Latest news with #Cranberries
Sunday World
8 hours ago
- General
- Sunday World
Dylan McCarthy's mum says world has been ‘destroyed' by son's death in ‘mob attack'
Marita McCarthy told the court her son went out to celebrate the birth of his nephew and came back in a coffin. The mother of a young man who died after he was assaulted during a melee outside a Kildare pub while celebrating the birth of his nephew nearly three years ago has said her world has been 'turned upside down' by the 'senseless attack' on her first-born child and only son. In an emotional victim impact statement, Marita McCarthy said the Cranberries song 'Dreams' came out when her son Dylan was born in 1993, but now she cries when she hears it because her son's dreams were 'snuffed' out by the fatal assault. The money she had saved for her son's wedding had gone towards his funeral instead, Ms McCarthy said. Ms McCarthy told the court her son went out to celebrate the birth of his nephew and came back in a coffin. She said her world has been turned upside down by the 'senseless and unprovoked mob attack on my family'. Her husband Eamonn, who was with Dylan on the night, and who was himself assaulted during the incident, said he had to discharge himself from hospital to attend his son's funeral. Sean Kavanagh (26). Pic Collins Courts Dylan's sister, Orla McCarthy, said she had asked her brother to be her newborn son's godfather just hours before he was killed. The statements were read out at a sentencing hearing on Tuesday afternoon for Calvin Dunne (25) and Sean Kavanagh (27). Dunne was acquitted of murder but convicted of Dylan McCarthy's manslaughter by a Central Criminal Court jury following a trial earlier this year. He was also found guilty of a charge of violent disorder. Two weeks into the trial, Dunne's co-accused, Kavanagh, with an address at St Mary's Lane, Church Avenue, Monasterevin, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm to Eamonn McCarthy. A charge of violent disorder was taken into consideration. After a defence application, Ms Justice Biggs then directed the jury to find Kavanagh not guilty of the murder of Dylan McCarthy, a charge he had denied. It was the State's case that Mr McCarthy (29) died following an incident in which he received punches and a kick to the head from Dunne while he was attempting to get up off the ground. Two eyewitnesses told the jury that Dylan McCarthy was kicked in the head, with one describing the noise as 'a loud thud' that was 'like kicking a football', while the other said it sounded 'like a car door' shutting. Dunne contended, however, that he was acting in self-defence, that Mr McCarthy was himself 'involved in violence' on the night and that he did not kick the deceased in the head. Mr McCarthy's cause of death was a traumatic head injury and spinal injury caused by blunt force trauma. Calvin Dunne (24). Photo: Collins Courts State pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers told the jury it was not possible to determine whether a punch or kick caused the fatal injury that led to Mr McCarthy's death. In his impact statement, which was read to the court by his wife, Eamonn McCarthy said his previous life disappeared on the night of August 21, 2022 and he had lost his 'son and best friend'. 'I'm a broken man. The future is bleak.' He said following the assault he was on a liquid diet for 12 weeks and now has five plates and permanent nerve damage on the right side of his face. Eamonn McCarthy said his last memory of his son 'gurgling' and of his 'eyes rolling back in his head' will haunt him for the rest of his life. Mr McCarthy said his son was 'not a fighter' and everyone who knew Dylan knew he never hit or fought with anyone. He said he hasn't been inside a pub since the night his son was killed because he has anxiety around crowds. He said his life has become very isolated and he doesn't want to leave the house. Mr McCarthy said he felt like he had 'let my son down when he needed me most'. 'I have never regretted anything so much as entering the Bellyard pub,' he said. Mr McCarthy said Dylan had told him that night that he was going to propose to his girlfriend Aoife in the coming months. Marita McCarthy told the court today: 'I have no wedding to look forward to. The money I had been saving for their wedding went towards a funeral. Dylan's mother said her son was hit and kicked to death before those responsible 'calmly walked away'. She said they did not stick around to see what they did to Dylan and had left her husband with life-long, life-altering injuries. Dylan McCarthy News in 90 June 4th 'My world is destroyed, devastated, changed beyond belief every day,' she said. 'Instead of picking a 30th birthday present I was picking a headstone. Every day is like Groundhog Day, wishing it wasn't true.' She said her son died 'on a footpath outside a pub' as her husband watched his eyes 'rolling into his head and his last gasps'. In her victim impact statement, Dylan's girlfriend Aoife Talty said she met him after her 22nd birthday and they fell 'instantly in love with each other'. She said Dylan was 'kind, fun gentle and caring'. He never liked to be the centre of attention she said, but people were drawn to him and his 'infectious laugh'. Ms Talty said Dylan always made her feel 'loved and happy' and she was looking forward to spending their lives together. The trial heard that on the night of the fatal assault in August 2022, a row broke out after a drink was spilled and the group were ejected from the premises. Dunne told gardai that when a group of people came out of the pub and a fight broke out, he saw his former co-accused Sean Kavanagh fighting with Dylan and Eamonn McCarthy. Dunne said that at one point, Dylan McCarthy went to hit Kavanagh from behind, so Dunne grabbed Dylan McCarthy by the wrist. He told gardaí Dylan McCarthy turned to punch him, so Dunne hit him in the 'chin or jaw' area, causing him to fall. Dunne said he then 'lightly kicked' Dylan to what he believed was 'the chest area'. The defendant told gardaí that Dylan and Eamonn McCarthy were being 'extremely violent'. 'Everything I did was to stop them attacking Sean, I didn't drill him or kick him viciously,' Dunne said. Dunne, of Abbey View, Monasterevin, Co Kildare, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr McCarthy on or about August 22nd, 2022. He had also pleaded not guilty to violent disorder on August 21st, 2022, at Dublin Road, Monasterevin. Kavanagh told gardaí he looked into the pub after hearing shouting and saw staff being assaulted. He said he tried to help remove the group causing the disturbance. He said the fight spilled out onto the street at which point members of this group started to punch and assault him as he attempted to remove them. Kavanagh said a man in his 50s put him in a headlock, causing him to feel 'extremely fearful' for his safety. After he got out of the headlock, he said punches were exchanged and he struck the man in self-defence. The jury heard Eamonn McCarthy sustained a fractured jaw and required surgery and five plates to treat his injuries. He also sustained a broken nose and a hairline fracture around one of his eye sockets. He waited until after Dylan's funeral had taken place to have the operation. At today's sentencing hearing, Detective Garda James Young told prosecution counsel Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC that neither Dunne nor Kavanagh have any previous convictions. Mr Ó Dúnlaing said the DPP placed the manslaughter offence in the mid-range of offending attracting a headline sentence of between four and ten years. Michael Lynn SC, for Kavanagh, handed in a letter of apology that his client had written to the McCarthy family. Mr Lynn said the defendant was 24 at the time of the incident. Kavanagh pleaded guilty to the Section 3 assault, he said, and has accepted his responsibility. Mr Lynn said it was clear everything on the night happened in a very, very short space of time and Kavanagh 'deeply regrets what happened' and 'what he did'. Mr Lynn described Kavanagh as 'hardworking' person and a 'good friend' who was spoken of very highly by a very wide range of members of the community from different backgrounds. He said Kavanagh is a decorated sportsman and had represented Ireland in basketball. He said his client has used his sporting talent to contribute to his local club in terms of underage training and involvement with various teams. John Fitzgerald SC, representing Dunne, said nothing he said on behalf of his client was seeking to mitigate or get around the fact the McCarthy family have been given a life sentence. The lawyer asked the court to consider the matter in the wider context and take into account the effects it will have in the future. He said the probation report assessed Dunne as being of low risk of re-offending. Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said she needed time to digest and consider everything she had heard and adjourned the matter to June 30 for finalisation.
Sydney Morning Herald
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
What becomes of the broken-hearted? This show breaks it to you gently
What's it like to have your heart broken? It's a bit like looking into the face of a predator. Things get physical very quickly. Your body is flooded with a fear hormone in a process commonly known as 'fight or flight'. Weeks or even months later, in those very rare cases where heartbreak changes the shape of someone's heart, some people will literally die of a broken heart. New Zealand writer and performer Karin McCracken was so fascinated by this that she made a show called Heartbreak Hotel with creative partner Eleanor Bishop, co-director of their contemporary theatre company, EBKM. Part of this year's Rising festival, it is the most affirming, original and compassionate exploration of heartbreak you'll likely ever see. McCracken plays the show's hero, who explains the science of heartbreak to us and sings classic break-up songs. The old myths start being toppled in the first five minutes as she repeats advice from her mother: 'Exercise. Try something new … but the idea that time is a great healer should not be used, because for many people time stops … and it's a terrible thing,' she tells the audience. McCracken, standing behind a synth (something new) on a stage lit like a shabby club, then launches into a cover of the Elvis song that lends the show its title. Later, there'll be other covers, from It's All Coming Back to Me Now by Celine Dion and Dreams by the Cranberries. The show immerses us — with utmost tenderness — in the story of a painful breakup. As this story unfolds, Simon Leary plays every other character: a bad Tinder date, a wise doctor, a supermarket employee, the best friend, and finally, the ex-boyfriend, whose invisible presence has haunted the show right up until the point when we finally meet him. McCracken began writing the show in 2021 when it felt, to her, as if the whole world was heartbroken. COVID provided a timely moment to explore the corners of grief. She and Bishop 'wanted to make a show about heartbreak that was useful,' she says. They were interested in a contradiction: how we have a huge pool of heartbreak stories to draw from, but often these books, movies and songs are built from the same 'four ideas' about how to heal. Let time soothe you. Meet someone new. Drink water and go running. Find a hobby. Her own experiences of heartbreak had led McCracken to think about whether the received wisdom was inadequate, so she returned to first principles. 'I'd been thinking [about] what happens to your body, because anyone who goes through a heartbreak will tell you that it's a huge period of change, and often, you get sick or you feel really unwell. A lot of people lose weight or look different.' She became fascinated by the physiology of a separation, from the minute you get dumped, to the weeks, months and years afterwards. What she found is consistently intriguing. In the first moments — when you're still sitting with the person who was, seconds ago, your long-term boyfriend — the body is flooded with norepinephrine, the fear hormone. This kicks off a cascading response from white blood cells, RNA (ribonucleic acid), and inflammatory proteins. Loading 'Our bodies think we can literally outrun or fight off a break-up at this point,' says McCracken, because physiologically we can't tell the difference between being dumped and, say, being attacked by a bear. The most startling thing is that the RNA that protects us from viruses is also stood down to funnel resources towards fighting the bear. Usually 'stars of the show', they now clog the system. McCracken points out the absurdity of this situation, which might last for months. 'So we're primed to punch through a wall, but more vulnerable to flu.' Weeks later the body is in its 'resignation' stage; 'if someone's going to die of heartbreak, it's in this phase,' says McCracken. There is even a rare syndrome whereby 'someone is under so much emotional distress their heart literally changes shape'. The show is carefully researched and, on one level, is a masterclass in science communication. It's also wildly entertaining. The challenge, says McCracken, was to bridge the gap between hard science, social science, popular accounts of heartbreak and 'anecdata'. The stage design adds clarity. Every time we return to the science, informative section titles flow along 21 LED panels behind McCracken, like neon headlines in Times Square. This light installation gives the show the lingering texture of a Las Vegas chapel at night. 'There is something relentless about neon to me, which feels appropriate for heartbreak,' she says. The power of Heartbreak Hotel also lies in the fact that it's drawn from experience; McCracken's vulnerability holds space for ours. I winced when McCracken's 'I love you' is met with Leary's pristine 'you too'. We have likely all been McCracken (or Leary) in this exchange. The show is serious about heartbreak, but it's also warm and silly. 'Some of the things we all do [in a break-up] are totally unhinged, so there should be a space where you can laugh about that,' says McCracken. 'Or, a space where you can manage to take the bits that are funny as funny, because there are plenty of bits that aren't.' Humour also underpins the pastoral care McCracken and Leary provide for the audience. Their performance is so naturalistic that audiences often mistake them for the couple they play. But they're actually long-term friends and collaborators. 'I love Simon on stage because he can drop into a character really easily and he also knows how to be with an audience,' McCracken says.
The Age
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
What becomes of the broken-hearted? This show breaks it to you gently
What's it like to have your heart broken? It's a bit like looking into the face of a predator. Things get physical very quickly. Your body is flooded with a fear hormone in a process commonly known as 'fight or flight'. Weeks or even months later, in those very rare cases where heartbreak changes the shape of someone's heart, some people will literally die of a broken heart. New Zealand writer and performer Karin McCracken was so fascinated by this that she made a show called Heartbreak Hotel with creative partner Eleanor Bishop, co-director of their contemporary theatre company, EBKM. Part of this year's Rising festival, it is the most affirming, original and compassionate exploration of heartbreak you'll likely ever see. McCracken plays the show's hero, who explains the science of heartbreak to us and sings classic break-up songs. The old myths start being toppled in the first five minutes as she repeats advice from her mother: 'Exercise. Try something new … but the idea that time is a great healer should not be used, because for many people time stops … and it's a terrible thing,' she tells the audience. McCracken, standing behind a synth (something new) on a stage lit like a shabby club, then launches into a cover of the Elvis song that lends the show its title. Later, there'll be other covers, from It's All Coming Back to Me Now by Celine Dion and Dreams by the Cranberries. The show immerses us — with utmost tenderness — in the story of a painful breakup. As this story unfolds, Simon Leary plays every other character: a bad Tinder date, a wise doctor, a supermarket employee, the best friend, and finally, the ex-boyfriend, whose invisible presence has haunted the show right up until the point when we finally meet him. McCracken began writing the show in 2021 when it felt, to her, as if the whole world was heartbroken. COVID provided a timely moment to explore the corners of grief. She and Bishop 'wanted to make a show about heartbreak that was useful,' she says. They were interested in a contradiction: how we have a huge pool of heartbreak stories to draw from, but often these books, movies and songs are built from the same 'four ideas' about how to heal. Let time soothe you. Meet someone new. Drink water and go running. Find a hobby. Her own experiences of heartbreak had led McCracken to think about whether the received wisdom was inadequate, so she returned to first principles. 'I'd been thinking [about] what happens to your body, because anyone who goes through a heartbreak will tell you that it's a huge period of change, and often, you get sick or you feel really unwell. A lot of people lose weight or look different.' She became fascinated by the physiology of a separation, from the minute you get dumped, to the weeks, months and years afterwards. What she found is consistently intriguing. In the first moments — when you're still sitting with the person who was, seconds ago, your long-term boyfriend — the body is flooded with norepinephrine, the fear hormone. This kicks off a cascading response from white blood cells, RNA (ribonucleic acid), and inflammatory proteins. Loading 'Our bodies think we can literally outrun or fight off a break-up at this point,' says McCracken, because physiologically we can't tell the difference between being dumped and, say, being attacked by a bear. The most startling thing is that the RNA that protects us from viruses is also stood down to funnel resources towards fighting the bear. Usually 'stars of the show', they now clog the system. McCracken points out the absurdity of this situation, which might last for months. 'So we're primed to punch through a wall, but more vulnerable to flu.' Weeks later the body is in its 'resignation' stage; 'if someone's going to die of heartbreak, it's in this phase,' says McCracken. There is even a rare syndrome whereby 'someone is under so much emotional distress their heart literally changes shape'. The show is carefully researched and, on one level, is a masterclass in science communication. It's also wildly entertaining. The challenge, says McCracken, was to bridge the gap between hard science, social science, popular accounts of heartbreak and 'anecdata'. The stage design adds clarity. Every time we return to the science, informative section titles flow along 21 LED panels behind McCracken, like neon headlines in Times Square. This light installation gives the show the lingering texture of a Las Vegas chapel at night. 'There is something relentless about neon to me, which feels appropriate for heartbreak,' she says. The power of Heartbreak Hotel also lies in the fact that it's drawn from experience; McCracken's vulnerability holds space for ours. I winced when McCracken's 'I love you' is met with Leary's pristine 'you too'. We have likely all been McCracken (or Leary) in this exchange. The show is serious about heartbreak, but it's also warm and silly. 'Some of the things we all do [in a break-up] are totally unhinged, so there should be a space where you can laugh about that,' says McCracken. 'Or, a space where you can manage to take the bits that are funny as funny, because there are plenty of bits that aren't.' Humour also underpins the pastoral care McCracken and Leary provide for the audience. Their performance is so naturalistic that audiences often mistake them for the couple they play. But they're actually long-term friends and collaborators. 'I love Simon on stage because he can drop into a character really easily and he also knows how to be with an audience,' McCracken says.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blondshell's Sharp, Secret-Sharing ‘If You Asked for a Picture'
For her second album as Blondshell, L.A. singer-songwriter Sabrina Teitelbaum is figuring out how much of her life story she wants to tell the world — how much she needs to tell — and how much to hide away for herself. On her acclaimed 2023 self-titled debut, she was really letting it all hang out, in searing confessional indie-rock. But on If You Asked For a Picture, Teitelbaum's more ambivalent, more questioning, reckoning with her painful past, from childhood misery to dysfunctional young-adult romance. These are the songs of an artist who wants to figure out who she is by singing about it. Teitelbaum takes her album title from the Mary Oliver poem 'Dogfish,' with the key line, 'I wanted the past to go away, I wanted to leave it, like another country.' That's her approach in these songs — she sorts through her secrets and memories, wondering how much of her damage to take with her into the future and how much to leave behind. As she laments in 'What's Fair,' 'I didn't grow up/And it spilled over/Now I'm left open/When I'm in love.' More from Rolling Stone How Blondshell Tapped Into an Even Deeper Feeling for Her Second LP Being in Your Twenties Can Be a Mindf-ck. Blondshell Wrote a Song About it Blondshell Showcases Rolling Stones-Inspired Single 'T&A' on 'Kimmel' She sets the tone with 'T&A,' as she finds herself stuck with yet another worthless man-boy lover, recalling, 'I said if you stop drinking maybe I could find you attractive/Maybe I could let you have it/And it happened.' She can't even tell her sister she's still with this guy — 'she knows about that fight, remember?' — but she can't let go of him either. She winds up asking herself, over and over, 'Letting him in, why don't the good ones love me?' The album flows in a mellow folk-rock groove, close to the Cranberries or Sheryl Crow or (for you really deep Nineties pop connoisseurs) early Duncan Shiek. She combines her moody-blue guitar and spiky lyrics — shimmeringly pretty on the surface, but with a bite. With producer Yves Rothman, she piles on the vocal overdubs, inspired by her love for the Beach Boys. She digs deep into adolescent identity crises in 'Event of a Fire,' singing candidly about body image and social anxiety, with piercing lines like 'Part of me still sits at home in a panic over 15 pounds.' In tough family songs like 'What's Fair' and '23's a Baby,' she goes into mother/daughter tension with anger that cuts both ways; she takes her share of the blame, admitting, 'I said something when I was ten that I take back.' Like her debut, If You Asked For a Picture has a rogue's gallery of disposable menfolk — when Teitelbaum sings 'You're a thumbtack in my side,' that's the closest she gets to an upbeat love song. The standout tunes come when she gets nasty, as in 'Toy,' with its New Order-style guitar hook, where she compares the relationship to a Wendy's (she doesn't mean it as a compliment), and the slow-burning 'Man,' where she admits, 'I needed the world from just one man.' That Mary Oliver poem has the lines, 'If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile/Under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin/Which was rough/As a thousand sharpened nails.' That sums up the album — Teitelbaum might be willing to show the world a smile, but there's no mistaking the sharp edges behind it. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
News.com.au
22-04-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Youth will finally outnumber Baby Boomers for the first time at federal election
OPINION In a year full of political upheaval, the upcoming election will see an unprecedented amount of young, first-time voters dominate the polling booths. For the first time, Gen Z and Millennials will outnumber Baby Boomers. Gen Z and Millennials now make up 47 per cent of the electorate, while Boomers are about 33 per cent. This monumental shift in voter demographics signals not only a numerical shift, but also highlights the generational divide that demands significant attention and action from those vying for a place in office. As we inch closer to the election, the question remains – what issues should the government focus on to ensure the voices of young Australians are prioritised? As a self-proclaimed 'zillennial' whose music tastes span from the likes of Ms Lauryn Hill and the Cranberries to G Flip and Docheii, and who is the proud owner of the title 'political nerd' in my friend group, the upcoming Australian federal election fills me with excited anticipation and pessimistic dread. Our social media feeds are oversaturated with news articles detailing all of the horrors occurring nationally and worldwide. We mask our terror by trying to educate ourselves, subscribing to daily newsletters and listening to podcast episodes and telling mates that we 'read an article' when really we're referring to a TikTok we saw. As young adults trying to navigate a world full of opportunities and often juggling multiple responsibilities – work, study, caring duties et cetera – it can be easy to simply dismiss the overwhelming news cycle and switch off from politics altogether, but we need to stay engaged to ensure our issues are being taken seriously. As the Chair of the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition, I have the privilege of representing the 4.7 million young people in this country and regularly meet with local, state and federal representatives to make sure that the voices of young Australia are heard where important decisions are being made. I hear stories and anecdotes from young people from all walks of life and draw on my own lived experience as a rural kid with proud mixed heritage (Fijian and First Nations) to advocate for the inclusion of youth voices in this election. Despite the predicted surge in voter participation, there remains a significant gap between the issues young voters care about and the policies that are prioritised by those in power. It's no secret that the Australian government has been slow to address the priorities of the younger generations, particularly when it comes to addressing intergenerational inequality, the climate crisis, economic inequality and social justice issues. But I want politicians to note that these issues aren't peripheral to young voters, they're paramount to their futures. Young Australians are consistently faced with growing economic inequality, employment instability and out-of-reach housing prices. Metropolitan areas such as Sydney and Melbourne are becoming increasingly unaffordable for homeowners, forcing young people into an unstable rental market. This, compounded with the rising cost of living, wages not competing with inflation and rising interest rates, means economic pressures have become a daily concern. Loaded with an ever-growing HECS debt for my degree in librarianship (yes, you need a degree to be a librarian), I have long given up on the dream of homeownership. As a young renter with a stable, full-time job, looking at my monthly budget fills me with dread. With rising costs of basic necessities like cheese and bread, my weekly shopping bill fluctuates faster than my yearly KPI increase, leaving me to resort to cheap meals like two-minute noodles and a soup packet. I am nothing if not resourceful and can make bulk meal prepping stretch multiple days, but some days it's not enough. The Climate Crisis is arguably one of the defining issues dominating the minds and conversations of young people. We have lived through flood, fire, drought and famine with no concrete solutions to these issues in sight. Rather than proactively working towards ensuring Australia meets global targets and investing in research to protect our sunburnt country, the Australian government instead insists on only providing reactive measures that are insufficient. Living in the Central West of NSW, I have witnessed every act of God imaginable. Flood, fire, plague and drought have dominated weekly conversations with colleagues and neighbours. We religiously check weather apps and frantically update Facebook for any warnings issued by the local council. Young Australians want to see bold and aggressive policies that tackle these issues head on, including providing a pathway to increasing renewable energy, stricter emissions regulations and proactive natural disaster prevention and recovery measures. Constantly living in the midst of reoccurring 'one in 100 year floods' or multiple 'unprecedented' dry seasons is exhausting. The rising cost of education and overwhelming burden of exorbitant student loans is a major contributing factor to wealth inequality in this country. While the HECS program has allowed many Australians to access education, it has left them with crippling debt that greatly affects their current financial status and the inability to save for the future. Wiping out student loan debts isn't enough. The Australian government must prioritise making tertiary education more accessible through increased vocational training, funding centralised study hubs for those in rural and regional areas and offering alternative pathways that identify any prior work experience and provide holistic support for those from marginalised backgrounds. So how do we tackle these issues? We need to ensure that young people feel empowered and valued to actively contribute to decision-making in practical ways. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to youth participation. The Australian government should encourage active participation in civic engagement through lowering the voting age, national civic education programs and offering young Australians the chance to participate in meaningful discussions with tangible outcomes. This election offers a unique opportunity for the government to effectively engage an untapped cohort of voters. Young people are not asking for handouts. We are demanding that the Australian government take us seriously and help us to build a liveable future that is co-designed by us.
