We’ve already had two quite exceptional and well-attended outings in Banter’s autumn/winter series about life in Dublin in the 21st century. After our looks at bikes and gaffs, it’s time to turn the focus on the new Dubliners who’ve moved to Ireland to make a home and a life for themselves.

New Dubliners pictured at a recent citizenship ceremony

It’s a discussion which has been prompted by many chats and observations over the last 12 months. The Irish migration narrative is usually all about people leaving Ireland and the whole generation emigration discussion, but this ignores the fact that many thousands of people are also moving in the other direction. Between the ongoing citizenship ceremonies, the many new businesses helmed by new arrivals and the fresh energy and enthusiasm provided by the newcomers, Ireland’s migrants are making a valuable, if unheralded, contribution to this country.

The New Dubliners will look at the city through the eyes of those who’ve moved here to make the city their home by talking a group of new Dubliners about their experience of living in the city: the good and the bad, the stuff that keeps them here and the things which make them pine for home, the ins and outs of making a home here.

Our panel: Wissame Cherfi (film-maker), Monika Sapielak (Centre for Creative Practice), Hassan Lemtouni (cafe owner) and Minhee Won (financial data research specialist). We’ll also be screening Wissame’s award-winning short We Are Dublin on the night

The details: The New Dubliners will take on Wednesday November 27 at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) from 8pm. Admission is free and you just need to sign in advance to the invite list here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Kv-EwLRSzq0

Next month, Belfast Music Week swings into action again in the city. A week of gigs, events, talks, workshops and much more, there’s over 250 different events happening at 70 different venues all over the city from November 11 to 17.

From the big ‘un – that would be Van Morrison’s do at the Waterfront Hall – to some very interesting ones – for example, this lunchtime freebie featuring More Than Conquerors and Joshua Burnside – there’s a rake of stuff to suit all tastebuds.

Thanks to an invite from Belfast Music Week co-ordinator (and Oh Yeah music centre founder) Stuart Bailie, there will be a Banter panel in the middle of things. Print the Legend takes place on Thursday November 14 at the Group Space in the Ulster Hall (12.30pm-1.30pm, admission free).

In the here and now of Belfast’s musical world, the past still rings loudly. The city has very successfully packaged its legends from the last few decades – from Van to Good Vibrations – but a danger arises when nostalgia and the feel-good moments of the past takes over. The momentum and energy required to keep a contemporary scene going is instead used to lionise and mythologise the past. It’s not a case of “Belfast is dead, long live Belfast”, but more about teasing out if a city which often finds itself living in the past is a good place from where to plan for the future.

Our guests for this discussion on the city’s creativity then and now are Sean O’Hagan (The Observer), Glenn Patterson (author, lecturer and Good Vibrations’ scriptwriter), Katie Richardson (Katie & The Carnival) and Brian Coney (editor, The Thin Air).

More info on Belfast Music Week here

Alan McGee, the man who co-founded the formidable and peerless Creation Records’ label, publishes his autobiography “Creation Stories: Riots, Raves and Running a Label” in November and he’s coming to Banter to talk about it.

The book is the story of the man with many strings to his bow, from managing the Jesus and Mary Chain to co-founding Creation, the label which introduced the world to My Bloody Valentine, House of Love, Ride, Primal Scream, Oasis and a ton of other bands. Meanwhile, McGee himself became one of the figureheads of Britpop, hung out at 10 Downing Street, started managing the Libertines and, most recently, returned to the record business with new label 359 Music.

Banter’s conversation with Alan McGee takes place at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Tuesday November 12. Doors open at 6pm and the conversation gets underway at 6.30pm. Admission is free, but you need to add your name to the list here.

Alan McGee’s “Creation Stories: Riots, Raves and Running a Label” is published by Sidgwick & Jackson on November 7.

It’s time to head west to Co Clare for the Burren Winterage Weekend. The good folks at the Burrenbeo Trust have invited us to come along to host a discussion about farming on the edge on Saturday October 26 and we’re delighted to accept.

There are as many definitions of The Burren as there are people who come west to take it all in. Everyone from tourists to botanists, painters to poets, archaeologists to ecologists have come to this wild landscape over the years in search of visions and insights.

But the thoughts, actions and requirements of the men and women who farm in the Burren also need to be taken into account. While the number of farmers who work this land may have dramatically dropped in recent times, the issues around conservation, sustainability and livliehoods still need to be addressed to ensure a harmony between insiders and outsiders.

Banter in the Burren will look at the special issues which surround farming in a peripheral area like this. Are the problems here unique or are they part of a bigger picture involving heritage and making a living? How do farmers here use their collective voice to make their case? Are there other European regions which the Burren farmers should be looking to for pointers?

Our panel for the evening will be Ella McSweeney (RTE TV’s Ear to the Ground, RTE Radio One’s Countrywide and BBC Radio Four), Dr Áine Macken Walsh (Research Officer at Teagasc’s Rural Economy and Development Programme), Michael Davoren (Chair of Burren IFA and member of Burren Life Advisory Committee) and David Meredith (rural economist with Teagasc). There will also be a presentation beforehand by agricultural writer and academic, John Feehan, exploring the future of the farming community in Ireland.

The event takes place in Vaughan’s Barn, Main Street, Kilfenora, Co Clare and gets underway at 7pm. Admission is free and you’ll get more information on the weekend here. Big thanks to Brigid Barry and Brendan Dunford from the Burrenbeo Trust for all their help in putting this together.

After opening our Banter autumn/winter series on life in the capital city in the 21st century with a lively discussion on bikes and transport, our next Living for the City Banter will look at the issue of housing in the capital

Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the men who penned “A House Is Not A Home”, were obviously never going to be looking for work as estate agents in Dublin. When you talk about living in the capital city, the question of gaffs is never far from the surface. After the ridiculous boom years came the inevitable bust and now come signs of a boom again, as anyone seeking to rent or buy a home in the last few years can tell you. It all sounds very familiar – and very worrying. Here we go again. Will we ever learn? And what exactly is there to learn?

This Banter panel will poke and prod the issue of housing in Dublin. From changes in the rental market to the increase in price for family homes located in certain prime suburbs to the provision of social housing, is housing always going to be a hot button issue for capital city denizens? Is there a will or a way to import ideas about housing from other urban areas? Or is our desire for a semi-detached gaff with green patches front and back going to always trump everything?

Talking about gaffs: Ronan Lyons (economist at Daft.ie and Trinity College Dublin), Colette Browne (Irish Independent columnist), Karl Deeter (adviser and analyst at Irish Mortgage Brokers and Advisors.ie and Dr Lorcan Sirr (lecturer in housing studies and urban economics at DIT)

Venue, date and times: Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1), Wednesday October 23, doors open at 7.30pm and the Bantering starts at 8pm.

Admission is free, but you need to sign-up first and you’ll find the form here.

As the nights draw in and you reach for a heavier jacket as you head out the door, Banter returns to the Twisted Pepper for the autumn/winter season.

We’ve decided to do something a little different this year and have a season of Banters planned for the coming months called Living for the City. What we hope to do is take a look at various issues around living, working and playing in the capital city in the 21st century. Some, of course, will be obvious and some of them won’t be some obvious, but it’s a set of topics we hope will set off a few conversations in the coming months, especially ahead of next year’s local elections.

Our first one is On Your Bike and it will look at how the most user-friendly transport system for this city is probably one which involves two wheels. But despite the huge take-up of the Dublin Bikes scheme and the increased number of cyclists on the streets (streets, as opposed to footpaths) thanks to the Cycle to Work scheme and other iniviatives, cycling continues to be seen as a minority interest. As if that wasn’t bad enough, cyclists have to contend with bike thieves, over-zealous policing, the bike lanes to nowhere and getting called “the spawn of the devil”. Are cyclists really the villains some paint them to be or are we overlooking what pedal power can do for transforming the city?

Cyclists waiting for the green light on Dame Street in 1960. Photo by Old Dublin Town 

 

Our panel on two wheels: Damien Ó Tuama (National Cycling Coordinator for Cyclist.ie), Anne Bedos (Rothar) and Rebecca Moynihan (Dublin City Councillor).

On Your Bike will take place at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Wednesday September 25. Doors open at 7.30pm, the cycling gets underway at 8pm and the discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A. Admission is free and the sign-up form for the night is here.

One of the big highlights of Banter 2013 was our trip to Derry back in February as part of Other Voices’ trip to the current UK City of Culture. The city was buzzing and rocking and we had a great time, so it’s fantastic to be heading back to Derry in a few weeks’ time for a run of Banters at CultureTECH.

The best and most apt word to describe the CultureTECH programme is massive. From September 9 to 15, the epic festival of technology, music, media and arts will feature over 100 different events and sessions. As they say themselves, this “big messy week” is “a gathering of interesting people – doing interesting things – who all want to learn, share and have a blast”. It sounds like our sort of week.

Banter at CultureTECH will star:

Fiona McAnena from Clearhound on nudge theory, behavioural economics, the art of hidden persuasion and how governments can coax us to insulate our attics.

Fred Bolza, Vice President Creative Group Sony Music UK, on the music business’ relationship with innovation

Sam McGregor from Signature Brew on some new takes on music merchandising

Dude, where’s my audience?: Jay Onda (NTT DOCOMO), Wilson Kriegel (Paltalk and ex-OMGPOP) and Aaron Taylor (GoPrezzo) on recalibrating your business model to engage with audiences who now reside on a plethora of platforms

David Emery, formerly Head of Marketing for Beggars Group and now Marketing Director at Kobalt Label Services, on the art and business of music marketing

The view from CERN: a conversation with Steve Myers, Head of Accelerators at CERN

A year in the life of a music startup: Brendan O’Driscoll from Soundwave on his crazy year

In the frame: legendary music photographer Michael Spencer Jones on his craft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URyRZuPhk7A

Cellist and composer Peter Gregson on music, projects and the Electric Creative Colab

Something good: dance legends Utah Saints on their life in music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUxhNWDlGts

Mobile music’s big beasts: Adam Perry (BandApp, Bloodhound Gang), Colin Doran (BandApp, Hundred Reasons) and Stephen O’Reilly (Mobile Roadie, Topspin Media) talk the talk about apps for musicians

There may be one or two more additions to the Banter programme before we kick off.

Banter at CultureTECH will take place on Thursday September 12 (Legenderry Warehouse, Guildhall Square, 3-6pm), Friday September 13 (Nerve Centre, Magazine St., 3-6pm) and Saturday September 14 (a pop-up event somewhere on the Derry City Walls, 3-5pm). Admission to all Banter events at CultureTECH will be free, but room capacity is limited so you should get there in plenty of time. Hopefully, we’ll see some of you in Derry.

As has become the norm over the last few years, the Banter series of talks, yarns, conversations and discussions likes to hit the road over the summer. We’re going to be at the Kinsale Arts Festival on July 13 and we’ll also be back in Derry for the CultureTECH festival in September, but we’re also heading to the Kilkenny Arts Festival in August for not one, not two but three very special Banter sessions over the course of a week.

The idea of doing some Bantering in the Marble City first came about at last year’s festival and, with huge thanks to festival director Rosemary Collier and her team, we’ve managed to put together a damn good programme, including one or two sessions which we’ve been hoping to do for ages, for the festival’s 40th anniversary.

Banter On Music
Set Theatre, John Street; Saturday August 10

Everybody Loves Our Town

 

When it comes to the story of the Seattle grunge explosion, Mark Yarm’s fantastic oral history Everybody Loves Our Town is one of the definitive reads on that fabled city and such bands as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney and more. The Guardian called it “a Herculean work of interviewing and editing which gives everyone a voice, from the biggest stars to the lowliest foot soldiers”. Mark joins us at Banter to talk about the book, the Seattle scene and the grunge legacy.

Everybody Loves This Town

Around the same time as Seattle was blowing up, Kilkenny was having its own moment in the sun thanks to a host of local bands, a brilliant dive venue called the New Park Inn and a host of other factors. Cormac Battle (Kerbdog, 2fm), Canice Kenealy (Engine Alley) and Malcolm Noonan (Jerusalem Taxis) rewind the city’s musical legacy.

The Neil Hannon Retrospective In 35 Minutes

The story of Neil Hannon, The Divine Comedy, “My Lovely Horse” and the Duckworth Lewis Method in 35 minutes.

Banter On Music will also feature special guest performances during the course of the afternoon.

Banter On Fashion
National Craft Gallery, Wednesday August 14, 7pm

What the hell is Irish style?

It’s our favourite kind of Banter panel – one with a lot of questions. What is Irish style? Is there such a thing? How does it manifest itself in Irish fashion? Is Irish style bright orange in colour? Do Irish men know anything about style? What does Irish style look like in the future? Our panel for this walk down the catwalk: Angela Scanlon (TV presenter, fashion writer and stylist) and Sonya Lennon (RTE Off the Rails, Lennon Courtney).

Banter on the Big Issues
The Parade Tower at Kilkenny Castle, Saturday August 17, 2pm

The campaigners

Maeve O’Rourke (Justice for the Magdalenes), Orla Tinsley (cystic fibrosis rights campaigner) and John Smith (Trócaire campaigns co-ordinator) talk about the work of a campaigner, the inspirations which drive them, the choices they have made and the victories (and setbacks) they have faced.

State of the art

The Kilkenny Arts Festival turns 40 this year so it’s timely to look at the past, present and the future of the arts sector in Ireland. Colm Tóibín (novelist and playwright), Maureen Kennelly (arts producer, programmer, curator of the Mountains to Sea DLR Books Festival and former director of the Kilkenny Arts Festival and Cúirt International Festival of Literature), Donnacha Dennehy (composer and Crash Ensemble founder) and Willie White (Dublin Theatre Festival artistic director and chief executive) discuss what we’re learned over the last 40 years, the issues which the arts sector believe should be sorted out today and where things go from here.

Political reform

It is the great cry of the political chattering classes: we need reform! Yet as various opinion polls have showed, the Irish electorate place the need for reform very far down on their list of priorities. Just how serious are we about reforming how our political system works – or doesn’t work? Is it merely a case of some politicians paying lip service to the idea to score points or is there an actual hunger for meaningful, pragmatic change? A conversation with  Harry McGee (Irish Times), Sarah O’Neill (Dailwatch), Eamon Ryan (Green Party leader) and Mary O’Rourke (former government minister, TD and senator) about the real issues behind the clarion call for reform.

Tickets are now on sale for all three Banter sessions from the festival box-office. Admission is €13 and €11 or you can buy a special Banter bundle for all three Banters for €30.

The Tony Fenton Retrospective In 35 Minutes – the Today FM legend on his life on and off the airwaves (Workman’s Club Vintage Room, 7pm)

The Liffey and me – visual artist Fergal McCarthy on how the river has influenced his works like Liffeytown and No Man’s Land (Grand Social Ballroom, 8pm)

Dives, sweatboxes and ballrooms – Come Here To Me’s Sam McGrath on the life and times of some of the city’s most celebrated music venues (Twisted Pepper, 9pm)

Admission to all events will be free. It’s going to be a hoot.

Banter on the Liffey – artist Fergal McCarthy in the Liffey

 

We’re delighted to accept an invitation from the GAZE International LGBT Film Festival to host a panel at their upcoming event.

To coincide with a screening of Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s documentary Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines, our Wonder Women panel will be discussing pop culture’s representation of female power on screens and in print.

Join director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Film Fatale’s Anna Taylor, Splinister writer Maura McHugh and myself for the discussion at the Lighthouse on Saturday August 3 following the 4.30pm screening of the documentary. Admission is free if you have a ticket for the screening.

More information on the GAZE programme here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9fO7ykHLoFY

August is set to be a very busy month at Banter with trips to the Kilkenny Arts Festival and a few more specials to be announced later this week, but we start the month with a bang.

Peter Hook is the man who was there to see and experience it all with Joy Division, New Order, the Hacienda and Factory Records and we’re as proud as punch to welcome him to Banter to talk about all of the above and a whole lot more besides.

It happens at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on August 1. Doors open at 6pm and the interview starts at 6.30pm. Tickets are now on sale (free admission if you’ve a Blur ticket). Peter Hook will also be DJ-ing at the Twisted Pepper that night.

It’s Banti Room time again, people. Over the last few months, Banter has had great sport teaming up with the ladies from The Anti Room for various talking shops. It’s even inspired our own take on masculinity a few months ago.

This one, then, is also for the men (or menz). Conservatives are fond of accusing feminists of ignoring men’s voices. “But what about the MENZ?!” they cry in their non-shrill, unhysterical, deep voices. Fear not: The Anti Room have invited an all-male panel to discuss gender roles, stereotypes and what feminism means to them.

The menz with the answers: Stephen Donnelly TD, Patrick Freyne, John Byrne and Mark O’Halloran. The womenz with the questions: Anna Carey and Sinéad Gleeson

It all takes place at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Thursday July 25. Doors open at 7.30pm and the Bantering begins at 8pm. There’s limited free admission if you sign up here.

It all started in a small upstairs room in Dublin’s Twisted Pepper in July 2009 with a feisty discussion on radio.

It has featured a galaxy of guests from Nile Rodgers, Joe Duffy, Paul Morley, Miriam O’Callaghan and Lenny Abrahamson to Bill O’Herlihy, Rosanna Davison, Brian Kerr, Paul Muldoon, Guillem Balagae and dozens (nay, hundreds) more.

It has hosted talks in a hardware shop in Dingle, an artist’s kitchen in Donegal, a thatched cottage in Derry, a former bomb shelter in London and in festival tents and rooms all over Ireland from the Electric Picnic to the Galway Arts Festival to the Make A Move hip-hop festival in Limerick.

It has featured discussions on books, food, campaigning, Madonna, photography, football, media, politics, TV, climate change, new businesses, feminism (in conjunction with our friends at The Anti Room), craft beers, the Swedish House Mafia, running, masculinity, David Bowie, technology, new businesses and umpteen more things.

What is it? It is Banter. And it’s about to turn 50.

For our 50th Banter outing, Anyone buying or selling a ticket?, we’ve decided to take a look at the hot button issue of the summer: the Irish festival and outdoor live music scene. There has never been so many festivals and big outdoor shows on the agenda. Even the aul’ lads who know everything about everything are saying they can’t recall a time of such plenty when it comes to live music – and they remember Lisdoonvarna, Feile and the first Witnness. You could literally spend every weekend between now and September going to shows in the open air or in tents. You would have a whale of a time, but you’d also be broke.

Bon Jovi at Slane, summer 2013

Before the season gets underway in earnest, we’ve gathered some of the people behind our favourite events to get their read on how things are going out there and punters’ reaction to their events. Are there enough punters to go around? Who will be the winners and losers this summer? And is there anything missing from the schedule (aside from a big heavy metal festival for the agri-metal fans from Sligo)?

The panel: Declan Forde (Forbidden Fruit & POD Concerts), Avril Stanley (Body & Soul) & Leagues O’Toole (Aiken Promotions & Harmonic). The guest list blagger: Jim Carroll.

The details: Banter 50 will take place at our spiritual home in the main room of the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Monday May 20. Doors open 7.30pm and the Bantering gets underway at 8pm sharp. As always, there will be a discussion followed by an audience Q&A. Tickets are available here (price does not include Ticketmaster fees, rebates or advances).

Banter on the road: details to come of Banter events over the summer at theKilkenny Arts Festival, Kinsale Arts Festival, CultureTECH and the Electric Picnic.

They’re back! We’ve had two visits from The Anti Room to Banter for live recordings of their monthly podcasts. All involved have had a swell time on both occasions so it’s time for round three of The Banti Room.

On this occasion, it’s The Anti Room on books, literature and feminism with Sheila Heti (the Canadian writer whose new book How Should A Person Be? has just been published), Sinead Desmond (TV3) and Roe McDermott (Fanny.ie and RTE Arena) joining Anti Room hosts Sinead Gleeson and Anna Carey.

Sheila Heti

Sheila will be reading selections from How Should Be A Person Be? and also signing copies of the book afterwards. You’ll find Anti Room host Sinead Gleeson’s recent interview with Sheila for The Irish Times here.

The details: The Anti Room on books takes place on Sunday April 28 at The Workman’s Club, Wellington Quay, Dublin 2 (thanks to Karl and all at the Workman’s for facilitating this event). Doors open at 7.30pm and the conversation gets underway at 8pm sharp. Admission is free, but you need to be signed up to the invite list which you will find here.

About The Anti Room: The Anti Room was founded in 2008 by four Dublin-based journalists and was the home of many Irish ladies writing about everything from fashion to feminism and pop culture to politics. Last year, they’ve started podcasting and you can listen to or download some of the recent episodes here.