Totally Cork
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Young Rebels: The New Faces of Cork Music
As the Leeside scene turns a corner, Mike McGrath-Bryan salutes eight of the city’s hardest-working young music professionals. While the city’s venue situation slowly comes around of its own accord after a traumatic eighteen-month period of closures and gentrification, the roots of the beginnings of a renewal in Cork music lie embedded in the fertile…
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Cork’s Venue Crisis: Have Heart
Cork’s arts scene faces major troubles in terms of spaces for practice and performance. And while the issues are important, we’ve been here before on a regular basis, writes Mike McGrath-Bryan. “Cork Gets Her Heart Back”, read the headline of an article on Totally Cork man Gary Meyler’s blog The G-Man, when independent music institution…
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Cork Community Gamelan: Sound the Gongs
Cork Community Gamelan has finally found a permanent home in the city-centre, and Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with UCC’s Kelly Boyle and Music Generation Cork City’s Margaret O’Sullivan ahead of the project establishing itself in earnest. Since being installed in University College Cork nearly twenty years ago, the Javanese Gamelan that resides in the college’s Sunday’s…
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The Bonk: Back to the Primitive
Eschewing finely-honed songwriting for propulsive rhythm and improvisation, The Bonk are a rising quantity in Cork music. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with bandleader Phil Christie. Since emerging in the last two years, The Bonk have become a lesser-spotted, highly sought-after musical animal, with the emphasis of creative head and Waterford man Phil Christie, also of O…
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The Everyman Palace: A Theatre for Everyman
As the grand old dame of Cork theatre celebrates 120 years at the heart of Cork cultural life, Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with artistic director Julie Kelleher about its legacy and its future. It’s been a part of life on Leeside now for 120 years, a gaudy yet warm, old-fashioned facade lining out almost politely onto…
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Fidget Feet: Taking to the Skies
Fidget Feet dance company heads to Cork on the 23rd, bringing with them a double-header of aerial dance shows. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with dancer and creative director Chantal McCormack Daly. Pursuing a labour of love is a tough business, as any creative or media individual will tell you. It is quite something else, then, to…
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Celtic Championship Wrestling: Running the Ropes
Four years old and growing exponentially, Celtic Championship Wrestling has overcome the odds to find a regular hometown audience among Cork city’s fight fans. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with promoter/performer Lee Cahalane about the ring, the business, and the fans. “The virtue of all-in wrestling is that it is the spectacle of excess. Here we…
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Cork Vintage Map: Of a Certain Vintage
Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with Eilís Dillon, of Records & Relics, about the Cork Vintage Map, a unique collaborative initiative between thirteen of Cork City’s specialist retailers. It seems like such a simple idea, that it must have been hard to come by amid all of its constituent parts. The Cork Vintage Map, released this past…
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IndieCork: Declaration of Indiependence
IndieCork film and music festival has become an important cornerstone of the city’s cultural community. Before this year’s instalment, from the 9th to the 16th of this month, Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with festival co-ordinator Mick Hannigan. Mick Hannigan is a man in a good place. With the IndieCork film festival he co-chairs now in its…
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Chris Power: “Once I Finally Get Out to the States, We’ll Do an Album”
Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with Cork hip-hop’s busiest man, Chris Power, on tunes, including his new beat tape and upcoming full-length releases. Prodigiously gifted and massively prolific, Cork beatmaker Chris Power has spent the past few years honing his craft live and in-studio, focusing on solo material and production for several collaborative projects. New mixtape WhytFaux:…
Mike McGrath-Bryan 