#when in july 2024 in dublin

[tamurakafkaposts]

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

[queertranshappiness]

Here is this week's good queer and trans news (July 28th):

Tennessee will finally remove sex workers who have HIV from sex offender lists, after a lawsuit was settled in favour of sex workers, thank god (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/tennessee-put-sex-workers-on-sex-offender-registry-for-having-hiv-they-will-be-removed/)

Trans Pride Brighton and London have recorded their largest attendances ever, with ~40,000 people and 55,000 people respectively marching through the cities to celebrate and advocate for trans lives (@/gaystarnews, @/londontranspride on Instagram)

Michigan has banned the 'gay/trans panic' legal defence, making it the 20th state overall to do so (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer-signs-bill-banning-gay-or-trans-panic-defense/)

Queer Ass Folk, a live music night in Hastings highlighting queer songwriters and talent, has had a sold out first event, which is very good for queer culture (https://www.instagram.com/p/C9xdtgyCUwg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)

The first ever trans and gender diverse film festival in Ireland has been launched in Dublin, TITE (Trans Image, Trans Experiences), with submissions open from next month, and the festival itself scheduled for April next year (https://gcn.ie/trans-non-binary-film-festival-ireland/)

Hypersoft, a European queer dance music label and collective, has released their first ever charity compilation album, Soft Power Volume 1, with all proceeds going to trans charities TGEU and Mermaids (it's primarily a tech and progressive house album, and you can support it here: https://hypersoft.bandcamp.com/album/soft-power-vol-1-protect-trans-youth)

And a new HIV drug, when taken twice a year, has been shown to be highly effective at preventing infections in AFAB people in phase 3 trials, which is a good sign for a new treatment (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/trial-shows-that-shot-taken-twice-a-year-very-effective-at-preventing-hiv-in-women/)

(Credit to: LGBTQ Nation, @/gaystarnews and @/transpridelondon, @/notaphaseorg, GCN and Hypersoft themselves for these stories.)

[petermorwood]

This film came out in 1942, and yesterday (17 July 2024) in Dublin, an old, old gentleman celebrated his birthday.

Group Captain John "Paddy" Hemingway DFC...

...was born in Dublin in 1919 and joined the RAF in 1918 1938.

(Typo! Remember that post about proofreading before posting...? And it's already been reblogged a few times. Oops. Egg on face time.)

Now 105 years old, the only pilot still alive who flew in the Battle of Britain. he's the Last of the Few.

Distinguished Flying Cross;

1939-1945 Star with Battle of Britain clasp;

Air Crew Europe Star;

Italy Star;

War Medal 1939-1945 with Mentioned in Dispatches Oakleaf.

And when he's gone, a already-legendary part of history will finally become myth.

[swiftieinbrazil]

The Eras Tour fun fact: These were the songs that were literally performed for only ONE TIME, along with each city and date at The Eras Tour:

Have you been in one of these unique shows? (It's ordered by the dates)

2023

I Bet You Think About Me - Atlanta, GA (April 30)

Invisible - Foxborough, MA (May 20)

You All Over Me - Chicago, IL (June 3)

Breathe - Detroit, MI (June 10)

seven - Pittsburgh, PA (June 17)

I'm Only Me When I'm With You - Cincinnati, OH (June 30) 

When Emma Falls In Love - Kansas City, MO (July 7)

Picture To Burn - Denver, CO (July 14)

Back To December - Denver, CO (July 15)

Tied Together With A Smile - Seattle, WA (July 23)

The Very First Night - Buenos Aires, Argentina (Nov 9)

Stay Beautiful - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Nov 17)

Bigger Than The Whole Sky - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Nov 19)

ME! - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Nov 20)

So It Goes... - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Nov 20)

Innocent - São Paulo, Brazil (Nov 24)

Safe & Sound - São Paulo, Brazil (Nov 25)

2024

Electric Touch - Tokyo, Japan (Feb 8)

Eyes Open - Tokyo, Japan (Feb 8)

Superman - Tokyo, Japan (Feb 9)

The Outside - Tokyo, Japan (Feb 9)

Come In With The Rain - Tokyo, Japan (Feb 10)

peace - Sydney, Australia (Feb 24)

Foolish One - Singapore, SG (Mar 4)

Babe - Singapore, SG (Mar 7)

epiphany - Singapore, SG (Mar 9)

The Way I Loved You - Lisbon, Portugal (May 24)

I Look In People's Windows - Madrid, Spain (May 29)

Glitch - Lyon, France (June 3)

Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus - Lyon, France (June 3)

Crazier - Edinburgh, Scotland (June 8)

It's Nice To Have A Friend- Edinburgh, Scotland (Jun 9)

Carolina - Liverpool, England (June 15)

I Hate It Here - Cardiff, Wales (June 18)

thanK you aIMee - London, England (June 22)

hoax - Dublin, Ireland (June 28) 

Mary's Song - Amsterdam, Netherlands (July 6)

Sweeter Than Fiction- Amsterdam,Netherlands(July 6)

closure - Z��rich, Switzerland (July 10)

A Perfectly Good Heart - Zürich, Switzerland (July 10)

Robin - Zürich, Switzerland (July 10)

Superstar - Gelsenkirchen, Germany (July 17)

happiness - Hamburg, Germany (July 23)

We Were Happy - Hamburg, Germany (July 23)

Run - Hamburg, Germany (July 24)

Don't You - Munich, Germany (July 28)

London Boy - London, England (Aug 16)

Change - London, England (Aug 19)

So Long, London - London, England (Aug 20)

Cassandra - Toronto, Canada (Nov 22)

[leopardom]

because it’s gonna be 12 months from the start of this fandom (kinda mostly here anyway), would you like to give me a fav moment from every month so far (can be fandom related, can be only jo related)? if that’s something you’re in the mood rn 🩷

absolutely 🤩

welcome to the ✨Joker Out Chronicles (May 2023 - March 2024)✨ as viewed by user leopardom

this is gonna be a list of fav moments from every month so far and since i couldn't choose, it's gonna be both band related and fandom related

this is gonna be long so more under the cut

May 2023

band: the whole eurovision journey from befriending all the contestants to Bojan's date and eventual engagement with Käärijä to the band giving condoms to everyone and their mom to the rehearsals to the iconic turqoise carpet to the Käärijä sauna to the voting promo to the qualification to the finals to Bojan licking the camera and to Joker Out becoming pretty much esc legends despite finishing 21st in the final. the beginning of everything, absolutely chaotic but i wouldn't imagine it any other way

fandom: the formation this sounds cliche yes but i was here since April 2023 and it was... very silent. the non-esc related jo stuff were limited and people were still discovering them so yeah i was sitting here hoping that after esc people would stick around so we can scream together about the band as a band and not only as esc contestants. and thankfully people did that and here we are now 🥹

June 2023

band: first international gigs the gigs in Dublin are one thing but then came the announcements of the Nordic tour, the Warsaw gigs, the headline gigs in Novi Sad and Zagreb... honourable mention to Stožice going sold out

fandom: Tavastia 1.0 there's absolutely no way i will even forget how the jo, ka and esc fandoms had a collective meltdown when Bojan casually showed up in Helsinki and then joined Käärijä on stage on both his Tavastia gigs (mind you both as a singer and as a dancer lmao). no wonder why this moment still has a chokehold on all of us. 9th of June 2023, you will always be famous

July 2023

band: the appearance of Demoni scream i know that festivals and the first UK run were important and gave us some iconic moments too (like some slay outfits and Jan's sparklative confusion), but the damn Demoni scream is so dear to me it kinda tops it all. it's so good to see how Bojan embraced it after that first time (2/7/23 in Škofja Loka) and now there can't be Demoni without the scream/growl/whatever you wanna call it

fandom: the Jance wedding on stage iirc the Jance brainrot had started spawning before 29/7 but that Saturday night was the cherry on top. so glad we got to experience this live as well since there was a livestream going on that night and we saw Jan putting the veil on Nace himself <3

August 2023

band: the Koper gig i wasn't even there okay but judging from the content and people's comments on it, it was probably one of the most iconic jo gigs. also my favourite jo video in existence is coming from that night (here) side note: i've been to Slovenia once in my life, 11 years ago, and funnily enough we were staying in Koper and i recognised the place they had the concert. anyway, visit Slovenia and Koper, it's a very nice small seaside town and it's worth the visit <3

fandom: the collective screaming about things to be completely honest i don't remember much from that month in terms of fandom, but i kinda remember how most of us had started diving into the band's past more and more and “new” old content was posted almost every day. videos, photos, gifs, interviews, the amazing @jokeroutsubs translating more old content...

September 2023

band: Nordic tour i won't even start talking about this because you'll never hear the end of it. we all know what the Nordic tour was. even the release of SSOL, the first single after esc, can't top this whole thing, sorry

fandom: google drive content and *shocked gasp* Nordic tour another collective meltdown for the fandom. first being bombarder with backstage videos on a damn google drive folder (that ended up being a frequent occurence in the following months) to the whole run of the Nordic tour. do i need to say more? i feel like i can't. only this: Nordic tour, you will always be famous

October 2023

band: Stožice not much to say here either. they sold out a whole arena months prior to the actual concert date. it was their moment. a milestone (probably their biggest to date). and it was amazing to witness this in any possible way, whether it was by attending the concert or watching an ig livestream or keeping track of the photos and videos of that night

fandom: Stožice and Halloween outfits the chokehold both the Stožice and the Halloween (aka pilots and flight attendands) outfits had on the whole fandom... also love how we collectively agreed that Kris' Stožice outfit was his version of Princess Diana's revenge dress and how the Halloween outfits sent the fandom into a spiral in means of creations (fanart, fanfics etc)

November 2023

band: the whole touring well they did have a number of gigs during November and they seemed to be having so much fun 🥰 so much that at the end of November they announced their first proper european tour

fandom: collective screaming about things once again i mean all the gigs were feeding us well. the outfits alternating or not, Jance/Bokris moments, Bonace getting more spotlight (Bojan was and still is going through something during Demoni and Ona like wtf was he doing to Nace was it the serbian lyrics waking up something wild in him 😭😭😭). there was a lot going on back in November… honourable mentions: this Bokris moment, cvjetits (x x) and Kris riding Jure

December 2023

band: the whole Munich experience there's a good chance jo don't remember their whole stay in Munich for the first time as one of the best ones ever, especially if they think about the 1,5k euro taxi they paid as part of making it to The Hague in time for the next gig. but if anything, i feel like this captures their whole vibe as a band; ✨purely chaotic✨

fandom: european tour vlog and Bojan with the bi flag we waited for a long time for a Nordic tour vlog. maybe we didn't get it as an individual video but even as part of the whole tour vlog it was great and definitely worth the wait. also it was a great xmas gift let's be real 😌 now Bojan with the bi flag was probably not a very huge fandom moment and my bi ass may be biased here (this rhymed lol), but seeing him wrap himself with the bi flag followed by that speech before Barve Oceana in Barcelona will always be such a precious moment to me and i'll cherish it forever 💖 note: when i saw them last month in Munich i immediately started crying when i heard the first notes of Barve Oceana live; not only because i love the song and i finally heard it live, but also because i instantly thought of that moment of Bojan with the bi flag and the speech)

January 2024

band: Joker Out cooking livestreams London era my beloved (i never thought i'd say this about a city in the UK out of all places). their whole stay in London was an Experience both for the band and the fandom but well they got their chance to show the world they can cook besides playing music and they did. now let's not get into the kind of cooking they did, but the livestreams were very entertaining and bless them for doing them 😅

fandom: death by Damon Baker's photos yeah no i don't think i need to say more here, i'm still not over those photoshoots and i still can't quite believe they actually happened. like?????????? jo???? photographed individually or not by Damon fucking Baker???? ugh 😫 on that note i want to add that i loved and still love how those photos sparked the creativity in this fandom. from analyses of each photo to fanfics to fanart to creating anything in general. one of my favourite moments of the fandom <3

February 2024

band: release of Everybody's Waiting the whole road to the release of this single was Something with the band continuing the usual shenanigans and with Damon still releasing unseen photos of them. the release of it may have gotten us divided because of its language or the path they chose to take music-wise (it's not everyone's cup of tea and that's more than fine), but personally i like this for them. it's different, it showed a different side of them which they wanted to explored; they got a chances to do it and they did it. and you know what? it's so good live

fandom: death by Damon Baker's photos, Jure edition this could be merged with my fave fandom moment of January 2024 but this one is special because we just saw another Jure like WTF WAS THAT 😭 anyway i loved how we all kind of lost it when his photos dropped note: the moment Damon posted Jure's photos i was on my way to meet my friends in Dresden of all places and i was so shocked by what i saw i almost ran into a lighting column on the street 💀💀💀

March 2024

band: Jan and Bojan playing the piano at every gig of the tour i could've said the whole tour is my favourite thing from this March and it's not like it's not, this is a big moment for the band. it's just that once again i'm a bit biased here. many people, my pianist ass included, wished there would be a piano or some keyboard on stage during the tour because come on if Jan plays the keys for Everybody's Waiting studio version then why not do it live too? and you know what's better? not only there was a piano on stage for the whole tour, but not only Jan but also Bojan played it. however, Bojan playing it for Everybody's Waiting and Jan playing it for Padam, Metulji and the cases where they had special guests (like in Estonia with Alika, Lithuania with Monika and Belgium with Gustaph)... those were not on my bingo card and they were the most pleasant surprise ever 😌

fandom: meeting each other at the gigs when the tour started and even though i knew i would go to at least two gigs, i was extremely nervous because this meant i'd probably come across other fans from here and social media in general. as a person with anxiety, one of my worries was how i'd be perceived and how i'd manage to not come across as a snob person because i'm shy and scared to talk to people i don't know. as the tour went on and i saw people meeting each other irl after only knowing each other via tumblr/twitter/instagram, i got more nervous but also had a warm feeling in my chest because seeing people meet, bond over things they like and have fun at gigs together is actually very wholesome 🫶 i hoped i would get to experience this too at the italian gigs but i was still nervous. and then, around the middle of March, i made the spontaneous decision to do the Munich gig too, but instead of getting even more nervous i just got myself on autopilot. and i'm glad i did because if i hadn't i wouldn't have met some of you neither in Munich nor in Milan or Padua. i wouldn't get to trade stuff and joke about things and talk about fandom stuff or even about fanfics lmao 😂 anyway, point is that i most probably was worried about nothing. i got to meet so many people at the gigs and i had so much fun despite the inconveniences that may had showed up in the way (i don't wanna talk about it tbh) and everyone was so welcome and lovely i'll never shut up about it 😭 also i’m taking this opportunity to say that if we attended the same gigs but didn't get to meet, i'm so sorry about it really but we will do it at some point i'm telling you! and i also wish i get to meet more of you from in here so we can yap about things outside of tumblr too. btw i still have stickers to give away and i will make more whenever the time comes again <3

[black-arcana]

Tour Diary: Inside The Pretty Reckless' Trek With AC/DC, When Taylor Momsen Became "Batgirl"

Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless performs at Wembley Stadium in London, England on July 7, 2024.

Photo: Rob Fenn

As The Pretty Reckless prepare for their last few shows on AC/DC's Power Up Tour, singer Taylor Momsen shares photos and highlights from their European adventure — rabies shots and all.

Taylor Weatherby

|GRAMMYs/Jul 30, 2024 - 09:08 pm

While she began  her career as a child actor, Taylor Momsen has spent the past 14 years serving as the fearless frontwoman of rock group The Pretty Reckless. But perhaps no career milestone has been as much of a childhood dream come true for Momsen as their latest venture: AC/DC's Power Up Tour.

The Pretty Reckless are supporting the Australian rock gods during the European leg of the 24-show stadium tour, which kicked off in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on May 17 and wraps in Dublin on Aug. 17. As Momsen recalls, the opportunity came as the group was just beginning to work on their next album.

"We were in the studio…when I got a text from my agent that simply read 'AC/DC with the Pretty Reckless, all dates, no openers.' My mind was blown," she tells GRAMMY.com. "I love recording, probably more than anything in life, but when AC/DC calls…you answer, and you say YES. It's an honor and a privilege to be asked to share their stage."

Momsen makes sure to catch AC/DC's set every night, confirming that — even five decades into their career — they are "nothing short of a force of nature" on stage. And though the tour has resulted in rabies shots for Momsen (more on that later), the tour has been an experience she and her band will cherish forever.   

"We're having the time of our lives with them," Momsen adds. "I never want this summer to end."

Below, Momsen shares stories of onstage and behind-the-scenes photos from The Pretty Reckless' summer tour with AC/DC — including the exact moment that she became "Batgirl."

Saying hello to a sold-out stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. AC/DC are in the DNA of our band, so to say we were excited is an understatement. (Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; photo by Rob Fenn)

The best part about touring with AC/DC?  Getting to watch them every night.Here I'm with with my beloved manager Chris Ruff with the titans of rock behind us. (Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; photo by Steph Gomez)

So I guess now is a good time to talk about…the bat. I was just minding my own business singing (appropriately) "Witches Burn" [at our next show in Seville, Spain] when the audience all started pointing and screaming. It took til the end of the song to figure out what happened…  (RCF Arena, Reggio Emilia, Italy; photo by Rob Fenn)

...but the jumbotrons caught it all. There it is, clinging to me. The noise must have scared the hell out of it. (Estadio de La Cartuja, Seville, Spain; photo courtesy of Taylor Momsen)

Then came the [rabies] shots…that was not fun for a loooong time. Ten shots over weeks in multiple countries. (Seville, Spain; photo courtesy of Taylor Momsen)

Then came the jokes. (All with love from the amazing AC/DC crew, love you Super!!) (Vienna, Austria; photo by Steph Gomez)

Then came the nickname Batgirl. Can't escape it, so just own it! (Vienna, Austria; photo by Steph Gomez)

When almost every show is over 100,000 people, you start to really see the scope of the impact rock and roll can have. It's a sea of people all there for the same reason: to ROCK. (Dresden, Germany; photo by Rob Fenn)

Packing for three months in Europe can be daunting…and bus parking lots are never the easiest place to organize. (Dresden, Germany; photo by Steph Gomez)

A rainy night in Dresden on one of the most beautiful streets I've ever seen. (Dresden, Germany; photo by Taylor Momsen)

Getting stage ready… (Wembley Stadium, London, England; photo by Rob Fenn)

Hello Wembley! (Wembley Stadium, London, England; photo by Rob Fenn)

Getting to hang with these amazing people makes everything worth it. I can't thank them enough, but to show my love for AC/DC I had to do something. (Wembley Stadium, London, England; photo courtesy of Taylor Momsen)

So we made them a life sized cake of Angus's infamous Back in Black guitar. (Wembley Stadium, London, England; photo courtesy of Taylor Momsen)

Jamie's drum rack is like an anchor for me on stage, it's how I find my center. (Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany; photo by Rob Fenn)

When you show up to a country you've never been to and there's back to back murals of yourself and Angus, you feel humbled for sure, it's been an amazing ride so far beyond our wildest dreams. (Bratislava, Slovakia; photo courtesy of Taylor Momsen)

In the end, it's all about the music, the passion, the love, the power. It's an honor to be able to do this, and to share it with so many people, and to have icons whose posters you had on your wall as a kid and t-shirts you wear til there's holes in them invite you to join them on an amazing journey. Thank you to AC/DC and crew, and everyone involved in such a massive undertaking to bring music to the masses. My love to you all. (London, England; photo by Rob Fenn)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I think the movie It's A Wonderful Life probably makes my top five favourite pieces of socialist propaganda. And that is a competitive field; I have a lot of favourite pieces of socialist propaganda. I quite enjoy A Christmas Carol, but that hardly cracks my top 50, probably.

Anyway, I spent a lovely Boxing Day watching some of my favourite socialist propaganda, with my mother and a fire in the fireplace and a tree and it was great.

And guess what else I did! Guess what else I did on this day, the 26th of December, 2024! I booked some flights! I booked two flights!!!

One is for August 2 - really August 2-3, since it runs overnight. From Halifax to London. Because I have the entire summer off, now that I'm working in a school. So I'm going to go visit my grandparents' house in Nova Scotia for the last couple of weeks of July, and then fly to London from there. And then I booked a flight from London to Montreal on August 25, because flights between London and the city where I actually live were convoluted or expensive (you could get easy ones if you want to pay $2,000 one-way, and you could get cheap ones if you want the entire experience to take 55 hours with transfers in Bristol and Lisbon and Toronto), and the city where I actually live is only a couple of hours from Montreal. I can probably get a drive home from there, and if I can't, it's a cheap plane ride.

What am I going to do in between? Well, I've got a lot of it planned out. I've got an Edinburgh Air B&B booked from August 15-24. On the 24, I'll get a train back to London, and fly home the next day. From August 2-14, I have many plans. A while in London again, of course. Then some trains through Wales. Then a ferry to Dublin, a train to Galway, a couple nights in Galway, a plane to Edinburgh, trains through Northern Scotland, before going back to Edinburgh for the festival. I've already booked most of the accommodation for that. And I've booked the Ireland-Scotland plane.

Last summer - 2024 - I went for two weeks. Five nights in London (four days in London, and one day when I took trains to Cambridge and back), then a couple of days taking trains through Western Scotland, then five nights in Edinburgh for the festival. That's because two weeks was the most I could possibly get off work (I really only got four days of work - and was told this was the most I could possibly get for the whole year - because I planned it around the place I worked shutting down for the last week of July, and the following Monday was a statutory holiday). But now, I have the whole summer! So I'm planning a trip accordingly. I'm going to see more stuff.

I've never been to Wales. My family, on both/all sides, has been in Canada for so many generations that I can't legitimately claim any heritage from outside Canada. But the closest I can come to claiming that is that my mother's father's father grew up in Wales, and moved to Canada shortly before having children. He came from a town called Abergavenny, which my grandfather visited as an adult, and my grandfather talks about it all the time, wanting to go back there to honour his father's heritage. My grandfather will never go back again now, as he's too advanced into Alzheimer's. But I'd love to go.

I wanted to go to Wales in 2024, but I couldn't fit it into my schedule. I'm doing it this time, though. I'm working in a stop in Abergavenny. A short stop, because while it has great sentimental value to me because of my family, I've looked up the town and there appears to be nothing interesting in it. But it's on the way to lots of other cool places. I want to spend a couple of nights in Wales.

I first planned a UK trip in early 2021, when I was still relatively early in my Britcom obsession (I mean, I've been into lots of British comedy since I was a kid, but it was March 2020 that made me decide to dedicate my whole life to it), when this blog was only a few months old, when COVID restrictions meant the trip was far more of a fantasy than a plan. I planned this huge route, seeing all these different places, looking at them all on Google Earth to find the coolest spots. It was a lovely fantasy.

In 2024, when going to the UK became an actual possibility, I prioritized the two main things I wanted to see: London, and the Edinburgh Festival. For my 2025 trip, I'll have more days to play with because of the whole summer off, so I've gone into those old documents to find some favourites of my fantasy trip. I've booked two nights in Galway, which was a major part of that original fantasy. Mainly for the music. My dad visited Galway 15 years ago and hasn't stopped raving about it since. My dad and I share a love of Celtic folk music. My dad is always telling me how he could just wander into Galway bars and hear the music everywhere. I got an Air B&B that's right near one of their most famous folk music bars.

And here's one thing that was a major part of the original fantasy trip. The Gladstone's Library in North Wales. Basically, I romanticize old buildings, I romanticize cool libraries, I romanticize anything that looks like it could have existed in a British fantasy novel (I have been told off, probably justifiably, for being reductive about British architecture by excitedly referring to "Harry Potter buildings" - but look, excitedly enjoying majestic old buildings that look like they could have been in Harry Potter is a nice way to indulge my childhood Potter obsession without giving profit to its awful author, though it would be less problematic but equally exciting to call it a His Dark Materials building); while planning my fantasy trip in 2021, I Googled where the cool old libraries in Britain are, and I found the Gladstone's Library.

Fuck, man. You can't ask for better than that, if you're looking to fulfill a deep childhood love of British fantasy novels. I'm pretty sure that's where Lyra Belacqua used to do her research.

So when I first read about this place, I immediately Googled where's there nearest place to stay. Since it appeared to be rural, so I didn't know if it would be accessible, traveling without a car. But it turns out that 1) it's right near a train line, and 2) you can sleep in the library. They have rooms. Rooms where you can stay overnight, like a Harry Potter character. There was no way I could fit this into my 2024 trip, but I've booked a night there in 2025, on August 10. I have the confirmation and everything. For most of this trip, I'm getting the cheapest Air B&Bs possible (and I'm very lucky to be able to stay with people I know in London, avoiding paying for accommodation there). But I have splurged on one night, at the fancy library.

I haven't booked everything yet. I've been booking a little at a time, over the last few months (I booked the Edinburgh accommodation just a few weeks after I got home from my Edinburgh 2024 trip). And I still have lots more to book. But I've booked the two major flights today, and that's what makes it feel real. This is happening.

Happy Boxing Day!

[denimbex1986]

'Dublin International Film Festival is hosting a special screening of John Butler’s ‘impossible to resist’ film Handsome Devil (2016) on Thursday 25th July, here Light House Cinema. The one-off event is part of a series of unique cinema experiences presented as part of the Tanqueray 0.0% Film Club and will feature an In Conversation with John Butler and other special guests.

Premiered as the Closing Night Film at DIFF 2017, members of the cast and crew, including Director John Butler (The Outlaws, The Stag, Papi Chulo) will reunite to enjoy and celebrate this coming-of-age comedy. By bringing this contemporary classic back to one of Dublin’s leading independent cinemas, DIFF is doing what it does best: supporting, showcasing, and promoting the best of Irish filmmaking talent.

Produced by Treasure Entertainment (Papi Chulo, The Stag, Flora And Son), and starring Fionn O’Shea (Dating Amber, Normal People) and Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You, Bottoms), alongside Andrew Scott (Ripley, All of Us Strangers, Sherlock), Handsome Devil is a story of friendship and fun told with a tenderness and honesty that makes it as relevant and poignant now as it did to audiences who enjoyed when it first hit the big screen.

The film follows the story of the unlikely friendship of boarding school roommates Ned (Fionn O’Shea) and Conor (Nicholas Galitzine), who despite taking an instant dislike to each other are encouraged by their English teacher Dan Sherry (Andrew Scott) to find their own voices and defy the status quo of their rugby-obsessed school.

Director John Butler said, “It’s a dream to see Handsome Devil continue to find a devoted global audience so long after its ‘first life’. Maybe the message is timeless - people will always need friends, and acceptance, and stories on screen will always have the power to bring souls together to look at the flickering light, in the dark”

There are also plenty of recognisable and well-loved stars in the supporting cast with Moe Dunford, Hugh O’Conor, Ardal O’Hanlon and Amy Huberman making appearances, and Brian O’Driscoll choreographing the top-notch, on-field rugby action.

DIFF Festival Director Grainne Humphreys said “John Butler is one our most talented Directors, and we’re proud to have premiered The Stag, Handsome Devil and Papi Chulo at previous festivals. The timeless impact of this title and its ability to continually connect with international audiences is testament to John's storytelling and the stellar cast and the creative teams he works with.

This one-off special screening is the latest in a series of unmissable events presented as part of the Tanqueray 0.0% Film Club, which launched earlier this year at DIFF 2024 as a way to elevate the cinema experience and bring filmmakers together for magnificent conversations. 

Following the screening, John Butler and members of the cast will revisit their experiences of making the film and explore how their careers and projects have developed since. Irish actress, writer, and Tanqueray Brand Ambassador Amy Huberman will host the conversation and invite members of the public to put their questions to the Handsome Devil team...'

[freehawaii]

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - JULY 2024

Hawaiiʻs First National Holiday Next weekend Hawaiian Nationals will be celebrating the 181st anniversary of Lahoihoi Ea, “Sovereignty Restoration Day”. On February 11, 1843 a British naval officer Captain Lord George Paulet arrived in Honolulu to investigate a land dispute complaint filed by Richard Charlton, the British Consul to Hawaii. When negotiations with King Kamehameha III did not go his way, Paulet’s cavalier colonial response was to seize control of the Hawaiian Kingdom and place it under the British Crown. But unbeknownst to Paulet, three envoys from Hawaii — Timoteo Ha’alilio, William Richards and Sir George Simpson — were already in Europe negotiating with the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of France for formal recognition of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign nation. Upon learning of Paulet’s brazen action in Hawaii, they filed a protest with British authorities. On July 26, 1843 British Admiral Richard Thomas sailed into Honolulu harbor on his flagship HMS Dublin to put an end Captain Paulet’s illegal occupation. Reserving the right to protect British citizens, Adm. Thomas clearly affirmed Great Britain’s respect for the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom. On July 31, 1843 a ceremony lowering the British flag and raising the flag of Hawaii was held at a site now called Thomas Square in honor of the admiral and the occasion. The ceremony acknowledged Hawai‘i’s sovereign stature and restored King Kamehameha III as the rightful ruler. A phrase from the speech made that day by Kamehameha III at Kawaiah‘o Church, Ua mau ke eā o ka ‘āina i ka pono (The sovereignty of the land is preserved through righteousness), remains the official motto of the Hawaiian Kingdom to this day. Even the usurper State of Hawaii has adopted it as their state motto. Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea For 50 years, from 1843 to 1893, Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea, was celebrated as a week long national holiday marked by Hawaiian patriotism and all the best that our islands have to offer including music, crafts, games, food and community events. In 1893, Hawai‘i once again came under illegal occupation (this time by the United States) and Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea, was banned in Hawai‘i, along with other national holidays such as Hawaii Independence Day, Lā Ku‘oko’a. Unlike the illegal occupation of 1843, the one that began in 1893 continues until today. However, Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea experienced a rebirth in 1985 when Hawaiian national scholar, patriot and activist Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell resurrected this holiday to honor and celebrate our continued independence and sovereignty, despite the nearly century-long American occupation. This Hawaiian Kingdom holiday is now celebrated by a huge gathering at Thomas Square in Honolulu, and by numerous gatherings and activities throughout the islands. Happily, this year, even the US-installed puppet government, the “State of Hawaii”, is recognizing Lā Ho‘iho‘i Eā and Lā Ku‘oko’a, as two of the Hawaiian Kingdomʻs most important national holidays. Another sign that a Free Hawaii continues to rise… 

“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani ---------- Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. ------ For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53. ------ "And remember, for the latest updates and information about the Hawaiian Kingdom check out the twice-a-month Ke Aupuni Updates published online on Facebook and other social media." PLEASE KŌKUA… Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort... To contribute, go to:   • GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII • PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net • Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO! Malama Pono,

Leon Siu

Hawaiian National

[enfyswanders]

Cardiff, Wales: July 19-26, 2024

"I have no idea what I'm going to do in Cardiff" was a regular refrain as I fretted while planning my trip, and apart from pre-booking a Doctor Who tour, I decided to simply wing it when I got there, and that worked out really well.

I flew from Dublin to London Heathrow, then took the Tube to Paddington Station for the train to Cardiff, where I took this crappy through-the-train-window pic of the Paddington Bear bench, mainly so I could show my mom, since we read those books together when I was a kid and my grandma made me a Paddington Bear plushie.

I got settled at my hotel in Cardiff and took it easy the rest of the day, and the next day I decided to do some easy walks for sightseeing and visited Cardiff Market, a fabulous, two-story indoor market full of shops and food stalls. I bought a couple of Welsh Cakes almost immediately and that was a very, very good decision.

For the uninitiated, a Welsh Cake is basically a flattened scone cooked on a griddle and dusted with granulated sugar. At this shop, they sold them warm off the griddle, with the option to be served sandwiched with filling like lemon curd, Biscoff cookie spread, Nutella, or jam. I was instantly hooked and ended up getting Welsh Cakes for breakfast most of the mornings I was in Cardiff. It helped that they were less than a pound apiece, so it made for a very cheap breakfast (it only took two before I felt full).

Also, this shop in Cardiff Market is run by an American and I giggled at the name:

Another find on my first day was the Queer Emporium, a shop/coffee bar/cocktail bar where I felt right at home. I made it a point to stop there every day to buy a drink and fill up my "Gay Card." And one evening when I was wandering around, I stumbled upon a queer crafting night there and joined in to chat and do some cross-stitch with a small group of fellow neurodivergent queers, and that was a welcome bit of socialization during a trip that was sometimes a bit lonely.

I really enjoyed shopping downtown and bought probably more stuff than I should have. There are tons of arcades (covered but open-air alleyways full of quirky and interesting shops and cafes), a beautiful library, and some cool-looking museums (most of which I failed to visit due to not feeling well my last day in town).

The day after my downtown exploration, I decided to visit Cardiff Bay, which includes Roald Dahl Plass, named for the author, a Ferris wheel (and yes, reader, I took a ride on it), a building that looks a lot like the Smithsonian Castle in DC, an historic Norwegian church-turned-cafe-and-craft-boutique, a phenomenal ice cream shop with some serious innuendo in its signage, and a very peaceful wetlands reserve with a wide bike and walking path and lots of birds.

For my nerdy readers (probably most of you?), Cardiff Bay is also home to Torchwood Tower (so small - and surrounded by a family fun faire - I missed it my first visit and had to go back to see it again after my Doctor Who tour guide pointed it out) and Ianto's Shrine, which is still being curated ten years after "Torchwood" was canceled.

As I mentioned, I also did the Doctor Who tour, which was fun, and we had a really great and indulgent guide who showed us dozens of shooting locations from all the modern seasons of Doctor Who, right up through the Ncuti Gatwa episodes. Since most of the stuff we saw wasn't exactly scenic (mostly alleys and fronts of office buildings and shops), I didn't really take any photos, apart from one in St. John the Baptist Church, where keen observers will find a tiny Cyberman has replaced one of the knights up above the rear chapel altar.

While in Cardiff I had another Adventure In Trying To Do Laundry, and in this episode, I took a bus to a not-great part of town where the laundromat was very good and the person running it was very kind and I met a nice couple from Seattle but most importantly, it had the most bonkers vending machine of hot-water-based potables I've ever seen.

And while I was there, the vending machine was not operational because the electricity costs were too high at the time. (Many places in the UK have different electricity rates for different times of day and days of the week.) Not that I was tempted by the possibility of herbal tea that may have tasted like tomato soup.

The true highlight of Cardiff, however, was the Cardiff Castle tour, specifically the residence, but honestly the whole thing was an absolute delight, and it was my favorite castle to explore of all the castles I visited during my trip.

I didn't take a ton of photos, both to adhere to my five-photos-a-day rule and because I knew my photography equipment - er, phone - and skill were not up to the task of capturing some of the more magnificent sights (which is why I bought a book in the gift shop instead).

But. Let me tell you about this place. It is WILD. There's been a castle on that site for 2000 years, since the Roman occupation of Britain, so it has a really rich history and some absolutely bananas decor.

First off, when you buy your admission, there's a military history museum, which is actually pretty darned interesting even if you have no interest in military history. For one thing, there's a person demonstrating various swords and other edged weaponry from various historical periods. For another, there's this absolutely jaw-dropping, enormous sculpture? Relief? Mural? Thing? depicting the Roman rule era. It runs the entire length of a super-long hallway, and arcs around a corner as well. Absolutely astonishing. It was created in the 1980s, so it's not exactly historic in and of itself, but it's still an incredible sight to behold.

But the military history museum has nothing on the residence tour, which costs a few extra pounds but is well worth the expense. Our guide was a fabulous nonbinary person who I vibed with instantly and turned out to be a fan of my band, The Misbehavin' Maidens, which is rad enough to make the tour worth it, but holy shit this house. This HOUSE.

It was built in the Victorian era by the Scottish Marquis who owned it at the time, and he was incredibly wealthy thanks to the coal industry, so practically every surface in this mansion is covered in 22-karat gold. Here's the one photo I took that turned out decently, of the zodiac ceiling in the winter smoking room:

And that's not even the most opulent room in the place. Check out the Arab Room if you want to see something truly astonishing.

The funniest part of the tour was seeing the Marquis' bedroom and learning that he converted to Catholicism at age 21 to marry his wife, and kinda turned being Catholic into his whole personality, to the point where his bedroom has a wardrobe designed to look like a confession booth, and there are angel faces looking down at you from the ceiling, positioned so that no matter where you are in the room, at least one of them is staring at you at all times.

Every room had gorgeous art on the walls and ceiling, including a very detailed mural in the nursery featuring tons of storybook characters and storytellers.

As if that weren't enough to make for a fantastic day, then I got to run around in and among the ramparts, and as we know from my time spent in York, I love running around castle walls. It may be a new obsession of mine.

Another fun place in Cardiff Castle was inside the walls, where they created a bomb shelter in WWII and have up period-appropriate signs and play bits of radio from the time interspersed with the sounds of bombs dropping and air raid sirens. It's haunting and intense. I do question the choice of playing the song "We'll Meet Again," though. Someone on staff loves Doctor Strangelove!

I did break my five-photos-a-day rule the day before I left Cardiff to capture the Animal Wall of Cardiff Castle, though, and I have no regrets. Here are my faves, but you can see them all here.

Overall, Cardiff was definitely a highlight of my trip and I had no trouble filling my time there with activities, even though I didn't have much of a plan before I went.

Though I kinda wish I'd stopped to have a drink at this place (fonts matter, people!):

[tamurakafkaposts]

They lived and loved and laughed and left

James Joyce

[ts13erastour]

You asked and we write!

We all know ticketmaster and despite that we keep having doubts about it, but what a lot of us have never use is AXS, the site where a lot of us have been selected for the UK/Ireland midnights presale. So here we go, an informative post about The Eras Tour AXS presale.

How can I know if I've been selected to the AXS presale? If you have received this email then you've been selected for the midnights UK/Ireland presale. you can be chosen for AXS or Ticketmaster. It'll say it like this:

If you got chosen for the AXS presale then you have to create an AXS UK account with THE SAME EMAIL YOU REGISTERED TO GET THE CODES (it is the one you used to buy midnights in the UK store or the one you used for the No Purchase Necessary Form that was in the Taylor UK in October), if not, you won't be able to access the presale.

When will they send the codes? The 6th and the 7th of July at 10 AM British time. If you don't receive the codes then you have to contact with their Customer Service: https://umusicstoresupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Your code will be valid FOR ALL THE UK AND IRELAND DATES but you CAN ONLY PURCHASE FOUR (4) TICKETS IN TOTAL. It won't be valid for the rest of the Europe dates and if you try to purchase more than 4 tickets in total it won't let you.

They have assigned 2 different ticket providers in the attempt that it'll be harder for us to crash the sites due to so many people trying to get tickets.

The tickets have been evenly splitted between the 2 different provides and in theory there's no difference amongst the tickets they're gonna sell.

Your AXS code will be valid for the Dublin dates on Ticketmaster (only the Dublin dates) ans you can't buy Dublin tickets on Ticketmaster if you already bought 4 tickets on AXS.

The presale dates and times are:

Monday 10th July 2023

11:00am BST

London | Wembley Stadium | Friday, 21 June 2024

Edinburgh | Murrayfield Stadium | Friday, 7 June 2024

1:00pm BST

London | Wembley Stadium | Thursday, 15 August 2024

Edinburgh | Murrayfield Stadium | Saturday, 8 June 2024

3:00pm BST

Edinburgh | Murrayfield Stadium |

Sunday, 9 June 2024

Tuesday 11th July 2023

11:00am BST

London | Wembley Stadium | Saturday, 22 June 2024

Liverpool | Anfield Stadium | Thursday, 13 June 2024

1:00pm BST

London | Wembley Stadium | Friday, 16 August 2024

Liverpool | Anfield Stadium | Friday, 14 June 2024

3:00pm BST

Liverpool | Anfield Stadium | Saturday, 15 June 2024

Wednesday 12th July 2023

11:00am BST

London | Wembley Stadium | Sunday, 23 June 2024

1:00pm BST

London | Wembley Stadium | Saturday, 17 August 2024

3:00pm BST

Cardiff | Principality Stadium | Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Friday 14th July 2023

11:00am IST

Dublin | Aviva Stadium | Friday, 28 June 2024

1:00pm IST

Dublin | Aviva Stadium | Saturday, 29 June 2024

3:00pm IST

Dublin | Aviva Stadium | Sunday, 30 June 2024

If you have no longer access to the email you registered with then contact the Customer Service, your code had been generated and is waiting for you!

All codes are non transferable

For accessible tickets you need to contact you ticket provider :(

We hope this post has been of help, if you have any more doubts let us know and we'll do everything we can to solve them!

[swiftieinbrazil]

The Eras Tour fun fact: The Tortured Poets Department is the 8th album to be completely performed at The Eras Tour. 1989 (Taylor's Version), Speak Now (Taylor's Version), Midnights, folklore, Taylor Swift (debut), evermore and reputation also have been completely performed. But Daddy I Love Him, So High School, Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?, Down Bad, Fortnight, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived and I Can Do It With A Broken Heart are on the setlist. Florida!!! was performed with Florence Welch in 4 nights, and the rest of the songs were performed at the Surprise Songs Set:

2024

loml - Paris, France (May 9)

My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys - Paris, France (May 10)

The Alchemy - Paris, France (May 12)

Peter - Stockholm, Sweden (May 17)

Guilty As Sin? - Stockholm, Sweden (May 18)

How Did It End? - Stockholm, Sweden (May 19)

Fresh Out The Slammer - Lisbon, Portugal (May 24)

The Tortured Poets Department - Lisbon, Portugal (May 25)

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) and I Look In People's Windows - Madrid, Spain (May 29)

The Prophecy - Lyon, France (June 2)

Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus - Lyon, France (June 3)

The Bolter - Edinburgh, Scotland (June 8)

The Manuscript - Liverpool, England (June 15)

I Hate It Here - Cardiff, Wales (June 18)

The Black Dog - London, England (June 21)

thanK you aIMee - London, England (June 22)

The Albatross - Dublin, Ireland (June 29)

Clara Bow - Dublin, Ireland (June 30)

imgonnagetyouback - Amsterdam, Netherlands (July 5)

Robin - Zürich, Switzerland (July 10)

So Long, London - London, England (Aug 20)

Cassandra - Toronto, Canada (Nov 22)

Ps: these were the dates when Taylor performed these songs for the first time at the Surprise Songs Set. After that, some songs have been already repeated.

[whatsonmedia]

Top 5 Indie Music: They Might Be Giants Tour & More!

Music lovers, rejoice! This week's indie roundup features tour news from They Might Be Giants, new releases from The Sleeping Souls and Amyl and the Sniffers, and more! Dive in for the latest on your favorite artists. They Might Be Giants to return to the UK & Ireland in November! American rock group, They Might Be Giants (or TMBG for short) embark on their UK and Ireland tour later this year which begins at the end of autumn.  With 12 dates starting in Southampton then going round the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI) the tour concludes in London. In the meantime, check out the melodic uplifting acoustic track Lazy  Listen to “Lazy” here: https://open.spotify.com/track/4lIWjen36IJon89y6cqJBV?si=0911eb97b05a4d09 UK Tour Dates: - 1 Nov- Southampton - 2 Nov- Cambridge SOLD OUT - 3 Nov- London - 5 Nov- Glasgow SOLD OUT - 6 Nov- Newcastle - 8 Nov- Belfast - 9 Nov- Dublin SOLD OUT - 12 Nov- Manchester SOLD OUT - 13 Nov- Leeds SOLD OUT - 15 Nov- Nottingham SOLD OUT - 16 Nov- Bristol SOLD OUT - 17 Nov- London at The Roundhouse! SOLD OUT Tickets + dates available here ‘Lazy’ 7-inch 45 out 4th October, exclusively through TMBG’s Idlewild Recordings. THE SLEEPING SOULS - Release "Remember Boann" Video Ahead of Lost Evenings VII Sleeping Souls always seem to know how to make something beautiful, whether it be a song or video. And I quite like Remember Boann and the video they've made for it. Nothing over the top, no visual effects, just shots of the band doing their own thing. They've even added cut-outs of the accompanying lyrics so you can singalong.  Watch - Remember Boann  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYArJA5e3cA DEBUT ALBUM: 'JUST BEFORE THE WORLD STARTS BURNING' OUT NOW, VIA XTRA MILE RECORDINGS STREAM ON ALL SERVICES HERE AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS “BIG DREAMS” NEW SINGLE & VIDEO Nov I haven't been listening to that much from Amy and co for a while but so far am enjoying what she's been making. Big Dreams is a great track and is quickly growing on me. The video definitely holds an appeal and has that visual sense of getting away from something and heading towards a new place and enjoying the thrill of it. Listen HERE Watch PHC Films-Directed Video HERE https://youtu.be/ipZSqcFA0Z0 - UK / EURO DATES BELOW 2024 / 2025 - NOV 5TH – DUBLIN – NATIONAL STADIUM - NOV 6TH – GLASGOW – 02 ACADEMY SOLD OUT - NOV 7TH – NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE – NX SOLD OUT - NOV 9TH – MANCHESTER – MANCHESTER ACADEMY SOLD OUT - NOV 10TH – BIRMINGHAM 02 – ACADEMY - NOV 11TH – BRISTOL – 02 ACADEMY SOLD OUT - NOV 13TH – LONDON – ROUNDHOUSE SOLD OUT - NOV 14TH – LONDON – ROUNDHOUSE SOLD OUT - NOV 15TH – LONDON – ROUNDHOUSE SOLD OUT - NOV 17TH – BRUSSELS – ANCIENNE SOLD OUT - NOV 18TH – UTRECHT – TIVOLIVREDENBERG SOLD OUT - NOV 19TH – COLOGNE – CARLSWERK VICTORIA SOLD OUT - NOV 21ST – COPENHAGEN – VEGA SOLD OUT - NOV 22ND – HAMBURG – GROBE FREIHEIT 36 SOLD OUT - NOV 23RD – BERLIN – COLUMBIAHALLE SOLD OUT - NOV 25TH – MUNICH – TONHALIE - NOV 26TH – LAUSANNE – LES DOCKS - NOV 27TH – PARIS – OLYMPIA - NOV 29TH – ATHENS – FLOYD JULY 5TH – LONDON – FINSBURY PARK SUPPORTING FONTAINES DC Dermakus Lewis - Werk to Do  Now I only just heard of this guy recently, very recently. Last night in fact as I was putting this review together and from the moment I heard I just knew I had to talk about it. All the way from Dallas in Texas this House Music maestro has whipped up a sensational dance number here. Just stick it on, turn up the volume and just lose yourself to the music  Listen  https://youtu.be/khKIG5gJUFo?si=fA4WqBrqgqkqpxci Indiana - Solo Dancing  Now I had the joy of seeing this Nottingham artist when she first performed at a New Music event in Nottingham and haven't fallen out of love with her work ever since. Solo Dancing is about going out, having a good time and losing yourself to the pleasuring sounds of music and not caring who's watching  Watch https://youtu.be/WSrktmE963I?si=mPc6qPkk8IsFIXUR For more music updates visit WhatsOn They Might Be Giants to return to the UK & Ireland in November!UK Tour Dates: THE SLEEPING SOULS - Release "Remember Boann" Video AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS “BIG DREAMS” NEW SINGLE & VIDEO Dermakus Lewis - Werk to Do  Indiana - Solo Dancing  Read the full article

[ingek73]

Breastfeeding women try to show orangutan how to care for baby at Dublin zoo

Thirty mothers take turns with their babies in front of Mujur, 19, to try to encourage her to bond with newborn

Nora Murphy with her baby, Elodi. Although the tuition did have an effect, Mujur did not hold her infant in quite the correct place for feeding, the zoo said. Photograph: Nora Murphy

Rory Carroll Ireland correspondentMon 12 Aug 2024 17.21 CEST

When staff at Dublin zoo discovered an orangutan named Mujur was pregnant they decided to stage maternal workshops.

The 19-year-old female had not sufficiently bonded with either of her previous infants, who died in 2019 and 2022, so when she became pregnant earlier this year the zoo enlisted breastfeeding human mothers to try to show her how it was done.

Lizzie Reeves, a midwife and lactation specialist who is part of the breastfeeding team at the National maternity hospital in Ireland’s capital, organised a roster of 30 mothers to take turns teaching the ape, whose species is critically endangered.

The orangutan house was closed off while the women breastfed their own infants. “Mujur was extremely interested in watching the women feed their babies through the glass, even mirroring some of their actions,” the zoo said in a statement on Monday.

“A lot of women said: ‘Look, an orangutan doesn’t wear a T-shirt.’ So they whipped off their T-shirts and their bras so Mujur could literally see everything,” Reeves told the Irish Times.

Nora Murphy, a first-time mother from Rathfarnham in Dublin, thought it would be a great story to eventually tell her now 10-month-old daughter, Elodi. “You are going from being a mother yourself to trying to help a mother to be. You would be talking to her saying: ‘Look this is what you are meant to do,’” she said.

Mujur was shown videos of other orangutans feeding their babies as part of the tuition. She gave birth on 31 July to a healthy male and showed “good maternal care”, suggesting the teaching had an effect, but did not hold the infant in quite the correct place for feeding, the zoo said.

The institution would normally have let nature take its course but given the infant’s genetic profile – his father was Sibu, a patriarch who died in February – it intervened. “The difficult decision was made to separate the infant from Mujur and commence bottle feeding him.”

The infant will be transferred in several weeks to Monkey World, a 65-acre centre in Dorset, England, with experience in raising orangutans. “The whole team has already fallen hopelessly in love with him, and it will be difficult to say goodbye, however we are confident that he is being sent to the best possible place for him to continue to develop and thrive,” said the zoo.

[sa7abnews]

Cycling through the ‘hidden heartlands’ of this wondrous island…

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/cycling-through-the-hidden-heartlands-of-this-wondrous-island/

Cycling through the ‘hidden heartlands’ of this wondrous island…

July is the month I take a break from political commentary and go cycling around Ireland. Two years ago – with my friend David Ward – I cycled from Mizen Head in west Cork to Fair Head in north Antrim. In contrast, this year we decided to cycle from north-west to south-east: from Derry city to Rosslare in Wexford. That involved putting the bicycles on the train to Belfast and Derry and back from Rosslare. I have often wondered why we have met so few other cycle tourists in our midsummer perambulations around the island (just one other couple this year). One of the reasons must be the extraordinary lack of provision for bicycles on Irish Rail trains. There was a time when at least on the trains between the three main cities – Dublin, Belfast and Cork – there were guards vans, and therefore plenty of room for bikes. Now every train has precisely two clumsy racks for bikes in one single passenger car. I had booked those racks for our trip back in April, the full allowable three months in advance. I wonder how many disappointed foreign cycle tourists have discovered there was no possibility of bringing their bikes on Irish trains this summer. I have tried in vain to book myself and my two cycling daughters onto trains. It’s a crazy, self-defeating system at a time when sustainable tourism is all the rage. So David and I set off from Derry on 1st July. The first two significant places we passed were a contrast in national and sectarian styles. Newbuildings is a loyalist village: Orange flags and First World War memorials abound, with every small settlement seeming to sport a cricket ground. Strabane is a strongly nationalist town (although it too has a cricket club), with Sinn Fein’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill canvassing in the main street, surrounded by a group of adoring women, and republican hunger strike memorials in the Catholic housing estates. The cricketing theme continued in the tree-lined, former industrial village of Sion Mills, just south of Strabane. Here, in July 1969 – in the last piece of good news before Northern Ireland descended into 30 years of violence – Ireland caused one the biggest upsets in late 20th century cricket by defeating a powerful West Indian side, bowling them out on a soggy pitch for an astonishing 25 runs. We spent the first night in Omagh, watching Orange bands march through the streets as part of the Battle of the Somme commemorations. If you take away the anti-Catholicism, there is great colour and pageantry in these band parades, not to mention musical virtuosity. In a united Ireland we are going to have to find some way of making them acceptable, even enjoyable, to the great majority of people in the present-day republic who are implacably hostile to the Orange Order. The following morning we cycled through Fintona, a classically divided Northern Irish village, with a big, modern gospel hall at one end of the main street, and a splendid GAA complex at the other. In the middle is a pub, The Poet’s Bar: one can only hope that members of the two communities occasionally come together here under the benign eye of John Montague, one of Ireland’s finest late 20th century poets, who was raised in nearby Garvaghey. In Lisnaskea in Fermanagh, we had a tasty lunch in the charming Cherry Tree bakery, one of those remarkable home bakeries for which Northern Ireland deserves to be better known. Isabel Charles and her husband Norman converted a badly rundown building into this bakery and cafe, opening it in June 1970, just as nearly 30 years of darkness descended on the North. These are the kind of unheralded, extremely hardworking people who kept open the lines of civility and prosperity during the worst of times. Then it was across the border into Cavan. Cavan town gives the impression of being an unusually industrious and thriving place. Whether it’s big multinationals like Liberty Insurance, St Gobain or Abbott, or smaller local enterprises in everything from data analytics to cider making, digitisation in construction to homemade chocolates, this unfashionable town is a place of enterprise and entrepreneurship. And it shows in the lines of plutocratic five and six bedroomed houses on many of the roads out of the town. The next stop was Loughcrew in north Meath. This extraordinary passage tomb on a hill is estimated to be 5,200 years old, 2,000 years older than nearby Newgrange and older again than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. As sun and showers swept across the countryside, leaving a brilliant lucidity in the sky, I was able to see the whole central plain of Ireland and the mountains that ring it: the Cooleys, the Mournes, Slieve Gullion, the Slieve Blooms, Cuilcagh on the Fermanagh-Cavan border and the mountains of Sligo and Leitrim. Here for more than five millenia people have been celebrating their ancestors, their gods and nature. It is a truly humbling experience to stand on its small summit and think about the countless ancestors who have stood here before me and contemplated this celestial view. We crossed Westmeath in bright sunshine. One of my glimpses of heaven on earth (I have others) is to be cycling through the hayfields and meadows of Ireland’s rich agricultural counties under blue skies and scudding clouds with the smell of silage in my nostrils. Then it was along the banks of the Royal Canal, past young canoeists learning the ropes at Longwood and the engineering marvel that is the Boyne Aqueduct, built in 1795 to bring the canal over the Boyne river. From canal to canal: west of Naas is a very picturesque and little-known wooded stretch of the Grand Canal, complete with cafes and coffee kiosks, which lands one conveniently in that town’s main thoroughfare through the short Basin Street. We spent that night in the hospitable company of my astronomer and adventurer friend John Butler, late of Armagh Observatory, who spends much of his time now in his converted farmhouse outside Hollywood, with superb views of the Wicklow Mountains. We skirted those mountains through Baltinglass, Tullow and Bunclody to make Enniscorthy our final overnight stop, breaking for lunch in the Green Lemon café in the pretty village of Rathvilly (home place of Kevin Barry, the 18 year old Irish Volunteer and medical student executed by the British in the War of Independence). I have written before of my wonder at the excellent cafés in so many small places these days, one of the most pleasurable aspects of the arrival of prosperity in Ireland. Two more on this journey were the Limetree coffee shop at Loughcrew and the Sugar and Spice café in Bunclody. As a longtime café lover, I cannot recommend these pleasing establishments highly enough. We ended our six-day journey at Rosslare Strand in County Wexford with a moment of happiness as I posed with my bicycle on the beach for a photo taken by a group of friendly women from Carlow. This was a journey through part of what Tourism Ireland has dubbed the ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands’ (with a bit of ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ thrown in): effectively the Shannon basin and the midlands, because due to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board’s idiotic reluctance to get involved in Tourism Ireland’s highly regarded international campaigns, it has to stop at the border. The ‘Hidden Heartlands’ campaign has never really taken off, unlike Tourism Ireland’s spectacularly successful ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ along the west coast. As I was cycling our 450 kilometre route through the heart of the island, I was mulling over what one might be able to sell to overseas tourists in the 10 counties we passed through. There are plenty of fine attractions in these relatively unfashionable and unvisited regions, some of which we experienced on this trip. Here is an indicative list: Derry’s walls; Tyrone’s Orange band parades (they do good republican parades too, if that is more your bag); the lakes of Fermanagh; the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ steps up Cuilcagh mountain on the Cavan border; the passage grave at Loughcrew; the 18th century folly that is Belvedere House in Westmeath; the Curragh of Kildare; the Wicklow Mountains; the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas (with some of the world’s leading novelists, historians and journalists) in Carlow and the marvellous beaches of Wexford. Ireland is a uniquely beautiful and fascinating island, and the often overlooked Irish midlands are part of that fascination. PS (1) One can’t get away from politics completely, even in midsummer. I was struck by the shameless populism of Sinn Fein who – six weeks after their poor performance in the European and local elections (partly attributable to their previously generous stance on housing asylum seekers) – produced a policy paper which basically advocated moving the accommodation of asylum seekers from working class to middle class areas. I live in the middle-class area of Rathmines/Ranelagh in south Dublin, where we have four buildings owned by property developers and a hotel housing several hundred asylum seekers. And there has been no trouble. Praise is due, in particular, for the small group of brilliant people in the area – most of them women – who have single-handedly supported the homeless asylum seekers for whom there is no accommodation, and whom the authorities cruelly keep moving along and erecting high fences to keep them and their tents out of small green areas. One can only imagine the exhaustion, fear and hopelessness of these young men from poor and war-torn countries. PS (2) Congratulations to Armagh on beating Galway to win the All-Ireland football championship. I lived for 14 years in Armagh city when running the Centre for Cross Border Studies, and have a very soft spot for the place. I’m particularly glad for manager Kieran McGeeney, whose determination and refusal to say die during the bad times over the past 10 years are worthy of real admiration.