John Michael McDonagh Cancels His Attendance at the Haifa International Film Festival

zazafl

John Michael McDonagh has contacted the Cultural Boycott Officer of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Raymond Deane to say that he has pulled out of attending the screening of his film The Guard at the Haifa International Film Festival  “in view of the political situation”.

Although the film will still be screened, such victories are significant  and illustrative of how appearing at Israeli cultural events is becoming increasingly unattractive to artists, filmmakers etc as the BDS campaign goes from strength to strength.

I’m sure the PACBI, IPSC, DPAI calls, the Haifa International Film Festival:  A Call to Boycott Facebook page  and everyone’s great efforts, helped to persuade John Michael McDonagh that “the political situation” of apartheid is not something anyone should endorse.

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Stolen Phone Experience

Popular London Youtube star and blogger Sam4God had her phone stolen in Feb It can a nerve-wrecking exp for anyone . She ulises honesty throught this post.

Sam4God

Texting has become one of the most popular methods of communication in recent years. With the introduction of smart phones, it is not surprising that so many people are constantly texting or playing on them even when they are in the middle of doing other work. Almost everyone has a phone these days and they are not afraid to use them at any possible moment. But can being on your phone all the time have consequences?

It was a cold Monday afternoon, and as usual, I was in a lecture at The London School of Journalism, patiently waiting for it to end so I could go home. Normally, I take my time leaving after a lecture, often leaving the building with some of my fellow students. But that specific day, I had an important phone call meeting at 6pm and wanted to make sure I got home in time. The…

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Survivors….of a kind….

eamonntgardiner

Walter Reed Hospital Veterans from the Great War

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26170799

The First World War was as it’s name suggests, a titanic thing. It was so monumental both in terms of human sacrifice and geography, that sometimes we as a species fail to grasp a subtle truth. Not all those who war returned and not all those who returned really fully returned.

But many did.

And a good many led normal, happy lives after. A visiting academic recently gave a lecture in NUI Galway where she touched on the matter that not everyone who went to war returned suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. Now while this may be somewhat of an oversimplification of a wider phenomenon (the substitution of PTSD as a meta grouping for ALL forms of stress), there is an argument behind it.  While very few veterans of the conflict had positive memories of it, bad memories do not necessarily…

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Jack Taylor – Collection Two on DVD: FREE UK DELIVERY

Jack Taylor – Collection Two on DVD: FREE UK DELIVERY.

Sir Arnold Wesker F.R.S.L

 

Sir Arnold Wesker F.R.S.L. is considered one of the key figures in 20th Century drama and is the author of nearly 50 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, an autobiography, a book on journalism, a children’s book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 18 languages, and continue to be performed worldwide. 2006 celebrated his knighthood ‘for services to drama’. 2008 celebrated his 50th year as a playwright.

 

 

Arnold Wesker was born on 24 May 1932 in Stepney in the East End of London. His father was a Russian-Jewish tailor and his mother was of Hungarian-Jewish extraction. He spent most of the Second World War in London and in 1943 he went to Upton House Central School in Hackney. He left school in 1948, worked in various jobs including kitchen porter and pastry cook, and was conscripted into the Royal Air Force in 1950, an experience he later wrote about in his play Chips with Everything (1962). He began to write plays and received a bursary from the the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1958. He was Chairman of the British Centre of the International Theatre Institute between 1978 and 1982 and President of the International Playwright’s Committee between 1979 and 1983. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of East Anglia, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, and Denison University in Ohio. The three plays which make up the Wesker Trilogy (1960) – Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots and I’m Talking about Jerusalem – were first performed at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry between 1958 and 1960. The trilogy, which drew on Wesker’s working class Jewish background, was first performed in its entirety at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1960. The Kitchen (1961), first performed in 1959, similarly drew on his own direct experience and was revived by Stephen Daldry at the Royal Court in 1994. In 1961 Wesker played a leading role in the Committee of 100’s demonstrations against the use of nuclear weapons and, together with Bertrand Russell and others, was sentenced to a month in prison. He also became artistic director of Centre 42, a cultural movement for popularising the arts. Chips with Everything, a portrait of life in the RAF, opened at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, in 1962. Subsequent plays include Their Very Own and Golden City (1966), The Friends (1970), Caritas: A Play in Two Acts (1981), Wild Spring, as published in Wild Spring and Other Plays (1994) and Denial, first staged at the Bristol Old Vic. His book The Birth of Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel (1997) is an account of the unhappy production of his play Shylock (1980), (previously named The Merchant) on Broadway in 1977, when Zero Mostel died after the first performance. Arnold Wesker has written a number of collections of short stories including Love Letters on Blue Paper: Three Stories (1974) and The King’s Daughters (1998). He published As Much as I Dare: An Autobiography, a memoir covering the early part of his life, in 1994. He has also written screenplays: Lady Othello (an original) in 1982, and an adaptation of Doris Lessing’s novel The Diary of Jane Somers. His recent work includes Barabbas, a short playfor BBC television; Groupie, originally for radio, subsequently for stage; Longitude, a new play; and Grief, libretto for a one-woman opera. In 2005, his first novel, Honey, was published – taking off where his play Roots finishes, continuing the story of Beatie Bryant. His first collection of poetry, All Things Tire of Themselves, was published in 2008. Arnold Wesker is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in the Black Mountains of Wales and was knighted in 2006. 2008 celbrated his 50 years as a playwright with omnibus editions of genres of his works 🙂

#UKYAday – Take your pick

kirstyes

Today has been #UKYAday, a day organised by the wonderfully committed Lucy Powrie @LucytheReader over at Queen of Contemporary .
UKYA day is about promoting Young Adult literature by writers who were born in or now live in the UK. Lucy also runs @ProjectUKYA , hosts #ukyachat on twitter and has many many other fantastic ideas for continuing to promote UK Young Adult literature.

My blog post comes a little late in the day because I’ve spent the day reading a book cover to cover – what a perfect way to spend Easter Saturday. The UKYA book I chose to read, thanks to @YAyeahyeah and @kimmiebells was Trouble by Non Pratt. I adored it – glowing review to follow. 

The topic of my post today though is – Take your pick. 

One of the issues often with the label Young Adult is that it isn’t all that helpful as…

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What’s Been On My Mind This Week

Out and About in London

1. The shortlist for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced. I have read two of the six books (The Goldfinch and Burial Rites) and have two more on my huge to-be-read pile (The Lowland and Americanah). Hopefully I’ll get round to the other two (A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing and The Undertaking) before the year is over! It was also announced last week that Donna Tartt won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with The Goldfinch, so I’m sure the odds on her winning the Women’s Prize have shortened considerably since then.

2. Women’s Hour announced their Power List for 2014.

3. The author Sue Townsend died at the age of 68. I remember reading her books featuring Adrian Mole as well as listening to them as audiobooks, and they were probably one of my favourite series of novels when I…

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ISDA Nominations and Winners 2014

List of ISDA Nominations and Winners
Best Set Design:
NOMINEES
-Cody meadows & Kathlleen Greaver- 1984 (N.U.I.G)
-Molly O’Cathain- made up (TCD)
-Jonathan Shanahan, Katherine Murphy and Ciara Fleming- Bepo & Co (TCD)
Molly O’Cathain- life in our blood (TCD)

WINNER
Molly O’Cathain- life in our blood (TCD)
Best Sound Design:
NOMINEES
-Ronan Gallagher, Colm Mc Elligott, Hannah O’Reilly & Conor Kennedy Burke- CALLISTO 5 (N.U.I.G)
-Jonathan white- Bepo & co (TCD)
-Cameron Macaulay- life in our blood (TCD)
-Shona Dowling & Cathal Moroney- 39 Step s (UCD)

WINNER
Ronan Gallagher, Colm Mc Elligott, Hannah O’Reilly & Conor Kennedy Burke- CALLISTO 5 (N.U.I.G)
Best Lighting Design:
NOMINEES
-Dara Hoban- made up (TCD)
-Jonathan Shanahan- Bepo & Co (TCD)
-Jonathan Shanahan- Life in Our Blood (TCD)
-Jack scullion- Callisto 5 (N.U.I.G)

WINNER
Jonathan Shanahan- Bepo & Co (TCD)
Best Costume & Make Up Design:
NOMINEES
-Hannah o’Reilly & Joe power- Callisto 5 (N.U.I.G)
-Ellen Kirk- Bepo & Co (TCD)
-Eimear Sparks & Jonathan Shanahan- Made Up (TCD)
-Rosa Bowden, Kelley Gissane & Cathal Moroney- 39 steps (UCD)

WINNER
Ellen Kirk- Bepo & Co (TCD)
Best Supporting Actor:
NOMINEES
-Neil Delaney: Parsons- 1984 (N.U.I.G.)
-Joe Power: Damaris- Callisto 5 (N.U.I.G)
-Eamon McCarron: the player- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead (UCD)
-Joseph Gallagher: Polonius- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead (UCD)

WINNER
Joe Power: Damaris- Callisto 5 (N.U.I.G)
Best Supporting Actress:
NOMINEES
-Holly Hannaway: Dick- Clarence (QUB)
-Norma Howard: Girlene- Lonesome West (UCC)
-Aoife Corry: Miss Lucy- Sweet Bird of Youth (N.U.I.G)
-Hazel Doyle: Nonnie- Sweet Bird of Youth (N.U.I.G)

WINNER
Holly Hannaway: Dick- Clarence (QUB)
Best Actor:
NOMINEES
-Tadhg Dennehy: Typical- Goose Chase (UCC)
-Peter Corboy: Boris- Life in our Blood (TCD)
-Fionn Foley: Thomas- Life in our Blood (TCD)
-Jonathan Steneigger: Clown 1- 39 steps (UCD)

WINNER
Peter Corboy & Fionn Foley: Boris & Thomas
Life in our blood (TCD)
Best Actress:
NOMINEES
-Amy O’Brien: Rosie- Recall (UCD)
-Emer Heatley: Thursday- Bepo & co (TCD)
-Rosa Bowden: woman- 39 steps (UCD)
-Niamh Kavanagh: lovely- Goose Chase (UCC)

WINNER
Niamh Kavanagh: Lovely- Goose Chase (UCC)
Best New Writing:
NOMINEES
-Aoife Leonard- Made Up (TCD)
-Sadhbh Moriarty- Deepest Goldfish (UCC)
-Paul Testar- Life in our Blood (TCD)
-Laura Byrne- Recall (UCD)

WINNER
Paul Testar- Life in Our Blood (TCD)
Best Director
NOMINEES
-Cathal Moroney- 39 Steps (UCD)
-Katherine Murphy- Bepo & co (TCD)
-Chris Moran- 1984 (N.U.I.G)
-Paul Testar- Life in our Blood (TCD)

WINNER
Paul Testar- Life in our Blood (TCD)
Best Production:
NOMINEES
Bepo & Co (TCD)
Life in Our Blood (TCD)
39 Steps (UCD)
1984 (N.U.I.G)

WINNER
Life in our Blood (TCD)
Best Ensemble:
NOMINEES
-1984 (N.U.IG)
-Bepo & Co (TCD0
-39 Steps (UCD)
-Made Up (tcd)

WINNER
Bepo & Co (TCD)
Judge’s Discretionary Award
NOMINEES
-Innovative presentation- 1984 (N.U.I.G)
-10 green bottles song- Callisto 5 (N.U.I.G)
-Court reveal- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead (UCD)
-Best comedy- 39steps (UCD)

WINNER
Best comedy- 39steps (UCD)

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela was born in Langa Township, in Cape Town, South Africa. She
graduated from Fort Hare University, which Nelson Mandela and many of today’s leaders in
South Africa’s government also attended, under apartheid’s laws of separate education for
blacks and whites. She pursued graduate studies at Rhodes University, an apartheid-era
whites-only university where blacks had to obtain approval from the minister of education to
study for degrees not offered by universities designated for blacks. Pumla qualified as a
clinical psychologist and earned a doctoral degree from the University of Cape Town.
Pumla has been the recipient of many awards from leading institutions, including Harvard
University, the University of Southern California, UCLA, and the University of Michigan. She
was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Holy Cross College in 2002. Pumla has
taught for many years in the psychology department of the University of Transkei. She
served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shortly before coming to the United
States, in 1998, to take up a peace fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced
Research at Harvard. Between 1999 and 2001, she also taught at Brandeis, Wellesley, and
Tufts, and offered workshops for college and high school teachers in summer institutes run
by Facing History and Ourselves. Gobodo-Madikizela has also lectured extensively on issues
of forgiveness, apology, and remorse.
Gobodo-Madikizela is currently an associate professor of psychology at the University ofCape Town and an adjunct professor at the Unilever Ethics Centre of the University of Natal
in Pietermaritzburg. She also serves as a faculty affiliate in the Coexistence Program at the
Brandeis Ethics Center.Gobodo-Madikizela lives in Cape Town with her son.

Call for Papers: PSAI Annual Conference 2014

PSAI 2014

CALL FOR PAPERS

PSAI Annual Conference

Continuity and Change: Celebrating thirty years of the PSAI

Galway, 17- 19 October 2014

Hosted by School of Political Science & Sociology

National University of Ireland Galway

On the thirtieth anniversary of its founding, the PSAI returns to Galway, the site of its first annual conference in 1984. In this anniversary year we particularly welcome papers that address the conference theme of ‘Continuity and Change’ and deal with temporal aspects of the political; including processes, institutions or mechanisms of political change as well as forces for continuity.

In addition, paper and panel proposals are welcome in all areas of politics and international relations, and not just those with an Irish dimension. This can include (but is not confined to):

▪       Political theory and philosophy

▪       Political parties and elections

▪       Government, Governance, regulation and policy making

▪       Peace and conflict studies

▪       International Relations

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