Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_07_22/GA_2207_E1_014.pdf 

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14 N E W S

Galway Advertiser

July 22 2004

Alt.com
BY JEFF O'CONNELL

The last of the pirates
Rounding the corner of Eglinton Street and Williamsgate Street on Tuesday morning, I almost literally ran into Margaretta D'Arcy. In fact, I've been running into Margaretta, one place or another, for a good few years now, and though we disagree politically on just about everything, I've always admired her tenacious and questing spirit. Bustling along as usual, she stopped, dug into her bag, and gave me a leaflet for this year's special broadcast of Radio Pirate Woman, the taboo-busting radio station she set up in 1987. As journalist Victoria Burton (Power to the Women: An Evening with Margaretta D'Arcy, The Working Stiff Journal, Vol. 2 #4, May-June 1999), explains, the radio station "was born out of her desire to establish some sort of entertainment programme for women. She had originally considered theatre, but after she had surveyed women in Galway, she found that the women preferred visiting with friends in the home or in a pub." So Margaretta came up with a format that's the rough equivalent of both. She sits behind the microphone, talking about everything under the sun, serious and funny, shocking and profound. Completely unafraid of rocking boats or upsetting applecarts, she got into trouble during the 1980s for giving out information about abortion. Anything that smacks of censorship is certain to arouse both her anger and her puckish sense of the absurd. The station is wonderfully loose and unpredictable. Listeners - both women and men - phone in, nearly always sparking off a discussion about something Traveller's rights, the war in Iraq, the treatment of women: Radio Pirate Woman has refined and expanded what `Controversial' means. Margaretta plays a bit of music or interviews social and political activists from around the world. People are invited to walk into her house at 10 St Bridget's Place and take part in this wildly eclectic miscellany, voicing their views or reading a poem or singing a song. It's democratic in the truest sense of the word. On air debates are often heated, thoughtprovoking, and often infuriating. Burton sums up: "The programming was arranged with consideration of the needs and interests of the community; the content is less about product and polish and more about discussion and diversity ... Since the "guests" and "personalities" are from the same community as the listeners, there is a feeling of trust and openness about the programme." And who is Margaretta D'Arcy? She was born in London in 1934, the daughter of Dubliner Joseph D'Arcy who fought with the IRA in the war for independence and then on the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War. D'Arcy was later posted to London by the ee Valera government as an official of the Irish Department of External Affairs where he met Margaretta's mother, Marie Billig, whose Russian Jewish family had emigrated from Odessa. Educated in Dublin, she left school at 15 and began her life-long involvement with the theatre and, after she moved to London, her lifelong partnership with John Arden, one of the finest English writers in a generation that includes Harold Pinter and John Osborne. I first met her, together with John Arden, in 1984 when the late President Reagan visited Galway. I can still see the two of them sitting in Eyre Square in the pouring rain, mounting a protest against the US position on Nicaragua. Over the years I've come to admire her integrity, even if I've sometimes violently disagreed with her. Sometimes we shout at each other as we're passing in the street but I like to think she doesn't consider me an utter fool, even if she probably does think I'm an old reactionary. Fiercely independent, consistently on the left of every issue, over the years Margaretta has used theatre as a form of social and political commentary and protest, sometimes in collaboration with John Arden (check out The Non-Stop Connolly Show, a 24-hour play staged in 1975 and sponsored by the Official IRA and the ITGWU), sometimes independently. When I think of her a line from a song called `Joey' by Dylan comes to mind: "always on the outside of whatever side there is". She's too individual and too intelligent to be contained by any organisation. She's charming, maddening, irritating, provocative, funny, outrageous, kind, and dangerous to any establishment that gets in her way. Margaretta D"Arcy is a warrier.

Jobs safe at Boston Scientific following recall of heart stents
BY JULIE TIERNEY All jobs are safe at Galway's largest employer, Boston Scientific, which had to recall 90,000 of its heart products earlier this week. The worldwide recall is now complete according to a spokeperson at the Galway facility who said he is confident no jobs would be lost in Galway. According to the spokesperson 200 current staff members are set to be made permanent in two weeks time and the company continues to recruit. "The problem has since been rectified and all patients who have been fitted with the product are fine. Staff and management are remaining upbeat and staff are working overtime on the new product." The recall of the devices, known as stents, was undertaken by the company in the interest of patient safety following reports that three deaths and 43 injuries have been linked with their use in the US. In early July Boston Scientific recalled 200 TAXUS Express2 Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent Systems. Following further analysis it also recalled TAXUS Express2 (paclitaxel-eluting) and Express2 (bare metal) stent systems. The company said it has received reports of one death and 18 serious injuries associated with balloon deflation for the Taxus stent system, and two deaths and 25 serious injuries associated with balloon deflation in the Express2 stent system. Some of the units which were recalled were made at facilities in Galway and Maple Grove, Minnesota. The recall involved approximately 85,000 TAXUS stent systems and approximately 11,000 Express2 stent systems. Overall, the company has shipped more than 500,000 TAXUS stent systems and more than 600,000 Express2 stent systems. The company said the decision would not affect patients who had already received these stents, because difficulty is with the delivery system and occurs at the time of insertion and not afterwards. Company president and CEO of Boston Scientific Jim Tobin said patient safety continued to be its highest priority and he regretted any disruption the recall would cause to doctors and their patients. "We have every confidence these products are safe and effective, and we expect that these measures will go a long way toward reducing the occurrence of these events. We regret any disruption this recall may cause to physicians and their patients. We will continue to monitor the quality and performance of the affected products, and we will take appropriate action to ensure patient safety." The company has postponed the announcement of its financial results for the second quarter, originally scheduled for Monday, July 19 so that it may finalise the adjustments necessitated by the recall. It is expected to take place this Monday. The recall's effect is expected to include the reversal of sales of about $45 million, and a write down charge of about $50 million.

Grammar School inspires council slagging match
BY KERNAN ANDREWS The serious matter of the future use of the Grammar School on College Road was the subject of some humorous remarks, at the expense of Cllr Padraic Conneely, in City Hall on Monday. The Galway City Council was recently approached by the owners of The Erasmus Smith Grammar School regarding the possibility of renting the building to the council for extra office space. The council is currently looking at this possibility as well as at the option of buying the building. The school was built c1813/15 and was in use from then until 1958. At Monday's city
children's clothes shop

council meeting Cllr Padraic Conneely said the council should make use of the opportunity as the school would be a prestigious building for the council to own. He also said the council should have bought the building some years ago when it came on the market. "When it did come up for sale you

bypassed it," he said. "What about Tara Hall?" asked Cllr Tom Costello, in reference to Cllr Conneely's call for the council to buy this building and use it as a mayoral residence and develop its lands for a retirement village. "That's two mansions he wants to buy," laughed Cllr John Connolly.

However Cllr Conneely retorted: "There'll be no chance of you using it when you won't be either mayor or deputy mayor when your party is out of the loop for the next five years." Not to be outdone, Cllr Connolly replied: "You'll be out of the loop yourself soon enough and retired out there with the way you're going on."

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(The In-house Pirate-Woman Radio Experience can be heard on 100fm and broadcasts over a three mile radius around Galway city from from 12:00 am to 6:00pm daily. Better yet, why not call in and see what it's all about. She also has a web site, the Margaretta D'Arcy Home Page.)

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