The 1990 Industrial Relations Act is the most important piece of legislation that you've never heard of, and defines why Irish trade unionism is in the state it's in. Patrick McCusker spoke to Jimmy Doran of Trade Union Left Forum about how this came about, and what is to be done.

The Debenham's strike lasted for 406 days, and was the longest running picket in Irish history. Patrick McCusker caught up with two strikers to hear the story of the strike, to find out where things are at now, how Mandate failed them, and what the legacy of the strike could be going forward.

James O'Toole recently published a new manifesto for the Labour movement, entitled "The Return of Class War Trade Unionism". Lucas Spiro met him to discuss the contents of this, the weakness of the Irish labour party and why a return to class war trade unionism is crucial to addressing the problems of today.

Bígí linn!

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The tragic recent events in Ukraine have shook the political landscape across Europe, and brought us closer to a major land war across the continent than at any time since the end of the wars that ravaged the Balkans in the 1990s. Whilst Ireland is far from the frontline of the conflict, we can’t help but to be affected by it, be it by housing thousands of Ukrainian refugees or facing rising fuel prices as a result of disruptions.

Another, less immediate way in which we have been affected by this war is that voices calling for Ireland to abandon neutrality and join NATO have become prominent in our media and politics, with debates on the future of Irish neutrality becoming a fixture on the airwaves and in newspapers. For perhaps the first time since the outbreak of the second world war, the future of Irish neutrality going forward has come under serious question.

We’ll be considering the case for and against Irish neutrality, as well as just why the question has become so prominent in recent months.  We’ll be discussing this with Dr Ben Tonra, Professor of International Relations at UCD, Roger Cole of Peace and Neutrality Alliance Ireland, Paulie Doyle, author of the recent article “The War On Ireland’s Neutrality” in Tribune Magazine and John Dolan, author and co-host of the Radio War Nerd podcast.

Bígí linn!

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Patrick McCusker will be talking to Dr. Harun Šiljak, lecturer in Electrical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, about his recent article “Opening This Article Voids Warranty”, and just why the right to repair is about so much more than having to replace your phone every time you drop it.

2022 marks the centenary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and the subsequent Irish Civil War. However, far too many people’s knowledge of the Civil War consists of a vague idea of a Collins - De Valera rivalry derived from the film Michael Collins, that the Four Courts were burned and that it’s the basis for the Fianna Fáil - Fine Gael rivalry. Chris Beausang got in touch with Dr Ferghal Mac Bloscaidh, Senior Lecturer in History at St. Mary’s University College Belfast and the author of a number of important books, including Tyrone: the Irish Revolution, 1912-1923 and Dr Kerron Ó Luain, Irish Research Council Fellow at DCU.

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The housing crisis affects all strands of society but it proves a serious challenge for third level students this year. Many students deferred their place to this September meaning admission numbers are higher than usual and, as students return to campus after a year and a half,  finding a place to stay is more difficult than ever.

This mess impacts both Irish and international students – Caitriona Devery talked to Rachel McCartney of Waterford IT Student’s Union about how bad it’s gotten outside Dublin, and Martin Leen talked to Lazslo Molfinari about how the crisis is affecting international students.

The term "vulture fund" is often associated with the housing crisis, but what does it actually mean and how have these funds changed the economics of the housing landscape in Ireland? Patrick McCusker caught up with Thomas Varghese, who is facing eviction from his home in Lucan, to talk about his experiences. He'll also be talking to Enda McHugh, Membership Officer for Community Action Tenants Union, and Michael Byrne, Lecturer at UCD's School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice to talk about how Ireland has become especially attractive to vulture funds, and their lasting impact on Ireland’s housing market.

Some inspiring housing news comes out of Germany in the wake of their recent election. On 26 September, voters in Berlin were faced with an historic referendum aimed at addressing the city’s housing crisis. In a city where more than 80 percent of people are renters, the local crisis is sometimes known by the term “rent madness,” or Mietenwahnsinn. The referendum was the latest high-point of the Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen and Co. campaign, formed to force large corporate landlords to sell their portfolios to the government. The referendum passed with around 59 percent of voters backing the measure to expropriate corporate owned private property in the interest of the public good. Nervous State spoke with a housing activist based in Berlin, to learn more about this campaign’s historic victory, the political and social context of Berlin’s housing movement, and the complex, uncertain future of the referendum result.

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Natalia Beylis interview by Martin Leen

Natalia Beylis’s latest piece of music ‘Invaded by Fireflies’, released on Cafe OTO is an amazing piece of music Based upon recordings of friends describing beautiful places, this mesmerising piece feels like an psychogeographic journey through unidentified terrain. Described in the Quietus as an exploration of  how sight, hearing and place can come together through language; to think about how words spoken and listened to can be a very visual medium. Walking around listening to this piece of music and to the voices of strangers feels very intimate. Martin Leen chats to Natalia about the piece above, about how we can all hone our listening ears, the influence of her home in Leitrim on her work and the excitement of playing live gigs again.  You can buy the piece through Cafe OTO.

Language shift in the Gaeltacht by Patrick McCusker

The summer of 2021 marks the second year of “staycations”, with holiday makers having been forced to stay in Ireland due to the pandemic. The Gaeltacht communities in Donegal, Connemara and Kerry have seen a particularly large influx - demand for accomodation in Gweedore was such that holiday homes were being let for as much as 800 euro a week in June. Tourism has become integral to the local economies, for better and for worse. What impact has this had on local communities and their distinctive cultures? Patrick McCusker talked to sociolinguist Ben Ó Ceallaigh, teacher and author Katie McGreal and activist Sam Ó Fearraigh of Misneach Thír Chonaill to find out

Annex on their Venice Biennale installation Entanglement by Ali Morris, Tommy Gavin and Caitriona Devery

As our everyday lives become increasingly entangled with data technologies and their assemblages, our routines are shifting to ever more virtual forms of exchange. And while most of us perceive the virtual world as an ethereal formless entity, it is anything but.

Annex is the collective behind Ireland’s pavilion at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice, which this year is framed by the question ‘How will we live together?’. With their installation Entanglement, they argue that the digital is material. It is not an ethereal and abstract space but has distinct material and environmental footprints that compel us to reevaluate the utopian fantasy of digital communication and to reflect on how we live together through data infrastructure, today and into the future. We sat down with Annex members Clare Lyster and Donal Lally to discuss Entanglement.

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We’ll be starting with our usual round-up with the Dublin Inquirer. Tommy Gavin’ll be checking in with Lois Kapila to discuss efforts to map institutional landlords in Dublin, and explore just how the changing nature of landlords matters to developments in the city.

Dublin’s social and cultural life was dealt a blow with the closure of Jigsaw recently. Jigsaw (previously known as Seomra Spraoi) was a home to far too many groups down the years, including Dublin Digital Radio, and provided a unique space for social and cultural organising. Patrick McCusker caught up with Barry Semple, manager of Jigsaw, Andrew Flood, who was involved in setting up the space, and Michelle Connolly of CATU to discuss the importance of Jigsaw as a space, and what the prospects for these spaces are going forward.

Deirdre O’Mahony is a visual artist whose practice is informed by deep interest in rural sustainability, farming, food security and rural/urban relationships. For more than two decades she has investigated the political ecology of rural places through public engagement, art and writing. Caitriona Devery talks to her about her new project Sustainment Experiments, which consider what action/s can be taken in the face of ecological and climate crises. It starts with the idea of ‘Sustainment’ put forward by design theorist Tony Fry as an equivalent movement to the Enlightenment in its capacity to transform systems of thought and behaviours. Framed by this concept, Deirdre is working with farmers, scientists and food producers to use institutional and non-institutional public spaces to unpack issues around food production, climate change and biodiversity loss through soil health and soil remediation.  

Bigí linn!

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The Mother and Baby Homes Commission released its final report in January, concluding a five year investigation into historic abuses in institutions that forcibly housed unwed pregnant women. The commission was created following public outcry over the documentation of a mass grave of babies and children at Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway, discovered and highlighted by local historian Catherine Coreless. Despite finding that one in seven children in Mother and Baby Homes died, and documenting incidents of torture and medical experimentation that violated the Nuremberg code; the report minimised the responsibility of the State and absolved the religious orders and hierarchy of culpability. Furthermore, the commission has engaged in bizarre and shocking behaviour in how it has treated the survivors of these institutions; limiting their access to their own records and engaging in extremely questionable research methods. Interview recordings have been illegally deleted, data consent procedures have been violated, and ongoing access to information gathered has been curtailed. To talk through some of these ongoing issues and what they tell us about how little has changed, Tommy Gavin spoke to Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic of Shame: Stories from Ireland's Institutions for 'Fallen Women.'

When Ireland first went into lockdown a year ago cultural venues were among the first to close and they will probably be among the last to re-open. This has meant that for almost a year, Ireland’s galleries, theatres, concert venues, and other cultural spaces have been emptied of crowds coming together for shared artistic experiences. Instead, many arts organisations and artists have presented their work online, to be experienced privately, with one’s own bubble, at home. Nervous State was curious about how well these networked events have worked for artists and audiences alike, and whether they have created any new opportunities that can be carried on post-pandemic. To investigate, artist Kerrry Guinan spoke to Michelle Doyle, a Dublin-based artist and musician whose work critically explores the relationship between culture and technology, with a particular focus on DIY broadcasting and alternative methods of exhibition. 

The recent documentary Framing Britney Spears got a lot of people talking about “conservatorship”, as the pop star’s father has legal control over most of her financial and professional life due to Britney being deemed incapable of managing her affairs. The equivalent system in Ireland is called the “wards of court” system, and until very recently was based on something called the Lunacy Act of 1871, with much the same attitude to disability as would be expected. There’s a court case ongoing at the moment which caught Nervous State’s eye wherein a ward of court is challenging the law so as to be allowed to marry his partner, and Martin Leen got in touch with Rob Murtagh of Inclusion Ireland and Mary Farrell of Justice for Wards to find out just what a ward of court is, and what the system says about attitudes to disability and access to justice in the Irish legal system. 

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this sector is so huge in Ireland and why it is so poorly regulated

It isn’t just ESL students in the gig economy who’ve borne the brunt of Covid-19 – their struggles in the labour market are just one example of a deeper problem with inequality between different parts of the workforce. Whilst 2020 has been the year of working from home for many office-based professionals, this simply isn't an option for low-paid workers in manufacturing and the

service sector. Ireland is one of the few countries in the EU without mandatory sick pay, but government has not talked about bringing it in before the end of 2021 despite the public health problems forcing people to go to work, even when showing symptoms, has

created throughout the pandemic. Has Covid exposed the existence of a two-tier workforce, and what is there to be learned from this going forward? Patrick McCusker is joined by Michelle Murphy, Policy Analyst for Social Justice Ireland and Andrew Flood,

independent researcher and host of The Plague Tapes on Mixcloud, to discuss this.

On the cultural front, Martin Leen caught up with The Mary Wallopers who are in the midst of recording a new album of trad folk stompers and sean nos bangers, possible titled The Curse of The Mary Wallopers. Hailing from Dundalk (we do have a sneaky Dundalk fetish here at Nervous State),The Mary Wallopers are a folk group who travel the length & breadth of the country singing & collecting songs. They exude a raw energy that could be described as the Clancy Brothers meet John Lydon. In the interview we play a few bangers, chat about the nature of the said curse, what to expect in the new album, being live stream sensations, keeping the buzz going during Covid, collaborating

with Post Punk Podge and lots more.

Moving West, Tulca festival of visual art has been going in Galway since 2002 and commissions a different curator every year who comes up with their own theme. This year the curator is artist Sarah Browne, whose programme is called The Law is a White Dog. The title is taken from a book by Colin Dayan, an interdisciplinary legal scholar, which is subtitled How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons. Drawing on engagement with the law in her own practice, Sarah has put together a programme of artworks and events in a very challenging pandemic context. Caitriona Devery spoke to her about the ideas behind the programme, curating in lockdown, and some of the artists involved.

We’ll also feature Darragh Deighan-Gregory talking to Seán Murray, the

director of Unquiet Graves, about the recent controversy surrounding his

film being shown on RTÉ, and why challenging received narratives about

the Troubles is so important.

As ever, we’ll be kicking off with our usual check-in with the Dublin Inquirer’s Stephanie Costello for all the biggest stories going on around

town.

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Issue 2 of Nervous State was first broadcast on 09/08/2020.

It featured:

- A roundup of the Dublin Inquirer's stories of the month with Laoise Neylon.

- An interview with punk poet Jinx Lennon.

- A special on Debenhams where workers have been on strike since April for basic rights.

- Interviews with Noirin from Inclusion Ireland and Vicki from WALK, two organisations fighting to improve the standard of living for people with intellectual disabilities.

- An Interview with Mark Walshe, an executive committee member of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, to discuss issues of fundamental importance to education provision.

- A chat with Danny Carroll about Litany 0f Failures III.

Music on the show from Jinx Lennon and from Litany of Failures

Sound editing and design by Jane Deasy.

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Issue 3 of Nervous State was first broadcast on 04/10/2020. It featured: - A roundup of the Dublin Inquirer's stories of the month with Stephanie Costello. - An interview with singer songwriter Aoife Nessa Francis - A special discussion on CATU (Community Action Tenant's Union) on why there is an urgent need for a national tenants union. - Interviews with Natalia Beylis, a sound artist and Sean McLoughlin of Save Leitrim on monocultural forestry in Leitrim - An Interview with Eimear Walshe on their short film The Land Question: Where the fuck am I supposed to have sex? and Merve Elveren, guest programmer of EVA International. - A roundtable discussion on the responsibilities of reporting on the far-right. Music on the show from Aoife Nessa Francis. Sound editing and design by Jane Deasy. Support independent media. Support Dublin Digital Radio on Patreon.

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