www.newsfour.
ie April / May 2020
Web: www.newsfour.ie  Email: newsfour@gmail.com  Local newsdesk phone: 01 667 3317
Serving Sandymount, Irishtown, Ringsend, Pearse Street, Docklands, Ballsbridge & Donnybrook
Working from Home with Children
G
landore, Ireland’s long-
est serving and leading
provider of serviced
offices and co-working spaces,
share helpful advice for those
trying to juggle working from
home whilst keeping their chil-
dren occupied.
Covid-19 is a phrase that
wasn’t very familiar to us just
one month ago, but now it is
consuming our daily lives in
ways that we never could have
imagined.
As a result, a vast number of
people in Ireland are now forced
to work from home, which can
be a challenge when it’s not
your normal routine. Add one
or more children to the mix and
it can be even more difficult to
manage everything.
With that in mind, Glandore,
have shared some words of wis-
dom to make life easier in these
unprecedented times.
The tips from Glandore in-
clude:
Set up a daily structure.
Childcare professionals’ ad-
vice is that routine is vitally im-
portant when it comes to main-
taining happy children. If your
children’s day starts at 8.30am
in crèche or school, try to start
their home care at the same
time.
Establishing a routine at home
will help everyone transition to
this new ‘norm’ more easily. If
Page 7: Actor Jack Murphy interviewed
your children are used to breaks
at certain times, make sure to
build those into your day.
As we all know, children’s at-
tention spans are much shorter
than ours, so exercise and snack
breaks are important to sched-
ule in, for both the child and
the parent. Try to finish up your
home crèche or school at the
same time as their regular day.
Top tip: set an alarm to go
off, so everyone knows that
it’s family time now. The alarm
doesn’t have to be the sound of
a school bell ringing, it could be
one of your children’s favourite
songs instead.
In this issue…
Pages 10-11: Human Rights in Film Awards
Have a designated space for
mess.
The length of time that we
will be working and school-
ing from home is unknown and
therefore it is recommended to
designate a school/crèche area
in your home if possible. Chil-
dren need space to play and
that play can often be messy,
so it might be wise to make the
kitchen your home childcare
centre.
With paint, glitter, Lego, dolls
and action figures, children’s
toys can easily take over the
house. They are used to being
in the same room for the day,
Pages 12-13: Great films to stream
April / May 2020
whether in crèche or school,
so keeping the home childcare
space consistent will help with
their sense of routine.
Again, be mindful of your
child’s attention span; they
may only stay with an activity
for 10 or 20 minutes depending
on their age. This should also
match the projects you are set-
ting yourself; if you have some-
thing that needs your focus then
perhaps leave that until every-
one is in bed.
Activities in your home.
One aspect of a Montessori
classroom that can be easily
Page 17: Baking with the kids
Page 1
FREE
adapted to home childcare are
the practical life exercises, for
example hand washing and
cleaning toys are particularly
timely. Young children thrive
on repetition so expect that
they’ll do the same activity over
and over again, from polishing
an ornament, moving clothes
pegs from one bowl to anoth-
er, or dividing them between
different sized containers. All
these exercises help with hand/
eye co-ordination, developing
pincer grip and are also great
for building concentration.
Physical.
Physical exercise is a vital
part of the day, and in fact, it
should happen multiple times
a day. Don’t worry, we’re talk-
ing about short bursts not half-
hour workouts! Having a sim-
ple one-minute ‘stretch and
shake’ session first thing in the
morning can be a great signal
that school time is starting. If
children get restless, it can be a
good way to re-centre everyone
throughout the day too.
Aside from one minute wig-
gles, there are lots of activities
you can do at home. Old fa-
vourites like having an egg and
spoon race can help with bal-
ance and concentration and can
double up as a cooking class if
you let your child help when
you’re boiling the eggs.
Continued on page 2.
Page 2 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020

working from home with children

Continued from page 1.
On the subject of races, lots
of children love running, so
if you have space outside you
NewsFour Newspaper could set up a racetrack or
is part of a DEASP obstacle course in the garden
Community Employment to make things a bit more in-
Programme teresting and hold their atten-
tion for longer.
NewsFour If children’s yoga is more
your speed, there are lots of
great tutorials online to fol-
Editor low along with. This might
Eoin Meegan not work quite as well for
younger children as their at-
Online Editor tention span is shorter, but
Kathrin Kobus you can always pick and
choose the parts that work
Journalists for your child. Some sim-
Kathrin Kobus ple breathing and stretching
Eoin Meegan should be manageable for
Peter McNamara even the youngest toddlers.
David Prendeville
Geneva Pattison Sensorial.
Dermot Carmody A great area of Montessori
exercises that can be adapted
Contributors to your home are sensory ex-
Gavan Bergin ercises. Use what you have in
the kitchen to make your own
Crossword tasting game. Pick a number
Gemma Byrne of different tastes and fash-
ion a blindfold so your child
Design and Layout has to use their taste buds to
Eugene Carolan figure out what each ingredi-
ing weeks and months, there
will be some nice opportuni-
ties for real-life maths. You
could start teaching your
child about grocery shopping
and how to make a shopping
list. This could be an oppor-
tunity to teach your child
about buying only what your
home needs and why we need
to make sure everyone has
enough groceries.
If your child has a particu-
lar snack that they love, you
can talk about how many
you’ll need for a week at
home. You can use the ob-
jects you have at home to do
some basic maths exercises.
For the younger children
activities like sorting are a
great way to introduce fun-
damentals like big and small,
e.g. take a box of buttons or
Lego pieces and sort them by
colour, see which is the big-
gest pile, which is the small-
est pile, simple addition of
putting all the blues with all
of the yellow etc.
Arts and crafts.
Arts and crafts can be
messy, but children love
The salt acts as a preserva-
tive too, so the playdough
should last at least a week if
you keep it in an airtight con-
tainer in the fridge when it’s
not in use.
Manage your child’s emo-
tions.
We’re living in strange
times and our children are
sure to pick up on the odd-
ness of being at home so
much. Little ears hear a lot
more than we sometimes re-
alise and can come up with
all kinds of ideas or expla-
nations for what’s going on.
It’s important to talk to them
and reassure them that they
are safe, that they are being
looked after and that things
will be okay.
Some Montessori classes
have ‘daily circle time’ where
everyone sits together and
checks in about how they are.
This is a great idea so chil-
dren can have an opportu-
nity to say if they’re worried
about anything and you can
address it in a way that’s ap-
propriate to them. This can be
a great time to introduce pos-
itive affirmations or mindful-
ness techniques to help moni-
tor and manage emotions,
especially if you have a child
who’s prone to worrying.
If you’re looking for some
resources to help with this,
we recommend checking out
My Higher Shelf, an Irish
business who have a fantas-
tic range of books for chil-
dren and adults in the areas
of mindfulness, feelings and
emotions.
We know that these are
challenging days and we have
more of the same ahead, but
setting up a strong routine
early on will make it easier
for everyone to adapt to their
temporary normal.
If we can take something
positive from this, we can see
it as a unique opportunity to
bond with our children. It’s
a chance to teach them resil-
ience and to show them how
to think of others in difficult
times.
Front cover photo courtesy
Wiki Commons.

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ent is.
Some of the things that you
might have handy are differ-
ent fruits like bananas, apples
or berries, yoghurts, mashed
potato, and rice cakes.
Another game that you
can use your blindfold for
is making a mystery bag full
of small objects. Take a bag
and add a number of small
objects that feel interest-
ing e.g. a toy car, a piece of
Lego, a small stuffed toy, a
small ball, a crayon etc. The
child wears their blindfold
while they put their hand into
the bag and try to guess what
each object is, just by using
their sense of touch. You can
change the objects after a few
goes to keep your child’s in-
terest but let them know that
you’ve changed things and
there’s something new in the
bag. The last thing you need
is for your child to have a
meltdown because something
has changed without them
knowing!
Maths.
As we’re all going to be at
home and spending lots of
time together over the com-
them. You can let your chil-
dren play freely with your
stash of paper/markers/
paints/pencils. Encourage
your children to design their
own birthday/Easter cards for
their friends and other family
members.
Playdough recipe.
One great way to keep eve-
ryone busy is by making some
homemade playdough. There
are lots of simple recipes and
methods online, for example
the following: mix two cups
of flour, half a cup of salt,
three quarters of a cup of hot
water and one tablespoon of
cooking oil.
They can all be mixed to-
gether to make a basic play-
dough and if you have food
colouring to hand you can
add a few drops to create col-
oured playdough. If you want
to add more texture, use one
cup of whole meal flour and
one of plain flour.
Don’t worry if your child
decides to taste it, the play-
dough is made from all-nat-
ural ingredients and has so
much salt that most children John Heyes enjoying a read on top of Marina Bay Sands Hotel in
won’t go for a second taste! Singapore last February.
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020
Tributes as Teresa Weafer moves from RDRD
T
n Eoin Meegan
eresa Weafer has been
the driving force be-
hind the Ringsend and
District Response to Drugs
(RDRD) since its inception in
1995. A few short weeks ago,
Teresa stepped down as manag-
er of the project, a position she
held for almost 20 years, to take
up a new and exciting post with
Google.
All those years ago, Teresa
saw the devastation that drugs
were doing to the community
she lived in and loved, and she
had a vision of how that same
community could be trans-
formed and lives saved.
Birthed in somewhat trucu-
lent waters, the RDRD was to
be the vector which would bring
about that change and realise
her vision. And more saliently,
she had the determination and
endurance to see it through.
Establishing the RDRD
wasn’t an easy task. There was
some resistance in the commu-
nity to the organisation when
it was first launched, which
thankfully has now abated. To-
day, the vast majority can see
the benefit the centre brings to
the community, and is fully sup-
portive of it.
“It is a safe place for peo-
ple with addiction problems to
come, where there is no judg-
ment, and where they can talk
freely,” Mary Doolin, who has
taken over as manager from Te-
resa, told NewsFour.
But in the early days many
people didn’t believe there was
a drug problem in Ringsend, or
were in denial about it. The at-
titude at the time was that if you
associated drugs with Ringsend
you were somehow giving the
place a bad name. It was a case
of shooting the messenger.
However, Teresa calmly ne-
gotiated those choppy waters
and was instrumental in bring-
ing various elements of the
community, such as the Gardaí,
local representatives, Church
leaders and so on, together to sit
down and try to find a practical
solution to the problem.
From humble beginnings,
the RDRD grew over the past
25 years. Starting out in Regal
House, formerly a cinema and
now Abundant Grace Christian
Assembly, they later moved to
what is today Spellman House;
this has been their permanent
home ever since. The story of
how they came about acquiring
that building is a touching one,
which Joe Grennell, accounts
manager at RDRD, relates with
some fondness.
“The building originally was
the Bank of Ireland in Irishtown
and it was up for sale, but way
out of the RDRD’s range. Then
Teresa came up with the initia-
tive to write to each of the di-
rectors of the Bank asking them
if they would reduce the ask-
ing price. She explained that
the RDRD was there to serve
the community, that it was a
crucially needed amenity for
many individuals. And, to the
surprise of many the bank not
only agreed, but they reduced
the price substantially, and now
it’s our permanent home.”
In hindsight it’s easy to see
how this ‘miracle’ happened.
Testimonial
Teresa didn’t see grey men in
suits who were concerned only
with money, but decent human
beings who had families of
their own and cared about the
community they lived in. The
end result was that the RDRD
bought the building, renaming
it Spellman House in honour of
Fr Paul Spellman, who along
with Betty Bissett, and Teresa,
was instrumental in establishing
the project.
“She taught us that there is
nothing you can’t achieve if you
have the drive and endurance,”
Mary added.
Teresa started off as a com-
munity Youth Worker, and
worked tirelessly in every role
she had, including when she
became manager of the project.
She would go the extra mile,
often visiting people in their
homes who might have psycho-
logical issues, or who suffered
from agoraphobia and would
not be able to come into the
centre. On other occasions, she
accompanied people to hospital
in an emergency.
“She has endurance,” Joe
said, “whenever Teresa gets in-
volved with something she will
go with it all the way. She is
very skilled at building relation-
ships and was instrumental in
influencing government policy
on drugs, especially around the
Local Drugs Task Force. That
did a lot of good work. Unfor-
tunately,” he added, “it’s being
rolled back now.”
Teresa attended the local tech
in Ringsend, but like so many
others back then didn’t have the
chance to pursue further educa-
tion. She later returned and did
her Leaving Cert at night, and
then went on to do a postgradu-
ate diploma in Addiction and
Conflict Resolution in Trinity
College, and followed that up
with a Masters in Mindfulness
MBSR. She then ran very suc-
cessful Mindfulness classes in
the Spellman Centre, which
earned a chorus of applause
from attendees, many saying
she brought something special
to her courses.
Her approach to Mindfulness
reflected her own inner drive for
perfection. For Teresa, Mindful-
ness is about becoming aware
of what is going on inside your
mind, and carrying that integri-
ty into your daily and work life,
and to all your relationships;
which she herself duly did.
The RDRD’s goal was, and
remains: ‘to support young
people and their families in
Page 3
their struggle to become free of
drugs.’ They run a drugs-free
programme in the mornings,
and a stabilising programme in
the afternoons, as well as facili-
tating a diverse range of volun-
tary, statutory and community
groups, such as GROW, MABS
and Bodywise, to name but a
few.
On top of that, they operate
a drop-in centre which Mary
sees as core to their work. And
just recently they have started
up Personal Freedom, an eight-
week course dealing with men-
tal health.
The project has an 85% suc-
cess rate in getting people off
drugs, a fantastic achievement,
and proof, if any were needed,
that Teresa’s vision worked, and
continues to work, thanks to the
incredibly hard work and com-
mitment from the staff and the
board of management at RDRD.
It’s only fitting that the final
word should go to Mary Doo-
lin: “I don’t believe had I not
met that 20-year-old woman all
those years ago that I would be
sitting in this chair today.” Pro-
found words of tribute.
All who work and frequent
the RDRD will miss Teresa. We
here at NewsFour would also
like to wish her every success in
her new position in Google.
The Spellman Centre is closed
at present due to the Covid-19
outbreak, but when they reopen
you can contact them by tel-
ephone: 01 667 7666 or online
at https://rdrdspellman.wixsite.
com/rdrd/
Photos by Rosalie Sunderland.
 Page 4
What is your legacy?
W
n Eoin Meegan
hat kind of a legacy
do you want to leave?
What do you want to
be remembered for when you’re
gone? These are the kinds of
questions Michael Daly, author
and mentor, likes to ask.
Anyone with even a passing
knowledge of coaching will know
that one powerful question can
change everything. The force of
its power, of its truthfulness can
sometimes take you aback.
So many people sleepwalk
through life, never intentionally
of course, it’s because we’re so
busy doing other things. The
question serves as a wake-up call.
Michael Daly has written two
successful books already and he
has another in the pipeline. His
first The Six Traits of Self-Lead-
ership: How to Create a Life of
Success and Happiness, (2014)
was launched in the University
of Vilnius, Lithuania, and his lat-
est, Conversations in Singapore:
Searching for True Success on
the Silk Road One Question at a
Time (reviewed in the last issue)
looked at society’s skewed no-
tions of success.
His third, which won’t be in the
shops until next year, deals with
the theme of ‘showing your true
colours’. It will consist of an in-
terview with 12 different people
who are living the dream, but it’s
not always the dream that society
Wake Up Irish Poetry
“W
n Geneva Pattison
orkers in the
arts sector de-
serve to enjoy
the same protections as those in
other sectors.”
In February of this year, the
Wake up Irish Poetry website
was launched. The site contains
a public, open letter to the De-
partment of Culture, Heritage
and Gaeltacht and to the Arts
Council, calling for “acceptable
standards of ethics and govern-
ance within the Irish arts sec-
tor.”
The initiative was established
to combat the lack of redress
channels within certain areas of
the Irish creative sector. Wake
Up Irish Poetry is calling for
transparency and accountabil-
ity from all relevant practition-
would wish for them.
While not decrying money or
the conventional trappings of suc-
cess, Michael feels that on their
own, they can be somewhat hol-
low and he would like to see peo-
ple push themselves, dig that little
bit deeper, to uncover their true
calling, because he feels that is so
worthwhile.
He has a passion about people
who make a difference in life,
and has conducted a series of in-
terviews for Phoenix FM, which
he works for occasionally, with
people he believes are making a
difference in their community, in-
cluding former Mountjoy Prison
Governor John Lonergan.
Having trained for eight years
to be a monk, Michael went on to
work as a Youth and Community
worker with the Finglas Youth
Service. While he found the job
satisfying he felt he was doing
too much administration and not
enough of what he felt he was
called to do, that is help others.
One day, he made the decision
to leave, and without a job or any-
thing, he took off travelling. After
spending some time in Greece he
began giving workshops through-
out Europe, and from there got
into mentoring.
“I prefer the term mentoring to
coaching,” he says, “I feel coach-
ing is like something you do to
get you over the small hills, such
as preparing for an interview, but
ers within the Irish arts. This
includes funding bodies, busi-
nesses and individuals that may
have been involved in inequal-
ity, undealt with complaints or
cases of alleged harassment and
bullying.
The open letter was devised
by a group of “arts practition-
ers, publishers and academics”
calling for fair and progressive
change. Currently, the number
of signatures it supports stands
at over 300.
Wake up Irish Poetry is seek-
ing to draw attention to the or-
ganisation MEAS (Measuring
Equality in the Arts Sector) and
their ongoing work to compile
official reports on equality with-
in the Irish arts sector. Estab-
lished by Dr. Kenneth Keating
and Dr. Ailbhe McDaid, MEAS
PROFILE / POETRY
mentoring is like steering a person
to the next level on their journey,
by asking the right questions until
they know what the next step is
for them. What their soul is call-
ing on them to do.”
He has a three-pronged ap-
proach to mentoring:
Firstly, people need to look at
the lives that they are living now,
and secondly determine where
they would like to be in the future.
And from there come up with so-
lutions to bridge the gap. Sim-
ple, but effective. “Today people
can’t tell you what they’re good
at, often because they don’t know
themselves,” he muses.
Michael feels we don’t appre-
ciate each other enough. “85%
of the good we do, we don’t get
to hear about. People don’t cir-
culate the good that is done,” he
says, “either their own or others.”
We are, of course, quick enough
to broadcast things we feel ag-
grieved about. His motto is if you
do the right thing, the right things
in life happen to you.
Feeling gratitude is important.
“If you are not thankful for the
small things you can’t get the big
things. It seems almost too obvi-
ous that, but most people won’t
think of it, or realise it. We need
to choose to focus on what’s go-
ing right in life.”
The metaphor of the journey
seems to appeal to him, perhaps
because he’s made so many. “The
have already published the in-
vestigative enquiries “Gender
in Aosdána”, “Gender in Po-
etry Publishing in Ireland” and
“Poetry Reviews in the Irish
Times”.
NewsFour got in touch with
Kathy of Wake Up Irish Poetry
for further information on the
movement.
Q: As mentioned on your
website, the first aspect of
change within the sector that
you are calling for is “an En-
quiry” into past instances of
harassment, discrimination
and un-addressed complaints.
What reprimanding actions
are you hoping will take place
after the inquest stage?
It’s less about reprimand
for us than it is about making
changes that will ensure that all
www.newsfour.ie
way I see life is someone is walk-
ing ahead of you that you admire.
They have walked a path similar
to the one you’re on, and they are
like a light for you. Meanwhile,
someone is behind you and you
are guiding them. This is crucial,
because as well as receiving we
always have to give back. If we’re
doing spiritual work and we’re
not giving something back, then
we’re only doing it for the ego.
Lastly, there is a person walking
alongside you. This is someone
you can check in with; they tell
you if you’re going off kilter a
bit, like remind you if you failed
to speak your truth sometime, but
always in a non-judgmental way.”
I like the model.
Returning to the question of
legacy, Michael reminisces about
coming back from a friend’s fu-
neral once. “Everyone talked
about the deceased for about 15
minutes and then it was like he
artists and workers in the arts
sector are safe at work in the
future. As we say in the open
letter, removal of individuals
does not solve a systemic prob-
lem. What is needed to make
real change is engagement with
those who have been affected,
collaboration with practitioners
to draw up enforceable codes
of practice, and incentivising
adherence to these – as well
as clear routes, to independ-
ent regulators when necessary,
April / May 2020
was forgotten, like he hadn’t ex-
isted. This saddened me because
he was a really good man, and got
me thinking about the whole lega-
cy thing, about what we leave be-
hind us. Do we just pass through
or do we leave an impression be-
hind?”
In turn, it got me thinking about
the quotation (often mis-attribut-
ed to Henry David Thoreau) by
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
“Many people die with their
music still in them. Why is this
so? Too often it is because they
are always getting ready to live.
Before they know it, time runs
out.”
I think Michael Daly is already
leaving an enduring legacy. Being
in the man’s presence you know
you’re with someone who lives
his truth. I eagerly look forward
to his next book.
Photo courtesy of Michael Daly.
for those with complaints. The
research organisation Measur-
ing Equality in the Arts Sector
(MEAS) is embarking on a pro-
ject to collect accounts of mis-
treatment, sexual harassment
and bullying from practitioners
too, which I hope will highlight
to funding bodies and oversee-
ing institutions how serious and
endemic this issue is. We are
sadly still awaiting a response
from Minister Josepha Madi-
gan to our repeated requests for
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020 EDUCATION / MENTAL HEALTH Page 5

illness can go unnoticed. The learn to look after their own

person doesn’t get the attention mental health. “Just as you are
they need and therefore can feel instructed to put on your own
isolated. “Mental illness can be oxygen mask on an airplane be-
a very silent illness.” Brid re- fore attempting to help others,
minds us. so it is when it comes to helping
In addition to the above pro- those who have mental illness,”

F
n Eoin Meegan
or over 30 years Aware has
been pioneering education,
support and information to
people impacted by depression,
bipolar disorder and other forms
of mental illness throughout
Ireland. This is done primarily
through a variety of programmes
the charity runs nationwide.
Brid O’Meara, former Direc-
tor of Services at St John of
God’s, and now Aware Director
of Services since 2016, outlined
to NewsFour some of these pro-
grammes and services.
“One of the most popular
is the Life Skills Group Pro-
gramme, which is based on
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
(CBT) principles and has been
in operation now for some
years. On this course, people
learn to recognise the connec-
tion between their thoughts,
feelings, and actions, and by
doing so are enabled to make
better decisions in life.”
The course is aimed at people
who are experiencing mild to
moderate depression, stress or
anxiety, and is delivered over
six weeks in 90-minute evening
sessions, with all course materi-
als provided.
The atmosphere is relaxed
and everyone is encouraged to
participate, but not pressured
to do so. Substantially, it has
a 12-month follow-up rating,
with many participants report-
ing significant improvement.
There is also a separate online
version where participants are
assigned to a trained Aware
supporter. This course runs for
eight weeks, but participants
have access to all modules and
course materials for a whole
year.
The Life Skills Programme
for Schools “is broadly simi-
lar to the adult one, except it
is specifically tailored to the
needs of teenagers. It is taught
to pupils between 15 and 18,
and helps instill confidence and
resilience, and also helps them
cope with feelings of anger, and
such like.”
The Wellness@Work course
aims to spread awareness of
mental issues in the workforce,
and get people comfortable talk-
ing about their mental health. It
is generally delivered during
lunch breaks and includes sep-
arate Options for Employees,
and Options for Line Manage-
ment components.
Unlike when you fall and
break your leg and everyone
wants to do things for you (in-
cluding sign your cast), mental
grammes, Aware provides three
separate Support Services:
Group, Telephone and Email
Support.
The Support and Self-Care
Groups is facilitated by two
Aware-trained volunteers and
operates on a drop-in basis. It
takes place in the Aware centre
(9, Upper Leeson Street) every
Sunday at 12 midday. There is
another one held in the Car-
melite Centre, Aungier Street
on Saturdays between 1.00 and
2.30, and in the Central Mis-
sion Hall, Lower Abbey Street
on Monday evenings 7.15-9.00,
and Tuesday lunchtime 1.00-
2.30. No referral is needed, the
service is free, and people can
exchange ideas in a safe and
supportive environment.
The Telephone Support is
open from 10 am until 10 pm
365 days a year and is manned
by Aware volunteers. It is de-
signed to help people 18 years
or over who are worried about
depression, bipolar disorder, or
their general mood, but also if
they are worried about a family
member.
What is involved in becoming
a volunteer? I asked.
“We like people to be good
listeners, and have empathy.
They don’t need any previous
training or qualifications as
Aware provides training to pre-
pare them for the roles. They
are also required to give three
hours a week of their time, and
commit to 18 months; this is
because Aware invests a lot in
the training and they want the
volunteers to stay around. All
volunteers are aged 23 and up,
we even have some in their 80s.
They all know what it’s like to
pick up the phone and make that
call for the first time, so every-
one is treated with sensitivity
and compassion.”
The Email Support is avail-
able at all times, and volunteers
try to get back to people within
24 hours, usually sooner. All
emails are treated in strictest
confidence.
A really innovative pro-
gramme Aware run, and one that
I wasn’t aware of, is the four-
week Relatives and Friends
Programme. This is tailored
specifically for those who are
supporting loved ones going
through depression or bipo-
lar disorder. A crucial compo-
nent of this programme is that
participants are encouraged to
Brid says, “if your own mental
health is compromised then you
are less effective in assisting
others.”
The programme, which is
free, is delivered in a workshop
style and limited to 20 partici-
pants at a time. It attempts to
address the signs and symptoms
of depression and offers a lot of
practical advice as well as skills
and techniques on how to cope.
At the end of the programme
participants get to take away
their own action plan.
There are now an estimated
450,000 people who suffer with
depression annually in Ireland,
and 45,000 with bipolar disor-
der. That’s a staggering figure
and it looks likely to increase.
The World Health Organisation
predicts that by 2030 mental
health will be the single biggest
issue we will be coping with.
We all need to keep informed,
and thanks to excellent courses
like these we can.
If you wish to participate in
any of these programmes, or
just want more information you
can contact Aware at 9, Leeson
Street Upper, or on 016617211.
The support line is 19004848,
or support@aware.ie
Above: Brid O’Meara.

a meeting, at which we wish to
gain her support for a literature
version of the ‘Speak Up – Call
It Out’ initiative which has been
so welcome and successful in
the theatre world.
Q: In your public open let-
ter, there is a huge focus on
improving diversity within
the arts. In what ways can im-
provements be made across
the board regarding inclusiv-
ity?
There are very simple ways
to improve diversity and fair
representation in the arts, but a
serious stumbling block which
has reared its head in the press
recently has been the idea of an
objectively measurable ‘merit’
by which we can evaluate all ar-
tistic production. OF COURSE
your value system is based on
what is familiar to you, your
culture, your society. To deny
that when faced with evidence
of extreme under-representation
of huge swathes of artists, as
has been done recently by es-
tablished commentators who
should know better, is facile and
lazy. We all have to do better to
explore the work of under-rep-
resented artists and to ask our-
selves why certain kinds of art
and writing haven’t made it into
our homes, why certain kinds
of people aren’t sitting around
the table when the decisions are
made, why we think one piece
of art is objectively ‘better’ than
another. There are vicious cy-
cles at work in Ireland whereby
it can be far more difficult for,
for example, a migrant writer
to navigate the coded world of
literary publication, and there-
fore to have the kind of publica-
tion profile that would get them
invited to read at festivals. We
need to acknowledge and ad-
dress these. It is no longer good
enough (and never was) not to
ask, when planning a publica-
tion or literary event, where the
writers of colour, the writers
with disabilities, the LGBT-
QIA+ writers, the women writ-
ers are in your list. It’s no longer
good enough to accept reading
or publication invitations with-
out asking what efforts have
been made by the organiser to
ensure fair representation.
Q: In 2019 the Arts Coun-
cil released their Equality,
Human Rights and Diversity
Policy and Strategy (EHRD).
What are your views on the
EHRD Policy and Strategy?
Does it encompass and pro-
pose enough positive changes
in your opinion?
I think the EHRD document
is a great step forward, and our
recent meeting with the Arts
Council was very positive. It
will be interesting to see how the
goals and aims of the strategy
are followed up on with regard
to individual organisations and
event organisers. It’s lamentable
in this country in general that
we are very good at publishing
aspirational documents which
are only read and engaged with
by those who were already more
or less on the same page, and I
really hope that efforts are made
to properly incentivise organisa-
tions to adhere to the policy in
practice.
Q: Would you like to add
any further comments?
It’s really important to keep
this conversation alive so that
we can continue to fight for real
change, so please sign and share
our open letter at wakeupirish-
poetry.ie and follow the Twitter
hashtag #WakeUpIrishPoetry
for further discussion and news
of upcoming events.
As mentioned in this inter-
view, Wake Up Irish Poetry
have reached out to Minister
Josepha Madigan on several
occasions and are awaiting a
response. NewsFour will fol-
low the situation and report
on any further developments
from Wake Up Irish Poetry.
To read the Wake Up Irish
Poetry open letter or to sign it,
please follow the link below.
http://www.wakeupirishpo-
etry.ie/#
To read the EHRD policy
from the Arts Council, visit
the link below.
http://www.artscouncil.ie/
equality-human-rights-diver-
sity/
Visit the MEAS website be-
low to read their equality re-
ports.
http://measorg.com/
Image courtesy of Pexels.
 Page 6 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020

Element Pictures and BBC to film another Sally Rooney novel

L
n David Prendeville
ocal company Element
Pictures will once again
collaborate with the
BBC on another adaptation
of a Sally Rooney novel. This
Create Hope and Stay Positive with GROW during Covid-19
time they are set to tackle her

O
GROW’s new Mental Health Recovery six-week programme
first novel Conversations with
ne of Ireland’s best known Mental Health service providers, Friends.
GROW Mental Health Recovery, has launched a new initia-
tive to help people cope with the restrictions surrounding the Lenny Abrahamson is once
Coronavirus. again set to be behind the direc-
Following the Government’s decision to impose further restric- tor’s chair, alongside Hettie Mc-
tions in the fight against the Coronavirus ‘Creating Hope and Stay- Donald, following their work
ing Positive during Covid-19’ is being hosted on www.grow.ie and on the imminent 12-episode
will provide information, advice, podcasts, coping techniques and adaptation of Rooney’s highly
fun tasks, centred around looking after our mental health during acclaimed Normal People.
times of social isolation over the course of the next six weeks. The Dublin set novel follows
The premise of the idea is that we are facing the reality that this two college students Frances
is a long-term process and we need advice that will sustain us over and Bobbi, and the strange, un- It has also recently been an- has been lavished with almost
the coming weeks. expected connection they forge nounced that RTE are set to unanimous praise by critics.
Each week, the initiative will deal with a new topic and illus- with a married couple, Melissa screen Normal People some As reported by RTÉ, Ed
trate how adapting the principles and techniques of GROW Mental and Nick. time this Spring. The highly- Guiney of Element Pictures,
Health Recovery can help us cope with the challenges we currently As reported by the BBC, anticipated show stars Daisy said of the dramatization: “All
face. Abrahamson said of the novel: Edgar Jones, Paul Mescal and of us at Element feel so privi-
These principles include, accepting our situation and being able “I love Conversations With Sarah Greene. The show fol- leged to be part of adapting Sal-
to deal with it, taking control of our own situation while getting the Friends, its depth, humour and lows the romantic relationship ly’s extraordinary novel, work-
support of others, along with staying connected, keeping balanced freshness, and it’s an honour to between a couple from their ing once again with the brilliant
in all aspects of our life, and dealing with issues as they arise. be involved in bringing it to the teenage years in Sligo to their Lenny Abrahamson.”
The first week will cover ‘Accepting What Is’ and will be fol- screen. I’m particularly happy time together in Trinity College. Normal People is an Element
lowed by ‘Connecting in Isolation’ and ‘Adopting a Positive Mind- that my connection to Sally Rooney adapted her own Pictures Production for BBC
set’. Week 4 is ‘Create Balance and Routine’, followed by ‘Chal- and her work is set to continue. novel for the screen, alongside Three and Hulu in association
lenge and Self-Care’ before the series concludes with ‘Deal With Making Normal People has Alice Birch and Mark O’ Rowe. with Screen Ireland.
Anxiety’. been a singular pleasure and Rooney’s novel has picked up An exact release date has yet
In launching the initiative, GROW Mental Health Recovery CEO, I’m excited to be working with numerous awards including to be announced.
Michele Kerrigan, outlined the importance of the initiative. the same brilliant team again on Book of the Year at the Brit-
“The outbreak of the Coronavirus has resulted in a great deal of Conversations With Friends.” ish Book Awards 2018, and Above: Sally Rooney.
change to our lives and we all face the challenge of adapting to the
‘new normal’.
“Much of what we knew as being normal has changed. The sim-
ple things like meeting up with a family member or friend for a chat,
AVOCA launches priority food shopping for frontline staff
a playdate for the children, going on holiday, taking part in sport, service will be available seven
pursuing a hobby, or even attending our GROW Support Group days a week, exclusively to
Meetings are no longer available to us. those on the frontline during
“Many of us are missing the challenge and interactions provided this very challenging situation.
by work, school or college and there is no doubt that it can be dif- If collection is not possible,
ficult to adapt to the pressures of families confined to their house. delivery of the At Home Cater-
As a result we are left with a stark choice – we either let ourselves ing Menu is available within
get down and bemoan that fact that life is not what it used to be, or two working days of an order,
we make the most of what is a challenging situation,” explained where customers can add essen-
Michele. tials such as butter, bread, pasta,
“One of the main challenges will be to our mental health and it is meat, milk, eggs and fresh fruit
vital that we take action to look after that part of our lives and that and vegetables.
is why we have put together this information. How to order:

A
“The reality is that the restrictions will be in place for some time
and that is why we wanted to create a resource that people can fol- VOCA has specialised
low over the next six weeks as opposed to one piece of advice. in providing comforting
“We have attempted to make sure it is informative, reassuring and and homely services to
relevant but also challenging and fun, so along with giving infor- customers for decades and has
mation on looking after your mental health, we have also included pledged to go above and beyond
practical tasks. We are encouraging people to get creative during for the community during these
this time and one example of this is providing a weekly recipe that turbulent times by implement-
will allow them to spend time with the family while creating a ing customised shopping servic-
wholesome meal,” continued the CEO. es to the elderly and vulnerable.
“Our podcasts are a new initiative, but it means that people can As a way of offering impor-
access the information when it suits,” added Michele who encour- tant support to the incredible
aged all to visit the site at www.grow.ie to check out the informa- frontline healthcare workers,
tion. AVOCA has launched a dedi-
cated priority shopping and col-
Image courtesy of GROW. lection point for frontline staff
to avail of nourishing food in
a fast and easy manner, while
avoiding contact with other cus-
tomers.
From this weekend, designat-
ed order and collection points
will sit outside the Kilma-
canogue and Rathcoole stores.
Customers in need of a ‘drive
by’ pick up service, can shop
everything from the food market
such as essential groceries, store
cupboard staples and comfort-
ing main meals.
This new priority shopping
Orders can be placed Monday
to Sunday, for home delivery or
collection, by emailing or call-
ing the contact information be-
lows:
For Rathcoole: call 01
2571802 or email Rathcoole-
foodmarket@avoca.com
For Kilmacanogue: call 01
2746951 / 0871861966or email
Kilmac-foodmarket@avoca.
com
For all delivery and col-
lection updates at AVOCA,
please visit https://www.avo-
ca.com/en/news
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020
Interview with local
actor Jack Murphy
I
n David Prendeville
rishtown actor Jack Mur-
phy is fresh off the shoot
of a new short film, Cost
You Nothing, when I caught
up with him to have a chat
about his career. Jack has been
acting since he was a child
and also made history as the
first trans actor/character in an
Irish soap. He played the char-
acter of Ryan Donnelly, who
appeared in Fair City in 2017.
Jack started off his career as
an eight year old on the film
Agnes Browne, which starred
and was directed by Angelica
Houston. “I auditioned for the
part but didn’t get it. Then, I
got a call from the people do-
ing the film and they said (I
was still female at the time)
that the girl playing the char-
acter of Cathy is sick so can
you be her stand-in for two
days. They would collect me
from Ringsend school at 6.30
the next morning.”
“Since then, I got second
lead in my school musical. I
went to St Patrick’s Cathedral
Grammar School in Christch-
urch. It was a very musical
school. I used to do a lot of
singing. I joined a community
drama group when I was 18
– the Ringsend drama group
– so I did three or four plays
with them.”
Jack started transitioning
when he was 24: “From then
on, I’ve been a trans advo-
cate. I’ve been doing a lot of
work with Teni – Transgender
Equality Network Ireland and
I’ve been giving talks to Be-
LonG To, the youth service,
about being transgender and
about what it’s like to come
out and how its OK and what
it was like for me coming out.”
It was around this time that
RTÉ started to take notice:
“RTÉ approached me and said
we’re looking to do a part of
a trans character coming into
Carrigstown, would you be
interested in auditioning? I
said definitely. I went down
to RTÉ to audition. Less than
a day later, they told me I got
the part.”
Jack speaks in glowing
terms about his time on the
show: “It was a fantastic expe-
rience. I would go back there
in a heartbeat. It was the best
time I had. They couldn’t have
looked after me any better.”
I asked Jack how he feels
about issues of representation
in film and the arts and how
important it is that trans peo-
ple are played by trans actors.
He cites the recent example of
the controversy surrounding
Scarlett Johannsen being set
to play the part of a trans man
in the film Rub and Tug. Jo-
hannsen subsequently dropped
out.
“I think it’s very important.
I know there was a lot going
on about Scarlett Johanssen.
Fair play to her she stepped
down. In the end we’re all ac-
tors, we’re acting, we’re play-
ing a part so I did see her side
of things as well. I saw both
sides of it. She was playing
a part and she would’ve been
playing a part. When I saw it
I thought, no, that’s not right.
Then I kind of saw it from
a different angle and then
thought it was OK because
she’s an actress and that’s not
a big deal, y’know? Because
LOCAL / CULTURE
we’re all acting, playing a
role. But it is very important
for trans people to be seen and
a lot of trans people don’t get a
lot of jobs. Walking by me on
the street you wouldn’t know I
was trans. I wouldn’t also just
go for trans roles. But I find
it really important that there is
representation, because there
aren’t that many trans actors
out there.”
Jack speaks passionately
about the aforementioned
short he’s just wrapped on:
“It’s about a trans man who
has a tense relationship with
his mother and who returns for
a tense family reunion, hoping
to build a bridge, but things
don’t go to plan. My character
is called Alex and my mother
doesn’t aceept me because I’m
transgender. I go away to Lon-
don to transition. I’m coming
home after four years because
my aunty is coming back to
visit for her birthday. My
mother doesn’t accept me for
the man I am. The director was
looking for a trans man for the
role. And when she saw me
online and was following me
online, my journey, she saw
me and said I’d be perfect for
the part.”
Jack feels the film has a
powerful message for the trans
Page 7
community: “I didn’t have the
experience Alex went through,
thankfully. I have a very un-
derstanding family. But put-
ting myself in Alex’s shoes
was important for me because
I want to say at least 80% of
transgender people go through
that with their families. I
think this film will really hit
home to a lot of trans people.
There’s a lot that happens in
the film that they will say hap-
pened to me.”
The role wasn’t without its
challenges: “I had to do some-
thing in the film that I’d never
had to do. I’m six years on tes-
tosterone now and I’ve never
had to do this in my entire
time on it and I did it on cam-
era - I had to shave my beard.
That was possibly the hard-
est thing I’ve ever had to do.
Because my beard is like my
safety blanket. I felt if people
saw me without my beard that
they’d think I was female. All
I kept saying to myself was do
it for the film, the love of act-
ing. You’ll see in the film it’s
real emotional. It’s real emo-
tion when I shave it. I know it
doesn’t sound like a big deal
but it was a huge deal to me.
But the film is great. It tells
a true story and it really hits
home. It’s really good.”
The film is aiming to be fin-
ished in time for the GAZE
Film Festival in the summer.
Jack is hoping to organise a
community screening prior to
that. We look forward greatly
to seeing the film and follow-
ing Jack’s career in the future.
From left: Jack with Carrie
Crowley in Fair City.
As a girl with Angelica Hou-
ston on the set of the film
Agnes Browne.
Photos courtesy of Jack
Murphy.
 Page 8
Through Her Eyes:
A new history of Ireland in 21 women
A
n Geneva Pattison
uthor and journalist,
Clodagh Finn, invites
us to travel through time
and pay tribute to 21 ground-
breaking Irish women in her
book ‘Through Her Eyes: A new
history of Ireland through 21
women’. When learning about
Ireland’s History we’re often pre-
sented with a large proportion of
male-centric tales, the legends of
ancient kings, revolutionary war
heroes and academics that chal-
lenged us to think differently.
However, Clodagh’s work docu-
ments the bravery, innovation
and unrelenting drive of Ireland’s
sometimes overlooked histori-
cally influential women.
The book is chronological
and reaches as far back as 3600
BC, to a woman named only as
‘The Woman of the Burren’. She
would have been among the first
farmers to settle in Ireland some
6000 years ago, travelling all
the way from Turkey. She lived
an exceedingly harsh life as one
might expect, but managed to
live to an estimated age of 55
years old.
This was several decades longer
than the average life expectancy
for a woman during the Neolithic
period. It’s something worth cele-
brating when you consider that 55
years back then, is the equivalent
of reaching 100 years old now.
Something definitely deserving
of a letter of congratulations from
the President, wouldn’t you say?
Another intriguing entry comes
in the form of St Dahalin’s sto-
ry. She was an early Irish saint
and miracle worker who existed
around 500 AD. St Dahalin lived
in a convent with a group of nuns
in Kerry and upon hearing news
of raiders approaching went out to
meet them head on.
Records say she struck them
blind where they stood, leav-
ing them helpless. This defiant
act saved her fellow nuns’ lives.
The raiders begged for their vi-
sion to be restored and Dahalin
took pity, leading them to a well
to wash their eyes and cure them.
She was no fool though, first she
made them promise to give up
their criminal ways before help-
ing them. A wise move indeed.
There was another account of a
female saint from Dahalin’s time
called St Canir. Accounts tell that
she walked on water, after re-
ceiving a vision that told her she
should die and be buried on Scat-
tery Island. Unfortunately, the Is-
land had a monastic settlement on
it and women were forbidden to
travel there. Upon arrival at Scat-
tery Island, St Canir challenged
one monk, St Senán, and the ar-
gument was noted down in The
Book of Lismore.
St Canir said: “Christ came to
redeem women no less than to re-
deem men. He did not suffer less
for the sake of women than for the
sake of men. Women have given
humble service and ministra-
tion to Christ and to his apostles.
Women then, no less than men,
enter into the Kingdom of Heav-
en. Why, then, would you not take
women to you onto your island?”
St Senán didn’t have any pro-
found rebuttals to her logic and
they eventually gave in and al-
lowed her to die and be buried on
the island. The author points out
that in our long history of a male-
dominated church, you don’t of-
ten see accounts documenting the
voices of lesser-known female
saints, never mind one so adept
at debating women’s rights re-
garding church matters in the 6th
century. It’s a truly captivating
tale and one that could have taken
place today (and thankfully, does
take place today).
You’ve most likely heard of
Robert Boyle, the Irish chem-
ist largely regarded as one of
the founding fathers of modern
chemistry. However, you may
have heard less about his gifted
BOOK REVIEW
older sister Katherine Jones, also
known as Lady Ranelagh.
She came of age during a time
when reading and writing was
still seen as untoward skills for a
lady to hold. Yet, she went against
her father’s wishes and educated
herself. This led to her becoming
one of the most powerful women
in the scientific and philosophical
circles of high society during the
17th century.
There was a very exclusive
gathering of intellectuals called
the ‘Hartlib Circle’ made up of
766 members. Finn highlights in
this particular section that Lady
Ranelagh, out of the 766 mem-
www.newsfour.ie
bers in total, was the seventh most
important person out of the entire
collective. That final deduction
was derived from mathematical
analysis of the surviving letters
between the Hartlib circle mem-
bers.
Lady Ranelagh was operat-
ing at the very centre of innova-
tion at the time. Politicians, and
even royalty sought her council
with regards to political and edu-
cational reform. She also estab-
lished a reputation as a consulting
physician and eventually had a
laboratory built in the garden of
her London home, where she con-
cocted many of her remedies.
April / May 2020
Her brother Robert eventually
came to live with her and they
collaborated for over two decades
on scientific studies. There’s a lot
more to Lady Ranelagh’s story,
especially the difficulties in her
early life, something Clodagh
Finn connects to Lady Ranelagh’s
future passions in excellent detail.
‘Through Her Eyes’ also tells
the story of an Irish woman who
disguised herself as a man and
fought in the American Civil War.
Jennie Hodgers, originally from
Clogherhead, Laois, served her
full three-year term in the Ameri-
can army. She posed as a man
named Albert Cashier and stated
her occupation was farming.
Despite the close quarters, the
secret was never exposed dur-
ing the entire tour of duty. As the
Americans were so desperate for
recruits at the time, the medical
exams wouldn’t have been ex-
tremely thorough and a woman
would have passed unseen.
The author imparts a wonderful
story of Albert’s time as a soldier,
regarding when they were cap-
tured by the enemy side. Albert
was discovered while out on re-
connaissance one night and taken
hostage. He managed to seize one
of the guard’s guns, knocked him
down and ran back to camp. Not
bad for someone who was five
feet three inches tall.
This story is also vitally impor-
tant as an integral part of trans
history. Although it cannot be
known for certain what gender
Albert ultimately identified with,
History is often rife with trans
erasure. Now is the time for final-
ly acknowledging and celebrating
the great achievements, struggles
and sheer bravery of the trans
community throughout the ages.
There are so many fascinat-
ing vignettes and inspiring ac-
counts of women’s lives in this
book. From the Celtic queens of
antiquity and 19th century alpine
mountaineers to pioneering bio-
technologists of the 21st century,
we get a refreshing glimpse into
Ireland’s hidden ‘herstory’.
Any lovers of history will thor-
oughly enjoy this book, from eve-
ry perspective. Clodagh Finn’s
exciting book truly allows us to
lift the screen on the convention-
al, walk in someone else’s shoes
and experience Ireland’s broader
past through her eyes.
‘Through Her Eyes: A New
History of Ireland Through 21
Women’ is published by Gill
books and available from Books
on the Green and all good book-
stores.
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020 Page 9

The NewsFour Crossword ……Compiled by Gemma Byrne

To print out this crossword form on your home (A4 size) printer:
In the print dialog box, select ‘Print page 9’ and ‘Scale page to fit’
before pressing Return key.
Remember to print out extra copies for neighbours and friends
(subject to health and proximity regulations).

ACROSS:
1) Trials and these are sent to test you (12)
8) Enthralled with a metal fastener? (7)
9) Passes, like time (7)
12) One of Robin Hood’s Merry Men (5, 4)
13) Saying/proverb (5)
14) Fitting (3)
15) Detective (6)
17) Japanese three lined poem (5)
18) Surpass (5)
20) Decompose (3)
21) Silver (2)
22) Put into practice (5)
24) Piece of land like Innisfree or Dogs (4)
26) Transactions that reduce an outstanding loan (10)
28) Rich Italian meat sauce (4)
29) Modern day bed warmer (8, 7)

DOWN:
1) Charity Shop, USA style (6, 5)
2) Bill (7)
3) Say (5)
4) Fervour (6)
5) Winter sport (3-7)
6) Drain of energy (3)
7) A place to shoot hoops (10, 5)
10) Not very professional (10)
11) Total guesswork, with a dagger? (4, 2, 3, 4)
16) Also (3)
17) Negotiate a price (6)
Name:………………………………………… Telephone:…………………………
19) Walk wearily (7)
23) Plaything (3)
25) Excruciating meeting of toe and furniture (4)
Address:………………………………………………………………………………
26) National broadcaster (1.1.1)
27) Sea, en Francais (3)

Solutions for FEBruary / MARCH 2020 Crossword

Across:
1) Tempestuous; 6) Ink; 8) Icarus; 9) Pro-
poser; 10) Utilitarian; 11) Rua; 12) Egg;
13) Piglet; 15) Lag; 17) Uganda; 18) Dyed;
19) Cue; 20) Lilac; 23) Stifle; 25) Heel; 26)
Due; 27) Recoils; 28) Merino; 29) Prepay-
ment; 30) Shy.
Prize of €25 book token. Post entries to
Down:
NewsFour, 13A Fitzwilliam Street, Ring-
1) Tricuspid; 2) Meaningless; 3) Erudite;
send, Dublin 4 by 22nd May 2020.
4) Unparalleled; 5) Supine; 6) Insurgent; 7)
The winner of our February/March cross-
Karmachameleon; 14) Tactfully; 16) Guil-
word competition is Elizabeth Berkery,
lemot; 21) Charts; 22) Syrup; 24) Troop,
Sandymount.
 Page 10
Human Rights in Film
Awards at the RHA
T
n Peter McNamara
he Irish Council for Civil
Liberties (ICCL) recently
held its Ninth annual Hu-
man Rights in Film Awards at
the Royal Hibernian Academy,
just off St. Stephen’s Green. The
awards show formed part of the
opening ceremony of the Vir-
gin Media Dublin International
Film Festival.
Taking place on Friday March
9th, this event – and indeed in
the entire Dublin International
Film Festival – was one of the
last to escape the current series
of closures.
Indeed, the night was a great
success for the ICCL. The
packed-out crowd at the RHA
enjoyed wine and refreshments,
watched inspiring clips from
the five films that were up for
an award, and were treated to a
special appearance by Game of
Thrones actor, Liam Cunning-
ham, who received the first ever
ICCL Lifetime Contribution to
Human Rights Award, for his
ongoing humanitarian work.
Five inspirational films, one
fine location
The RHA made for an im-
pressive backdrop to the night’s
festivities. The spacious modern
building, with its white walls,
high ceilings, and soft natural
lighting made for a pleasant lo-
cation. The awards show was
held in the ground floor gallery:
rows and rows of clear plastic,
modern-looking chairs faced
towards a wide stage, with two
large screens at either end, and a
pair of red armchairs in the mid-
dle.
Chatting and laughing, peo-
ple milled into the room to take
their seats, with some pausing to
look at the paintings, sculptures,
and photographs that adorn the
walls of the RHA gallery. All in
all, it made for a fitting space to
consider the finer points of hu-
man nature, our potential for
compassion, courage, and im-
agination.
The night formally kicked-off
with a welcoming speech from
the host, Virgin Media TV’s
Collette Fitzpatrick. It’s the sec-
ond year that Virgin Media have
helped support this award, and in
her speech Fitzpatrick stressed
their commitment to ensuring
the ICCL awards became an
annual institution. She then in-
troduced life-long human rights
campaigner Ailbhe Smith, who
received a round of applause as
she took to the stage.
Smith, who spent almost thir-
ty years working for the Repeal
movement, among many other
causes, was chair of the jury for
the 2020 awards. She was tasked
with introducing a clip from
each of five nominated films,
and announcing the overall win-
ner of the Ninth ICCL Human
Rights in Film Award. Joining
CULTURE
her on the jury was Brendan
Courtney (broadcaster and
fashion designer), Andrea Ho-
ran (campaigner and presenter
of the United Ireland podcast),
Bulelani Mfaco (spokesperson
for the Movement of Asylum
Seekers in Ireland), and Ao-
ife Kelleher (film director and
writer).
And the winner is…
The gong on the night went
to Irish film, Herself, with a
special commendation going
to Street Leagues, another Irish
film. Both films deal with the is-
sue of homelessness.
www.newsfour.ie
Herself, directed by Phillyda
Lloyd, tells the story of Sandra,
a young Dublin mother strug-
gling to provide her two young
daughters with a home to grow
up in. When it becomes clear
that the local council won’t pro-
vide that home, Sandra decides
to build it herself from scratch.
Street Leagues, directed by
Daniel Holmes, follows the men
and women of the Irish Home-
less Street Leagues as they over-
come homelessness and addic-
tion through the power of sport.
The film documents their jour-
ney to playing in the Homeless
World Cup and features Colin
Farrell, who is an ambassador
for the street leagues.
The three films that missed
out were worthy nonetheless.
Hearts and Bones is a feature
film that follows a war photog-
rapher and a South Sudanese
refugee who become friends in
Western Sydney and find much
in common despite their differ-
April / May 2020
ences.
Santiago Italia is set during
the Chilean coup d’etat which
led to Augusto Pinochet’s dicta-
torship and focuses on efforts by
the Italian embassy to relocate
those endangered by the regime.
Told through the stories of sur-
vivors, it’s an inspiring expres-
sion of hope in terrible circum-
stances.
And finally, Balloon is the lat-
est film from Tibetan director
and author Pema Tseden, whose
previous film Jinpa won Best
Screenplay Award in Venice’s
Horizons section last year. The
film is quasi-documentary style
and follows a Tibetan sheep
farming family through a seis-
mic event.
Phillyda Lloyd received her
award from Ailbhe Smith, ex-
pressed her gratitude to the jury,
and gave an impassioned speech
about the plight of the homeless
in Ireland, which was met with
a rousing ovation. It was then
the task of Collete Fitzpatrick
to introduce the inaugural ICCL
Lifetime Contribution Award.
From the Seven Kingdoms to
war-torn Syria
The new award is intended
to honour a person in the film
industry who has used their
platform to passionately advo-
cate for a better world. It was
presented on-stage to Liam
Cunningham by Syrian refugee
Husam Alhraki, in acknowl-
edgement of the actor’s partic-
ular interest and campaigning
work on the rights of migrants
and refugees. Liam first encoun-
tered Husam as a child, when
the actor was visiting refugees
in Jordan with child-focused
overseas aid agency, World Vi-
sion.
Liam Cunningham’s humani-
tarian work has included fund-
raising and advocacy work for
migrants and refugees in South
Sudan, Syria and Greece. While
in Greece, he called on EU lead-
ers to do much more for the peo-
ple who are stranded there. He
is currently an ambassador for
World Vision.
“It’s an honour for me to re-
ceive this award,” Cunningham
told the crowd. “The Irish Coun-
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020
cil for Civil Liberties have been
working to make Ireland a freer
and better country for almost
half a century. And it comes at a
really important moment, when
Europe is literally allowing ref-
ugees to die on our borders. We
need to stand up against this,” he
added, “to assert that the Europe
and the Ireland we want to live
in are places that offer refuge to
people who need our help.”
The crowd watched a short
film about the actor’s com-
mitment to the welfare of the
young refugee, Husam Alhraki.
As a child, Alhraki fled the rav-
ages of the Syrian civil war for
Germany, with some help from
Cunningham and World Vision.
The film included a clip of the
CNN coverage of the actor’s
efforts, and culminated with an
emotional meeting between the
two, years later.
After being shown some
compassion and trust, Alhraki
managed to securely establish
himself in Berlin, with a decent
job and a wonderful grasp of the
language. When the film ended,
Cunningham and Alhraki sat
down in the armchairs on stage,
to talk about the young man’s
plans for the future, and the
many others like him in Syria
that are so deserving of assis-
tance.
As the night came to a close,
ICCL director Liam Herrick
emphasised the importance of
film as a medium for spreading
messages about human rights.
He went on to thank all those
involved in the show, and in-
vited guests to stay for another
drink or two. Unfortunately
Cummingham and Alhraki had
to hurry out: they were due to
appear on the Late Late Show
later that same night.
I spoke with Liam Herrick
soon after the show, about the
purpose of the ICCL awards,
and his plans for the future of
the event, and of the Irish Coun-
cil for Civil Liberties itself.
“Well,” he told me, “we pre-
sented this award to Liam be-
cause of his passionate and
outspoken advocacy for mi-
grants and refugees, as well as
his fearlessness in pointing out
injustice and naming the sys-
tems that are to blame for it. We
need people like Liam who are
unafraid to use their platform
to help protect our freedoms.
These freedoms we take for
granted are actually very frag-
ile. Especially in these turbu-
lent times.”
The ICCL: Champions of
freedom
Not since the Emergency,
during the Second World War,
have we seen the kind of up-
heaval that’s come in the last
few weeks. Herrick was speak-
ing on March 8th, before the
real thrust of the current crisis
came to bear. And it’s at times
like these that we need organi-
sations like the ICCL most of
all.
Their highly-trained staff
pored over the new emergency
legislation that the government
quickly enacted to fight the
Coronavirus (among the new
measures, mass gatherings have
been banned, and the authori-
ties can detain anyone with the
virus who refuses to self-isolate
to help limit its spread). The
ICCL ensured the legislation
was proportionate to the prob-
lem, and helped secure a date
for when the new powers will
be revoked: November 9th.
For over four decades, the
Irish Council for Civil Liber-
ties has been fighting for the
rights of ordinary people, and
watching over the powers-that-
be. Set up in 1976, by a young
Mary Robinson, among others,
the council was formed “to pro-
mote human rights, to protect
civil liberties, recover them
where they have been removed,
and enlarge them where they
have been diminished.”
The ICCL is Ireland’s oldest
independent human rights cam-
paigning organisation. They
monitor, educate and campaign
to secure human rights for eve-
ryone in Ireland, and further
afield. From the outset, they
fought for greater Garda over-
CULTURE
sight during the Troubles, when
human rights and civil liberties
were being thrown by the way-
side.
The Council also decided to
campaign for equality for wom-
en and childrenʼs rights and
– not a popular position at the
time – the rights of psychiatric
patients and an end to capital
punishment.
The 1970s was a time of a
rapid improvement in womenʼs
rights. The organisation was one
of the first to publicly oppose
the anti-choice Eight Amend-
ment to the constitution in the
1983 referendum. In 2018, the
Coalition to Repeal the Eighth,
which was based in ICCLʼs of-
fices, merged with the National
Womenʼs Council of Ireland
and the Abortion Rights Cam-
paign, to create the successful
‘Together For Yesʼ campaign,
which saw repeal of the Eight
Amendment from Bunreacht na
hÉireann.
The ICCL has also played a
pivotal role in supporting LG-
BTQ+ rights. With the election
of Senator David Norris to its
executive board, they nailed
their (rainbow) colours to the
mast, something that was not
popular in 1980s Ireland.
In 1990, it published the
ground-breaking Equality Now
for Lesbians and Gay Men,
which forensically charted the
discrimination and prejudice
faced by lesbians and gay men
in Ireland, which played a cen-
tral role in achieving decrimi-
nalisation of homosexuality in
1993.
The 2015 ‘Yes Equality’ cam-
paign was run in large part by
the organisation, which saw
62% of the Irish population vote
in favour of Marriage Equality.
For the last four decades they
have done tireless work in the
areas of victims’ rights, judicial
reform, racism and intolerance,
as well as bringing to light is-
sues around censorship and
freedom of expression in Ire-
land.
In addition, they have been a
leader when it comes to polic-
ing rights – the organisation
were one of the first groups to
call for an independent Garda
complaint procedure. As a re-
sult of ICCL advocacy, the the
Garda Ombudsman was set up
in 2005, and the Policing Au-
thority in 2015.
The special power of film
Forty-two years later, the
Irish Council for Civil Liber-
ties remains a major voice in
Page 11
campaigning for human rights
and civil liberties in Ireland and
abroad, and the Human Rights
in Film Award is part of their
mission.
“Film is an incredible me-
dium through which to spread
ideas,” the organisation director
Liam Herrick told me. “With
this award we want to celebrate
the special role that film has in
reaching out to audiences, in the
name of a good cause.”
For the last nine years, the
Human Rights in Film Award
has been a way for the ICCL to
reach out to people in the film
industry, to help encourage doc-
umentary-makers, script writ-
ers, producers and directors, to
use the platform they have to
tell the stories that really matter.
A powerful movie can make
a viewer vividly see and under-
stand the plight of others, in a
way they won’t soon forget.
They can show us the darkness
in our world, while at the same
time, point us to our higher po-
tential.
“With this award,” Liam Her-
rick added, “we want to bring
human rights messages to new
audiences, and to raise aware-
ness of the work of the Irish
Council for Civil Liberties. Un-
like many NGOs in this coun-
try, the ICCL receives no gov-
ernment support whatsoever.”
Liam pauses to smile: “And we
like it that way. It means we can
speak with fierce independence
about injustice, when and where
we see it.”
“For that reason,” he says,
before heading to mix with the
crowd at the RHA, “we are en-
tirely reliant on donations from
our members and supporters.
They make possible every sin-
gle thing we do.”
The work of the ICCL is not
easy or quick. It requires ex-
pertise, patience and financial
resources. You might consider
making a one-off or a regular
donation to the organisation. Or
you can become a participatory
member or volunteer.
Contact the office on 01 799
4504 or email info@iccl.ie if
you have any queries. 
Page 8, top: Actor Liam Cun-
ningham and Husam Alhraki,
and the Lifetime Contribution
award trophy.
This page, top: The jury for the
2020 film award, left to right:
Bulelani Mfaco, Andrea Horan,
Brendan Courtney, Aoife Kelle-
her, and Ailbhe Smith.
 Page 12
Best ‘staying in’
streaming options
I
n David Prendeville
n these trying times one
small consolation is the
wealth of films available
to us at the click of a button.
Here I look at a small portion
of some of the best films to
stream or streaming platforms
available to viewers to gorge
on over the coming weeks:
Vivarium
In this Irish film, produced
by Fantastic Films and distrib-
uted by local company Wild-
card, Imogen Poots and Jesse
Eisenberg star as a couple who
get stuck in a labyrinthe-like
housing estate.
Dubliner Lorcan Finnegan’s
satirical horror has received
strong reviews on the festival
circuit, not least at its premiere
in Critics’ Week at Cannes last
year. The film was set to be re-
leased in cinemas at the end of
March, but was instead moved
on to streaming subsequent
to the coronavirus pandemic.
Available from Volta.ie, Cur-
zon Home Cinema, ITunes
and most streaming platforms.
Volta.ie
Element’s video-on-demand
platform is a valuable re-
source, not only for catching
up with new arthouse releas-
es, but also for the extensive
catalogue of older, hard-to-get
Irish films it has in its library.
The film debuts of Cathal
Black – Pigs (1986) – and Pad-
dy Breathnach – Ailsa (1994)
– are particularly fascinating
pieces, ripe for re-discovery.
ByNWR.com
This magnificent site, set
up by Danish auteur Nicolas
Winding Refn, allows viewers
free access to a host of rare B-
movies and oddities plucked
from Refn’s own private col-
lection. This is an invaluable
resource for cinephiles and of-
fers a wealth of diverse treats.
Too Old to Die Young
Sticking with Refn for a mo-
ment, now might be a good
time to catch up on this vast
opus, which was released on
Amazon Prime last year. The
sheer size of the project – each
episode is roughly the length
of a feature in itself – coupled
with its slow pace, seemed to
put many people off it. For
patient viewers, however, this
is a show that offers rich re-
wards, and one that is likely to
FILM
be a cult classic in the future.
Available on Amazon Prime.
Blue Velvet
Why not quell the disap-
pointment of the cancellation
of the David Lynch season in
the Light House cinema by
enjoying one of the master
director’s best works? Kyle
MacLachlan, Isabella Ros-
selini and Dennis Hopper are
all superb in this masterpiece.
A film you’re certain to never
forget. Available on Netflix.
Videodrome
Another monumental 80s
work from a master director
to recently arrive on Netflix.
David Cronenberg’s extraor-
dinarily prescient body-horror
has much to say about how we
consume media and features
a raft of wholly unforgettable
imagery. James Woods and
Deborah Harry have never
been better.
Good Time/Uncut Gems
The Safdie Brothers are
among the most exciting
young directors to come out of
America in recent times. You
can catch their two most re-
cent films on Netflix – the re-
cent, white-knuckle gambling
thriller Uncut Gems, starring
Adam Sandler and the even
better Good Time – a darkly
comic urban nightmare star-
ring Robert Pattinson.
Mistress America
Fans of Greta Gerwig and
Noah Baumbach should check
out this criminally underseen
screwball comedy. Gerwig co-
writes and stars, while Baum-
bach directs. Funny, utterly
charming and genuinely up-
lifting. Available on Netflix.
Mubi
This wonderful site offers
a superb selection of 30 art-
house films, with a new film
being added each day. They
are currently offering an as-
tonishingly good deal of three
months for 1 euro. The site has
some wonderfully created pro-
grammes such as The Crimes
of Jean Pierre Melville and
www.newsfour.ie
Outlaw Auteur:Joseph Losey.
Highly recommended.
The Truth
Palme D’or winning director
Hirokazu Kore-eda assembles
an extraordinary cast – Cath-
erine Deneuve, Juliette Bino-
che, Ethan Hawke – for his
first film outside his native
Japan. It has received warm
plaudits on the festival circuit
and most recently played at
the Virgin Media Dublin Inter-
national Film Festival. Avail-
able on Curzon Home Cinema.
Bacurau
Like The Truth and Vi-
varium, this is a film that has
seen its theatrical window cast
asunder by the current situa-
tion. The great Udo Kier and
Sonia Braga star in this highly
acclaimed, ultra-violent Bra-
zilian western/horror/satire
by directors Juliano Dornelles
and Kleber Mendonça Filho
(the latter of which directed
the admired Aquarius in 2016
and was recently present at
the Dublin International Film
Festival). Available on Curzon
Home Cinema and Mubi.
Shudder
This terrific site is a delight
for fans of horror. It offers a
April / May 2020
month’s free trial to begin with
and offers plans from 4.17 per
month beyond that. Features
a wide array of horror films
from art horror to cult classics
to more mainstream fare. Eye-
catching exclusives include
the revered, micro-budget
Japanese horror-comedy One
Cut of the Dead.
Dark Touch
One of Shudder’s stand-
out titles is Marina De Van’s
criminally underseen Irish-
shot horror. A disquieting
and ambitious picture. It’s a
shame that no streaming ser-
vice currently offers De Van’s
astounding debut In My Skin.
She is an artist who deserves
more recognition.
Images
Robert Altman’s fascinating
Irish-shot curio, is a visceral
and disturbing depiction of a
descent into madness. All too
hard to find over the years,
now is a great time for it to be
revalued and its place in the
great director’s canon reas-
sessed. Features a great per-
formance by Susannah York.
Available on Shudder.
Brain Damage
Another Shudder high-
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020
light is this utterly hilarious,
outrageous and grotesque
horror-comedy from Frank
Henenlotter, director of icon-
ic cult-film Basket Case.
Force Majeure
Curzon Home Cinema are
offering a special deal to rent
Ruben Ostlund’s satire for
just 99p. Recently remade
in the US with Will Ferrell,
people would be advised to
stick to the scabrous Swedish
original.
Sunderland Til I Die
Football fans can get their
fix with this highly acclaimed
documentary which fol-
lows the plight of the North-
East club after relegation to
League One. Season Two is
just about to start on Netflix.
Season One is also available.
First Reformed
Paul Shrader made a trium-
phant return to form with this
magisterial, prescient and ut-
terly powerful drama. Ethan
Hawke has never been better.
Available on Netflix
You Were Never Really
Here
Lynne Ramsey’s vigilante
drama is a masterclass in the
direction. There is not a sin-
gle shot wasted in it’s lean
89-minute duration. Features
a superb performance from
Joaquin Phoenix. Available
on Netflix
Sisters
Brian De Palma’s terrific
Hitchockian thriller is full
of his usual dynamic visual
tropes and twisty revelations.
Features a great Bernard Her-
mann score. Available on
Mubi and Shudder
Climax
The great enfant terrible
Gaspar Noe returned to form
after the somewhat disap-
pointing Love with this pul-
sating dance horror. With a
brilliant soundtrack featur-
ing the likes of Aphex Twin
and Daft Punk, and a terrific
central turn from Sofia Bou-
tella, this formally audacious
nightmare is a must-see.
Available on Netflix
IFI Player
Featuring a wealth of fas-
cinating, educational and
entertaining content. From
the Radharc Collection to
the brilliantly eccentric
films of Roy Spence to The
Bord Failte Collection to an
array of old adverts. Here
one is provided a wonder-
ful snapshot of Irish culture,
audiovisual and otherwise,
throughout various points in
history.
https://ifiplayer.ie/
Left from page 12:
David Cronenberg, Greta
Gerwig and Nicolas Winding
Refn.
Images: Wiki Commons.
HEALTH / PHYSIO
Help for those with aching joints
M
n Eoin Meegan
uscular and joint pain
is, unfortunately,
something all too
many people are familiar with,
and can range from being mildly
irritable to downright debilitat-
ing. However, there may be re-
lief on the horizon in the form
of a relatively new treatment
known as neuromuscular thera-
py, or neuroconnective therapy.
Recently NewsFour met neu-
romuscular therapist Bev Porri-
no, who works out of the Elbow-
room in Brunswick Street. Bev
describes the science of neuro-
muscular therapy as a “method
that helps the body to align itself
with the nervous system.”
During a typical session Bev
usually starts off testing the
muscles for strength, flexibility
and resilience. The reason for
this, she says, is to know what
the body is doing now and learn
where to go from here.
Muscle testing, also referred to
as kinesiology, determines if one
part of the body is compensating
for another; that is doing work it
shouldn’t be doing. For example,
back muscles sometimes com-
pensate for impaired hip or glutes
to propel us forward, which will
inevitably lead to back pain and
poor posture.
Having found the source, the
therapist can then activate certain
myofascial points in the body
(facia are fibrous bands clus-
tered around muscles, ligaments
and tendons) through kneading,
and thereby relieve the pain and
bring the body back into align-
ment.
“When there is pain it is often
the body telling us that something
is not right,” Bev says, “this may
result from an injury or accident,
but it can also have an emotional
or psychological basis.” The
pain is usually a result; the cause
sometimes can have its origin in
a trauma or event that happened
in childhood, or perhaps in an
ongoing situation in our current
home or work environment.
Neuromuscular therapy is a
mind-body discipline that ac-
knowledges the integrity of the
musculoskeletal and the neuro-
logical systems, and recognises
that you can’t do something to
one without impacting on the
other. In this way it is intrinsi-
cally holistic.
Bev’s work draws on that of
Douglas Heel, a pioneer in this
field, and creator of the Be Acti-
vated program. Heel has worked
with a number of celebrities,
including the South African
Springboks. Be Activated segre-
gates the body into three separate
zones for purposes of analyses.
Zone 1 is confined to the pelvic
area, zone 2 the area down to the
knees and up to the solar plexus,
and zone 3 covers everything be-
low the knee and the upper body.
“Neuroconnective therapy,” Bev
says, “interrupts poor neuro-
muscular patterns and delivers a
systematic method to reawaken
muscles that have become con-
fused and switched off.”
Bev’s passion is to help peo-
ple understand how amazing
their bodies are, and how quickly
they can change emotional states
and override muscle tension and
stress in the mind and body.
A Mancunian by birth, she
lived for many years in Amster-
dam, before relocating to Dublin
in 2012, where she’s been living
since. Drawing from many heal-
ing and therapeutic modalities,
including elements of Be Acti-
vated and Bio Hatha yoga, which
she’s been teaching for 25 years,
Bev is a highly experienced and
intuitive healer.
“The nervous system is like
any other electrical circuit, it will
find the quickest route to where
the demand is called for, and
sometimes this demand is com-
ing from the wrong place. It’s
like when a fuse blows the elec-
tric circuitry in your home and
someone rewires it, but they do it
wrong,” she says, “or like a com-
puter that’s running slow.”
When I went for a session re-
cently with Bev the first thing
she did after muscle testing was
to reset my vagus nerve. The va-
gus nerve is a complicated sys-
tem of nerves that connects the
brain to the heart, the gut, the
Page 13
immune system, and many other
organs. It is the longest, largest,
and most complex of the cranial
nerves; called vagus from the
Latin for ‘wandering.’
“Without resetting the vagus
nerve, nothing will change,”
Bev says. Having worked on
my myofascial points, Bev then
taught me a new diaphragmatic
form of breathing, which gave
me a sense of expanding, like my
inside was somehow more spa-
cious. My lower back pain has
also greatly improved.
Douglas Heel said: “The body
has two priorities for survival,
the need to breathe and the need
to move, and it will sacrifice an-
ything else to achieve these two
things.”
While neuromuscular therapy
has been growing in popular-
ity recently, it has, in fact, been
around for some time. It was
developed in the early part of
the last century by Dr Stanley
Lief and others. Janet Travell, a
pioneer of trigger point therapy
is credited with having helped
John F. Kennedy, who famously
suffered with chronic back pain.
So, if you have difficulty
walking, getting around, or
you’re in physical pain which is
preventing you getting a proper
night’s sleep, then perhaps it’s
worth giving neuromuscular
therapy some consideration.
Many experts attest that the
treatment can also help with dis-
orders such as sciatica, carpal
tunnel, and in some cases even
Parkinson’s.
You can contact Bev through
her website www.bevporrino.
com/ or go along to one of her
yoga classes (when everything
reopens), which operate on a
drop-in basis every Thursday
lunchtime at the Elbowroom.
Image courtesy of Bev Porrino.
 Page 14 CULTURE www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020

T
n Peter McNamara “Brown Box”. The “Brown

Video games:
he video games indus- Box” was licensed to Magna-
try is booming. In 2018, vox, which released the sys-
the global games market tem as the Magnavox Odyssey
was valued at around $134.9 in 1972. It preceded Atari by a
billion. The American market
The good, the bad, few months, which is often mis-

alone is forecast to reach $230
billion by 2022, making it the
largest in the world.
Germany is the biggest mar-
ket in Europe, valued at over €4
billion, followed closely by the
UK. Ireland spends over €250
million on games each year.
One thing is clear: video
games are here to stay. For
some, they are a wonderful way
to stimulate curiosity and crea-
tivity, as well as being a tool for
recreation and relaxation. For
others, increasingly powerful
and often violent games seem
to threaten morality, foster bad
habits, and cause ill-health.
Every few years, a new kind
of video game emerges on the
market, and, being so unprec-
edented, it leads many into a
panic.
But gaming isn’t a new phe-
nomenon. We homo sapiens
have a surprisingly long con-
nection to all sorts of games: in
fact, they seem to be hard-wired
into our very natures.
When it comes to the first
video games, you might have
fond memories of Super Mario
and Tetris in the early 1990s.
Or perhaps you remember Pac-
man and Space Invaders in the
1980s. Maybe you cast your
mind all the way back to Pong
in the early 1970s.
In fact, the first recorded hu-
man games can be dated to
5000 BC. And games of all
kinds can have positive benefits
– for one thing, they’re a re-
markable means of developing
strong teamwork and problem-
solving skills.
Given that we humans have
an instinctive connection to
games, it seems a worthwhile
endeavour to find a way to play
along. Is it possible to enjoy
the benefits and pleasures of
video games, without suffering
the addictive!
their ill-effects? Can we strike a
gaming-life balance?
Humanity loves to play
Human history and games
are inextricably linked. Down
through the ages, we have in-
vented countless ways to en-
tertain and challenge ourselves
and each other. Fun and games
aren’t just frivolous pursuits –
they come naturally to us, as
essential parts of learning, so-
cialising, and understanding our
world. In the animal kingdom,
playing games is regarded as an
indicator of species intelligence
– though it might not seem that
way to some!
Monkeys are especially fond
of playing around. Assuming, as
seems likely, that human beings
are just better evolved mon-
keys, itʼs likely that weʼve been
playing games for a long, long
time. We were probably playing
games before we evolved the
ability to speak or even to stand
on two legs. Although we’ve no
idea what the very first games
we played were like, historians
do have a good idea of the time-
line of modern game develop-
ment.
If you enjoy a game of Mo-
nopoly or Scrabble, you’re in
good company. The earliest
known board games are 5,000
years old and were played by
the Egyptians. We donʼt know
the rules of these games, but
there is a “Senet” board that
dates back to about 3500 BC.
The Chinese invented their first
known board game in 200 BC,
and, in Western Europe, they
were playing Tafl (a game very
similar to chess) from 400 BC.
If youʼve ever played go,
chess, or backgammon, then
youʼve played a game with
more than a thousand years of
history. Go originated in Korea
in 200 BC, backgammon first
appeared in Iran around 600 AD
and chess was invented in India
at roughly the same time.
Dice are among the oldest
known gaming tools known to
man. During an excavation in
Southeastern Iran, archeologists
discovered a set that was 3,000
years old. We donʼt know exact-
ly what games those early Per-
sians would have played with
them, but the popularity of dice
has endured throughout the cen-
turies. Whether carved in bone
or cast in plastic, the simplicity
of a die – a cube with dots and
nothing more – as an effective,
if chancy, determinant is age-
less. Almost every board game
now available uses dice as its
central gameplay mechanic – in
fact, it makes for a good game
trying to name a few that don’t.
Tiles and dominoes are two
other age-old gameplay inven-
tions. There are references to
tile games in China that are
over 2,900 years old. Dominoes
emerged in China 1,000 years
later, during the Song Dynasty.
However, Western dominoes
probably only began in the 18th
century, and mahjong, the most
popular tile game in the world,
didnʼt arrive until a century lat-
er.
The first use of a card deck
was probably in ancient China,
during the Tang Dynasty (6th
century AD to 9th century AD).
Cards reached Europe in the
14th century, and early decks
would have been similar to tar-
ot cards. The four-suit (hearts,
spades, clubs and diamonds)
deck that weʼre most familiar
with was invented in France
around 1480. The oldest card
game that we still play is proba-
bly Cribbage, which came from
the 17th century. Bridge didnʼt
arrive until the early 19th cen-
tury.
Snakes and ladders appeared
in India in the 16th century. The
first commercial board game ar-
rived in the year 1800 and was
produced by George Fox in
England. “The Mansion of Hap-
piness” was a race-type game,
similar to Ludo.
Formed in 1860, the oldest
surviving board game company
is Milton Bradley, whose fa-
mous titles include Twister, The
Game of Life and Connect 4.
Gaming goes electric
You may be surprised to find
that the first electronic game
was invented in the United
States before the computer. The
first recognised example of a
game machine was unveiled by
Dr. Edward Uhler Condon at the
New York Worldʼs Fair in 1940.
The game, based on the ancient
mathematical game of Nim, was
played by about 50,000 people
during the six months it was
on display, with the computer
reportedly winning more than
90% of the games.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that
American scientists began play-
ing computer games on com-
puter mainframe systems. Back
then, electric gamers were few
in number – for the vast major-
ity, acquiring the hardware to
join in the fun would have been
astronomically expensive.
The first game system de-
signed for commercial home
use emerged in 1967, with the
takenly thought of as the first
games console. Unfortunately,
it was a little ahead of it’s time.
People couldn’t yet grasp the
concept of a home gaming con-
sole, and the Odyssey was soon
discontinued.
The way was clear for Atari to
raise the bar for what the video
games industry could be. The
company not only produced
revolutionary games consoles,
they also created a whole new
market around the “arcade.” In
1973, Atari released the first real
electronic video game Pong, and
special coin-operated machines
began emerging in bars, bowl-
ing alleys and shopping malls
around the world. In the mid-
1970s, technological advance-
ments, such as Intelʼs invention
of the worldʼs first microproces-
sor, saw personal computers and
mass-produced gaming con-
soles become a reality.
In 1977, the Atari 2600 was
released. After a mixed recep-
tion, the release of Space In-
vaders for the console in 1980
marked a new era of gaming:
sales of the Atari 2600 shot to
two million units.
A video game boom ensued,
with a huge number of new
companies and consoles. How-
ever, with so many consoles,
and so few decent games to play
on them, consumer confidence
began to wane, and the market
crashed in 1983. Many compa-
nies went bust, and truckloads
of unpopular, poor-quality titles
were buried in the American de-
sert just to get rid of them!
In 1985, Nintendo revitalised
the industry with its Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES).
The 8-bit gaming console Nin-
tendo Entertainment System
(NES), with it’s ground-break-
ing graphics and sound, and
faster gameplay, soon became
the best-selling system. The
company had been a significant
player in the market since 1981,
with its Donkey Kong arcade
game. That game was one of the
first to feature multiple levels,
and it also introduced us to a
character we’re now well famil-
iar with: Jumpman, or, as he’s
known to many today, Mario.
But Nintendo had been making
games as far back as 1889, when
it released its first line of playing
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020 CULTURE Page 15

cards. In 1989, it released the
Game Boy, and revolutionised
the hand-held gaming industry.
Around that time, Alexey
Pajitnov created the iconic puz-
zle game Tetris, but had to cede
the game’s rights to the Soviet
government, as personal profit
was outlawed under the com-
munist system. In 1988, Nin-
tendo purchased Tetris from the
Russians, to launch it with their
new Game Boy system. The ad-
dictive puzzler went on to sell
35 million copies. Pajitnov only
started to see royalties from his
creation in 1996 – though his net
worth is a healthy $2.9 million.
In 1989 Sega released the
Mega Drive, and Sonic the
Hedgehog was born. In 1991,
the 16-bit Super Nintendo
(SNES) arrived. By then, the pi-
oneering Atari was all but evis-
cerated from the market.
However, in 1995, a new
challenger appeared. Electron-
ics company Sony released
their ‘PlayStation.’ Aggressive-
ly marketed to teenagers and
adults, and with eye-popping
graphics, the PS1 became the
first console to ship over 100
million units, which it achieved
nine years after its initial launch
Nintendo replied with the N64
in 1996, and after the unsuc-
cessful Dreamcast, Sega soon
exited the console market. The
Playstation 2 arrived in 2000,
and the following year another
commercial behemoth laid their
claim to the increasingly lucra-
tive video game market: Micro-
soft released their first ‘Xbox’ in
2001. At the turn of the century,
we had in place the three major
players that still dominate the
market place today.
Incredible power, worrying
influence
Through the 2000s and 2010s,
with the PS3 and PS4, and the
Xbox 360 and Xbox One, in-
credible realism in video games
became the norm. Game de-
velopers had come a long way
from coloured blocks jumping
on a blank back-
ground. This in-
creased power,
however, has
not always been
used for the most
family-friendly of
content.
Violent and
sexual elements
began to feature
in games in the
1990s. Back then,
it wasn’t much of an issue: the
games were mostly niche PC ti-
tles, with poor and therefore in-
offensive graphics. There were
many fighting and shooting
games on home consoles, but
it wasn’t until the appearance
of GTA on the PS2 in 2000 that
parents and politicians began to
take note.
Special warning systems
(similar to those on DVDs) were
devised to help guide parents to-
wards age-appropriate games.
As the first school shootings be-
gan to occur in America, many
called for an outright ban on
certain titles, and video games,
along with action movies before
them, were blamed for all man-
ner of anti-social behaviours.
What’s more, aside from the
content of the games, parents are
increasingly concerned about
the lifestyle that goes with these
electronic indoor machines.
When not enjoyed in modera-
tion – like all things in life – an
imbalance can emerge. Children
may spend too much time sitting
down, eating snacks and other
convenience foods; they might
not be getting enough exercise,
or spending enough time in the
physical presence of their peers.
That said, there are many ben-
efits to playing video games.
Compared to simply watching
television, video games are an
active pastime, not entirely un-
like playing a musical instru-
ment, that can develop creativ-
ity and problem-solving skills.
Games can help a child see the
value of team work, and per-
severance – after all, you can’t
quit when you’re only one more
level from the finish.
They offer children and adults
a sense of accomplishment,
proof that hard work really does
pay off. Also, be it together in
the home, or on online servers,
there is some potential for so-
cialising and building personal
confidence – more shy children
might find their tribe in an on-
line gaming community, where
they are valued by likeminded
people for their unique abilities.
And finally, given the pro-
cessing power of consoles and
PCs today, video games offer a
vivid transport from everyday
life, into worlds of utter won-
der. Games today are not only
remarkable feats of computer
design: between their storytell-
ing and world-building, they are
coming to be seen as legitimate
works of art.
And, thanks to Nintendo,
games can be enjoyed by the
whole family. The Japanese
company has always been com-
mitted to family-friendly re-
leases – it’s the home of iconic,
bright-coloured characters from
Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon.
In fact, their commitment to
producing only non-offensive
content started to cost them in
the 1990s, when the market be-
gan to focus on teenage custom-
ers, so much so that by the early
2000s this century-old company
was on the brink of collapse. It
was then that they released the
Wii, and created an entirely new
market for games, and once
again changed the industry for-
ever.
Arriving in 2006, the Wii was
the first console to use motion
sensors: complicated gamepads
and button combinations were
replaced by intuitive gestures
and swipes: sitting on the couch
became jumping around the
living room. You might recall
swinging the white controllers
not too long ago, trying to throw
a bowling ball down a lane, or
putting a golf ball on the green.
The Wii made games acces-
sible to all. For the first time,
grandchildren could play with
grandparents – and with games
like Wii Fit, the console even
turned into a home gym, with
screen-directed exercises. Nin-
tendo’s non-violent and acces-
sible Wii console became one
of the biggest-selling consoles
of all time, with 101.6 million
units shipped to date. With a lit-
tle open-mindedness, games can
surprise you.
Striking a game-life balance
In the UK, a new study by
McAfee has revealed that chil-
dren play video games for an
average of 15 hours a week. The
research also found that 94% of
parents are concerned about the
risks their children are exposed
to while gaming. On average,
children play video games for
2.13 hours a day, and 92% of
parents let their children play at
least an hour of games a day. 8%
admitted that they let their kids
play more than five hours a day.
“Over the years, gaming has
grown dramatically in popu-
larity and it’s now become an
everyday habit for many peo-
ple, particularly children,” said
Gary Davis, at security software
firm McAfee. “There are many
advantages to playing video
games, and they can be a great
tool at parents’ disposal during
the summer months when they
need to keep their children en-
tertained while trying to manage
everything else.”
He might have added that,
given the current national situ-
ation, distractions like video
games perhaps have never been
more helpful in keeping the
peace while everyone is stuck at
home.
The study found that 62% of
kids play games where they di-
rectly interact with other play-
ers, drastically increasing their
risk of being targeted with in-
appropriate content or asked to
share sensitive information. The
vast majority, 89%, of parents
are aware of the dangers of this,
with 71% particularly concerned
about them being groomed to
share sensitive details or being
shown inappropriate content
such as violence, sexual images
or drugs.
“But,” Davis adds, “it is im-
perative that parents understand
the risks to their children while
playing video games, do their
own research about the games
that their children are playing
and know how to provide prop-
er guidance to their children to
keep them safe online.”
While many parents do keep
an eye on what their children are
playing, 9% of those quizzed in
the McAfee study admit to not
monitoring at all, and 6% don’t
talk to their children about what
is and isn’t appropriate behav-
iour. Additionally, 13% of par-
ents admitted to letting children
play games with age ratings
more than five years over their
own age.
This means
that children
as young as 12
could be playing
games that have
been exclusively
rated for mature
audiences due to
intense portray-
als of violence,
strong sexual
themes including
nudity and rape, glamorisation
of use of drugs.
It has long been said that a
person should take everything
in moderation, and this advice
is no less true for modern gam-
ing. If any parent is wondering
how to help their child strike a
healthy game-life balance, you
might try to set a routine around
gaming. Be it for 30 minutes, or
two hours, make an agreement
with your child to allocate a cer-
tain amount of time each day for
playing games.
You might also make your-
self aware of what games your
kids are playing, and how long a
game lasts. For instance, a round
of Fortnite is approx 25 min-
utes: if you know this you can
better understand where your
child is in the game and what
expectations to set. If you want
to help your child to take breaks
from gaming, and to get more
physical exercise, you could
even try to engage in an activity
with them yourself – though I’m
sure that’s easier said than done,
especially in the last few weeks.
All in all, humanity thrives
on challenges, and lives for
curiosity. Games – and video
games – stimulate our most el-
egant mental faculties. They of-
fer experiences and escapes that
we couldn’t find anywhere else.
But like any good thing, you can
easily get too much of it. With a
little bit of discipline and com-
mon sense, children and adults
can avail of one of humankind’s
most remarkable creations.
Clockwise from top of page 32:
Modern video games are here to
stay.
The playing board for the ‘Man-
sion of Happiness’– the first
commercially produced board
game, from the 19th century.
An ancient cave painting of
a dice game – they’ve been
around for a long, long time.
(Public domain).
Atari pioneered coin-fed arcade
machines, creating a thriving
industry in the 1980s.
 Page 16
A Step Up, Stay Put:
s everyone adjusts to
working from home
and the kitchen table
becomes a makeshift classroom,
it’s important to also remain ac-
tive within the confines of your
own four walls.
Step Up, Stay Put is a new
charity fitness challenge from
multi-award-winning Dublin-
based event agency Event Fuel
through their in-house online
fundraising and ticketing plat-
form Giv2Go that calls on eve-
ryone of all ages to get their
10,000 daily steps in while
adhering to the government’s
request to practice social dis-
tancing and stepping up to stay
put in their homes wherever
possible.
Step Up, Stay Put is also a
great way of supporting the
many charities that are suffer-
ing due to the cancellation of
fundraising events. The brains
behind fundraising events such
as Tour De Picnic and special-
ists in employee engagement,
brand activations and festivals,
Event Fuel are experts at bring-
ing people together, and while
this is not physically possible
during these trying times, the
importance of community spirit
is stronger now more than ever.
Event Fuel, who are running
this new initiative pro bono,
have decided to leave the choice
of charity up to the participant,
as so many charities have been
greatly affected by the cancella-
tion of events due to the spread
of Covid-19.
However, if you don’t have
one in mind, you can support
The COVID Response Team
(CRT) “Keep Breathing” cam-
paign, a not-for-profit team of
engineers, medical doctors, stu-
dents and innovators who have
come together with the sole pur-
Name Mr Tayto’s baby lemurs!
T
ayto Park is thrilled to
announce the arrival of
twin Lemurs! Help name
the latest arrivals to be in with a
chance to win a Tayto Park fam-
ily pass
Excitement was in the air at
Tayto Park earlier this month as
zookeepers welcomed two sets of
twin ring-tailed lemurs into Ire-
land’s only theme park and zoo.
It was a busy month for the Tay-
to Park zoo team as the first set of
twin ring-tailed lemurs were born
to Dolly on the 5th of March, with
FITNESS FOR FUNDRAISING
Walk 10,000 steps every day to raise money for charity
pose of developing a new, open-
source, easily manufactured
ventilator that will save so many
lives throughout this pandemic.
Get fit, combat cabin fever and
raise funds for several worthy
causes with this exercise chal-
lenge that aims to help you reach
10,000 steps from the comfort of
your own home. Register online
on Giv2Go.com to set up your
profile – €10 for individuals and
€20 for families, which goes to-
wards your chosen charity – se-
lect a personal fundraising target
and choose a charity you’d like
to support.
From there, it’s time to get cre-
ative. Whether you can dance,
run up and down the stairs, hold
races for the kids in the back gar-
den or even take that business
call as you walk a lap around the
garden, every step brings you
closer to your goal.
Share your progress online
and encourage others to donate
as you rack up those steps.
One thousand steps can be
achieved in a mere ten minutes,
so taking a break from your lap-
top and fitting in a few short
bursts of exercise throughout the
day is a great way of keeping the
mind and body in order while
raising funds.
Simply switch on your step-
counting device, whether that’s
a Garmin, FitBit or the health
app on your phone, and notch
up those steps. If you have
any questions on how to moni-
tor your progress or on how to
convert your steps, head to the
FAQs section of www.stepup-
stayput.com/.
a second baby lemur born a week
after to mum Charlie, while anoth-
er set of lemur twins arrived last
week to mother Diana. All mums
and new births are doing well and
are settling into their new home.
The Tayto Park zookeepers
don’t as yet know the gender of
the new arrivals as the baby le-
murs can’t be disturbed at this
early bonding stage, however the
Tayto Park zookeepers need help
to suggest names for the latest ar-
rivals!
To be in with a chance to win a
Don’t worry if you don’t al-
ways reach your target – you
can make it up another day. And
if you forget your phone, apps
such as My Fitness Pal will al-
low you to input exercise manu-
ally to calculate your steps.
“Charity, wellness and par-
ticipation have always been a
big part of what we do at Event
Fuel. Thankfully, we are well set
up online with Giv2go.com to
deliver a quick response to the
current crisis. The team at Event
Fuel began innovating immedi-
ately on this. We are very proud
to play our part for Ireland from
home by Stepping Up and Stay-
ing Put!”
Brian McDermott, Event Fuel
Director
“We came up with the Step Up
Stay Put concept as a solution to
cancelled fundraisers. Charities
that help people year round are
finding it very difficult through
these times and people need new
goals for exercise. Engagement
is a huge part of what we do at
Event Fuel and we feel that this
challenge will allow people to
family pass to Tayto Park, the zoo
team are encouraging boys and
girls – young and old to head over
to the official Tayto Park Face-
book or Instagram page and com-
ment with your suggested names
www.newsfour.ie
engage with their chosen chari-
ties, keep people and families
healthy and motivated whilst
raising much needed funds.”
Jamie Deasy, Event Fuel Di-
rector
Giv2Go will be sharing daily
online workouts too to help
you step up while staying put.
Some more ways to reach your
target are:
• Find online dance workouts
on YouTube – Zumba and step
workouts are all great for rack-
ing up steps. Alternatively, stick
on some upbeat music and use a
skipping rope.
• Use the stairs! Stair hops, stair
crawl, stair press, stair lunges or
even just jogging up and down
makes for a great cardio work-
out.
• Increase your strength with
some HIIT – why not try jump
squats, mountain climbers, and
burpees?
• Send the kids running in the
garden or around your liv-
ing space with the pedometer
– it won’t be long before some
healthy sibling rivalry kicks in!
• Housework and gardening can
increase your step count mas-
sively so there is no better time
to do some spring cleaning.
• Taking a walk is ok when it’s
necessary, but it is recommended
to keep to your own household
as much as possible during these
times. Of course, if you’re lucky
enough to live on a farm or have
a big garden, getting outdoors is
ideal for this challenge.
How to sign up, input steps,
under the lemur imagery social
post to be in with a chance to win.
Tayto Park will contact a winner
directly, competition closes Mon-
day, 6th April.
Endemic to Madagascar, ring-
April / May 2020
and raise funds:
• Register for Step Up, Stay Put
on Giv2Go.com at the Fundrais-
ing Events section.
• Select the Individual Option
or Family Option. Create your
event profile page and title it by
your name or family name.
• Select a charity of your choice
or if you don’t have one, you
could consider The COVID Re-
sponse Team “Keep Breathing”
campaign.
• Select your steps target! You
can reach one million steps in
100 days or sooner depending
on how many steps you achieve.
• Input your steps daily by us-
ing the “Update Steps” button
on your profile. It’s up to you to
submit your progress which will
show up on the Stepometer.
• Share your steps progress by
sharing your Giv2Go profile link
on social media with #StepUp-
StayPut2020 @Giv2Go to en-
courage people to donate to your
cause.
• Submit proof of your steps
weekly to stepupstayput@giv-
2go.com where your progress
will be monitored.
• For every 50,000 steps, you’ll
receive a certificate. For one
million steps, you’ll get a medal
of honour – the race is on!
Need help? Email support@
giv2go.com with any questions.
Registration:
Individual: €10 – add your
own name to your profile.
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add your family name to your
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chosen charity.
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ticular the Covid-19 Fund for
Emergency Ventilators.
tailed lemurs are considered one
of the world’s most endangered
group of mammals, according to
the IUCN (International Union
for Conservation of Nature). Dis-
tinguishing features include their
 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020 COOKING Page 17

S Baking with the kids

chool closures and social
distancing due to the cur-
rent world health pandem-
ic mean parents will be spend-
ing a lot more time indoors with
their children over the coming
weeks. Trying to keep kids en-
tertained at home while limiting
their exposure to iPads, tablets
and mobile phones can be a
tough balancing act.
Head to the kitchen and bake
something tasty! Kitchen tasks
will give them the opportunity
to count, measure and weigh,
as well as the end result being
something they’ll be very proud
of! Aldi has a range of easy reci-
pes that all of the family can join
in and help to make (and eat) –
so let’s get started!
Oaty Banana Bread Buns
Serves: 16 people
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
100g butter (room temperature)
40g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract (2.5g)
240g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder (10g)
4 ripe or over-ripe bananas
90g porridge oats
Method:
• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/
Gas mark 4. Line a bun tin with
16 paper cases.
• Put the butter and sugar in a
bowl and beat well. The easiest
way to do this is with a hand-
held electric beater but a wood-
en spoon and some elbow grease
also works. The mixture should
become a little lighter in colour.
• Add two of the eggs along with
the vanilla extract and half of the
flour and beat well to combine.
Add the remaining egg and the
rest of the flour with the baking
powder. Mix until everything
is just combined – overbeating
will make the buns less light, so
easy does it.
• Peel the bananas and mash the
flesh in a bowl, then carefully
fold into the bun mixture with
the oats. Using two large spoons,
divide the mixture among the
paper cases.
• Place in the oven and bake
for 22-25 minutes until cooked
through. To test, insert a skewer
or toothpick into the centre of
a bun and it should come out
clean. The buns will also smell
cooked and be springy to the
touch.
• Remove the buns from the
oven and after 5 minutes trans-
fer them to a wire or grill rack
and leave to cool completely be-
fore serving.
• These buns will keep in an air-
tight container for up to 3 days
or can be frozen in freezer bags
for up to 1 month and defrosted
as needed.
Choc Bloc Biscuit Cake
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
300g pack chocolate
100g pure Irish creamery butter
2 tbsp manuka honey (regular
honey will also work)
250g broken biscuits – diges-
tive/rich tea
75g malteasers
75g sultanas (optional)
50g mini marshmallows
Method:
• Line a 20cm (8”) square bak-
ing tin with a double layer of
cling film.
• Put the choc bloc, butter and
honey in a heatproof bowl and
place over a small saucepan of
simmering water (do not allow
the water to touch the base of
the bowl).
• Stir occasionally until melted.
• Stir in the biscuits, Malteasers
and sultanas.
• Use the back of a spoon to
press the mixture and press
lightly into the top.
• Cover and refrigerate until set.
• To serve, turn out of the tin, re-
move cling film and cut the cake
into small square, Enjoy!
Unicorn Cheesecake
Serves: 8 people
Prep time: 150 minutes
Ingredients:
225g digestive biscuits
85g unsalted butter (melted)
700g soft cream cheese
350g double cream
150g icing sugar
½ lemon (juiced)
1 tsp vanilla extract
pink, red, blue, yellow and green
food colouring
To decorate:
150g ready to roll icing
pink food colouring
200ml double cream (whipped)
50ml dark chocolate (melted)
Plus any extra pastel coloured
sweets for decoration (white
chocolate buttons, bon bons, liq-
uorice allsorts)
Equipment:
21cm loose-bottomed tin
1 cocktail stick (trimmed)
Method:
• Place the digestive biscuits in
a food processor and blitz into
crumbs.
• Pour the melted butter over the
biscuit crumbs and combine,
• Press the crumbs into the base
of the tin and leave to chill while
you make the filling. Use an
electric mixer to beat the cream
cheese and icing sugar for a
couple of minutes until smooth,
light and fluffy.
• Add the cream, lemon juice
and vanilla extract into the
cream cheese and whisk until
fully combined and thickened.
• Pour the mix between 5 bowls
and use the food colouring to dye
the mixture pale/pastel shades of
pink, purple (blue and red), blue
and green and yellow.
• Pour the pink layer on top of
the biscuit base and place in the
freezer for 10-15 minutes to set
long enough to add the next lay-
er. Follow this process with the
purple, blue, green and yellow
layers.
• When the final (yellow) layer
is in place leave to set in the
freezer for 30 minutes to 1 hour
(we don’t want to freeze the
cheesecake, just set it).
• While the cheesecake sets, take
75g of the ready roll icing and
add a drop of pink food colour-
ing, then knead until an even
colour is achieved.
• Roll out a little of the white
and pink icing, cut out two white
triangles and two smaller pink
triangles and then stick these to-
gether using a pastry brush and
water to make the ears.
• With the remaining icing, roll
each into two strips then wrap
them around the cocktail stick to
create a two-tone unicorn horn.
• Use the melted dark chocolate
to pipe eyes and eyelashes and
leave to cool.
• To decorate, pipe the whipped
cream on top of the cheesecake
and round one side to create the
mane. Place the ears and horn
onto the cake, and then decorate
with the sweets.
• Finally, place the eyes on the
front and serve chilled.
The above recipes are also
available at www.aldi.ie

long, thick, tail with black and
white rings, marking their terri-
tory by scent.
Ring tailed lemurs are social an-
imals and live in groups known as
troops led by dominant females.
The Tayto Park troop is made up
of young individuals who are part
of the European Endangered Spe-
cies Breeding Programme.
Park and Zoo Manager at Tayto
Park, Lee Donohoe said “We’re
delighted to welcome our latest
lemur arrivals to the Tayto Park
Zoo. Both the new arrivals and
their mums are doing very well
and we’re already seeing some of
their cheeky, playful traits! The
birth of any species at the park is
always exciting but even more so
when they have such conservation
importance.”
The new arrivals will settle into
their new home ‘Lemur Woods’,
Ireland’s largest lemur walk-
through which opened last year,
giving visitors an immersive ex-
perience with this incredible en-
dangered species.
Set in a large habitat in a natu-
ral woodland, visitors walk along
a looped pathway within the en-
closure, creating a fun, dynamic
experience giving visitors the op-
portunity to see and learn all about
these fascinating and lovable pri-
mates closer than ever before.
Tayto Park has postponed its
scheduled 2020 opening date, to
ensure the health and safety of our
staff and visitors, in line with of-
ficial guidelines. Tayto Park will
monitor the situation closely, and
will open when it is safe to do so.
Tayto Park look forward to wel-
coming visitors soon, and in the
meantime, stay safe!
For more information visit:
www.taytopark.ie
Facebook: @TaytoParkIre-
land
Twitter: @TaytoPark
Instagram: @TaytoPark
YouTube: TaytoPark
Balcony Bingo in Ringsend
R
ingsend and Irishtown Community Centre are continuing the
fun of the latest initiative ‘balcony bingo’ during the Covid cri-
sis. On Saturday March 28th kicking off at 12pm, O’Rahilly
and Whelan House on Thorncastle Street will hold a ‘Rock n Roll bin-
go.’ There will also be a game of ‘Higher or Lower,’ using giant playing
cards, on Sunday 29th March from 1pm. The much – needed events,
amidst a stark time, will bring the community together once again,
whilst maintaining a safe distance. They promise to be fantastic events.
Balcony Bingo has taken off in a huge way and RICC are delighted it’s
spreading to other communities. RICC would like to remind people to
maintain their distance during all events.
Balcony Bingo venue: O’Rahilly and Whelan House, Thorncastle
Street, Ringsend, Dublin 4.
Dates: Saturday 28th March 2020 and Sunday 29th March 2020
Time: 12pm and 1pm.
 Page 18 SPORT www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020

Euro 2020
postponed
I
n David Prendeville
n this time of great uncertainty the precarious position this crisis has left soccer in
is utterly trivial. However, while trying to pass the time in the depths of our soli-
tude, we might as well, and consider exactly where this leaves the Irish national
team’s Euro qualification campaign and the Premier League. One thing we are certain
about is that the Euro 2020 finals (some games of which were to be held in Dublin)
will not now take place this summer, and instead will take place in summer 2021.
As to when Ireland will play their play-off tournament in a bid to qualify for that
tournament, remains up in the air. June 4th has been mentioned, but that seems like
a real best-case scenario outcome. Perhaps, depending on where things stand at that
point, the games could be played behind closed doors, but that still seems a long shot.
How the Premier League goes about completion of its own success adds further
complications to trying to put a timeline on any football schedules, club or inter-
national, going forward. The Premier League is currently suspended until at least

April 30th. Again, it will more than likely be considerably longer than that before it
can return. The general consensus seems to be that the priority should be getting this
season’s league finished, whenever it may be possible to do so, amidst suggestions
in some quarters that the season should simply be declared null and void. Some ri-
val supporters would certainly like to see Liverpool’s inevitable title chalked off but
nobody could honestly suggest it fair, not even considering the host of other legal
quandaries it would pose.
Prioritization of finishing the 2019/20 season could also mean next season is also
pushed back further. How this will then further effect Euro 2021 qualifiers or how it
reshapes the structure of the traditional season remains to be seen. The biggest logis-
tical headache it would provide the FAI with may be the fact that Mick McCarthy’s
contract is set to expire in the summer, after the Euros were meant to have taken place.
The FAI, in their wisdom, of course set up the complicated succession plan where-
by Stephen Kenny takes over the role directly after McCarthy. Should McCarthy get
Ireland qualified prior to the expiry of his contract, would he just stand aside to let
Kenny manage the team in the tournament. And vice-versa, would Kenny accept an
alteration to the deal he has in place with the FAI to let McCarthy finish the job he
started?
Whatever the answers may be, let’s hope we get to a position where it is deemed
safe for football to resume in the not too distant future. There will be something tri-
umphant when the first ball is kicked in the aftermath of this crisis. A small, sporting
symbol of what we hope will be a brighter future.

Above: Mick McCarthy. Photo: Jon Candy/WikiCommons.

 www.newsfour.ie April / May 2020
J
n Gavan Bergin
ohnny Gavin was born in
1928 in Limerick. By the
time he left school he had
become one of the top footballers
in Limerick and at the age of 19
he was playing with the League
of Ireland team, Limerick FC. Af-
ter one season with them he was
signed up by the English Third
Division club Norwich City, who
paid £1,500 for him in the sum-
mer of 1948.
At that time Norwich were try-
ing to recover from a long spell
of poor results that had seen them
finish second from last in the
Third Division for two seasons
running and had almost cost them
their status as a Football League
club. They managed to avoid that
fate and now that they had John-
ny Gavin on their side, things
were looking up for Norwich.
From the start of his time in
England, Johnny did very well:
he played brilliant football and
quickly became a hero to the
Norwich supporters, who could
see that he was a special player.
Johnny was an all-round at-
tacker who always wanted to get
into the game instead of waiting
for the ball to come to him. He
was versatile and effective when
playing on the left or through the
middle, as well as on the right
side, and when he got forward
into the other team’s penalty area
he was a handful for any defender
to face.
Most unusually for a winger,
he was also exceptionally good
in the air and fearless, with a
real eye for goal. Kevin Nether-
cott, the Norwich goalie, said:
“Johnny could jump and was an
excellent header of the ball. Most
of his goals came from his head,
and he wasn’t afraid to get hurt.
He had a few broken noses scor-
ing goals. He was very fast too.”
Johnny put in some superb per-
formances for Norwich during
the 1948/49 season and his great
form helped Norwich to their best
league position in years. In the
next few years he continued to
play extremely well for the team
and over the next five seasons he
scored 79 goals in 221 games and
Norwich consistently finished in
the top ten of their division. It
was no surprise that other clubs
started to take an interest in sign-
ing Johnny and in October 1954
he moved to First Division Tot-
tenham Hotspur.
They were famous as the team
of ‘push and run’ football. The
Cassell Soccer Companion book
describes push and run as “a tac-
JOHNNY GAVIN: THE GOAL MACHINE
tic in which attacks are mounted
on bursts of speed and short ac-
curate passes, it was developed
by the Tottenham manager Ar-
thur Rowe, who brought the club
its first ever League Champion-
ship titles, in 1950 and 1951. The
push and run team of the early
50s set the benchmark for suc-
cess at Tottenham and earned the
club a reputation for stylish at-
tacking play
Such a reputation meant that
Spurs was surely the ideal team
for a skilful, inventive forward
like Johnny, and sure enough
when he arrived at Tottenham
he went straight into the team.
According to ‘The Spurs Alpha-
bet’ by Bob Goodwin, “Johnny
Gavin quickly settled in at White
Hart Lane, and with his speed,
strength and positional sense be-
came a great crowd favourite”,
Johnny made his First Division
debut at Newcastle on the 16th of
October 1954. He gave the Spurs
a new dimension in attack with
his relentless right wing charges,
tearing into opposition defences,
making chances for team-mates
and regularly scoring goals him-
self. He got his first goal for Tot-
tenham against Chelsea on No-
vember 13th 1954, and by the
end of the 1954/55 season he was
Spurs’ top scorer with 13 goals in
29 league games.
When the the 1955/56 season
started, Johnny kept banging in
the goals. It appeared that he had
a a bright future with Tottenham,
but it was not to be. A few months
into the season he asked for a
transfer back to Norwich, and he
rejoined them in November 1955.
On his return, Johnny showed
SPORTING HISTORY
amazing form for Norwich:
in his first game back, against
Southend, he scored four goals
and then notched up hat-tricks in
four more games, against Bristol,
Torquay, Gillingham and Read-
ing. Then, in September 1956
against Plymouth Argyle, Johnny
scored his one hundreth goal for
Norwich.
His super scoring feats at that
time even earned him notice
in the Irish newspapers, which
usually paid scant attention to
English Third Division football,
when in the December 15th is-
sue of the Sunday Independent it
was reported that “against Crys-
tal Palace Johnny Gavin got Nor-
wich’s goal with a 25-yard shot”.
His fine play and goal-scoring
continued through to the end of
the 1957/58 season, by which
time he had scored 132 goals
in 338 matches for Norwich.
Johnny was thirty years old, by
then but there was life left in his
legs still and he was ready for a
change of scene.
He left Norwich for another
crack at life in old London Town,
moving to Fourth Division Wat-
ford FC. He scored 12 goals in
43 matches for them during the
1958/59 season and then for the
1959/60 season Johnny moved
to Crystal Palace, which had just
been relegated from the Third Di-
vision. He scored 15 goals in 66
matches for Palace and helped
them win promotion from the
Fourth Division at the end of the
1960/61 season
That success provided a good
end to Johnny’s last season in
professional football. He left Pal-
ace to play a couple of seasons in
non-league football. He spent the
1961/62 season with Cambridge
City then moved to Newmarket
Town for the 1962/63 season,
which was his last as a player.
As well as his long club career
in England, Johnny also played
international football for the Re-
public of Ireland team. He made
his debut in Ireland’s World Cup
qualifier against Finland, in Dub-
lin on September 8th 1949. That
was Ireland’s second qualifying
match for the 1950 World Cup.
In their first game they’d been
soundly beaten in Sweden. To
have any chance of making it to
the World Cup, Ireland needed
a victory in their home game
against Finland.
In the lead-up to the match, the
newspapers considered Johnny
to be vital to the team’s hopes,
despite his inexperience at in-
ternational level, and the Irish
Press said “much will depend
on winger Gavin of Norwich, of
whom reports recently have been
glowing”.
And Johnny did not disappoint,
he gave a typically fine perfor-
mance, driving forward in attack
from the kick-off, and not letting
up as he went on to make a de-
cisive contribution to the Irish
cause.
Midway through the first half,
Ireland broke down the left side
and won a corner kick which
Johnny took. He struck the ball
perfectly, and sent it whipping
and curving, right past the despa-
rately grasping Finnish goalkeep-
er and directly into the net to put
Ireland ahead 1-0. That spectacu-
lar score was on its own enough
to justify his presence in the team,
Page 19
but he contributed plenty more
than the goal to the cause.
Although he’d suffered an in-
jury early in the match, Johnny
worked like a demon for the en-
tire ninety minutes. His relent-
less running caused havoc in the
Finnish defence and opened the
space for Ireland to score twice
more, and to take complete con-
trol of the game. When the full-
time whistle sounded on a final
score of 3-0, the Republic of Ire-
land had their first ever victory in
a World Cup qualifying match.
Johhny’s great play that day
ensured his selection for the Re-
public’s next match of the quali-
fiers, against Finland in Helsinki
on October 9th 1949. In that
game, Johnny played a clever,
hardworking game, helping his
team to achieve a quietly splen-
did 1-1 draw that meant Ireland
had avoided defeat in a World
Cup qualifying game away from
home for the first time.
The flawless nature of his first
two international appearances
surely meant that Johnny would
be an Ireland regular for years to
come, but it was not to be. The
fact that Norwich were only in
the Third Division seemed to
count against him. Most of the
players in the Ireland team were
with clubs in the First and Second
Divisions.
So Johnny was not in the Re-
public of Ireland team for their
last match of the qualifying group,
against Sweden in Dublin on 13th
November 1949. If Ireland had
won that game, they would have
qualified for the World Cup Fi-
nals in Brazil the following sum-
mer. But they lost, 1-3.
The Irish would have to wait
a few more years to get to the
World Cup, and Johnny had to
wait for another chance in the Ire-
land side. It wasn’t until he was
playing First Division football
with the Spurs that he got a de-
cent run in the team.
In total, he played seven inter-
national matches, signing off with
a goal against Denmark in his last
game, on October 3rd 1956.
Johnny finished with football in
1963, after fifteen years in Eng-
lish football, during which time
he scored 165 goals in 463 league
matches, including 132 goals in
338 games for Norwich City. No-
body has ever scored more goals
for Norwich.
Johnny retired to run a pub
in Cambridge, and he lived to a
grand, happy old age.
Above: Johnny nabs the ball.
 Page 20
News from The Old Dublin Society
Cumann le Seandacht Átha Cli-
ath / The Old Dublin Society
(Established 1934)
Publication of ‘Dublin His-
torical Record – Autumn/Win-
ter 2019’, Editor Dr. Séamas Ó
Maitiú, by the Old Dublin Soci-
A
ety.
self-portrait of Sarah Ce-
cilia Harrison, reproduced
by kind permission of the
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin’s first
female city councillor, is the front
cover illustration for this issue as it
relates to one of the articles in it.
Articles featured in this issue
of the Dublin Historical Record,
which has the wider world of Dub-
lin’s Industrial, business, econom-
ic, and social life as a common
theme, include:
‘In Around the Town’ Dr. Séa-
mas Ó Maitiú reflects on various
events that have taken place in
the city, including the presenta-
tion of the Lord Mayor’s Certifi-
cate in Local Studies to students
who completed this course over
2018/2019, and the discovery of
the walls of one of Dublin’s most
important eighteenth and the nine-
teenth century Catholic chapels in
Townsend Street.
Margaret Smith in ‘Samuel
Clayton, Forger, Freemason,
Freeman’ provides a biography
of this former Dublin engraver
who died in New South Wales,
Australia, in 1853.
Brenda Ryan in ‘The Monu-
ment Creamery Ltd (1918-
1966): 100 Year’s Anniversary’
provides a brief history of this
unique Irish business which at
his peak had 24 shops, two ca-
fés, and two bakeries, but ceased
operation in the 1960s due to
changes in retail patterns, a fate
suffered by several well-known
Irish brand names.
Thomas A. Burke in his biog-
raphy of ‘Sarah Cecilia Harrison:
Dublin’s first female city council-
lor’, elected in 1912 reveals the
attempts to unseat her on various
technicalities and her outstanding
work on the Housing Committee
and Paving Committee. Failing to
be re-elected in 1915 and in 1920,
she devoted her remaining years
until her death in 1941 to portrait
painting and exhibiting.
Fergal McCabe in ‘Down with
Dublin! – Frank Gibney and the
REMEMBRANCES
role of Dublin in the vision of the
nation’ recalls the work of this ar-
chitect who drew up many vision-
ary plans for Dublin which were
never implemented by Dublin
Corporation, in which he argued
for proper and orderly develop-
ment of the city.
Public disorder in eighteenth
century Dublin is recalled by
Hugh O’Reilly in ‘The Theatre
Royal bottle riot of 1822 and the
Orange Order in Dublin’, an event
www.newsfour.ie
which brought the end of over a
century of popular expressions
of Orangeism in Dublin.
John Healy writing about his
paternal grandfather Liam Dev-
lin in ‘Liam Devlin, BB Toffee
and Gloucester Street Lower’
tells the story of his grandfa-
ther’s remarkable life and busi-
nesses, and the various candy
products he produced.
Seán Donnelly in ‘An “odd”
incident at the Yellow Lion Inn,
Thomas Street, 1739’ provides
an addendum to Audrey Mac
Cready’s article ‘ The Yellow
Lion Inn – one building, 260
years of Irish history’ published
in a 2015 issue of the Dublin
Historical Record, by recalling a
strange incident in the building.
Paul Huddie in ‘The Seaton
Needlework Association: Dub-
lin’s British military charity, 1854-
2014’ reveals the long-lasting and
valuable work of this association
and fund, one of many little known
charities in Dublin.
‘Christmas 1918 in Kingstown
and Dalkey’ is recalled by James
Scannell, who provides a picture
of how those in south Dublin cel-
SMALL ADS
April / May 2020
ebrated the first Christmas follow-
ing the signing of the 11 Novem-
ber 1918 Armistice.
Other items in this publication
are Society News, Book Notices
and Reviews, and Obituaries to
Rev. Dudley Levistone Conney,
and Kurt Kullman. Over the coun-
ter copies of this journal can be ob-
tained from Books Upstairs, West-
moreland Street, Dublin, Hodges
Figgis, Dawson Street, Dublin 2,
or directly from the Old Dublin
Society via www.olddublinsoci-
ety.ie or by email: olddublinsoci-
ety@gmail.com.
James Scannell, Hon. PRO.
Cumann Le Seandacht Átha Cliath
(The Old Dublin Society).
Directors: Bernardine Ruddy, An-
thony P. Behan, Barry Farrell,
James Scannell, Bryan MacMahon.
Company No.15059 CHY No.
5327. Registered in Ireland.
Registered Address: 1-2 Marino
Mart, Fairview, Dublin 3.
Website:\hwww.olddublinsociety.ie
Email: olddublinsociety@gmail.com
Postal Correspondence: Wren’s
Rest, 19 Hazelwood, Shankill, Co.
Dublin D18 ND79.