Small Print

Why it' s proving  good to talkCHATTER AS a structured social activity was previously the preserve of summer schools and occasional lectures from touring speakers. You could add stand-up to the list and some fringe-y poetry nights, but no one could have predicted the renaissance in talk as recreation.

The Leviathan event rose to prominence with David McWilliams as its presenter, which allowed Naoise Nunn to curate spoken-word events at the Electric Picnic, as well as the Mindfield festival, providing a platform for intelligent chatter as a structured, collective experience with the occasional guest speaker thrown into the mix.

As Ireland economically and politically descended into utter flux, theatre and talk became the two creative forms that reacted most acutely to the state of the nation.

From the escapism of the Chaos Thaoghaire storytelling events to the travelling town hall meetings of We The Citizens, we wanted to talk.

The success of social talking isn’t just about the subject matter, although the fact that we have much to discuss certainly lends a useful context. Talk is also cheap, it’s an alternative to an alcohol-based night out, and punters have become accustomed to spoken word from festivals around the country and beyond.

Jim Carroll's Banter tackles every topic imaginable ( thisisbanter.com), and on Thursday it hosts The Football Special, with guest panellists Miguel Delaney, Bill O'Herlihy and Brian Kerr at the Twisted Pepper on Dublin's Middle Abbey Street. Carroll and First Music Contact just wrapped Music 3.0, a weeklong series about introducing new thinking to the music industry.

Trailblazer, run by Clare Mulvany and Kathy Scott, has its roots in the Office of Non-Compliance at the Dublin Contemporary art exhibition but has since moved on to Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, and most recently the Special Criminal Courthouse in Smithfield.

It’s slightly odd that in all that was going on at that art exhibition in 2011, it’s the chatty element that continues to thrive.

The new kid on the block is Monthly General Meeting or MGM, a free, nomadic-themed event combining talks, stand-up, story-telling and music run by Níal Conlon of Delorentos and Diet Of Worms’ Shane Langan. Last night, they tackled the theme of vanity and celebrity. Stay tuned to the Twitter account @MonthlyGM to find out more about the next meeting.

There is also the Awakening in Donegal, the Thought Talks at Galway Arts Festival, Mindfield at Electric Picnic and several more events outside of the traditional realm of writing festivals for keeping the fine art of conversation alive.

Suffering in the sun

GOOD WEATHER has plenty of economic beneficiaries. Cafes are jam-packed, ice-cream vans can’t keep up, off-licence shelves are emptied and hardware shops need to put barbeque-related goods on double orders. But what about the enterprises that suffer? On-street shopping tends not to suffer hugely, whereas shopping centres see a fall off in numbers, as customers tend to prefer dozing in the sun to spending time in a large, enclosed space.

Museums can also fall victim to a decrease in attendance when the sun shines in Ireland. Valerie Keogh, a spokeswoman for the National Gallery, says visitor numbers at the National Gallery are down because of the good weather. “Funnily enough, our local visitors are out at the beach, but visitors who travel from overseas are the ones coming into the gallery [when it’s hot]. On occasion when the weather is very inclement or, on the opposite side, if it’s very hot, it can affect visitors. The previous weekend, we had a drawing day and it was a particularly cold day and that event was very well attended.”

On a whole, the National Gallery is up 10.7 per cent on its visitor numbers for the first quarter of this year compared to 2011.

Bowling alleys, and other indoor activities such as go-karting and Quasar, also take a bit of a hit, with those eager for weekend activities choosing outdoors pursuits. But the big one is cinemas. Leaving aside a large weekend blockbuster release, movie lovers in a temperate climate that happens to get some rays will forsake a regular weekend trip to the movies for staying out those extra few hours in the sun.

“In that type of weather, business just falls apart. You’d be better off locking the door and going to the beach,” says Mark Doherty, the general manager of Century Cinemas in Letterkenny, Co Donegal. “The weekend just gone it could be as much as 75% [down on regular business]. We’ll give it another day or two yet and then we’ll start to rain dance.”