The Miracle of Fatima Mansions traces a young man s terrifying descent into a life of drug addiction, crime and prostitution, against the backdrop of the cultural and sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s. Drawn by the bright lights and emerging drug-scene of `Swinging London , Shay Byrne left his native Dublin to immerse himself in his new found-freedom. Drifting between the vibrant squats in Hampstead Heath, he soon sank into a life of drug addiction and petty-crime. Returning to Ireland, his life took a dramatic turn when he narrowly escaped death during a violent attack at the city s squalid Fatima Mansions estate.
Album review: Fatima Mansions debut record, Against Nature, finally available to stream
Originally released by Cork singer Cathal Coughlan and his cohorts in 1989, Against Nature has only just made the jump to the digital age. It was worth waiting for.
Cathal Coughlan, Fatima Mansions.
Ed Power
So thoroughly has streaming re-configured the music industry, an artist’s absence from Spotify and rival platforms can have the effect of erasing their existence. That has regrettably been the case with Cathal Coughlan’s 1990s art-punks Fatima Mansions, who have faded from view amid a long-running rights dispute that has kept their catalogue out of sight and, alas, somewhat out of mind.
‘Think of it as Jaws in space.’
The high concept for Alien was designed to sell the idea as simply as possible; in the late 20th century the new principles of mass communication were to rely on a gross dumbing down of any message intended for public consumption.
The same principles were applied to many spheres of music, not least of which was an apparent trans-Atlantic fascination with the Celtic roots of acts like Simple Minds and U2, their output shifting post-Live Aid to ever more blank levels of emotional constipation.
It was a tack that ostensibly Cork’s Microdisney could’ve aped, their third album – 1985’s The Clock Comes Down The Stairs – regarded in many quarters as the finest produced by an Irish band that decade.
Two Irish mums who flew home from Dubai after cosmetic surgery due in court after not entering hotel quarantine irishmirror.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from irishmirror.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Two Irish mums who flew home from Dubai due in court after not entering hotel quarantine
Niamh Mulreany, 25, and 30-year-old Kirstie McGrath were arrested at Dublin Airport yesterday afternoon and charged last night
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