Season end to All Ireland Senior Football Final

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Is 2015 shaping up to be an exciting season end every one was saying Dublin early in the season where would the money go now? Dublin, Mayo, or the September Kerry?

Name the 2 players and win an A4 Fine Art Print.
Feel free to share and get help from the Culchies! Or the Jacks! 

ROSC art exhibitions

The ROSC art exhibitions were a series of international exhibitions held in Dublin between 1967 and 1988. ‘ROSC’ translated as ‘poetry of vision’, and the exhibition was founded by the architect Michael Scott.

The exhibition did not take place annually, but was held in 1967, 1971, 1977, 1980, 1984 and 1988. The idea was to exhibit work created in the previous four years from the top 50 modern artists. Each show also had a side exhibition, e.g. Viking art, Chinese art, Russian art.

The inaugural ROSC exhibition
13 November 1967

The exhibition attracted quite a lot of international interest initially. For example, the 1967 exhibition included works from Picasso, Francis Bacon, Joan Miro and Williem de Kooning. It was held in the RDS for the first two exhibitions, then later in the Hugh Lane Gallery and the Guinness Hop Store. However, as the recession of the 1980s deepened, ROSC found it increasingly difficult to secure sponsors. It is unlikely the last two exhibitions would have taken place without Guinness making their Hop Store available free of charge.

William O'Loghlen, Director Bank of Ireland, Peter Owens, Managing Director of Peter Owens, Michael Scott and archaeologist Dr Marie de Paor at the press briefing for the 1977 ROSC exhibition.
25 July 1977 

The 1984 exhibition in particular encountered a lot of problems. Despite the Hop Store being made available to ROSC, the selection of art works was a major stumbling block that year. Initially, no Irish artists were included in the line-up, so an Irish panel was assigned the task of selecting ten. They couldn’t whittle their list down any further than 22, however, which lead to the withdrawal of the Dutch judge, Frits Becht, from the competition, as well as six of the seven Dutch artists. The Henry Moore side exhibition was cancelled when his representatives saw the space allocated to him, but was replaced by a Joseph Beuys exhibition. Ronnie Tallon was eventually chosen to select the Irish artists, and the final line-up had 52 artists, ten of which were Irish.

Charles Haughey admiring his likeness at the 1988 ROSC exhibition
19 August 1988 

One further ROSC exhibition was held in 1988, but it proved to be the last of the series. Micheal Scott died the following year and, though he had handed over the chair of ROSC to Patrick J. Murphy several years earlier, he had remained on the executive council. The loss of the visionary behind ROSC no doubt was another blow to the foundations of the exhibitions.

Scott was not just a loss to the ROSC exhibitions, but to the Irish architectural and art communities in general. He was the architect behind the Busaras building, as well as reconstructing the Abbey Theatre after it was burnt down. He had often walked the boards himself as a member of the Abbey Players, and was even headhunted by Seán O’Casey to tour the US, ending up on Broadway in ‘The Plough and the Stars’. Fortunately for Irish architecture, he eventually decided that being an architect was probably a more financially secure career than acting. Scott joined forces with Ronnie Tallon and Robin Walker to form Scott Tallon Walker in 1975, one of the most modernist architectural firms in Ireland that frequently collaborated with artists like Patrick Scott, Louis le Broquy and Anne Madden.

All images available @ Irish Photo Archive

Boat people and coffin ships

The crew of the LÉ Niamh have been busy again this week, rescuing another 125 people from an inflatable dinghy on Tuesday as well as the over 350 lives they saved last week.

And while the crew are just doing their best to treat every human being they encounter as an equal, politicians, business leaders and media personalities continue to argue over who should have to deal with the migrants.

This hard-hearted attitude to migrants is not a new phenomenon, demonstrated by our own history of boatloads of Irish people being transported to America only to encounter ‘No Irish need apply’ signs. These boats are still called ‘coffin ships’ because so many people died on the journey, and because of how the human cargo was loaded in like cattle. Even though people knew this hardship lay ahead, they still sold everything they owned to raise the price of a ticket because they were desperate to escape the famine and poverty in Ireland.

Vietnamese boat people arriving in Dublin,
with Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael O'Kennedy (centre in dark suit), ready to greet them.
9 August 1979.

A century later, Ireland was the country receiving migrants when we agreed to accept Vietnamese boat people for resettlement. This crisis arose after the end of the Vietnam war, when the communist regime began cracking down on those that had supported the South Vietnamese government. Large boats carrying up to 2,000 migrants began arriving on the shores of Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia, who refused to allow the ships to dock until other countries had agreed to resettle the migrants.

Because these large ships were encountering difficulties, many people decided to use smaller boats to cross the seas. Thousands of lives were lost when these boats sank, or else migrants had to deal with pirates, bad weather, hunger, thirst. Many women were raped when pirates raided their boat, or were abducted after all possessions had been stolen from the other passengers. If they made it across the sea, they would be put in refugee camps until they were accepted by another country.

The amount of people travelling by boat lessened when a programme was set to process resettlement eligibility from Vietnam, and a cut-off point, after which boatpeople would be treated as normal economic refugees, was set for March 1989.

Refugees arriving in 1981
18 March 1981

Ireland was not initially over-enthusiastic about opening our doors to these migrants, and only agreed after repeated requests from the UN. Two hundred migrants arrived in 1979, with other small groups landing hereon a couple of occasions during the 1980s. These were first given English language lessons in Blanchardstown, and then were dispersed around the country – to avoid ‘ghettoization’.  However, as this policy generally led to isolation, many families and people made their way back to Dublin after a few years.

As yet, though the Irish navy helping to patrol the Mediterranean and prevent more people dying in that stretch of water, the Irish authorities have not as yet agreed to accept any of the migrants. Our economy in 1979 was not particularly impressive, but we still managed to absorb severalyoung families without major repercussions. If we are asked to do so again for this new crisis 35 years later, there is no reason to doubt that we could not achieve the same.

George Colley cuts the cake after a naturalisation ceremony for some of the Vietnamese migrants.
8 July 1987

May the LÉ Niamh and her crew continue with the stellar work they are currently doing, and making us all proud. And may a better life lie ahead for the people they rescue from the water.

All photos available @ Irish Photo Archive

The Dublin Horse Show

The annual Dublin Horse Show has been taking place this week at its home at the RDS in leafy Ballsbridge. Launched in 1868, the event is one of the main events in the Irish equine calendar, and is estimated to bring €45m to the local economy this year.

Mrs Rosemary Brooke with her son Alan (15) standing, and her daughter Malinda (9) at the 1967 RDS Horse Show
9 August 1967

The Horse Show was first set up to showcase the talent of Irish showjumpers, and has taken place almost continuously ever since, with the exception of the years of the two world wars. It hosts the Aga Khan trophy and the Longines International Grand Prix, as well as classes, exhibitions and trade stands. 

The Aga Khan trophy is perhaps one of the best known of the events during the show, with international teams of four horses competing in timed trials. The trophy could only be won outright if a team won the competition three years in a row. This has been achieved five times: by the Irish twice, the British twice and Switzerland once. The original trophy was donated by the Aga Khan, hence the name of the competition.

The Irish winning team with the Aga Khan trophy in 1979.
10 August 1979

Another important event this year will be the Best Dressed Ladies competition on Friday, where an incredible €10,000 prize money is up for grabs. The dark days of the recession must be over at last! Originally, there was a side-saddle riding competition for women held on Fridays, where they would compete in full riding habit costumes with veils, and the day became known as ‘Ladies Day’.

Rosemary Broad and Sandra Caruth participating in the Horse Show in their own way in 1960.
2 August 1960

Besides standing around and looking pretty, women were not allowed compete in the Horse Show until 1919. It was not until 1954 that women were allowed take part in the international competitions, though now it is obligatory for teams to include at least one female rider.

If you would like to go to the show this year, it is advised to book a ticket quickly. All the hospitality packages have already been sold out, but general admission tickets, or tickets to the main hall are still available. If you find yourself unable to get into the main events, don’t worry as they will be shown on large screens around the arena, allowing you to keep an eye on the jumping as you indulge yourself in shopping, eating and drinking.

All images available @ the Irish Photo Archive