other than their heritage. By ignoring these overarching groups and instead focusing on the individuals we can find connections with those we may have otherwise deemed too different to talk to.

As I mentioned earlier, the colonial tactic was to split groups up in order to control them more easily. They would split people into ethnic groups and give preferential treatment to one group, causing prejudice to be shone on the natives rather than the colonisers. This is a clear example of ethnicity being a source of conflict however is it really fair to call it the culprit? The Marxist view is that the bourgeoisie are using their power in the class war to keep the proletariat down, using ideas of ethnicity and heritage as an excuse for their greed and need for power. In this reading of things, heritage serves only as a tool to be used by the few to keep the many down. It is a sombre viewpoint, but I believe it to be an important one to consider. In the case of Rwanda it is absolutely what happened. Even in things such as World War Two, the antisemitism was used as a common enemy to unite the German people, so they would work unquestionably for the Nazi government and keep the blame away from those in power. The connection between class and heritage is a dangerous one, even more so because it goes unnoticed so often.

While of course heritage can be a force for good, especially for those entering a new country and looking to find some sort of grounding, the damage that these ideas have caused over the years is too much to ignore. It is unlikely that ideas of nationality or ethnicity will ever fully disappear, we are simply hardwired to find these things in others, but we can try and move away from this mindset. People exist outside of the labels we give them, and if by ignoring these labels we simultaneously remove a bludgeoning tool of higher powers then all the better for everyone.

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BY SARAH ELIZABETH O’CONNOR

hen it comes to heritage, Ireland is far from lacking. With traditional music, fairy forts and folklore stories, Irish cultural and natural heritage is in abundance. In the seaside town of Tramore (which I’m sure many readers will be familiar with as a popular summer holiday destination). One group has made it their mission to preserve the area’s natural heritage, Tramore Eco Group is a voluntary environmental organization dedicated to raising environmental awareness in Tramore. The group works tirelessly to protect the town’s natural heritage, hosting weekly litter-picking sessions on the beautiful beach, facilitating talks and workshops, and visiting schools to raise awareness of biodiversity.

One of the town’s biggest natural heritage features is the sand dunes, located behind the beach and in front of a tidal lagoon known as the back strand. Sand dunes are hills of sand, formed over many years by sand blowing inland from beaches. They are home to a wide variety of plant and animal life, and as such are treasures of biodiversity.

However, due to their coastal position, they are vulnerable to erosion, often caused when humans weaken the dunes by walking or running on them, by natural phenomena and worsened by climate change. Marram grass is often used to fight against erosion, as its roots bind the sand together, allowing a stable structure which can support more inblown sand.

The dunes in Tramore have been designated as a special area of conservation (SAC) under the European Habitats Directive, and play a vital role in protecting the town from coastal flooding, erosion, and strong winds during stormy weather. If you take a respectful stroll through the hilly landscape, you can find plants such as sea holly, native bluebells, and all-important pollinators like bees and butterflies, including the Large Carder Bee. Since its inception, Tramore Eco Group has championed initiatives to protect the dunes, including Marram grass planting workshops, and the creation of barriers from (natural) leftover Christmas trees, which trap sand blown by the wind to strengthen the dunes.

Currently, the group is at the beginning of a much-needed sand dune restoration project which seeks to fortify and restore the dunes to their natural glory, thanks to funding from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Community Foundation for Ireland, and support from Waterford City and County Council. As part of this project, in addition to continued Marram grass planting sessions to stabilize the sand, the group is placing eco-friendly straw bales in the areas most vulnerable to erosion. The first straw bales were put in place on Wednesday 6th November, with many community groups involved, including members of Tramore Tidy Towns, students from the local secondary school, staff from Waterford City and County Council, and members of the public.

In addition, the group hopes to erect signs near the dunes, providing information about the biodiversity found there, the importance of the area as a natural heritage site, and informing the public of the value of protecting such an important part of the town’s history. The group is also looking to provide further protection to the most vulnerable dune areas with chestnut fencing, in addition to the straw bales.

The importance of Tramore Eco Group’s work cannot be understated. As more of the natural world is lost to the pull of modernisation, it’s vital to take action to preserve our natural heritage, and it’s wonderful to see more and more measures being taken to protect such an important piece of historic cultural heritage

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HERITAGE TOURISM “What are you doing here? Go to Mykonos, have a cocktail and take some selfies for Instagram. Don’t come here, and don’t bring any more tourists here with you.”

An old man sat down next to me and my three friends in a small town in the Greek region of the Peloponnese, and told us this after a brief conversation. All of us grew up in Northern Europe, but our parents or grandparents are from the Peloponnese. Don’t tell me I don’t belong in the region when my surname is Daskalopoulos. At the same time, I barely speak any Greek, so how could I consider myself local? If you’ve got parents from different countries, you know the drill. Wherever you are, you are told that you’re the other ‘half’ of your heritage.

Heritage tourism around the globe has been growing significantly over the past few years, with the market size estimated at around 604 billion USD in 2024, according to Grand View Research. The growth can be attributed to rising interests in cultural preservation and travelers wanting to connect with history, traditions and cultural heritage.

Heritage tourism is defined as “the practice of traveling abroad to places of historical or cultural interest” by the Oxford dictionary, but many tourists see it as a way to piece together a cultural identity. A 2023 study by researchers in Fudan University showed that cultural heritage tourism to China directly strengthened a positive cultural identity among Chinese youth overseas.

This form of tourism is a key aspect of Ireland’s tourism industry, expressed in a 2013 speech by Redmond O’Donoghue, former chairman of Failte Ireland. “Yes, of course they will book a hotel when they are in Ireland, and they will eat and drink in our restaurants and bars. But these are not reasons people come to Ireland.

FEATURES AND OPINIONS

Our research shows that people come to Ireland with an expectation of connecting with different aspects of our heritage.” With almost 10% of the U.S. population being of Irish descent in a statistic published by Forbes, it makes sense that Americans are the second largest group of visitors to Ireland, according to Tourism Ireland.

A lot of people go on heritage journeys to reimagine their identity, whether it is Americans visiting Ireland to connect with their ancestral roots, Australians coming to the Netherlands to map out their family tree or young people from all over the world going on Birthright trips to Israel. Furthermore for being “one of the most effective propaganda campaigns on behalf of the Israeli government and its occupation of Palestinian territories” by Jewish Currents.

Everyone I’ve spoken to about visiting the land of their heritage says that they’ve learned more about their parents’ cultures and have been able to connect better with them.

I can relate to this, since my visits to Greece bring back a lot of childhood memories, deepen my connection with my family, and it’s nice being in a place where people know how to pronounce my surname.

For many, visiting their country of heritage can help them reconceptualize a sense of cultural identity, and bring comfort in knowing that there is a homeland where significant aspects of their identity stem from. It can also bring feelings of disorientation, since you don’t have the same sense of belonging to the place as those who were born there. However, a wise friend once told me that for people like us, home isn’t a place, but it’s the people you surround yourself with. Hearing that brought me a lot of comfort.

By Lia Daskalopoulos 28

CLADDAGH RINGS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IRISH ACCESSORY FASHION

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he Claddagh ring; born from the ‘Fede ring’ (faith) family that dates back to Ancient Rome, the Claddagh ring is distinct in its design of two hands holding a crowned heart. Its origin is often disputed, both popular stories ,however, relate to the Joyce family from Galway.

The first story, centered around Margaret Joyce, claims that after marrying the wealthy Spanish merchant, Domingo de Rona, and returning home once he passed, she used her inherited fortune to build bridges between Galway and Sligo. For her charity, an eagle dropped the original ring upon her lap.

The other, more well-known version, states that Richard Joyce, who had been captured by pirates and sold to a Moorish goldsmith, became trained in the craft. After a demand for release from King William III in 1689, Joyce returned home and brought the Claddagh ring to Galway. This tale is the generally accepted story, due to the lack of fantastical elements, and because the earliest traced rings bear his mark and initials ‘R.I’ (I and J, especially at the start of a word, had an interchangeable relationship up until the 18th century), though other goldsmiths of the time marked similar rings, like Thomas Meade from Kinsale, Co. Cork.

The name Claddagh refers to the ancient fishing village of Claddagh just outside the center of Galway City; Claddagh being an anglicized version of the Irish ‘cladach’, meaning ‘shore’. Claddagh, much like its ring, has a mysterious history also. The people of Claddagh are thought to have originated from ancient Celtic tribes, though may have Spanish origins. Claddagh itself has archaeological artifacts that date back to the Mesolithic period. The most fascinating aspect of Claddagh, however, was its traditional lifestyle being undisturbed by its proximity to Galway City, an area overtaken by the Normans in the invasion of 1169.

By Fashion Editor Stephen O Brien

The ring itself, though not being connected to Claddagh, was incredibly popular in the area. The ring earned the name, albeit unintentionally, in the 19th century through the writers Anna and Samuel Hall. Their multi-volume Ireland: It’s Scenery, Character, etc. was a study aimed for the English reader, and the ring (which they named ‘the Galway ring’) was mentioned during their description of Claddagh, an eccentric and idiosyncratic place for the English. The village became an oddity of note, with the ring becoming a symbol of both Claddagh and the romantic version of Ireland that sadly did not exist during the Great Famine. Thomas Crofton Croker, an antiquary from Cork during this time, was one of the Halls’ experts, with them using his Claddagh ring illustration; this illustration was reused by William Jones in 1870 for his book, Finger Ring Lore, where he labeled it ’The Claddagh Ring’.

The way the wearer displays the ring is important: The heart pointing outwards on the left hand means you are engaged, whilst on the right means single. Conversely, having the heart point inwards on the left means you are married, and the right means someone has ‘captured your heart’, so to say. The ring has been seen on countless figures throughout modern history; multiple US Presidents, after visits to Ireland, received and sported them; Clinton, Reagan and Kennedy. Walt Disney wore one after visiting Ireland, with his Partners Statue in Disney World also wearing one (though the ring was incorrectly placed; he was married, but his ring faced outwards).

Many famous Hollywood actors, like Maureen O’Hara, John Wayne, and Mia Farrow have worn Claddagh rings.

Even Angel, in the 90’s tv show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, gave Buffy one!

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DOLORES O’RIORDAN: A FASHION ICON TO REMEMBER Dolores stood out, not just through her voice, but also her sense of style. When discussing how it began to develop both personally and professionally, she recalls at the age of 14 that her style was derived from the music she listened to. Bands such as The Smiths, Depeche Mode and The Cure helped shape her. Through makeup, she recreated popular gothic looks which are still popular today. Her bold, yet timeless choices that she used in her makeup were also seen in her wardrobe, though she admitted to following many cult fashion trends; Doc Martens and studded belts became essentials in her wardrobe.

The transition to becoming a professional singer caused her to question her identity more profoundly. She exercised the fact that her individuality was important to her through her work as a musician and songwriter. In a 2001 interview with Fashion Zone, she stated, ‘I did not want to be some kind of a prop that people hang things on’. The want to separate herself from following trends became exceptionally clear as she explored her individuality through the medium of fashion.

In the early years of her career, she had a cropped bleach blonde pixie cut and a dark vampy lip, completely fulfilling the grunge aesthetic at the time.

Her clothing was incredibly masculine during this era, she self described her fashion choices as being ‘tomboy’ at the beginning of her career, although she favoured more masculine clothing as she often wore graphic tees, jeans, ties and shirts. She also experimented with her femininity by combining the two aesthetics in a single outfit.

She fronted the cover of a 1995 issue of Rolling Stone, exuding grunge with a future-like aesthetic. The black vest top was paired with a silver skirt and black pants, made from rubberized fabric, which emphasised her daringness in the fashion world.

Again and again, she proved how bold she can truly be through the medium of fashion. On July 18th 1994, she married Don Burton in an alluring wedding outfit that was far from the conventional wedding dress. Covered head to toe in white, she wore a velvet crop top, and intricately detailed lace tights paired perfectly with knee high boots.

A sheer veil with a pearl-like finish fell over the shoulders perfectly, being accessorised with an ethereal silver wreath of roses crowned on top of her iconic bleach blonde hair.

After a short break from music to focus on her family, Dolores’ style changed drastically as she embraced her femininity to its fullest. In a 2001 interview, she discussed the impact that motherhood had on her view of the female body, specifically the empowering nature of what women create. She was a fashion icon, whose impact on the future of fashion was incredibly substantial, and her influence can still be seen today.

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thunder of cheers rippled throughout the crowd as the very familiar opening of ‘Dreams’ blasted from the stage. The Cranberries performance at Woodstock 1994 highlighted a great peak in their career, in the same year their critically acclaimed album, No Need to Argue, was also released. All eyes were on the new Irish band as they continued to prove themselves again and again, hit after hit. The frontwoman, Dolores O’Riordan, commanded attention to herself through amazing vocals, creating a unique new sound within the music industry outside of Ireland. Dolores had a voice unlike any other, which she used to convey strong meaningful messages.

FASHION

BY DEPUTY EDITOR FASHION SINEAD SHERIDAN

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AN OLD WOMAN’S REFLECTIONS

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PHOTOGRAPHER SINEAD SHERIDAN @SINEAD__SHER MODELS STEPHEN O’BRIEN @STEEQHEN JULIE CUKIER @CUK.JULIE DIRECTOR STEPHEN O’BRIEN @STEEQHEN

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