Forming and projecting a new future, referencing and process.

REFLECTIONS ON LECTURES AND SOURCE MATERIAL
In this weeks lecture Stuart outlines the importance of ethnographic research when writing a study of your town city or locale. Ethnographic research is described as a study of people's lives within their communities highlighting social and cultural observations. He talks about embedding yourself within the community to gain a clear set of defined objectives:

— To gain new insights and understanding
— To identity new or burgeoning lifestyles and subcultures
— To reveal new patterns or perspectives
— To provide a new voice

He also asserts that gaining consent is an integral part for any research project which Ben also touched on his lecture in our webinar. It is interesting that you need to have written consent, provide a clear understanding of what the data is going to be used for and how long it will be stored, which I didn't know.

In the examples presented (Richard Mosse et.al...) there are varying approaches taken to reveal the story of a given subject whether through technical processes, colour, interviews and the hidden stories that are revealed and statistical information. Theses are all employed to present a rounded editorial and add meaning to the piece you are presenting. In Andrew Sanineers 'visual publications' he utilises formats, paper, layout and typography to enhance and build his stories.

So what makes a good concept for an ethnographic editorial. Having a clear audience (who is it for and why do they need it?, what is new and can't be accessed elsewhere?) and creating a hook is key, as is the subject matter, the driver of your individual approach. It is also important to form your own point of view. Are you writing and curating for a local, regional or global audience? Who is the market? Who is your primary and secondary audience?

Andrew states that in depth research, fact checking and the distilling and understanding of the knowledge gathered is also imperative and builds a strong foundation for your editorial. As part of the process you may also consider engaging the help of experts and collaborators.

The key stages for creating an editorial for publication start with an idea proposal, a statement of intent and the gathering of content which all goes some way towards allowing you to reflect on your chosen direction. Andrew outlines that the printed book can offer a unique experience which other emerging technologies cannot. This is supported by Unit Edition and their reasoning that the quality of research, writing, curation and presentation elevates publication to another level entirely and they ave become a resource you can trust. Andrew describes this as 'fulfilling a human need' which I totally agree with as reading and being away from technology is an entirely different experience.

TAKE OUTS
— Define your subject matter.
— Set a clearly defined set of objectives.
— Who is your audience (Niche/Local/Regional/Global).
— Research (Engage with history, events, statistics and hidden stories).
— What new insights, patterns or perspectives can be revealed? How do you add meaning? What do you reveal that can't be accessed elsewhere?
— Gain consent when interviewing. Let the interviewee know what it is about/for and how long it will be in the public domain.
— Do not structure an interview to get the answer you want.
— When the curation process is complete then you can start to structure and write the editorial.
— Write a positioning statement/synopsis of your chosen subject matter.
— Consider the format/communication tools and specifications of your design.
— How can you use materials to add depth to the story you are creating?

—

Workshop Challenge

How can you research and define a topic that reveals a new insight and critical understanding of visual culture, myth or story in your area?

Utilise a variety of research methodologies:
— Questions, surveys, interviews.
— Publicly available research
— Ethnographic

Research two stories. Find two stories that reflect a viewpoint of your own town, city or locale. These can be grounded in myth, legend, subculture, society, community, the arts or the environment.

Building on a past project conducted in GDE710 I am interested in the hidden or noticing the ignored. I was really taken by Frauke's ethnographic photo essay on her hometown in South Africa where she revealed a hidden colonial past through images of the present. This also reminded me of the work of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin where bombs were disguised in everyday items by suicide bombers hiding a grim reality. Ireland has some interesting history in visual culture, subcultures, its archives and museums and society. I have listed out a few below in order to make my final selection bearing in mind that a body of research needs to be connected with these in order to create a well rounded editorial.

MY LIST IS AS FOLLOWS:
— Mr. Tayto: Origins, designers, cultural significance, influence.
— Dublin gangland murders: History of gangs, affect on society, statistics, pictorial representation of sites
— Mods (subculture) in Ireland: Origins, fashions and trends, societal impact, future
— Dublin Plague sites: History, statistics, societal effects, pictorial representation of sites
— Viking Dublin: Specifically Wood Quay where a Viking hoard was built on in the 70's by Dublin, City, Council. History, discovery, finds, protest, building, legacy
— The Nival Archive: Ireland's visual arts library and its collections.

PEER FEEDBACK
I had a crit last week with Max and Carmen and they liked the subculture idea of studying and writing about Mods in Ireland. I, myself am also drawn to researching Viking Dublin and the history of the Wood Quay hoard.

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THE VIKINGS IN DUBLIN, WOOD QUAY EXCAVATIONS AND SUBSEQUENT CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE SITE
I have found a wealth of material on the history of Vikings in Ireland, the excavations in the 1970's and the controversial building of the Civic Offices on the site by Dublin City Council. I have also managed to access a great deal of information on the subsequent campaign to save the site which sadly failed.

THE VIKINGS IN DUBLIN HISTORY (EDITED)
The area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times, fish traps discovered from excavations during the construction of the Convention Centre Dublin indicate human habitation as far back as 6,000 years ago 1.

Situated on a bay on the east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, the city of Dublin is in the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. The name Dublin derives from the Irish word Dubhlinn, meaning "black, dark", and lind, "pool", referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey 1. This water in the pool was dark, probably due to peat staining 2. Irish rhymes from County Dublin show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn and in Old Norse, Dyflin 1.

The first recorded Viking raids on Ireland took place in 795 AD, when islands off the north and west coasts were plundered. Later on, Viking fleets appeared on the major river systems and fortified bases for more extensive raiding are mentioned from about 840AD. Monasteries were one of the main targets of Viking raiders because they were likely to contain valuable loot and most importantly, people to be sold as slaves 6.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where and when Dublin originated with a settlement established by the Gaels during or before the 7th century CE (Áth Cliath ["ford of hurdles"], and a second Viking settlement followed. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement. The Viking settlement centred in an area now known as Wood Quay, where ships used to moor 1.

In 841 the Vikings established a fortified base in Dublin. But Dublin became more established as a Viking settlement in the 10th century and, despite a number of attacks by the native Irish, it remained largely under Viking control until the Norman invasion of Ireland was launched from Wales in 1169 1.

Dublin appears to have been founded twice by the Vikings. The first foundation was as a longphort where the Scandinavians overwintered from 841AD onwards. This ended in 902 with the expulsion of the Scandinavian settlers, mainly to the north of England. They returned in 917, and the settlement was re-established and developed into the city of Dublin. It has been argued that it was during their time in the north of England that the Norse learned about urbanisation, and it was they who brought it to Dublin in the early tenth century 5.

Extensive excavations carried out by the National Museum of Ireland between 1962 and 1981 revealed a wealth of evidence for the post-917 settlement. The single most important result of these excavations was the information they provided about town layout in the tenth and eleventh centuries. A series of fenced plots or tenements was unearthed and could be traced over a dozen successive building level 5.

From the 9th to the 12th century Viking/Norse-Gael Dublin in particular was a major slave trading center which led to an increase in slavery. In 870, the Vikings were most likely led by Olaf the White. Olaf was born around 820, in Ireland. His father was the Hiberno-Norse warlord Ingjald Helgasson. He was named King of Dublin. In around 853 Olaf and Ivar the Boneless, besieged and captured the stronghold of Dumbarton Castle (Alt Clut), the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde in Scotland, and the next year took most of the site's inhabitants to the Dublin slave markets 4. Slavery in Ireland and Dublin reached its pinnacle in the 9th and 10th centuries. Prisoners from slave raids and kidnappings, which captured men, women and children, brought revenue to the Gaelic Irish Sea raiders, as well as to the Vikings who had initiated the practice 1.

The Vikings would come to sell thralls captured both in Ireland and other countries as distant as Spain as well as sending Irish slaves as far away as Iceland, where Gaels formed 40% of the founding population, and Anatolia. In 875, Irish slaves in Iceland launched Europe's largest slave rebellion since the end of the Roman Empire, when Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson's slaves killed him and fled to Vestmannaeyjar 3.

Although Dublin began as a slaving emporium through which slaves who had been mainly collected at monasteries were shipped out to the wider Scandinavian world, it developed into the most important trading town in the western Viking world 5. New trade routes, through England and the Continent into the rich markets of the Byzantine Empire and Muslim central and western Asia were opened up by Viking traders. From here Scandinavian traders built up huge quantities of silver coins and bullion that were melted down later to make a variety of ornaments 6.

The range of personal ornaments found in Dublin reflects the wealth and trade contacts of the city, which produced objects of amber, glass, jet, bronze, silver and gold. Bronze ringed pins and stickpins were produced in great numbers in Dublin, where high-quality metalworking was concentrated in the Christchurch Place area. The discovery of motif-pieces adjacent to this area shows that the production of these patterns was in some way related to metalworking activity 6.

By the end of the 10th century the Vikings in Ireland had adopted Christianity, and with the fusion of cultures it is often difficult to distinguish between Viking and Irish artefacts at this time. The term Hiberno-Norse is used to describe the culture of the inhabitants of the Viking towns in the 11th and early 12th centuries. Irish art was strongly influenced by the later Viking Ringerike and Urnes styles, present on ecclesiastical metalwork of the period such as croziers, bell shrines and book shrines 6.

Kilmainham remains the largest known Viking cemetery outside Scandinavia 5. Pagan Viking burials from the later 9th/early 10th centuries at Kilmainham and Islandbridge near Dublin, contained the personal possessions of the deceased. Warriors were buried with weapons including fine swords and the presence of weights, scales, purses, tongs and hammers suggests that some of the dead were merchants and craftsmen. Typically Scandinavian oval brooches, worn in pairs in women's costume, as well as objects such as a whalebone ‘ironing board’, spindle whorls (for spinning wool) and bronze needle cases, tell us that Scandinavian women were also buried in these cemeteries 6.

Retrieved from:
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin.
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Poddle.
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Ireland.
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_the_White.
5 https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/the-viking-age-geography/the-vikings-in-the-west/ireland/the-city-of-dublin.
6 https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Irish-Antiquities-Division-Collections/Collections-List-(1)/Viking/The-Viking-Age-in-Ireland.
…

WOOD QUAY
Between 1974 and 1981, excavations in Dublin’s historic centre revealed a vast swathe of intact archaeology spanning most of the Viking-founded town’s Scandinavian occupation 7.

As Pat Wallace stood in the shadow of Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral in 1974, the view that lay before him was truly spectacular. It was not the soaring religious building that held his attention, though, but something a little closer to the earth. Pre-development clearance of the Irish capital’s historic centre had laid bare an early medieval time capsule: waterlogged layers of well-preserved archaeology some 3m deep, containing unprecedented echoes of the town’s Viking past. With over 100 houses, thousands of objects, and a wealth of environmental evidence, the four-acre site at Wood Quay would shed light on every aspect of life in the early medieval settlement over a period of five centuries. And, at the age of just 25, Wallace had been placed in charge of the entire investigation.

The discoveries came to light because the Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council) had selected Wood Quay as the site of its new headquarters, and it was not a project without controversy. Pioneering work by the late Breandán Ó Ríordáin (1927-2017; Pat’s predecessor both in excavating Viking Dublin, and as Director of the National Museum of Ireland) had previously demonstrated the extent of surviving archaeology from this period in the town, and as the significance of what lay beneath the surface at Wood Quay became clear, calls to halt the development grew in volume. A campaign spearheaded by Prof. F X Martin – chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin – culminated in a protest march some 20,000 strong in 1978 and, the following year, a three-week sit-in on the site under the banner ‘Operation Sitric’, named after an 11th-century king of Dublin.

Despite legal challenges and the vociferous demonstrations, the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful in stopping the work. What it did achieve, though, was buying Wallace and his team vital extra time to carry out a much fuller excavation of the site than would have been possible under the originally agreed time-frame. Thanks to these excavations, which ran for seven years, we now know more about 10th- and 11th-century Dublin than any contemporary town north of the Alps, and only York (CA 58) and Waterford (in south-east Ireland – see CA 304) rival its revelations about urban life in Viking Age Britain and Ireland 7.

Ploughshares to swords
Dublin’s Viking Age is traditionally defined as stretching from the settlement’s foundation in c.AD 840 until the Norman Conquest of Ireland in 1170 – though with a culturally mixed material record from the 10th century onwards, perhaps indicating a mixed population, the period is more accurately characterised as ‘Hiberno-Scandinavian’ rather than ‘Norse’.

The site would quickly blossom into a wealthy commercial centre, part of a powerful political axis with York (which, until the mid-10th century, was ruled by the same dynasty), but its origins were on a rather humbler scale. Like Waterford, it began not as a town but as a seasonal raiding camp or longphort, and traces of this initial incarnation are thought to have emerged during Georgina Scally and Linzi Simpson’s later work on Essex Street and Parliament Street, where they uncovered the earliest-dated archaeology. This was a wide spread of plough marks, covering almost the entire excavated area. The marks all run in the same direction and never overlap, suggesting that they were only made once. It is thought that they represent a single event – not agricultural ploughing, but the clearing and preparation of land for building.

The result was a small riverside community, made up of just a handful of semi-sunken structures, dating from the 9th century. It would not remain small for long, though; just a generation later, towards the end of the 9th century, the site was completely redeveloped, backfilling the buildings, levelling the ground, building boundary fences, and erecting a multitude of post and wattle structures. This dramatic transformation marks the beginnings of the town proper – the Essex Street area turned into an enduring focus of industrial activity, which continued into the 11th and 12th century, marked by thick spreads of charcoal and ash, while densely populated residential zones sprang up elsewhere, including on what is now Fishamble Street.

This latter area was particularly productive for Wallace’s team, as it was home to diverse features of the medieval town, from sections of the defensive earth banks that encircled it in the 10th and 11th century, to its waterfront marketplace. The most impressive aspect of Fishamble Street, however, was its houses. Numbering over 120 – around a fifth of the structures identified across the site – they make up the best-preserved and most extensive series of 10th- and 11th-century buildings found at any European site west of the Elbe 7.

Retrieved from:
7 https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/wood-quay-revealing-the-heart-of-viking-dublin.htm
8 Issu Grabs: https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/viking-dublin-the-woodquay-excavations/

…

THE SAVE WOOD QUAY CAMPAIGN
In 1968 Dublin Corporation announced plans to build civic offices on a four acre site on Wood Quay. At the time the corporation had several premises spread throughout the city, often in decaying buildings offering poor working conditions to corporation staff. A new central premises at Wood Quay was the proposed solution. An open architectural competition was held and the Corporation Planning and Development Committee was tasked with choosing the winning design. However, plans were not to go as smoothly as initially anticipated 10.

Six models for the proposed Dublin Corporation buildings were on display at City Hall. One of the provisions of the Corporations requirements was that the building did not take from the view of Christ Church Cathedral. Out of forty-three replies to the Dublin Corporation advertisement, six were selected and were on display in the foyer of City Hall for public viewing and scrutiny. Each of the models were for 10 or 12-storey buildings. Submissions were made by Hardwicke Ltd, G&T Crampton Ltd, Eblana Ltd, The Green Property Co Ltd, Gallagher Group Ltd, and Ronald Lyon Estates Ltd 11.

At the time archaeological excavations were being carried out in the Christ Church area around High Street by the National Museum, who also made a request to carry out trial cuttings on the Wood Quay site. As the excavations were carried out the importance of this site as a Viking settlement became more and more apparent. Initial discoveries proved significant in helping to build a picture of life in the ancient heart of Dublin 10.

Work was halted as a result of archaeological discoveries and planning questions were raised regarding the possible dwarfing of Christ Church Cathedral by the planned office blocks 10.

The campaign to preserve the site of Viking settlement at Wood Quay, one of the most intense campaigns of public outcry on the subject of archaeological heritage in the history of the state, began in 1976, headed by Professor F.X. Martin, Chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin. In 1978 the High Court declared the area a National Monument 9.

Professor F.X. Martin along with others such as Mary Robinson continued the fight to ‘Save Wood Quay’ and to preserve the substantial archaeological remains on the site. The struggle involved years of protests, sit-ins and litigation. Protesters sought to have the Wood Quay Viking settlement preserved and for Dublin Corporation to build the new civic offices in an alternative location 12.

The Wood Quay excavations, protests and legal action grabbed the attention of the nation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Archaeologists, historians, politicians, academics, writers, activists and young and old from all walks of life, joined forces in a decade long struggle against the destruction of the Viking site and in favour of the construction of civic offices in an alternative location. Protests culminated on the streets of Dublin with over 20,000 people coming out to voice their opposition to the destruction of the site led by the Friends of Medieval Dublin. In June 1979 the Friends of Medieval Dublin led by Professor F.X. Martin staged a three-week long sit-in on the site in what became known as ‘Operation Sitric’ 12.

As the National Museum carried out excavations on the site, construction work took place. In the end Dublin Corporation found a loophole in the law which permitted them to proceed with the construction and won the battle and in 1981 work began on the civic offices and archaeological excavations ended 9. The winning design by Sam Stephenson for the Offices was never completed in full. It was later amended by the addition of a new building which partially masked the Stephenson design 14.

Never before had Ireland seen such public outcry on an issue of cultural heritage. The excavations led to the unearthing of many finds of archaeological and historical significance. Many of these discoveries are now on display at the National Museum of Ireland. The discoveries made at Wood Quay help to build a picture of life in Viking Ireland a thousand years ago 13.

Retrieved from:
9 https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/2012-wood-quay.
10 https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/2012-wood-quay/2013-viking-site-and-proposals.
11 https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/2012-wood-quay/607605-model-of-new-corporation-block-for-wood-quay.
12 https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/2012-wood-quay/2014-dig-protests-and-legal-action.
13 https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/2012-wood-quay/2015-discoveries-and-legacy.
14 https://www.leftarchive.ie/collection/2093.

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CAMPAIGN COLLECTION
The Wood Quay protests of 1978 and 1979 were not explicitly left-wing, however in the materials used to promote the protests and occupation there was an appeal to trade unionists and others. Individuals later prominent in the Labour Party and other groups were involved.

The collection includes background documents on the site from An Taisce and Friends of Medieval Dublin. Also included is an editorial from Hibernia magazine from 1977 outlining some political aspects of the situation.

One feature of the protests which is of particular interest is the targeting by the campaign of candidates for local elections – including city councillors. There was, from these documents, a very clear effort to identify potential allies as well as those hostile to the campaign and to apply political pressure to them.

Wood Quay is an Election Issue
A publication entitled City Views which was issued early in 1979 and published ‘in associating with the Living City Group’ included information on those who had voted for and against preservation the site. The contents though are considerably more wide-ranging and include information on Corporation redevelopment in Summerhill, transportation plans in Dublin, Art for the People and City Centre Hospitals. The publication is scathing about plans for ‘meeting the basic needs of the area’ in terms of housing. It also contains some useful statistics from a survey by the Prisoners Rights Organisation.

Two further documents list candidates for Local Elections in the Dublin Area in June 1979 – the month the site was occupied – and indicates those who are known to be either favourable or not to the campaigns goals. Also included is a postcard issued during the local election that shows those who can be voted for and against. As can be seen at that stage the list of the former was yet to be formulated.

Another publication, “Wood Quay Occupation News”, outlines the events of the occupation of the site 14.

…

MOD CULTURE IN IRELAND

THE FIRST WAVE
Starting in the late 1950s, these mainly male youngsters, who called themselves modernists, gravitated towards French films, Italian suits, colourful Ivy League clothing and American jazz as a way of standing out from the uniformity of post-war Britain 1.

London was the centre of the Mod subculture, which emerged in the late 1950s and hit its peak in the mid-60s. By this time teenagers were bored with what they deemed as the dull, uninspired British culture around them, repressed and riddled with class war. The Mod lifestyle revolved around clothes, clubs and music and scooters and there was a desire to get closer to the culture of the black Jamaican rude boy through listening to music such as African-American soul, Jamaican ska, British beat music and R&B 7.

As the 1960s progressed, the movement grew. New dress codes emerged and American R&B and soul were embraced, as were home-grown performers such as Georgie Fame. (Fame was managed by the Irishman Ronan O’Rahilly, who also ran the Scene Club, an influential early venue; O’Rahilly then founded pirate radio station Radio Caroline, thus bringing many mod sounds to the wider public.) 1.

They were subcultures operating in the era of the teenager. The teenager was a capitalist construct of the 1940s, designed by American market researchers to tap into the spending power possessed by young people. As such, the emergence of the teenager meant that young people were viewed as financially independent actors, partakers of a conspicuous consumer culture, and capable of making rational decisions even if they were paradoxically susceptible to manipulation by the advertising industry. This had profound implications for societal responses to these highly visible youth subcultures which were perceived as deviant 5.

Teenagers had greater disposable income than ever before and they relished their leisure time, going to nightclubs, listening to music and collecting records. They rejected the gruelling nine-to-five working week that their parents endured, demanding more fun and more freedom - and they had the means to get it 7.

IRISH JACK
From the beginning, there has been significant, if often overlooked, Irish input into mod’s development. Mod is much more than the nostalgic Anglocentric throwback of popular stereotype 1.

It was 1962 and Jack Lyons, a painfully shy 19-year-old , who was just a young man with a mop of curly hair, lamentable dress sense and a thick Cork accent, sneaked out from his aunt and uncle’s London home to go to his first dance 8.

There was a wedding band called the Detours. They had black suits, white shirts, ties and three-cornered handkerchiefs. They were playing everything by The Shadows. They even had the dance steps.” “At the time Roger Daltrey played lead guitar and trombone. John Entwistle was on bass and trumpet,” says Lyons. There was “a singer called Colin Dawson who modelled himself on Cliff Richard, and Pete Townshend played a rhythm jumbo guitar. The Detours was Roger’s band, really, and if you disagreed with him on band policy you could get a bunch of fives”. 8.

It’s hard to believe now, he says, but the band would later change its name to The Who and become one of the hottest tickets in rock’n’roll 8.

At the time Lyons was a clerk with the London Electricity Board, filing documents. After seeing the band perform, Lyons was transfixed. 8.

“There was just something about them. I was there on my own, feeling very self-conscious about my height – I’m just five foot seven – my curly hair and my accent. I was too embarrassed to chat to anyone,” Lyons says. 8.

“But I focused in on this guy playing guitar: six foot, straight hair, probably even has a girlfriend . . . . I just keyholed him afterwards and introduced myself. “Hello, I’m Jack from Shepherd’s Bush,” I said. 8.

Townshend replied in that cockney twang, “Hello Jack from Shepherd’s Bush, I’m Pete from Ealing.” 8.

Even though Lyons was two years older than Townshend, he looked up to him as if he was an older brother. 8.

‘I was a male groupie with The Who. I sort of inveigled myself into the band,’ he says. ‘To me, becoming a mod gave me an identity. I was somebody — I wasn’t Jackie any more, aimless Jackie with grass coming out of the back of his shoes. ‘I was Jack'. 2.

Band mascot
He became, he says, a kind of band mascot, travelling to early gigs in a van to Oxford, Cambridge and Nottingham. He helped with selling tickets or helping to set up. 8.

“I wasn’t a roadie. I’m a bit of a snob like that. I never got paid, and never looked for money. I became a friend of the band. It was around this time the manager, Kitt Lambert, christened me ‘Irish Jack’. They were actually calling me that before I became aware of it.” 8.

'I started to form this identity. People wondered what he did, but they all knew who he was. ‘Maybe he works with The Who but he’s Irish Jack.’ 2.

Soon Jack was doing his best to kit himself out in the mod gear that became the uniform of the band’s followers – with mixed results 8.

He recalls the moment he saw a mod cruising through Hammersmith on a scooter with chrome crashbars, spotlights, a six-foot aerial, feet pointed out sideways, wearing a parka jacket over a suit 8.

“It was like seeing Caesar on a Roman chariot,” he says. “Just sublime. But I was a struggling mod. A failed mod. I never had a scooter with 24 lamps or wing mirrors.” 8.

After returning to Cork in 1967, Lyons met his future wife Maura. She too was a big Who fan. 8.

Lyons settled in Cork and became a bus conductor and, later, a postman. But he kept in touch with Townshend, visiting him in London occasionally. 8.

WHOLIGANS
By 1964, when masses of unruly mods rioted in Brighton and Margate and The Who released their first single, most of the pioneering modernists had moved on. But the mod myth had been born 1.

Again taking their lead from their British counterparts, the mods and rockers of Ireland attracted the opprobrium of Ireland’s clerical class, as this stern warning from the Bishop of Ossory indicates: 3.

Such fear-mongering was largely misplaced and indicative of a failure to understand that even in Ireland, now in the televisual age, would be open to much wider and disparate cultural influences, especially among the young. An article in the Munster Express of June 26, 1965 readily acknowledges this, if lamenting its impact on the fortunes of Irish language and culture by saying that ‘now we have more than Anglicisation: we now have world-wide Americanisation.” The journalist goes on to write, half-aghast, that “we hear so much about ‘Mods’ and ‘Squares’ that one cannot help wondering how certain sections of the community will be described next.” An article in the same newspaper in 1967 reporting a talk given by Frank Hall suggests that the Irish youth are becoming increasingly odd, and worse, unmanly, suggesting we institute mandatory military service in order to inculcate “general manliness and normal behaviour”, after all, he notes “there are no Beatniks or Mods in the defence forces.” But mods were such a part of Irish life by this time that Jacobs biscuits even did an ad for their Club Milk that saw bankers, mums, and Gardai, as well as too-cool-for-school mods doing the “Club Milk Kick!” 3.

In October 1966, TDs in the Dáil expressed concern about a number of beat clubs located in the Dublin-Dún Laoghaire area. It had been alleged that single reefers and cigarettes tipped with drugs were being peddled in the clubs. Even more worrying, shot coffees – otherwise known as espressos – were being sold in them for 5/- a cup. In response, a group of caffeine-addicted teenagers walked down the Dublin streets to Leinster House, protesting at the perceived crackdown on their music venue. The girls wore miniskirts, the boys were neatly dressed, almost to the point of extremity. One of the placards they carried read: ‘It’s a Mod World’. 4.

This attempt to control and define youth space based on notions of respectability would also be repeated over a decade later in response to the Mods, though this time control was exerted formally rather than informally. The venues in which the Mods gathered, beat clubs, were seemingly infiltrated by undercover Gardaí dressed in ‘mini-skirts and Teddy boy clothes’ according to a Dáil debate from 16 April 1969. At least one beat club was prosecuted for permitting underage drinking – since the Dangerous Drugs Act 1934 only outlawed cannabis and cannabis resin, it did not cover the substances Mods were allegedly taking. The prominence of these subcultures in the public consciousness had declined by by 1968 in the case of the Mods 5.

REVIVAL
The Mod was a product of a culture in constant change, kept alive by its initial underground nature. It was created by young people who customised their look and mixed up fashions, but by 1966 the look had been commercialised and many drifted away from the scene. In its place came the hippie and bohemian culture which grew out of the latest phase of psychedelic rock music 7.

The movement endured through a series of other sub-cults, be it “hard mods” evolving into skinheads in the late 1960s, the dance and music obsessions of northern soul in the 1970s, the Vespa and Lambretta fetishes of scooterists in the 1980s and even the acid jazz genre of the 1990s 1.

Even as mods apparently disappeared from the streets, the legend was fanned by The Who’s 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia (inspired by the Cork-born London mod “Irish Jack” Lyons) and the subsequent movie adaptation in 1979 1. Townshend later acknowledged in interviews that Quadrophenia was based on a character Irish Jack. 8. The germ for Quadrophenia was a song called Long Live Rock. It has the lines, ‘Jack is in the alleyway selling tickets made in Hong Kong / Promoter’s in the pay box wondering where the band’s gone / Back in the pub the guv’nor stops the clock / Rock is dead they say' 8.

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The 1980s is often portrayed as a grim decade in Ireland; the country was in the throes of recession, emigration soared and conflict raged in the North. But for many of those who came of age in the ‘80s, it was a vibrant and exciting time, culturally, musically — and sartorially, especially if you were a mod (or modette) 4.

In the wake of the post-punk new wave and the Mod revival led by bands like The Jam, Waterford would see panic on the scale of the early Teddy Boy scares in the 1950s. Indeed, it was in the 1980s that what was a Mod revival for the UK, was probably the real flowering of Mod culture in Ireland, and this was strong in Dublin, Cork and Waterford especially. Tramore, the seaside town in County Waterford that we’ve seen in the past play host to motor car races, was in the early 1980s a popular rallying point for mods and scooter enthusiasts. Perhaps fearing that this would lead to an Irish version of the battle of Brighton beach, captured evocatively in the 1979 film Quadrophenia the local newspapers led with a bold headline. The Munster Express was certainly raising the alarm with this notice in June of 1983: 3.

There appears to have been little enough to have worried about, and tellingly, the paper the following week steadfastly insisted that it was not whipping up a storm of controversy, but their ‘Invasion’ headline was based upon a reliable local Garda source. There had been a major rally in 1982, and there was certainly a crowd in 1983, but whatever the Munster Express had been expecting to happen that Whit weekend didn’t seem to! 3.

BUBBLES
The revivalist Mod scene converged on the popular venue Bubbles located on Adair Lane between 1981 and 1987 which played mod, Northern Soul and occasionally ska music 5.

Bubbles was the most important and influential mod revival night in Dublin’s history. Located in what is now the basement of the Temple Bar Hotel in Adair Lane, the night ran from 1981 to 1987 – the golden years of the mod revival scene in Dublin 6.

Starting as a weekly event (Wednesdays from 8pm till 11.15pm), it became twice a week (Wednesday and Sunday nights) to accommodate the growing subculture. The 11.15pm curfew was to facilitate punters getting the last bus 6.

Admission price was £1.50 (or a pound if you were a member). The cloakroom was 20p and, if you could afford it, a coke was 50p. Alcohol was not on sale. This was, uniquely, an all ages event. However, as Paul Davis, who is organising this weekend’s reunion, remembers, this didn’t stop a “few enterprising lads” selling a cans of beer at a couple of all-nighters. There was also one individual who did a “lucrative trade” in pills 6.

At the start, the music policy was pure 1960s mod and soul with a dashing of ’79 revival. Original Trojan/Studio One ska also made an occasional appearance. As time went on, Northern Soul became a staple part of the Bubbles diet 6.

The theme from Joe 90 and Hawaii 5-0 were long-established tunes that were attached to the Northern Soul scene. The third song that was played every week was the Match of the Day melody. As Paul Davis explains; “this was never regarded by anyone as northern soul, mod or anything like that, it was Noel’s (the DJ) way of saying, that’s your lot, it’s over till next week.” Nevertheless you still had ‘newbie’s’, who were on their first visit to Bubbles, thinking that the Match of the Day tune was also a Northern Soul cult classic and they’d get up and dance to it. The regulars saw it as a great (and often humorous) way to distinguish the posers from the genuine fans on their first visit 6.

Bubbles closed in early 1987 after the owners didn’t renew the lease on the venue. It moved to a new premise in Abraxis on Sackville Lane beside Cleary’s but many saw this as the beginning of the end for the Mod scene in Dublin. Davis remembers that the venue didn’t suit us; “it was a bit too trendy and bright”. By 1987, the Mod scene was dying a death. In the UK, the scene “had already gone way underground” while in Dublin it was on its last knees 6.

After Bubbles, Joe Moran, Eamonn Flavin and Mark Byrne set up the This Is It Soul Club in the basement of The Plough on Abbey Street which then moved on to The Fox & Pheasant on Great Strand Street, close to Capel Street Bridge. This shared alternate Fridays with the Night Owl Soul Club, which Paul Davis ran with Stuart Chaney and Mick Duffy. Both clubs ran for less than a year. The early 1990s saw most of the original Dublin Mods pack up and move to London 6.

There wasn’t another regular club in Dublin until the Dublin Soul Club was set up in 1995 by Paul Davis, John Dunne and Ray O’Reilly. Their night ran for six successful years in The Plough 6.

The Sleepless Nights Soul Club took up the torch in 2002 and the scene has been burning bright since 6.

A WAY OF LIFE
More than 50 years after a new breed of crisply attired, musically discerning youths began frequenting the jazz clubs and coffee bars of London, the mod movement still wields a lasting fascination in the popular imagination. For what initially appeared to be a passing fad, it has displayed a remarkable staying power 1.

Today, Irish mods congregate at clubs such as Sleepless Nights and Sunday Social in Dublin, the Nitty Gritty in Galway and For Dancers Only in Wexford, to hear local and international DJs spin old soul, early RB, Latin boogaloo and cult 1960s groups, as well as new releases from the current crop of groups. Vibrant Global activity, ably spurred by a number of influential online portals, seems a long way from the arcane and distinctively British image of teenage mods rumbling with rockers in drab seaside resorts nearly half a century ago. But it chimes with the cosmopolitan instincts of the earliest mods 1.

Showy and preening but streetwise, both simultaneously appeal to cult elitism and collective solidarity while casting an implicitly suspicious eye on contemporary mores. For mods, an immaculately chosen wardrobe and a meticulously sourced record collection represent a certainty missing from the age of fleeting online crazes and hipster trends. Even to outside observers, mod’s appeal lies in its paradoxical values of exclusivity and communality 1.

Casual trendiness and mainstream acceptance may be the antithesis of the mod movement, but the ultimate testament to its strength lies in the influence it still exerts on broader popular culture 1.

Mod remains an influential strand in popular culture, regularly reappearing to insinuate itself with new waves of music and fashion. And, for some, it never went away. Mods may forever be associated in the public mind with a handful of cliches, but beneath the media shorthand lies a disparate scene with a capacity for reinvention that has attracted successive generations of devotees. It is a subculture that defies easy categorisation 1.

Retrieved from:
1 https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/sideburns-and-scooters-why-the-mod-endures-1.535137.
2 https://extra.ie/2019/03/23/news/real-life/ireland-skinheads-mods-rockabllies.
3 https://thedustbinofhistory.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/teddy-boy-terrorists-mod-invasions-youth-sub-culture-in-waterford-1950-1985.
4 https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20462748.html.
5 https://www.hotpress.com/music/brothel-creepers-shot-coffee-worlds-teddy-boys-mods-50s-60s-ireland-22799861.
6 https://comeheretome.com/2010/04/08/bubbles-mod-night-1981-1987.
7 https://www.bbc.co.uk/britishstylegenius/content/21864.shtml.
8 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cork-man-who-inspired-the-who-there-s-no-quadrophenia-pension-life-s-not-like-that-1.1413768.

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Create one image to represent both initial story concepts, using a variety of methods, which must be original and not sourced from the Internet or a third party.

SKETCHES

ABOVE: Looking to 60's references for the Mod article concept (Arrows, Penguin Paperbacks, Cut-Out Clothes, Targets, Pop Art and Music) and exploring brutalist architecture in the form of a typeface for the Wood Quay article concept.

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REFINED SKETCHES

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Write two short proposals with title, original image and a short 100-word synopsis (elevator pitch) about the concept of your article. Save as a PDF document and upload to your blog.

PROPOSAL ONE: MOD ARTICLE CONCEPT

IRISH MODERNISTS
Sharp dressed cats in Italian suits aresoaking up the British Jazz scene in London’s soho or riding out, girls side-saddle, on Italian scooters to the Goldhawk Road armed with a bag of blues and a need to dance to a fix of R&B…

They have their own sense of style, music and are kicking over the statues of their parent’s post war past. Austerity is dying, rationing’s over and they have clean-cut jobs and money to burn.

Meanwhile, across the Irish sea the scene is alsoblossoming — a very British subculture in a countrythat has a fractious history with the U.K. Whythen should Mod culture evolve in Ireland? Whatare its origins and what’s the key to its staying power right up to the present day?

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PROPOSAL TWO: WOOD QUAY ARTICLE CONCEPT

WOOD QUAY VIKING BURIAL: MORE THAN ANCIENT HISTORY
In the late seventies the largest viking settlement in Europe was discovered on the proposed site for Dublin Council’s Civic Offices. The race was on to preserve uniquely preserved viking artifacts before the planned building of what was to be a classic example of seventies brutalist architecture could be completed. The team of archeologists worked tirelessly,and support in Ireland grew to try to preserve the historic remains. A campaign to save the wood quay site gained momentum but unfortunately the council won out finding a loophole in the regulations that allowed them to build over the site before excavation was completed, losing the origins of Dublin’s viking history forever. So what were the events that lead to this decision being made and what was its cultural and societal impact?

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FINAL EXECUTION