Critical voice heard in Impac speech

Artscape: 'At this moment, as we sit here in comfort and security, more than 200 writers around the world suffer in prison for what we reward and encourage young writers to do. We live in an era in which there are numerous attempts by governments to silence the critical writer in the exercise of free speech and literature."

It wasn't really the sort of speech you'd expect to hear at a literary awards dinner, but Dr James Irwin, chairman of Impac, sponsors of the prestigious Dublin award made to Edward P Jones this week (see also Weekend Review page 6, and above) took the opportunity among the usual official guff to draw attention to the oppression of writers worldwide in a startling and unsettling speech.

"In the last year, 907 journalists were arrested and another 1,146 physically attacked, mostly for writing about government corruption and violation of human rights," Irwin said. "In many parts of the world the institutionalised violence against writers is protected by a solid wall of impunity. North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Cuba, Burma, Nepal, Gambia, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, the Khulna region of Bangladesh, and China - all share the dubious distinction of being prisons or graveyards for critical writers.

"Who is left to expose the forced labour of 12.3 million humans, mostly women and children, at this very moment, tonight, June 15th 2005, being held in virtual slavery in dozens of countries? Have the political expediencies of international alliances, the quid quo pro of see-no-evil speak-no-evil, dimmed, if not fully extinguished, the spotlight of criticism historically rooted in the older democracies?

"Who tells you your shirt or your socks or your trendy wrist bracelet is really made by an eight-year-old child working 12-hour six-day shifts in a Burmese factory? It is no accident 'freedom' is the most repeated word in young writers' work. They live in free societies. Until all children live in free societies, we will work toward that day when child labour is confined to the labour of writing down their hopes and dreams."

O'Briain wields the scissors

Can you actually own a joke? Comedy nerds have had their knickers in a twist for weeks over a joke told by Dara O'Briain on Have I Got News For You?. A Scottish comic, Mac Star, claimed on the Chortle website that O'Briain had nicked "his" paper/scissors/ stone joke (Churchill's scissors V-sign trumping Hitler's paper salute). Cue major kerfuffle over where the joke originated and its subsequent travels (certainly as far back as a Beatles website in 1996, apparently, and Chris Morris used it 12 years ago).

A month after the original broadcast the tut-tutting has gone beyond petty, despite Mac Star's retraction. O'Briain, chatting in a break from recording Mock The Week, BBC2's new topical show (to be broadcast tomorrow night), commented: "It's just bad luck for that guy, it's something that happens all the time." And sure, Sandy Toksvig just used a line of O'Briain's own on The News Quiz (about Jesus coming out of the cave and going "ta-dahhhh!").

As he spoke, O'Briain was standing in a BBC corridor surrounded by writers and producers from not only Mock The Week but also Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, 8 Out of 10 Cats and The Lenny Henry Show. Add in The News Quiz and What's the Problem? With Anne Robinson and it makes for a load of people all looking for topical material at the same time. And that's not even to mention radio.

So of course stuff crops up again and again. You can't copyright an idea or a joke, but O'Briain talks about the tussle for supremacy with a joke that might be done by a few comics, and reckons there's an unspoken rule that it sticks with whoever becomes best known for it. Of course, it wasn't even O'Briain's line - on Have I Got News For You?, like most shows in Britain, there's a team generating material, much of it being thrown out. When we spoke, Mock The Week had just thrown out the line that Michael Jackson would never have gotten away with it if he was black - because that's done the rounds already.

It's all very well that the accusation was retracted, O'Briain said, but it still ran in seven papers; Star doesn't know his copyright law, but perhaps he doesn't know his libel law either.

Trusting the moment

Film-maker Róisín Loughrey's award-winning documentary, Fall Into Half-Angel, is showing next week at New York's Museum of Modern Art as part of an exhibition showcasing "outstanding short films from international festivals", writes Adrienne Murphy.

Loughrey's seven-minute documentary is the only Irish film selected. Intimately filmed in atmospheric black-and-white, Fall Into Half-Angel follows acrobat partners Ken and Tina as they perform gravity-defying feats from a trapeze. Capturing the grace, beauty, agility, strength and precision of these artists, the film embodies the sheer physicality of double trapeze, while the voices of Ken and Tina tell the story of how they met, discovered a mutual passion for circus art, started working together and fell in love.

With touching openness and strength in vulnerability, Ken describes how his relationship with Tina came to an end when she met someone else. The film evokes the emotional journey the couple had to take in order to stay together as trapeze partners after their break-up.

"Trust is the main theme in Fall Into Half-Angel," says Loughrey. "The original idea came when I was watching Ken and Tina perform. There was an amazing moment when Tina had to completely let go and trust Ken to catch her. It made me think how in relationships, there's moments when you have to let go, and trust and hope that the person's going to catch you."

Loughrey was inspired by the work of experimental documentary-makers such as John T Davis, who travelled around the US with a 16mm camera following a train-jumper for his film, Hobo.

Falling Into Half-Angel was Loughrey's graduate film from the National Film School, Dún Laoghaire. Funding for her next documentary, which "examines the personal relationship Muslim women have with their veil, and women's perception of their own beauty", comes from a TG4 award called Fiosrú, run in conjunction with Filmbase.

Called Gnath Phíosa Eadach/A Simple Piece of Cloth, Loughrey's new film is a collaboration with former Dún Laoghaire classmates Andrew Freedman and Ken Wardrop, of Venom Film, whose Undressing My Mother showcased recently at Cannes.

The third Temple Bar Open Day tomorrow afternoon promises free entertainment from more than 30 cultural organisations. The events, from 1-5pm, centre on a treasure hunt, following clues around cultural centres and public spaces. The Gallery of Photography has Polaroid workshops for children on Meeting House Square; there are print workshops in the Original Print Gallery; Irish short films will be screened in FilmBase; and there are child- and eco-friendly activities at the Cultivate Sustainable Living Centre.

The open day is part of this summer's Diversions programme, with free outdoor events from now until the autumn. The programme features a family day each Sunday from July 10th to August 21st, with traditional music, storytelling, acrobatics, dance, theatre, magic, music and movies. Outdoor movies continue on Saturday evenings in Meeting House Square until September.

Live performances in July includes a week-long guitar blitz in association with the Waltons Guitar Festival, featuring Clive Barnes, Nigel Mooney and Louis Stewart and special guests. For details of these and many other events, go to www.templebar.ie or call into the Temple Bar Information Centre, 12 East Essex Street. The events are all free, but evening events require tickets, to be collected the week before.

How are you supposed to get home from the Point if you don't battle your way there in a car? Leaving the after-show party on the opening night of The Ha'penny Bridge, we were told by a doorman to turn to the right if we wanted to find a taxi. Ne'er a sign of one, though, despite deregulation,so we started walking and phoned Pony Cabs, who said it'd be a 20-minute wait as it was a busy night (it was Tuesday!). So we continued walking . . . all the way to the Custom House. Finally, a driver told us there were scores of taxis at the rank in town (and called his mates to send them down). How does the Point get away with not making sure there's a way to get there and back?

Incidentally, The Ha'penny Bridge has been extended until July 2nd.