Deals in luck and despair, Delorentos in profile
Dublin band the Delorentos are riding high in the limelight, with a nomination for both best Irish band of 2008, and best Irish album of 2008 for in love with detail. Brendan Coffey met up with guitarist Ronan Yourell, to talk abou the band's past,present, and future
Where the name comes from is something they’re going to keep to themselves. Just to retain a little mystique, just to keep something exclusively for themselves, it ain’t the greatest secret in the world but in a world full of people who know everything about everything, it’s hard to keep anything in the dark.
Dark isn’t a word that could apply to a band whose music is so fresh it feels like a cool shower on a summer morning. It’s an experience not felt in the music of many Irish ...
The Final Word: Fictional spaces, Death and Literature. Mervyn Peake and the Gormenghast trilogy
Death as a fictionalised experience allies itself harmoniously with literary fiction. Both are spaces of invention and both seek to fill what is essentially an ever-present void of abstraction. A perfect example of the marriage between death and literary fiction is the Gormenghast Trilogy by writer and illustrator Mervyn Peake.
Volver by Don Pedro from La Mancha
Pedro Almodóvar’s name is mentioned in intelectual circles among those who love Spanish cinematographic history beside the names of great directors such as Saura or Buñuel. In his last film, the internationally acclaimed Volver, the ilustrous man from La Mancha guides us on a fascinating walk along legend-filled streets of his childhood. He takes us through the austere La Mancha courtyards and he sorrounds us in the scent of fighting mothers, in the land that the great Cervantes already described in his Quixote. Like Cervante’s mad knight, the characters in Volver seem to have lost their marbles. “It is because of the wind Solano ” as the main character mentions, a dry wind that feeds everyday the everlasting mills and that, in one of the last scenes, drives the rubbish containers dancing through the desert streets.
Women on the margins: the 'beloved' and the 'mistress' in Renaissance Florence
Dr. Catherine Lawless explores the position of a particular category of women who did not fit at all easily into either religious or social stereotypes, women who were the objects of amorous devotion on the part of prominent and influential citizens and on a more earthy level women who were mistresses, concubines and mothers of illegitimate children in Renaissance Florence.
The Monkeys' Tunes
The Tunes that the Monkeys are listening to, and the reasons why.
Red Card for Racism
A campaign by Ireland's leading sports personalities, Show Racism the Red Card, highlights the role sport can have in integrating immigrant communities in the social fabric of a country. But to what extent does Ireland's sporting infrastructure welcome immigrant talent? Brendan Coffey looks at the 'immigration debate' through the prism of sport.
Who Killed Roberto Calvi
One of the most mysterious murders of Italy's murky Cold War history was that of Roberto Calvi, the head of the Banco Ambrosiano, and the man dubbed 'God's Banker' because of his business relationship with the Vatican. A Rome jury has recently acquitted five men charged with his murder. Journalist Philip Willan discusses the Calvi case with Three Monkeys.
Cold War Psychohistory in the Scottish Psyche
The very essence of the cold war was dividing the world into blocs, of 'us' and 'them'. Strung between Stalin and Gorbachev, things should have been different at the start of the 21st century, but new conflicts and new enemies have appeared in a sadly familiar pattern. Alastair McIntosh, in a paper delivered at a conference on Soctland's experience through the Cold War argues that we need to examine 'psychohistory' to shake off our cold wars.
The Leopard and the Fox - Tariq Ali and the BBC
The year was 1986, the subject Pakistan and its military coup of 1977, and the outcome a thoroughly British case of cold war sponsored censorship by the BBC. Tariq Ali discusses with Three Monkeys Online the circumstances behind the censoring of his drama The Leopard and the Fox, the dramatic rules for 'faction', and the current state of the BBC.
Poland's Problem with Eco-Terrorists
The route of a bypass in an underdeveloped corner of one of Europe's lesser 'developed' countries, Poland, has caused an argument with much wider ramifications. Horatio Morpurgo delves into the wider issues involved in the controversial Augustow by-pass.
The making of a monster - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Literary monsters are metaphors for our own deep fears. Little wonder, then, that one of literature's most famous monsters has been depicted differently throughout his illustrious career. Stephanie Lawless compares and contrasts representations of Shelley's monster from the page, stage, and film worlds.
Carry me down - M.J. Hyland in interview
The first person narrative of a troubled young Irish boy, told in M.J.Hyland's second novel Carry Me Down, captivated audiences and critics alike. It was nominated for last year's Man Booker prize, and described by novelist Monica Ali as "a work of discreet brilliance". Hyland spoke to Three Monkeys recently about her preference for the first person narrative, and about what distinguighes the great novel from the good.
News and Tributes - The Futureheads interview
Sunderland band The Futureheads are entering a new phase as a band, having parted company with their record label Warners. Three Monkeys met up with the brothers Hyde to discuss their second album News and Tributes, and what the future holds for The Futureheads.
Flawed Ambition - The Flaws in interview
Irish band The Flaws are tipped by the critics to be one of the next big things. Brendan Coffey meets a band that, while filled with ambition, has its feet firmly on the ground.
Rosia Montana: Consumerism and its Disconnects
What connection does the rural backwater of Rosia Montana, have to European integration and Global climate change? Horatio Morpurgo mines the controversy surrounding a Canadian company's plans for a small Romanian town, and finds food for thought for western eco-warriors and liberals alike.
This is getting serious - The US anti-missile shield, seen from the Czech Republic.
What has the Czech Republic to gain, or, equally importantly, to lose from the installation of the US anti-missile shield system on its soil? Questions posed by Padraig McGraith, who lives a mere bomb-blast away from Jínce u Příbrami, one of the proposed sites for the system.
Love in the time of Bossi-Fini. The real impact of immigration legislation in Italy
Behind the polemics and eye-catching headlines carelessly trotted out by the media on immigration, real people's lives are affected. Journalist Cristian Artoni has researched a number of different cases, ranging from the banal to the tragic, where the Italian legislation on immigration, the so-called Bossi-Fini law, has had an unmistakable impact.
The Best Defence? Poland and the US anti-missile shield
The proposed US anti-missile shield to be deployed in Poland, is called in Polish tarcza antyrakietowa, ironically, as tarcza also means target. Robert Looby describes what little debate there has been in Poland on the subject of the controversial defensive/offensive system.
Dantean Echoes - The influence of Dante on Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney
James Joyce was, and remains a domineering presence on the Irish literary landscape. Less acknowledged, though, is the influence of Dante Alighieri, despite echoes found in the works of Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney, and indeed Joyce.
Fights don't come any bigger than this - Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Vs Oscar De La Hoya
On May 5th Oscar De La Hoya faces Floyd Mayweather jnr in the ring at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, to decide the WBC world light-middleweight title. Padraig McGrath argues that they just don't come any bigger than this.
Lille Farce Churns Out Dangerous What Ifs
Football, it seems, continues to flirt with its dark and dangerous past. At the recent Manchester United vs Lille match on pitch antics and off-pitch violence luckily failed to cause disaster. The 'what ifs', though, loom large.
American Purgatorio
Employing diverse structures, including the seven deadly sins, dante, and the American coast-to-coast road-trip, John Haskell's debut novel has been described as 'wildly original' (by Geoff Dyer, no less) and 'remarkable'. Haskell spoke to TMO about American Purgatorio
Balancing the Renaissance - Tim Parks on Medici Money
Fifteenth Century Florence was the centre of the artistic explosion we now term the renaissance. It was also home to the relatively new profession of banking, which, for families like the Medici, created the wealth which was used to patronise the arts. English novelist Tim Parks talks to Three Monkeys Online about the Medici, usury, and the uneasy relationship, then and now, between money, art, and religion.
The Nuclear Option - Declan Lynch and The Rooms
Alcohol as a literary theme is an enduring one, despite the frowns of the politically correct. Irish journalist/novelist Declan Lynch places the 'demon drink' firmly, and unrepentantly at the centre of his debut novel The Rooms. In interview with Brendan Coffey he explains why...
A 'special' writer. Dacia Maraini in interview
Dacia Maraini is one of Italy's most succesful writers - translated into dozens of languages, she has written novels, essays, plays, and poems. Maraini talks to Vincenza Fanizza for Three Monkeys Online.
Books by and an Interview with: Mary Midgley
Mary Midgley is one of Britain's leading philosophers. Highly critical both of religious fundamentalism, and at the same time blind faith in 'sociobiology', Midgley recently spoke to Three Monkeys Online. On the table for discussion were the role of philosophy, and the urgent need to change mankind's vision of the universe.
‘Keeping the Tempo’: The Orange Revolution Remembered
In November 2004 Horatio Morpurgo flew into Kiev, on his way to report on a Nature reserve for an ecological magazine. By chance he found himself in the midst of the Orange revolution. Morpurgo gives his eye-witness account of the Ukranian Orange revolution to Three Monkeys Online.
Divine Comedy - Neil Hannon in interview
With the release of his latest album, Victory for the Comic Muse Neil Hannon, better known as the man behind The Divine Comedy, has closed a circle, or has he? Brendan Coffey spoke to Hannon for Three Monkeys Online.
Defending History - Deborah E. Lipstadt and Holocaust Denial
Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt became a household name when David Irving sued her for libel. The trial, Irving vs Lipstadt, in a sense, put the Holocaust on trial. Irving lost his case, with the court accepting that he had "persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence", and that he was an "active Holocaust denier". Lipstadt, in interview with Three Monkeys Online, discusses the persistence of Holocaust denial, methods of teaching the Holocaust, and 'soft-core denial'.
Democracy with blood on its Hands: An Interview with Ariel Dorfman
According to Ariel Dorfman, the central dilemma of our times is "how to make sure that, when grievous harm has been done to us, we do not turn into the monster who has given us such pain". Dorfman, a playwrite, novelist, and essayist of international renown discusses this, in the context of Pinochet's Chile, and our current 'war on terror'.
