It Occurs To Me: Looking back in anger

There was only one music event that genuinely deserved last week’s headlines and that was our Daniel’s Cork gig being

cancelled because of his chest infection. I’m not joking!

In their anthemic multi-million hit, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Oasis sing “Please don’t put your life in the hands/Of a rock ‘n’

roll band/Who’ll throw it all away.”

Indeed, why put your life in thehands of Ticketmaster, and have hours of your life thrown away. Journalist Fiona

Looney queued for seven hours to be ejected as she was accused of being a Bot! (A robot if you prefer the old fashioned

name). I heard her ‘seething’ on Newstalk on Sunday morning as she responded to a rather smug former executive vice-

president of Ticketmaster Europe, who argued that the ticket price was not Ticketmaster’s fault.

“Who’s forcing anybody to pay €400 for a ticket?” he told The Anton Savage Show. The people who caused this maelstrom are Oasis fans.”

He said roughly 700,000 were on Ticketmaster at 8am yesterday for Oasis tickets – with only 160,000 tickets available.

“I can’t understand why people lose their minds at this,” he said. “It’s supply and demand there was far too much demand for

the tickets on sale. Nobody has to pay that money – if people don’t pay that, the ticket price will go back down.” Fiona Looney

disagreed: She argued that you can’t blame Oasis fans for the high prices.

“This was caused by Ticketmaster, plain and simple. It was unfair to raise the price once you were in the system, it was unfair

to throw people out,” she said. Social Media was overwhelmed by people looking back in anger…angry at Ticketmaster, MCD

Promotions, hotel price gouging and indeed, the GAA. The Tanaiste criticised price gouging, Mary Lou and Simon Harris have

been making noises, and at the end of his Coldplay gig, Chris Martin said: “Thank you for the effort it takes to get to a show

like this, and the pain in the arse it is to get here and get home…the crazy hotel prices, which is a bad thing. I’m going to have

a word with someone about that.” Well, did he and did it make a damn bit of difference?

In fairness to the UK, at least the Government are not just ‘expressing’ concern but Culture minister Lisa Nandy said it was

depressing to see vastly inflated prices on sites operated by authorised retailers which she said would exclude some fans from

the shows.

She added that the government will include issues around the transparency and use of so-called dynamic pricing - which

pushes up the costs when demand is high - in an already planned review of ticket sales and the protection of consumers.

‘Working with artists, industry and fans we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and

ensures tickets at fair prices.’ Can our kick-the-can-down-the-road merchants not do the same?

We are being hyped to death

Apropos of the previous article, I couldn’t believe it when I turned on the Virgin Media News last at 5.30pm to see that the

main story concerned the reunion of the two whinging Mancs, Liam and Noel Gallagher/Oasis.

Sometime later in their news menu, we were reminded of the slaughter of innocent women and children in Gaza. Some ten

children per day are killed there! In fairness to RTé later, they relegated the Oasis reunion to third in their menu. Across the

water, the British stations in the main succumbed to the hype…it’s absolutely appalling. We were just recovering from all the

Taylor Swift brouhaha and now this. Are we becoming a nation of Bot… feeders?

‘Sometime later in their news menu, we were reminded of the slaughter of innocent women and children in Gaza’

With Gráinne Seoige being the latest recruit to possible ‘celebrity’ election nomination, following on from a Rose of Tralee and

Cynthia Ni Mhurchú (I’ll make an exception for Ciaran Mullooly who has a good track record in local community work), it

appears that all we need now is ‘name recognition’. Yes, vote for wan on the telly…that’ll do!

Meanwhile in Croker

When I see how our All-Ireland Championship fixtures are being squeezed to death by the end of July while millions pour into

GAA coffers because of concerts, it makes me incandescent. T

he 1971 GAA annual congress formally ditched the infamous Rule 27 prohibition on what were known as “foreign games” –

specifically rugby, soccer, cricket and hockey – and its Rule 28 vigilance committees, whose members were empowered to

attend rugby, soccer and other matches to spy on who else was there and Rule 29, forbidding clubs to host “non-Irish

dancing”. Bar Antrim and Sligo at the time, everybody agreed that the ridiculous ban should go, but it’s a shame that they

didn’t retain the ban on “non-Irish dancing”. (I jest, but you know where I’m going!)

And what about the tortured craythurs who live near Croker? In an interview with the Indo, Cathy Power, who has lived on

nearby Tolka Road since 2016, said concerns were raised over the number of concerts held at the venue, but there was no

warning an announcement about more Croke Park gigs was on the way.

“They could have said that a major concert was being announced, they didn’t have to tell us it was Oasis. They could have said

we’re going again next August,” she said.

It’s not that everybody is waiting to put it in the calendar, but say it was your 50th birthday on the 17th of August next year

and you were going to have a big party, you wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Ms Power said she and her neighbours face yearly disruption, including concert-goers urinating in front gardens and difficulties

getting through cordons placed around Croke Park.

“My next-door neighbour has to walk to work, now she’s not far away but she’d normally drive. There was a person next to me

at the meeting who had decided to invite people to their house and sit out in the garden for Springsteen and they had the wine they were bringing confiscated at a barrier.

“Croke Park is a really positive thing for the neighbourhood, but it’s also a multi-million euro industry, and a bit of respect for

their neighbours would go a long way – a bit of goodwill. We’re not the enemy that has to be kept out and treated like we are,

with a bit of suspicion about the tickets that are given out. We’re warned we can’t sell them, as if our first reaction to getting an Oasis ticket is ‘How much can I scam out of someone for this?’

“Nobody wants to stop concerts. We want this to go well, but we’d like to feel better about it. The things that happen like

public urination, littering, not being able to get through cordons or have guests – it would all be tempered by selling a few

tickets to us as neighbours. It’s just mean-spirited.” Whatever it is, it’s not ‘good hurling!’

Handicapped in Granard

This is the type of narrow minded nonsense that kept the Ban alive from 1905 until 1971.The following letter was published in

the Longford Leader in May 1919, under the heading of Shoneenism in the County.

“Despite the progress of the GAA in Co. Longford in recent years the imported game of golf has found its way to Granard. Any

member who plays or encourages this game suspends himself for a period of two years. Is it not enough to be crushed with English laws and nearly anglicised with the English language, and smutted with immoral English dances, until we must deliberately import John Bull's effeminate pastimes.”

Memories of the ceasefire

Last week was the 30th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire and it brought back many memories. I recall the following day,

approaching the Culmore Road checkpoint, as I had day and daily for some ten years, reaching for my driving licence over thesun visor.

It was there, faded, well-thumbed, but intact….however, the ‘permanent’ checkpoint had vanished overnight. In common with

other motorists, I paused momentarily, crawled unbelievingly towards Derry City and it was only when I approached the Foyle

Bridge, I realised that I was still clutching my licence.

It was only 24 hours after the IRA ceasefire, and throughout the North, checkpoints were disappearing as if spirited away by aliens in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

The timing was perfect…my youngest son was due to begin his secondary education in St Columb’s College within days, and

my eldest would sit his O levels later that year. The 12-year old’s teen sensibilities would be fashioned in relative peacetime,

while the 16-year old would at least be spared growing into adulthood during a further decade of The Troubles.