Latest news with #BertieAhern
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
'Not my decision': BBC edit Irish language out of first play of new CMAT single
The BBC edited the Irish language out of a portion of CMAT's new single. The Dunboyne native released Euro-Country on Tuesday evening, with the first ever play of the song at 6pm on BBC Radio One. However, the opening of the song, which features just over 40 seconds of Irish, was not included in the play. Taking to Instagram, CMAT - real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson - confirmed that she was not aware of the move prior to the first play. "I just want to say really quickly that it was not my decision to have the Irish language edited out of the first ever play of Euro-Country on radio. I don't know if it was a mistake or what happened, however, they have just gotten in contact and said they are going to play the Irish language intro full version tomorrow to make up for it She added: "I don't know who edited that out but it was crazy. Yeah, not my decision but they're fixing it!" The single is the lead of CMAT's new album Euro-Country, which is set to be released at the end of August. The song includes a swipe at former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern over his time in government, with lyrics including: 'All the big boys, all the Berties, all the envelopes, yeah they hurt me. I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me...' The song reflects the financial crisis in 2008 and references the hardships people faced in Dunboyne and Ireland as a whole. The country star has already performed at Glastonbury and Primavera this summer, and will be a major attraction at All Together Now at Curraghmore Estate in Co Waterford next weekend. She is due to play the 3Arena in December.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
OPW bans tour guides from wearing green or orange at site of the Battle of the Boyne
The Office of Public Works (OPW) has banned tour guides from wearing green or orange clothing at the site in Meath where the Protestant King William III defeated the Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne. The location is of particular significance to unionists, as William's victory in 1690 established Protestant dominance in Ireland, and is commemorated by the Orange Order with a series of marches on July 12 each year. The rule prohibiting guides from wearing green or orange at the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre is not contained in the official OPW Guide Handbook, which is supplied to guides and information officers at heritage sites. Instead, the directive is being communicated directly to new guides by a supervisor at the visitor centre after they have been hired, according to emails released under freedom of information laws. The instruction, which is believed to be aimed at respecting the sensitivities of both unionist and nationalist visitors, is not the only unusual dress code directive issued by the OPW to its guides. A section of the handbook dealing with clothing and uniform requirements specifies that 'nudity is prohibited at all sites'. Asked why it was considered necessary to include this in its dress code for new tour guides, the OPW declined to comment. The Battle of the Boyne visitor centre was developed following the allocation of €15 million of government funding in 2005. Last year, a further €10 million was provided for the centre under the Shared Island initiative. The site was famously chosen as the venue for Ian Paisley's (left) first official meeting as Stormont first minister with Bertie Ahern (right) in 2007 where he presented the DUP leader with a musket used in the battle. File picture: Collins The site was famously chosen as the venue for Ian Paisley's first official meeting as Stormont first minister with Bertie Ahern in 2007. The then-Taoiseach presented the DUP leader with a musket used in the Battle of the Boyne. An email titled 'Welcome aboard' sent by a supervisor to a newly hired seasonal guide last year contained details of the dress code for staff at the visitor centre. It prohibits items including army jackets and clothes that feature 'slogans, badges or emblems'. The email stated that 'green and orange are not permitted on site'. The OPW provides an annual allowance for guides where colour-coded clothing is mandated by local management. This is payable at a rate of €210 for permanent guides, and €100 for seasonal workers. The OPW declined to comment when asked about the prohibition of green and orange clothing at the Battle of the Boyne site. Read More Loyalist bonfire on site with asbestos lit despite warnings
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
It's a relief to know young CMAT was taking notes, saving up her rage at Bertie
The singer CMAT shared a short clip of her new single on social media last week, with a sample of the lyrics: 'All the big boys / All the Berties/ All the envelopes, yeah they hurt me /I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me ...' You don't need to be a scholar of 21st century Ireland to follow the references. This isn't the first time she has made known her feelings about Bertie Ahern , who as taoiseach merrily led Ireland headfirst into the banking crash. In a Hot Press interview she said that if he ran for President, she would make it her 'personal f**king mission' to make sure that he didn't win. CMAT – or Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – described the inspiration for the track in an interview with The Guardian : 'I was about 12 and it all happened around me, it didn't really happen to my family directly.' CMAT grew up in Dunboyne, Co Meath. 'My dad had a job in computers. We didn't really have any money, we weren't affluent, but we were fine. Everybody else on the estate we lived in worked in construction or in shops and they all lost their jobs. Everybody became unemployed. Then in the village I grew up in there was a year or 18 months where loads of the people I went to school with, their dads started killing themselves because they'd lost everything in the crash.' READ MORE She wondered whether she could possibly have remembered this correctly. 'But I dug deep, did research and the amount of male suicides that happened in Ireland at that time was astronomical.' As her research will have uncovered, data collated by the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) for the period 2004 to 2014 showed that, after years of decline, there was a sudden upward surge in the number of suicides between 2008 and 2010. NSRF researchers have estimated that the rate of male suicide by the end of 2012 was 57 per cent higher than it would have been if the recession had not happened. In human terms, that's almost 500 additional deaths. Self harm also rose by 12 per cent during the period 2007 to 2012. A study of 190 deaths by suicide in Cork city between September 2008 and March 2011, the darkest of the post-crash years, found that 38 per cent of those who died were unemployed and 32 per cent worked in construction. And those were only the cases where a coroner's inquest was able to determine a verdict of suicide. This is the real pain of that period we still seem unable to account for. We talk about the economic and infrastructural fallout, and even about the breathtaking stupidity and greed that blithely allowed three quarters of the total lending of the Irish banks – €420 billion, economist Stephen Kinsella wrote in Recalling The Celtic Tiger – to be diverted to essentially a single asset: property and land. We mention the grotesquely overblown scale of the bailout that followed the inevitable collapse: but again, we only talk in terms of numbers. We refer to the construction workers who 'vanished' from the sector after it all went wrong as though they were a structural issue, not human beings whose way of life was obliterated by greed. The years after the crash were a time of collective bloodletting – not the blood of bankers, builders, bondholders or politicians, of course, but of ordinary people. Yet the real human cost of those years is rarely accounted for: the Das who couldn't take it any more and tragically took their own lives instead. The death notices on with their suggestions that a donation could be made to Pieta House in lieu of flowers, whose concise wording could not possibly contain the vast oceans of grief of families left behind. The human cost is also the Mams with their backs against the wall trying to hold the family together; the children who should not have had to grow up without a father, the ones who should never have had to go to school cold and hungry. And it includes those who kept going, but only just, sliding slowly, inexorably into alcoholism or depression. It's also the ones who got away, 420,000 of them between 2011 and 2015: the breakfast roll lads who decamped to the mines of Perth or the bar stools of Bondi, the grandparents who only see their now-teenage grandchildren on WhatsApp video chats. In the years after the crash, I remember having conversations with publishers and agents about whether there would ever be a definitive novel of the Celtic Tiger. There have been some writers since who have stepped up to the task – none, perhaps, more brilliantly than Donal Ryan or Paul Murray – but they are part of the generation that was most directly affected. Maybe what it needs is the perspective of CMAT's generation – the children of the crash – to finally be able to make sense of it. For years afterwards, I think we adults were walking around in a kind of a daze, unable to articulate what had happened to us and unwilling to relive it. Some of us are still in a daze. As CMAT succinctly put it in the Hot Press interview: 'We've been traumatised by the last 20 years.' The ripples of those years of austerity, uncertainty and the crippling shame go on and on. It is a relief, in a strange way, to know that there was a little girl in a housing estate in Dunboyne taking notes and storing up her rage about Bertie and the bankers to be unleashed at a later date. The Samaritans can be contacted on freephone: 116 123 or email: jo@ Pieta's freephone crisis helpline is 1800 247247 or text HELP to 51444
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘Cancelled presidential bid', cry fans as singer CMAT takes jab at ex-politician in new song
IRISH singer CMAT has taken a dig at former Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern in her latest single. The Stay For Something singer, whose initials stand for Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, is set to release her third studio album Euro-Country on August 29. 2 CMAT has taken a dig at Bertie Ahern in her latest single Credit: Getty Images - Getty 2 The song is the most recent single from her upcoming album And ahead of the album's release, CMAT has been dropping a steady stream of new singles for thrilled fans. From her chart topping Running/Planning, to her witty and controversial hit The However, with just a little over a month until the highly anticipated record drops - CMAT has taken aim at former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the album's latest single. To announce the release of the title track Euro-Country, CMAT shared a snippet from one of the verses which tells the story of the 2008 crash from her perspective as a pre-teen in a small town. READ MORE IN MUSIC Ahern is mentioned by name and loosely features in the music video for the song. As Dunboyne native CMAT passionately spins around a sparsely decorated room, she belted out the lyrics: "All the big boys. All the Berties. All the envelopes, yeah they hurt me." Making reference to the hardships people faced, she continues: "I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me. "And it was normal. Building houses. That stay empty even now, yeah. And no one says it out loud but I know it can be better if we hound it." MOST READ IN THE IRISH SUN In the song's music video, the 29-year-old donned a long-sleeved baby-blue top that featured the bejewelled wording "Bertie". And it's not the first time the singer has made her feelings about the former politician known, as in a 2023 interview with Hot Press she scolded the idea of him ever running for president. She said: "I would make it my personal f***ing mission to make sure that he doesn't win." Her forthcoming album deals with the legacy of the boom and bust of the Irish economy in the early noughties through a kitsch euro-trash dream. She previously "My dad had a job in computers, we didn't really have any money, we weren't affluent, but we were fine. "Everybody else on the estate we lived in worked in construction, or in shops, and they all lost their jobs. Everybody became unemployed. "Then, in the village I grew up in, there was a year or 18 months where loads of the people I went to school with, their dads started killing themselves because they'd lost everything in the crash." EUR-JOKING Sharing the snippet of the new song with fans, she wrote: "The fourth single from my forthcoming album, conveniently also named EURO-COUNTRY, is coming soon." Friends and fans raced to the singer's comment section to share their reactions. Darragh joked: "You've cancelled Bertie Ahern's presidential bid and we thank you." Georgina commented: "I was 20 in 2008 and was still trying to figure out a path for myself and remember all of this too well. "I've never felt lyrics to a song so deeply. This is just incredible." Another fan added: "Bye bye Bertie." Despite much speculation Ahern or Fianna Fail are yet to confirm their nomination for the upcoming Irish presidential election.
Irish Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
CMAT takes a pop at former taoiseach Bertie Ahern in new Euro-Country single
Irish pop star CMAT has teased the next single on her forthcoming album Euro-Country, which includes a cut at former taoiseach Bertie Ahern over his time in government. The upcoming album, expected to be CMAT's most political record to date, comes after the singer received rave reviews for her standout performance on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage. In social posts on Tuesday, CMAT shared a short clip of the single, which shares the same name as the album, along with a snippet of the lyrics: 'All the big boys, 'All the Berties, 'All the envelopes, yeah they hurt me 'I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me...' The song about the financial crisis in 2008 references the hardships people faced in the area where CMAT grew up. READ MORE 'I was about 12 and it all happened around me, it didn't really happen to my family directly,' CMAT said in a recent interview . 'My dad had a job in computers, we didn't really have any money, we weren't affluent, but we were fine. Everybody else on the estate we lived in worked in construction, or in shops, and they all lost their jobs. Everybody became unemployed. 'Then, in the village I grew up in, there was a year or 18 months where loads of the people I went to school with, their dads started killing themselves because they'd lost everything in the crash.' The reference to Ahern in the song is not the first time CMAT has made her feelings known about the former Fianna Fáil politician who served as taoiseach between 1997-2008. In an interview with Hot Press in 2023 , she said if Ahern ran for the presidency she would 'make it my personal f**king mission to make sure that he doesn't win'. Ahern has yet to confirm if he will be running in the presidential election this year, but his name has been included among those speculated to join the race. - Additional reporting from the Guardian
