MONGOLIAN DANCER

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I've already blogged here about this exhibition and competition.

Tonight's the night of the adjudication (19/2/2020), though the exhibition goes on till 2 March 2020.

By popular demand the exhibition has now been extended to 9 March 2020.

Let's start at the end, for once.

Having commented on the photos worth a commendation and those from 5th to 2nd prize, the co-adjudicator, Eamon O'Daly, announced the winning photo.

Mongolian Dancer

One of the elements, if not the main one, that appealed to Eamon was the choice of shutter speed which enabled the motion to be captured but retained the clear face of the musician in the background.

And the winning photographer, Liz Stowe from Raheny Camera Club.

Some of the other winners
[A point to bear in mind when looking at the pictures: I have taken these as photos of the exhibits on the wall. The room lighting, while good, is not ideal for this. While I've made every effort to avoid it, it has not always been possible to get a picture without some trace of light reflection even on matt surfaces. The camera is more sensitive to this than is the human eye.]

Not doin too well - Tony McCann - 2nd

Eamon was very taken with this photo, to which he awarded 2nd prize. He noted the contrast between how the busker, Martin McDonnell, is doing so badly in the street and his €15 admission gig in Whelans in aid of the Irish Cancer Society the previous night.

He also noted the composition of the photo, with the musician and his street audience.

Firestarter - Maurice Ward

Chinese Dancer - Gunita Zonberga 4th

Puc fada - Tony McCann

Backstage - Vivion Mulcahy

Non-winners I liked

A show of hardness - Birgit Kreischman

Are you listening to me? - Billy White

Delayed delivery - Jean Crowley

Watching you - Alan Shelley

Wind beneath my wings - Charlie O'Neill

I'm probably influenced in favour of this one as I think it is taken beside the current ruins of my old school in Parnell Square.


And then there's this one

Bono - Paul Rainey

I have a blind spot when it comes to Bono. No offence to the photographer who appears to have got a very impressive shot. To me it's Bono as Jesus Christ and the Edge as the Mannekin Pis. Used to sing with the Edge's Da in a choir.


The Independents

There were ten entries in all from independents (ie non-club members) of which six are shown above. In other years these were judged in a separate category of their own. This year they went into the general pot and Vivion (middle top, referred to above) was among the prizewinners.

Checking out the independents

And there seemed to be quite a bit of interest in this category among the audience.


Cheeky photo

Hanging on every word - Sam Keegan

This cheeky photo includes both Michael Edwards, who started and ran the competition up to this year, speaking on the left, and the current adjudicator, Eamon, listening on the right.

I mentioned that I thought it was a cheeky photo to the man I was talking to at the time, only to figure out later that he was the photographer.


People

Barry Crowley

Barry, as well as taking on a role in organising this year's competition, also acted as MC on the night. In the course of thanking the sponsors, he graciously acknowledged the role of Michael Edwards and his team, Siobhán, Dermot and Vanessa, both as the local photo shop and in running the competition over the years.

Michael sent his apologies for his unavoidable absence on the night.

Eamon & Christine

There were actually two adjudicators, both Eamon and his wife Christine. While Eamon did all the talking, he made it clear that Christine had to share any credit - or blame - for the decisions made!

Pat McCabe

Pat is the manager of the Donaghmede Shopping Centre and he provided both the exhibition space and the catering from Kay's.

Aileen, left, & Elaine from DCC

Dublin City Council (DCC) have been a major sponsor in the past and thanks to Pat Carey for keeping them on board in the post-Edwardian dispensation. Pat is also responsible for the poster at the head of my earlier post.

The Council have provided 10 very nice awards (placed, from 1st to 5th, and 5 Highly Commended). I've included photos from both categories under winners above but specified a placing where relevant.

Brian Whelan

Brian is Bermingham Cameras on Burgh Quay. I think I remember that this was where Michael Edwards started out on his photo career. But Michael now tells me he started out in Hurson's of Talbot St with Paddy Bermingham ( 1965 ) and it was another 8 years before he joined him again in Burgh Quay. (See his comment below)

Bermingham's have been associated with and supported the competition from the outset and this year again provided prizes for the top three winners.

Brian & Gunita

Three former Benedictines
Pat Carey, Martin Ryan & Maurice Ward

I got to know them via St. Benedict's Camera Club, which now rejoices under the title North Dublin Camera Club.

Brian & Jean Crowley

An independent victory (mentioned above}. Jean Crowley accepting his prize for Vivion, who did turn up but was unavoidably absent for this stage of the proceedings.

Christine is “debriefing” Tony McCann with his wife, Margaret, watching. I should mention that the adjudicators seemed quite willing to discuss their entries with the photographers.

I didn't dare ask.

My Entries
Now that the adjudication is done and there is no further need for anonymity, I'd like to comment on my own two entries, neither of which attracted the adjudicator's attention on the night.

PLAYING WITH FIRE

This the stage door of the Olympia Theatre. It is an invitation to go onstage but at the same time a reminder that all playacting is playing with fire. What might the act trigger in a member of the audience?

I am reminded of Edward Ball in the Gate Theatre at a performance of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment where Roskolnikov kills an old woman with an axe. Shortly afterwards Edward meted out the same fate to his mother.

Equally, of course, the theatre itself could go on fire, as it did in the film Only Two Can Play.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS: THAT'S MY GIRL

This was a bit of a mind-blower, to be frank. Cecelia Hartsell, heself an African American, talking about former slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, under his watchful eye.

Photo: Sam Keegan, Howth Camera Club

It's not often I'm on this side of the camera, so I thought I'd take a bow.

Thanks Sam.

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The entries shown above are just a a very small selection from what's on show. Always remember that no adjudication is the only one possible, as Eamon freely admits. So do drop in to see the exhibition before it closes and see what you'd have picked as winners. There's a lot of serious quality on show.

By popular demand the exhibition has now been extended to 9 March 2020.

NEUROSCIENCE AT THE PHARMACY

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I was on my way to Liz's talk when I decided to drop in to Sweny's Pharmacy and get some more bars of soap.

Apart from the family connection (with the soap!), "my producer", Sue Cahill in Newstalk, was very appreciative of the bar I gave her at my last session on Talking History.

So, I thought, get one or two more, but not so many as to devalue it as a special gift.

While I was there, PJ Murphy suggested I should come back at 18:30 on 6 March next when there would be a session of Poetry and Song, with a sprinkling of Joyce.

When I asked him for details he suggested I speak to Max, who was behind the other counter and who was involved in the night.

Max, who is Italian, and who would be reading some of his poetry on the night, filled me in. The theme then would be "Sweet Dreams", from the title of the Eurythmics hit. It would not be all sunshine and there would be dark moments.

So if you're around then, do drop in.

I said I'd tweet it which I am about to do.

Max Bianchi

Max gave me some links to his poetry and when I followed them up I found he was not only a poet but a fully fledged neuroscientist.

PJ singing a song as Gaeilge
for two visiting Americans from Ohio

I'm sure we'll also have a song or two from PJ on the night.

Amazing who you meet in town when you stop rushing around.

POLLY, PUT THE KETTLE ON

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Where were the women on Bloody Sunday, 21/11/1920?

If you were to go by the little history I learned in school, you'd never be able to answer that question.

The assumption, if there even was an assumption, was that they were at home, brewing tea for their rebel menfolk when they got home after the onerous task of ridding Dublin of all those members of British Intelligence (more men) who were obstructing Michael Collins (another man) on the road to an Irish Republic.

Fact: the Bloody Sunday executions, carried out by Michael Collins's Squad, could not have happened without the women.

And it's not tea they were making.

Their work in the plot was not confined to Bloody Sunday morning. Apart from conjuring up, and spiriting away, weapons on the day, the women were involved in the seriously risky and demanding job of gathering the intelligence need to make the Squad's job possible.

So if Liz Gillis had one job in the National Library of Ireland last night it was to see that the women got their due, and from the word go, she came out fighting.

Now I know Liz. She is a historian with a huge passion for what she does. Her research is assiduous and exemplary. She doesn't rely on written sources alone, though God knows the amount of archive material released recently would keep a battalion busy untill kingdom come.

She talks to people. She searches out the families and listens to their stories. She puts human flesh on her characters. Her parting words last night about all of those to whom she had referred in the course of her talk was: "Remember these are all people, human beings".

But her presentation is something else. She gesticulates like a French person on speed. Her speech is beyond capturing in any one's shorthand. She rattles through the talk like a Thompson Machine Gun. But every word is annunciated and you don't risk losing her if you keep your focus.

Mind you, she's from the Liberties. Basin Street is only round the corner from my great-grandfathers boot and shoemaker's. If you listen carefully, you'll realise that in the local dialect of Hiberno-English the letter "T" is usually pronounced only at the beginning of a word and seldom in the middle or at the end. Liz is the genuine article and the more credible for being so.

She rarely stands still and is a nightmare for any photographer trying to manage in natural, or weak artificial, light.

If I'd have remembered, I'd have brought my big camera & flash. But then I'd have lost the sense of movement. I told her I probably need to train as a sports photographer if I'm ever to get this right.

Anyway she was great and I couldn't possibly tell you all she packed into a short space of time.

If you missed the talk, I suggest you visit the National Library's exhibition FROM TURMOIL TO TRUCE at the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar.

Showing what the women did is an explicit aim of the exhibition.

I gather Liz may be doing her talk again (soon?). We'll see.

And the National Library expect to have it up on line at some stage.

Meanwhile enjoy Liz's style below.

Bet you're smiling.

Hope so.

That was a privileged viewing.

Go get 'em, Liz.