Information Wrap - Ceatharlach

EIRE

A Cargo of Questions 1992

CEATHARLACH

North and east of Carlow (Celtic - Ceatharlach) the cargo was made on the banks of the River Liffey at Harristown. Harristown is set on the southern frontier of the Pale (English for 'wall' from the Latin word pālus, meaning stake, specifically a stake used to support a fence), a term used to describe the area of English occupation or influence, so "beyond the Pale" has come to mean something outside the boundary. This region was the setting for many conflicts between the Anglo-Norman presence and the displaced Irish.

Information Wrap

Cardinal Daly's articulation of the Church's viewpoint in the education debate crystallises the Church/State issues raised by the Government's efforts to legislate in education and other areas. The Hierarchy in general views society as something to be moulded and shaped according to a particular religious outlook, and where this outlook conflicts with particular individual rights, it justifies the overriding of such by reference to the rights of the "majority" to impose its will. In microcosm the issue illustrates all that is wrong in the Church/State area, and it has to be said that it is the Hierarchy's world view which causes the problem, coupled with the fact that the Irish interpretation of democracy leaves a lot to be desired. In order to qualify as a democracy it is not sufficient that a "majority" simply rules and imposes its religious beliefs on all citizens via the institutions of the State - such a State is rightly termed a theocracy, and we recognise the basic injustices of majority rule in other parts of the world, far and near.

THE IRISH TIMES, 30 June, 1992.

Is religion identity?

Is being in a majority identity?

Are majorities always right?

Is being a migrant an identity?

How is a migrant responsible for the migration?

Why do the words 'guest' and 'stranger' share so many stories?

A Cargo of Questions 2017

To every place there belongs a story . . .

Ceatharlach is the old Irish name for the town of Carlow that sits in the LODE-Line zone between the Atlantic and the Irish Sea.

The LODE cargo for the Ceatharlach crate was made by the River Liffey, the same river Liffey that flows down to the sea through the heart of Dublin, in a place called Harristown.

The Pale

Harristown was chosen as a place to make one of the LODE compasses because it was, according to the Statute of 1488, on the boundary that was later called the Pale, a term that is used today to identify a territory associated with and surrounding the Irish capital city Dublin.

The histories of migration in Ireland are those of arrivals, settlers gaining land and property, and departures, those who have been dispossessed of land, property and livelihood.

Arrivals 

Departures

There are stories and monuments

Remain 55.8%

Leave 44.2%

Curry my yogurt!



There are few places in the world where the issue of manhole covers would cause a political row. When a unionist councillor in Ballymena complained that new manhole covers included the word "uisce", no-one was particularly surprised. This is because "uisce" is the Irish word for water - two of the new covers installed as part of an improvement scheme were found to be bilingual.

 

First there is a border, then there is no border, then . . .
The provisional border in 1922 was that which the Government of Ireland Act 1920 made between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Most Irish nationalists hoped for a considerable transfer of land to the Free State, on the basis that most border areas had nationalist majorities. However, the Commission recommended relatively small transfers, and in both directions. This was leaked to The Morning Post in 1925, causing protests from both unionists and nationalists.

Let Europe's border be the Irish Sea!

For many, politicians included, for big business, for xenophobes, borders are something to use for leverage, for advantages of one kind or another, but the contemporary electric information environment has for a long time now been creating a new political geography that is both global and local, and sometimes with a "universal" edge, even when this, what we might call a psycho-geography is local and "regional".

Look at the dial! Europe? Transformed by airwaves?

Belfast - Luxemburg 

"In The Days Before Rock 'N' Roll" Van Morrison sings of being down on his knees at those wireless knobs, Telefunken, Telefunken. And I'm searching for Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Athlone, Budapest, AFN, Hilversum, Helvetia. . . .  In the days before rock 'n' roll . . . .

Justin, gentler than a man

I am down on my knees

At the wireless knobs

I am down on my knees

At those wireless knobs

Telefunken, Telefunken

And I'm searching for

Luxembourg, Luxembourg,

Athlone, Budapest, AFN,

Hilversum, Helvetia

In the days before rock 'n' roll

In the days before rock 'n' roll

In the days before rock 'n' roll

When we let, then we bet

On Lester Piggott when we met

We let the goldfish go

In the days before rock 'n' roll

Fats did not come in

Without those wireless knobs

Fats did not come in

Without those wireless knobs

Elvis did not come in

Without those wireless knobs

Nor Fats, nor Elvis

Nor Sonny, nor Lightning

Nor Muddy, nor John Lee

In the days before rock 'n' roll

In the days before rock 'n' roll

When we let and we bet

On Lester Piggott 10/1

And we let the goldfish go

Down the stream

Before rock 'n' roll

We went over the wavebands

We'd get Luxembourg,

Luxembourg and Athlone

AFM stars of Jazz

Come in, come in, come in, Ray Charles

Come in, the high priest

In the days before rock 'n' roll

In the days before rock 'n' roll

When we let and we bet

On Lester Piggott 10 to 1

And we let the goldfish go

And then the killer came along

The killer, Jerry Lee Lewis

A whole lotta shakin' goin' on,

Great balls of fire

Little Richard

Justin, gentler than a man

Justin, Justin, where is Justin now?

What's Justin doing now?

Just, where is Justin now?

Come aboard

To every place there belongs a story . . . riverrun . . .

This blog-post is a matrix that originates first in the context of an artistic activity that relates to this place, Ceatharlach, and then connections multiply through processes of association, suggesting links, articulations and juxtapositions that the contemporary information wrap affords us, in a particular and contemporary type of consciousness, where the "loop" or "ricorso" helps the zig zagging necessary to see what is going on.


That's just the way it is . . . but don't you believe them . . .