Scannal

In November 1984, two hundred miles off the Kerry coast, seven tonnes of ammunition are transferred from an American fishing boat, The Valhalla, to a tiny Fenit based trawler, The Marita Ann. As the trawler made its way back to the Kerry coast the Irish Navy swooped and all on board were arrested. The skipper, a Kerry fisherman and Republican activist, Martin Ferris, who later would go on to be elected Sinn Féin TD for Kerry North, spent ten years in jail for his part in the gun running operation, but that’s only half the story…

Sinéad O’Connor is truly the woman who seems to have launched a thousand Scannals. Her unique voice rocketed her to international stardom, but it was that moment on Saturday Night Live when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II that the world remembers. Sinéad started performing at the Waterford Folk & Arts Club, while still a student at Newtown School. It was Joe Falvey, her Irish Teacher in Newtown, who arranged the gig for her. He was a key support to the young Sinéad and went on to organise her first demo tape. He could see that her talent, drive and uncompromising approach would not easily fit into the prescribed norms of the wider society. He said of Sinéad, “that’s (controversy) driven her creativity, one is interlinked with the other. She doesn’t put on a controversial coat and say I’m going to be controversial today – she just is, it just comes out, it’s in her nature.” Headlines and Sinéad were never far apart – and she’s one of a select group of people whose first name is enough. We’ve all come to know who they mean when the headline screams SINÉAD! Whether it was her support for a variety of political causes, her views on abortion, her advocacy for victims of abuse or her religious faith and where it lead her, her looks or even her own sexuality, Sinéad O’Connor could never be accused of pulling her punches. But for the Irish public Sinéad was still a favourite – regularly brought into everyone’s living rooms courtesy of the Late Late Show. That’s how many people who’d never have gone to her concerts got to know and love Sinéad. As Dave Fanning put it, “… to be blunt and not to be as glib as this is going to sound, Sinéad has “issues” of her own and she’s been addressing them down through the years in ways that have made us laugh, made us cringe and made us think, she’s not really doing that, now is she? And it’s so far outside the music remit that I only have the sam

"An Irish abortionist sentenced to death for murder – it was a scandal that convulsed the nation in the 1950s. Abortion may have been taboo subject but was certainly not as uncommon as we might think. The authorities of the fledgling Free State turned a blind eye to the covert, but widespread, practice of illegal abortion in Ireland during the first twenty years of Independence. In premises from Parkgate Street to Merrion Square, from leafy Rathmines to Upper Pembroke Street, a succession of chemists, doctors, electricians, and above all, qualified midwives treated ‘all sorts of cases’, as the coded advertisements of the day implied. The names Coleman, Ashe and Williams have fallen out of public memory. Not so, however, the most notorious of them all, Nurse Mamie Cadden. The emergence of a Catholic majority of professionals in Garda HQ, The Four Courts, Kings Inns, The Incorporated Law Society, the medical schools and the universities led to a crackdown in the 1940s. With the twin pillars of Catholic social conservatism, Eamon De Valera and Archbishop McQuaid, at the height of their powers, all of Dublin’s back-street abortionists were imprisoned by the mid-forties. Only one was to emerge from Mountjoy in 1950 to resume where she had left off – Nurse Mamie Cadden. Originally from Mayo and close to destitution having lost her three storey nursing home in Rathmines and her red MG Midget sports car, Mamie Cadden operated from the grotty confines of a one-room flat at No. 17 Hume Street. A succession of women continued to avail of her services. Most survived, and vanished into the night. Two were to die on her kitchen table. Mamie Cadden was famously convicted of the murder of the second of those women, Mrs. Helen O’Reilly of Kilkenny. Cadden was sentenced to be hanged in Mountjoy Jail in 1957. Scannal re-visits the story of Mamie Cadden, placing her and her activities in the context of the Ireland of her times. "

"All-Ireland Final day is the most important day of the year in the GAA calendar and many games have gone down in history as unforgettable classics which enthralled the nation. Unfortunately the 1983 Football Final between Dublin and Galway is remembered for all the wrong reasons. It was a game full of unrest and ugliness, where four players were sent off and several others were lucky not to join them. GAA fans were looking forward to the final in 1983 as both counties had a proud tradition of Gaelic football, and it was the first final since 1977 that didn’t involve Kerry. Conditions were terrible on the day of the match with the gale force wind and driving rain making it impossible for the players to play constructive football, and the physical battle was more intense than usual. The game was full of dangerous sliding tackles and heated exchanges between players were frequent. A variety of incidents resulted in three players being sent off from Dublin and one player being sent off from Galway. There were protestations about goals that shouldn’t have been allowed, players clashing in the tunnel at half time, and a fan stabbed in the heaving crowd. Dublin’s ’12 Apostles’ defended superbly against the onslaught of Galway attacks however and held out for a famous win by a margin of 2 points, but the controversy tended to overshadow the Dubs’ great achievement. The following morning’s newspapers coverage had very little to do with the actual game, but focused on the ugliness of the match and also reported on the poor supervision at exits and the terrible crushing in the Canal End and on Hill 16, where a fan was stabbed. There were reports of clashes amongst supporters after the match and of buses full of Galway fans being stoned as they left Dublin. This week’s episode of Scannal relives that infamous final of 1983 through the eyes of four players involved: Barney Rock, who commented, “If you study the match again, the first dig w

"In March 1976, the quiet and peaceful village of Drimoleague in West Cork was dramatically changed. Pickets were placed by teachers on the local national school and six other schools in the parish, which was the start of what was to become the longest running school strike in the history of the State The dispute was over the appointment of a school principal, which divided the small community down the middle. The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) claimed that the appointed teacher, Mr. Nicholas McCarthy, was ineligible as he didn’t have the full five years teaching experience required under Department of Education rules. Another unsuccessful candidate for the job was an executive member of the INTO and a local man Jimmy Collins. Central to the dispute was the Parish Priest and manager of the school, Fr John Crowley, an ex army chaplain who’d served with the UN in the Congo. The strike became extremely bitter and personalised. The newly appointed board of management of the school made it clear from the outset that they were backing Nicholas McCarthy for the job and would not contemplate any compromise or re-advertise the position. Matters went from bad to worse when parents passed the pickets, took over some of the classrooms and taught the pupils themselves. The INTO also instructed schools in the area not to take in students from the striking schools. The air was thick with accusations of harassment and intimidation, and even local businesses were boycotted. The parents took their case to the High Court and the Minister for Education was forced to provide the children with free school buses to alternative schools. Numerous settlements efforts were made but without success. The strike dragged on for 6 years, until 1982 and was eventually settled by a fudge, but at what a huge cost. The Children had been left at the side of the road for a year and a half and missed out hugely in their primary education. Division and bitterness infl

"Launched with the sort of hype specially reserved for reality TV shows Cabin Fever, RTÉ’s planned summer schedule blockbuster from 2003, hit all the right spots, and at least one that didn’t figure in the plans. With Cabin Fever, the makers created a reality programme formula guaranteed to captivate the summer audiences. Yes indeed, competing for a prize of €100,000, ten diverse landlubber contestants would shiver our timbers as they ploughed their way round Ireland on a three-mast sail ship, Cabin Fever, performing various tasks and hoping to win the votes of the audience. The least popular contestant ran the weekly gauntlet of ritual eviction from the game by walking the plank. This reality show had it all: a beautiful photogenic ship; outdoor action and on-board intrigue. It was a live show hosted from various ports round the country, full of free wheeling and action packed adventure. But then it had an unscheduled meet and greet with the rocks off Tory Island in Donegal. This was when Cabin Fever really put the ‘reality’ into Reality TV, sinking on the notorious outcrops which encircle the Gaeltacht island. Thankfully all crew and contestants made it safely to shore. The national press had a field day. Paparazzi descended on Tory Island, with the ten contestants bunking down inside. Noelle Ní Dhubhchoin’s B&B became the centre of a tabloid media stake-out. A celebrity lawyer, a counsellor and the man from the Department of the Marine all flew in by helicopter. The contestants were sent home and the programme makers endeavoured to find a replacement ship to continue the series. Within weeks, Cabin Fever 2 picked up where its predecessor had left off. It was ‘game on’ again. Few reality TV shows had overcome such difficulty, or generated such publicity. If ‘Cabin Fever’ had done well in the ratings prior to Tory, it skyrocketed after. ‘Scannal’ re-visits the story, exploring what happened from a range of perspective