Culture That Made Me: Cork politician and radio presenter Mick Barry picks his touchstones
Former TD Mick Barry presents a show on Cork-based online community station Ćist.
Mick Barry, 62, grew up in Colombus, Ohio and later Rathfarnham, Dublin.Ā
In 1991, he moved to Cork. He was elected to Cork City Council in 2004. He served as a TD for Cork North-Central between 2016 and 2024.Ā
where he DJs music, is recorded monthly and available online on Cork-based online community station Ćist.Ā
The next episode will be broadcast 10pm, Wednesday, October 22. See: www.eist.radio
People ask me how I got involved in politics. I say that there was no Road to Damascus moment, but when I was a teenager, there was a lot of stuff going on that politicised me ā the election of Thatcher in the UK, the rise of mass unemployment, but also the music I listened to, which was punk and new wave. by The Clash really stood out among that crop.
The Style Councilās Walls reminds me of the mid 1980s. I was involved in organising solidarity support for the miner strike. I still get emotional when I see TV scenes of the miner strike. Also, I was on the picket line every week supporting the Dunnes Stores anti-Apartheid strike in Henry Street, Dublin.Ā
I met outstanding people around that time, including Karen Guerin, the Dunnes Stores workersā shop steward, and a man named Nimrod Sejake, a South African trade union leader in exile living in Dublin. He was jailed alongside Mandela in the 1950s.
is an Italian partisan song. I attended the anti-capitalist demonstration in 2001 in Genoa with 300,000 other people. At the time, G8 world leaders were meeting there. It was the only time in my life that I've gone out on a demonstration where someone was killed. A young guy called Carlo Giuliani was attacked by Italian riot police. I spoke at the rally by the waterfront after his death. It was incredible to see thousands of people singing the Italian resistance song
There was a great energy around the Corcadorca Theatre Company when it got up and running in Cork. Everyone talks about Disco Pigs, but there were half a dozen amazing plays they did in venues all over the city. I remember seeing one in Sir Henry's, one out on Spike Island. I remember seeing The Merchant of Venice in a brewery building down by the river, across from the Mercy hospital. I loved their plays.
There's a very good scene in Cork for artists who might not be shifting millions of records, but who are quality musicians playing in smaller venues. I recently went to see Jinx Lennon + Wasps vs Humans at the Old Oak. Jinx Lennon is severely underrated ā his observations of society and the humour in his lyrics are powerful. I didn't know much about Wasps vs Humans when I saw them, but I was very impressed by them, especially their song
The Carnsore Point anti-nuclear festival in 1980 was very memorable. You had Christy Moore and Jimmy Page on the bill, and scores of acts who pledged their support to the anti-nuclear cause. I remember it rained a lot. I got very muddy. I lost a shoe, which was a bit of a complication, but it was memorable, nonetheless.
I remember a Pogues gig in Cork City Hall in the late 1980s. I ended up in A&E ā it was probably the CUH ā after it. A chap I know was po-going in a very boisterous fashion. He's a big lad and he landed on my foot. I must confess there was probably a certain amount of alcohol taken as well.
Back in the day, the DJ of DJs was John Peel. He played musicians and bands that didn't get a chance to shine anywhere else. A lot of DJs played the big bands ā The Smiths, The Clash, the Sex Pistols and so on ā but John Peel would play bands like The Fall who you wouldn't hear elsewhere. That was the great thing about that show. He had a sharp eye for talent. It was a must-listen to radio show.
The first time I read a James Baldwin book was Go Tell It on the Mountain. It got me into his other books, including Another Country and Giovanni's Room. He was so insightful about the life of African American people in a racist society.
Any young person who has an ambition to write, I would advise them to read George Orwell. His use of language is of a really high standard. Everybody knows his big sellers like Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, but I remember getting my hands on four volumes of his collected essays, letters and journalism. I was particularly interested in his diaries of Spain when he fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. His book Homage to Catalonia is a great read.
John Reed's is a tremendous book. It had a big effect on me as a teenager. John Reed was an American radical journalist who travelled to Russia to document the Russian Revolution after the overthrow of the Tsar in 1917. He attended the mass demonstrations, saw Lenin, Trotsky, all the leaders in action and wrote an eyewitness account. A famous movie, Reds, was made about him and his experiences there. Warren Beatty was in it.
is an Italian TV series ā itās an adaptation of an Elena Ferrante novel ā about two women who meet as girls in the poor quarters of Naples, Italy in the Fifties. They're friends and rivals. It traces their lives through several decades, including marriage, kids, left-wing politics, feminism. It's superb.
Growing up, we had a chess club at my Christian Brothers School. I enjoyed playing adults and beating them. It was my revenge on the adult world. Since I lost my Dail seat last year, and I have a bit more time on my hands, Iāve started playing chess here in Cork ā at Big Mahās Chess Club, which meets in The Hyde Out bar in Douglas St on Tuesday nights. I'm now suffering the reverse situation of having a school student whipping me in chess, which isn't as pleasant as when it was the other way around.
The Fischer vs. Spassky chess match was a big one. They played it in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972. It was a Cold War battle. For chess players, it was the biggest chess match of all time. Bobby Fischer was a colourful, dynamic chess player who captured the imagination of young chess players at the time. Even though his politics wouldn't align with mine, he was a very attacking chess player.
Andrew Hickey's a little-known podcast, is superb. He'll pick a song. It might be, say, Gene Vincentās Be-Bop-A-Lula. He'll take an hour or two hours to talk about the song, about the band, the trends in music at the time, to tell stories and anecdotes about the singer. Itās a masterpiece podcast.
