Joseph O’Connor – Star of the Sea

Star of the Sea tells the story of the passengers on a ship sailing from Ireland to New York in the winter of 1847. Among them refugees from the potato famine, an Anglo-irish Lord and his family, a budding novelist, a maharaja and a murderer.

Even before the ship sets sail, one or two unfortunate passengers die of hunger whilke others succumb to disease on board. It’s all carefully noted in the ship’s log by her captain.

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It’s a beautiful day: The Seven Towers come down

Dublin’s notorious ‘Seven Towers’, made famous in U2′s song Running to Standstill, are being torn down this week.

More than 3,000 people watched as cranes started their work while U2′s Beautiful Day played in the background on Saturday at noon.

At a wake for the flats on Friday night, ex-Virgin Prunes Gavin Friday and Guggi — who grew up in the area, made a speech and then sang their song ‘Sweet Home Under White Clouds‘, announcing it a ‘traditional Ballymun ballad’.

The Ballymun flats are being dismantled to make room for houses as part of the largest urban regeration programme in Europe.

Peter and the Wolf documentary

Ireland’s RTE 1 screened a half hour documentary on the making of ‘Peter and the Wolf’ on Monday, January 5th. There’s a brief review of the documentary on gavinfriday.com. We expect to be able to offer some screencaps and footage next week.

You got the boxed set, you ordered the T-shirt and the catalogue, now fork out for the luxury screen print: all available from the Irish Hospice Peter and the Wolf shop.

Larrywear

Last week we told you about Ali Hewson’s helping to raise money for Down’s Syndrome Ireland (see Bags on Display). Now we’ve learned that Larry Mullen also has pitched in for the cause by designing a t-shirt for the organization.

Larry’s design, along with several other celeb t-shirt designs, are available for purchase at Brown Thomas stores and its affiliates across Ireland. All profits from the t-shirts, which retail for Euro 30 for ladies and Euro 35 for gents, will go directly to Down’s Syndrome Ireland.

Larry ‘n’ Larry

“Hitting things for a living, I couldn’t ask for anything more.” Irish 2FM DJ Larry Gogan interviews Larry Mullen who’s disappointed he’s not in Ireland so he can “see people lickin’” him. (real audio, via Cindy)

MP3 magazine get their facts straight

Straight from lalaland, that is. This month’s magazine (the dead trees version) reviews U2 sites and this is what they write about us:

If it’s U2 news and gossip you’re after, then U2log is an essential destination. Run by a team eagle-eyed fans in Holland, the UK and the USA, the site is updated two or three times a day with the latest rumours and information. There are quotes from newspapers, reprinted articles and links to the best U2 content on the web (the band even let them upload a couple of tracks from the new album). A simple site, but well worth visiting.
***

1. We’re mainly from Holland/Australia/Ireland. None of our editors are from the UK.
2. We do not reprint articles. We write our own material. This is in fact the strength of U2log.com
3. We were never given permission by the band to upload their material. Please believe us when we tell you everything we do is WRONG and we’ll go straight to hell for it.
4. Simple? Yeah, we k.i.s.s. you.

But we’re well worth visiting. They got that right.

Promo Bono Oh No

We’re told U2log’s pretend Bono doll has appeared in Ireland’s Hot Press as the real deal. What’s more, it’s credited to our mates at Youtwo.net. Nice one. Our subscription won’t arrive for a while… anyone got a copy and a scanner?