IRISH pop duo Thomas Walsh and Neil Hannon have just released a new video – It’s Just  Not Cricket – ahead of their second studio album, Sticky Wickets, which comes out on July 1.

To mark the release, The Duckworth Lewis Method are set to play a one-off gig at The Thomas Lord Suite at Lord’s on July 8.

The new album follows the cricket fanatics’ self-titled debut, which was nominated for an Ivor Novello award following its release in 2009.

The band are playing a series of British dates in September.

For a full list of shows, see the Rí Rá pages of The Irish Post tomorrow (June 19).

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An action-packed day as Lancashire take on Yorkshire

BIRMINGHAM’S Pairc na hÉireann hosted the All-Britain U14 Football Féile earlier this month.

Teams from across Britain, including London, Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Scotland and Gloucestershire, took part in a series of 20-minute games refereed by Ciara O’Brian and Brian Laverty.

The event, coordinated by Niall Jackman, and attracted a large crowd of young and old GAA fans.

South London had the cameras firmly focused on their side during the event having brought along their own film crew.

South London brought along their own film crew

An independent production company will be following the club throughout the summer as part of a documentary being made potentially for Irish television.

Irish Post photographer Chris Egan was also there to capture all the action on and off the field.

To see all the photographs from the tournament, including full team pictures, don’t miss this week’s Irish Post, out tomorrow (June 19).

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SYLVIA Murphy-Brennan may have dedicated the past five decades to teaching Irish dancing, but when the Birmingham woman received a letter telling her she was on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, she could hardly believe it.

“I thought this it a hoax,” Mrs Murphy-Brennan told The Irish Post. “That was my initial reaction. I actually rang through to Buckingham Palace to check that it was correct because it was so unexpected.

“I could not understand why and they told me it was for services to dance, which left me shocked and humbled.

“I have always been a great admirer and respecter of the Royal Family. And to hear British Empire Medal and to hear that the Queen is going to be awarding it to me, I am extremely amazed and touched by it.

“And it is wonderful for members of the Irish community to be recognised in this way. There is so much good that the Irish have contributed to Britain.”

The news that the successful Irish dancing teacher will receive a British Empire Medal comes in the same year that Mrs Murphy-Brennan, 67, celebrates 50 years of work with her Irish Academy of Dance, Music and Song.

In that period, she has worked with “thousands” of youngsters in Birmingham, including her own three children and “dancers of all ethnicities, whether they be Indian, African or Polish”.

Sylvia Murphy-Brennan

Mrs Murphy-Brennan has also worked in Cheltenham and in Newport, Wales, where her dancers made history by becoming the region’s first group to make it to the Irish Dancing World Championships.

Asked what has kept her motivated for all those years, Mrs Murphy-Brennan recalls the passion for Irish culture instilled in her by her parents, who met in Britain after emigrating from Co. Cork during the Second World War, and her love of working with children.

“Even now I look forward so much to going to my classes,” she explained. “I just get so much fun out of it and they become an extended part of your family.

“I also think it is important to keep our culture alive. Birmingham has done so much for the Irish in terms of giving us work, but the Irish have done so much for Birmingham too.”

Among her academy’s highlights, Mrs Murphy-Brennan counts several visits to New York’s St Patrick’s Day Parade, where her academy’s dancers grabbed the award for most entertaining group in 2002.

“And when they returned four years later, they were brought up to the front of the parade,” she added. “The dancers were on the news channel all day and in the press coverage. Now we are hoping to do it again next year.”

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Northampton Irish Association visit the grave of James Joyce’s daugher Lucia. Photo credit: Fred Hart

AS old copies of Ulysses were dusted down from bookshelves, the annual Bloomsday celebrations sprang to life at the weekend through a series of events paying tribute to the life and works of James Joyce.

On Sunday, the London leg of the Global Bloomsday Gathering was held at the London Irish Centre in Camden.

In the show, live readings of the Joyce’s most celebrated work were screened around the world, with contributions from Irish actors including Brian Gleeson (Snow White and the Hunstsman), Orla Fitzgerald (The Wind That Shakes The Barley) and Roxanna Nic Liam.

The Northampton Irish Association marked its tenth Bloomsday celebration with a trip to the grave of  Lucia Anna Joyce at Kingsthorpe Cemetery.

The Irish writer’s daughter had spent years at St. Andrew’s Psychiatric Hospital in Northampton.

Gerry Molumby, dressed as James Joyce, led the revival with a reading from ‘Hades’, the funeral episode in Ulysses, before poems were read along with a rendition of Just A Song At Twilight.

On Friday The Wheatsheaf pub in Soho, London, hosted ‘Joyce in Paris’ a two-hour show which explored the writer’s life in Paris in 1922 – the year of Ulysses’ publication.

A mixture of Irish and French music from Bow and Bellows featured during the evening, along with readings from episodes of Ulysses by the actress Nora Connolly and actor Oengus Macnamara. The performance was followed by an impromptu open mic session.

Bloomsday, which is named after one of the main characters – Leopold Bloom – from Ulysses, is timed to coincide with events which take place in the novel, on June 16, and is marked by celebrations, festivals and revivals of the Irishman’s work throughout the world.

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The Obamas with Dr Prendergast in Trinity College

MICHELLE Obama and her daughters Sasha and Malia visited Trinity College Dublin today on the first leg of their tour of Ireland.

The US First Lady and her daughters were shown the Old Library at Trinity and were greeted by Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast.

The Obamas, who flew into Belfast this morning, were also shown the famous Book of Kells before being handed a presentation on their own family genealogy and connections to Ireland.

The research included details on President Obama’s Irish ancestry.

On the visit the Obamas were also shown the College Harp − Ireland’s oldest harp dating from the 15th century.

Following the trip to Trinity, the family were due to visit the US Embassy in Dublin before attending a special performance of Riverdance at the Gaiety Theatre.

Their two day visit will conclude tomorrow with the US First Lady set to visit the Wicklow Mountains National Park while her husband takes part in the G8 Summit in Co Fermanagh.

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Barack Obama speaking in Belfast (Photo by Paul Faith – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has urged Northern Ireland leaders to keep the peace process on track during a speech on his arrival in Northern Ireland for the G8 summit.

The US president addressed thousands of students and many dignitaries including Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the North’s  first and deputy ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.

Introduced by his wide Michelle, he said: “There are still people who have reaped the rewards of peace; there are still those not convinced that the effort is worth it. There are still wounds that have not been healed and communities where tension and mistrust hangs in the air.

“If you continue your courageous path towards a permanent peace and all the social and economic benefits that come with it that won’t just be good for you,” he added.

“It will be good for this entire island, for the United Kingdom, for Europe and it will be good for the world.”

This afternoon he will meet world leaders during the G8 summit in Enniskillen.

Watch Obama’s speech in Belfast earlier today:

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Conor McPherson in London (Pic: Mal McNally)

PLAYWRIGHT Conor McPherson has denied questioning the Irishness of fellow writer Martin McDonagh.

McPherson had previously been quoted by the New York Times as criticising second-generation Irishman McDonagh’s plays as “stage Irish”.

The comment sparked a furious response from McDonagh who, at the time, threatened to physically reprimand the Dubliner and branded the comment as “ludicrous”.

However, speaking to the Irish Post, McPherson has denied the comment saying that it was falsely attributed to him.

He said: “I never said that. I don’t know where that came from. Someone said that I said that [that McDonagh was stage Irish] in some article but I never said it. I don’t know how that happened. I think that Martin is amazing.

“I think that what he’s achieved is amazing. He’s such a macabre technician, you know, with what he does. I admire him hugely.

“That was somebody just trying to make trouble because it was in an interview they were doing with him. They were just looking to get a rile out of him. I think he was just a bit ambushed, but I never said that.”

McPherson and McDonagh are both in London this week where they each have works opening on the West End.

McPherson is in the city to direct the world premiere of his latest play, The Night Alive, which opens at the Donmar Warehouse on Wednesday (June 19).

The play stars Ciaran Hinds, Jim Norton and Brian Gleeson.

A revival of McDonagh’s 1996 dark comedy, The Cripple of Inishmaan will open at the Noel Coward Theatre in London tomorrow night.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe leads a cast that includes Pat Shortt and Padraic Delaney .

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LONDON-IRISH charity Mind Yourself will shine a light on the relationship that Irish people have with alcohol tonight.

Here, one member of the seminar’s panel, recent emigrant Ciara Flanagan, shares her experience of trying to change her relationship with alcohol – a process that began when she found herself to be a panic-stricken twenty-something who needed a nightly drink to take the edge of fruitless days of job-hunting.

‘Sure of course you’ll have one, you’re Irish!’

The natural showmanship of the Irish is a pretty big global export these days.

This summer we’ll fill up the beer gardens of London, Sydney, Toronto and beyond with that ease of charm and revelry that our foreign hosts can only expect – and maybe even secretly envy.

Personally, I never learnt to drink in moderation. How on earth do you drink sensibly?

My six can standard became six pints when I got old enough to blag my way into pubs. Then, pre-drinking only meant I had the six in me before I got to the pub and properly started the night. Forever, I prided myself on my high tolerance – a total false bravery.

But this became a particularly fine party trick the more I travelled even though I was always the sensible head in the group. I would make the first exit, most often walking home alone.

In December of last year, home was Beirut.

I’d end most days propped up at the bar where my friend worked. The barman would pour mine extra strong because I was Irish. No complaints – it took the edge off a long day of endless job applications and dead ends.

Boozing was the focus of my social life. No different to the pub culture of Ireland I was brought up in.

If I’m honest, the escape it offered me was also going down easy. I wasn’t having much luck finding work – caught in the new-age-mid-twenties-funk: formal education, check, no job, check.

I had a place to sleep and the support of family to bail me out if things really didn’t work, but that wasn’t much of a cure for the daily frustration and nightly panic that you might return home a failure, tail between legs. Emigration in any generation will attack the psyche.

****

‘What do you mean you’re not drinking? Don’t be boring!’

In January I had a moment and decided to cut alcohol out completely.I was biting the bullet and moving to London.

I gradually withdrew from pub life. But I still worked weekend shifts around alcohol and took to persuading bar staff to always fill my tequila shots with apple juice.

Ciara Flanagan

It worked an absolute charm. Within two weeks my body clock had reset.

I slept a perfect eight hours and woke every day with more energy then I’d felt in years. I didn’t need to binge eat as much.

The groggy, half-speed haze that I’d been wading through for months lifted and I have to admit the clarity in my mind was overwhelming.

For the first time, I actually stepped back and realised how alcohol was affecting my physical and mental health.

It had actually been pushing me into lower lows and eating into my motivation the whole time.

Since arriving to London, I continued my no-booze promise, making it official by starting a HSM (hellosundaymorning.org).

During the weekdays, I got involved with Mind Yourself, a London-Irish organisation committed to improving the mental and physical wellbeing of Irish people across the city.

Pints didn’t feature on my list of possible weekend plans any more.

In my first month, I put myself in more social settings that better defined me as a person than I’d done in living memory.

Don’t get me wrong, at moments a drink would have been nice and having to explain your way around not drinking could be tricky.

On top of that, it was disappointing to discover that being sober around some people can be grim.

In those three months I realised I only want to drink alcohol to enjoy it and never because I need it.

I realised that I only want to drink alcohol both in the company of people and in a setting that I would also enjoy sober.

Most importantly, I realised that I resent our current culture around alcohol.

Alcohol is a drug, a depressant.

Just because we can buy it openly in the supermarket does not mean its potential to have a destructive and debilitating effect on our lives is any less. Irish culture makes it really difficult to openly admit that, just like not letting the bravado crack and talking about our mental health.

It’s time to grow up. We should be shaping our culture into one defined by individual choice and acceptance.

If suddenly I fancy a coke when I’m out, then what of it? It’s not a bad reflection on me, nor is it anything to do with my friends. I haven’t changed at all and it doesn’t mean I’m pregnant.

If we’re not comfortable with who we are sober and, similarly, if we’re not comfortable with sober friends being around us when we drink, then that should surely raise alarms.

Taking a moment to consider what that means has the potential to change our individual relationships with alcohol and in doing so, change the focus of the Irish drinking culture forever – from one of need to enjoyment.

Mind Yourself’s seminar takes place tonight at the charity’s headquarters in Angel, London. If you are interested in attending, call 02073545248 or email info@mind-yourself.co.uk

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Bono is criticised by journalist Harry Browne in The Frontman: Bono (In the Name of Power)

THE author of a new book which strongly criticises U2 frontman Bono has hit back at negative responses he’s received since its publication in Ireland.

Journalist and author Harry Browne said the Irish media’s reaction to The Frontman: Bono (In the Name of Power) has been “hostile” and “hysterical” following its release earlier this month.

The book, published to coincide with the G8 summit, takes issue with Bono on a number of levels including his attempts to deal with aids in Africa and global poverty.

Browne also attacks U2’s decision to move their publishing arm to the Netherlands in order to pay less tax and the frontman’s close relationship to George Bush and Tony Blair around the time of the Iraq War.

Speaking to The Irish Post, Browne commented that he felt the reaction in Ireland “has been funny, it’s also been predictable.”

The Dublin-based writer also responded to criticism from former Irish presidential candidate, Adi Roach.

Roach, a close friend of Bono and his wife Ali Hewson, had called the book “shameful” and defended Bono’s record on human rights and justice.

Reacting to Roach’s criticism, Browne said: “I’m sorry she did, of course, and I’m particularly sorry that anyone did without reading the book.”

Browne said he had a lot of respect for Roach and for Bono. “At the same time, it’s loyalty to a friend and I wouldn’t criticise her,” he added.

Speaking at an event held at Rough Trade East in London last Friday, the author reiterated claims made in the book that Bono’s mission to tackle global poverty had failed.

“I think that things have got worse and Bono is part of a system that makes it worse,” said Browne.

He said governments should follow proven models in decreasing poverty, such as the Latin American model, and backed grass-roots activism over the “celebrity activism” of Bono and other world figures.

On the band’s tax affairs, the author claimed that U2 practiced “aggressive tax avoidance”.

Browne also attacked Ireland’s Minister for Social Protection, TD Joan Burton’s recent criticism of the band’s tax affairs, saying, “[she should be] checking out what her government is doing to make sure no corporation can do this; not just having a go at U2.”

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IRELAND’S priests will have almost “disappeared” in 20 years according to a new book written by a founder member of the Association of Catholic Priests.

In his new book, Who Will Break Bread for Us, Father Brendan Hoban predicts a speedy decline for the vocation in Ireland.

“We don’t need to have 20-20 vision to see this particular train coming down the track,” he says. “All we need to do is to be able to count. Ireland’s priests will have virtually disappeared in 20 years.”

The author claims the Catholic Church is in denial about the fall-off and cites the example of his native diocese of Killala, Co Mayo where for 22 parishes there are now just seven priests under the age 55.

The book is dedicated to six priests who he says have been silenced or threatened with silence by the Vatican, including Fr Brian D’Arcy, Fr Seán Fagan, Fr Tony Flannery, Fr Gerard Moloney, Fr Iggy O’Donovan and Fr Owen O’Sullivan.
He argues that in seven years Tuam archdiocese will have 50 priests for 55 parishes and 10 years on from that, in 2030, there will be just 30 elderly priests in the Galway region.

In 1990 there were 525 students studying for the diocesan priesthood in Ireland. This year there are just 70.

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