George McComas I want that snapper from the moment I first see her, snorting sea slug paste off a flatfish in the men’s toilets. She wipes her snout and offers me some, holding the flatfish between her fins like a platter of hors d’oeuvres. I ought to call over the cafe manager, or at least … Continue reading Jazz Lobsters
Robin Fuller It wasn’t a year that shone a light on its better qualities, not a year that felt abundant with betters; but by the end of it, despite it all, things were in fact better. It all began at the logistics meeting. ‘Let’s spitball,’ they said, ‘no bad ideas in a thought shower,’ they … Continue reading Jade Ocelot
Dr. Frank O’Connor & Jude Sherry, anois agency When Frank and Jude moved back to Ireland in 2018 after decades living abroad, they were shocked to see the scale of the housing and homelessness crisis. They also found that dereliction had been normalised to epidemic levels, resulting in significant loss to local communities, heritage and … Continue reading The fall and rise of #DerelictIreland
Issue two of No Parties is now available to purchase through our shop on bigcartel here: https://noparties.bigcartel.com/product/no-parties-issue-two Editorial extract No Parties has overcome that initial period of first issue excitement and disorientation. We all know you don’t know what you’re going to produce until it exists. You can have all the ideas you want, but … Continue reading Issue two
I had seen her coming, watched her through the plexiglass wall of the café as she fought her way to the shopping centre’s third floor. She leapt up a moving escalator two steps at a time and clattered through the front door. She cried out: ‘Hello, me again, that’s right, Mrs Keepbusy!’ ‘Hello, Mrs Keepbusy,’ … Continue reading A lasting smile
My manager Si holds his shoulders high when we return to the office. Today we assessed a man whose mother wants him out. Disabled or not, she said, it’s strange for my son to still live here, and he’s started locking me in the bathroom. Si will offer the son a placement with us. It’s … Continue reading Compassion fatigue
Helen Levitt (1913-2009) was a photographer of the New York streets, the city where she was born and lived all of her life. In recent years, Levitt’s work has undergone something of a rediscovery with major exhibitions in Paris, New York, and Arles. She is currently the subject of a retrospective at the Photographers Gallery … Continue reading On the Stoop – Helen Levitt retrospective in the Photographers Gallery
People play tig with traffic to avoid me. Even that wrestler guy with the bulldog tattoos and Rottweiler gets out of my way. I never thought I’d be king of the pavement, but all it took for my coronation was a deadly pathogen and making a seamless transition from pleb to key worker while wearing … Continue reading Sick days
We get called into Leisureland out in Salthill for 9 AM. There are twelve tables spaced out across two basketball courts in the sports hall like we’re doing the leaving cert in some specialist school. I only just made the cut this year; eight years of lifeguard experience in Kerry counts for nothing once you … Continue reading Between the flags
We cooked 100 burgers at a time then used a big metal blade to scrape all the fat and gristle into a trough that ran along the side of a grill called the grease trap. The real grease trap was my uniform. The hat was paper, but everything else was as plastic as the name … Continue reading McHeadwound
No Parties - for those who don't belong 