Media, Film And Journalism

One of the conspicuous characteristics of Cultural Studies is its trans-disciplinary origins.  The discipline is known for drawing on, re-articulating, and re-theorising specific concepts from other disciplines from which it is critically synthesised.  The present paper takes stock of the contribution of Linguistics to Cultural Studies, stressing Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, and Stuart Hall as important links between Linguistics and Cultural Studies during various historical milestones of Cultural Studies.  From a Linguistis perspective the discussion is particularly critical about the fact that Cultural Studies is stuck in Structuralism at a time that all other well-defined human science disciplines have felt the tag of Generative Linguistics in the post-linguistic turn era.  Both Cultural Studies researchers and linguists need to explore new dimensions of the historical relationship between their two disciplines.

This paper considers the contrasting fortunes of Irish emigrants to Britain, especially in the post-war period and down to the 1990s. Four dominant narratives are identified and analysed, looking at a range of experiences from complete integration to hostile rejection.

This paper looks at the debates in Ireland between 1924 and 1926 about setting up a wireless broadcasting service. It tracks the various positions adopted by key political and cultural authorities and argues that the debates were influenced by both the need for national assertion and a fear of the culture from outside that wireless might bring.

This paper looks at the moment of punk in Northern Ireland in the late 1970s. This is now looked upon as a utopian moment when young kids from diverse political and cultural backgrounds put aside the enmities of their parents generation to identify as 'punk' The article discusses band like The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers as well as the film, 'Shellshock Rock'

This paper considers the cinematic image of Belfast and notes its staus as a 'pariah city' and its broodingviolent cinematic image. After the 1998 Peace accord, the cinematic image of Belfast began to change and by 2001, a new, vibrant cinematic Belfast began to emerge.

Chapter 1 of the book 'Film, Media and popular culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes'. In 2003, Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ screened a digitally re-mastered version of' Strumpet City', its own classic seven-part adaptation of James Plunkett's novel which was first broadcast in March and April of 1980. This is a detailed reading of the programme in its contemporary context, arguing that it provides us with the opportunity to re-assess the series and to gauge just how Ireland has changed in the interim two decades.

This appears as Chapter 6 of 'Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes' (2008) but appeared originally, in a slightly earlier form in James MacKillop (ed) 'Contemporary Irish Cinema' (Syracuse University Press, 1999). It offers a detailed reading of Thaddeus O'Sullivan's 1990 film, 'December Bride', discussing how it revises some dominant romantic representations of Irish landscape and provides an unusually complex portrayal of an Irish Protestant community.

Chapter 12 of the book 'Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes' This paper considers the way in which popular film and television has represented unionist/Protestant culture in Northern Ireland and argues that as Northern Ireland moves forward into the next phase of its own brand of peace and reconciliation, there is certainly a need to find new ways to represent unionist culture.

This chapter appeared as Chapter 5 of the book 'Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes'. It offers an exploration of landscape in Irish cinema, both indigenous cinema and the representations of Ireland that emanate from other cinema cultures, especially Britain and America. The essay discusses the importance of landscape to the Irish national imaginary and assesses the way in which cinema has both supported and challenged the dominant modes of this imaginary.

Chapter 7 of the book 'Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes', this piece explires how recent Irish cinema has depicted the Catholic priest, once the revered leader of the community but now often portrayed as irrelevant, untrustworthy and much reviled.

This is chapter 2 of the book Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes. An earlier version was first published as chapter 14 of the collection of essays edited by Brian McIlroy in 2007 and it considers the cinematic representation of Dublin during the boom years of the Celtic Tiger (until 2007). It argues that the city has progressed from having a social realist identity to become a playground of the wealthy and privileged young. There are positive aspects to this new urban playground, as well and a new multicultural urban Ireland has emerged.

This appears as Chapter 4 of the book 'Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland: Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes'. It offers a critical look at recent cinema from Ireland (north and south), Scotland and Wales which argues that these new cinemas present a considerable challenge to dominant modes of representing the so-called 'Celtic fringe'. As such, they constitute an interesting example of regional-based cinemas that considerably reconfigure national stereotypes and which explore new ways of imagining culture and identity.

Chapter 3 of the book 'Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2', this piece tracks the emergence of folk-rock in Ireland, bringing together the Irish folk ballad tradition, traditional music and the new group culture of international pop music. The discussion includes Christy Moore and Planxty, Horslips, the Bothy Band and Mellow Candle.

This is chapter 4 of the book 'Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2' and considers the successful rock exiles from Ireland who found fame and critical approval outside of Ireland. The discussion includes Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher.

Chapter 1 of the book, 'Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2', looking at the early years of popular music in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, the influence of Irish showbands and the emergence of rock music following 1963's visit of the Beatles to Dublin.