ISLAND’S EDGE, WE hardly knew ye. 

Heineken announced this week that it would be discontinuing Island’s Edge, its short-lived stout and challenger to the Guinness-Murphy’s-Beamish triad that dominate the Irish porter scene. Despite a major marketing push, Island’s Edge lasted just two years.

While this column does not represent everyone, it can in this matter represent those who didn’t drink Island’s Edge – a population apparently sufficient to see the product go the same way as Cadbury’s Dreams, Calippo Shots and Lucozade Lemon. The only difference being that people actually liked those things.

Some day some history book will be written about the modern-era of stout and Island’s Edge will remembered as the first ever stout to describe itself as “unexpectedly refreshing”. Not to labour the point, but of course it’s unexpected for a stout to be refreshing – a refreshing stout is about as appealing as a fizzy gravy, or a bowl of stew infused with caffeine. 

It is a lesson in the challenges any novel idea or suggestion faces when up against centuries of Irish tradition. Just ask Harry Crosbie, who this week suggested that Ireland reestablish its central port in Portlaoise to free up land in Dublin. Putting our central port in the only doubly-landlocked county in the country? So crazy it just might work.

Crosbie, who developed much of Dublin’s Dockland area, including the Convention Centre, the 3Arena and the Bord Gáis Theatre, said the move would free up acres of land for housing in Dublin and generate more business from Dublin to the Midlands, through trains that would carry shipping containers to and from inland port. 

One reason that Crosbie didn’t mention is that Dublin Port is extremely creepy and walking around there feels like you’re stuck in a level out of Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64, but I’m sure that was also on his mind. 

Despite Crosbie’s business clout, this idea doesn’t really feel like it has legs, but it does open up the question of how Ireland can be rearranged to better suit its needs. I’m no civil engineer, but we could surely optimise by shuffling some other landmarks around. For example, we could free up some space and stimulate cross-county economies by moving Croke Park to Donegal. Put me and Crosbie in a room together, we’ll figure it out.  

Everyone saying we should've gone for the 3Arena..
🤔 pic.twitter.com/co6Akub18Z

— LANKUM (@LankumDublin) November 3, 2023

Ireland’s political landscape continues to be dominated by the atrocities unfolding in Gaza. Israel’s bombing campaign, framed by the Israeli government as a response to the brutal Hamas attack on 7 October, will soon enter its second month.

With each passing day, the multimedia exhibits of whole Palestinian families wiped out, children buried underneath rubble, and bellicose language from Israeli politicians, continue to fuel a movement of Irish opposition to Israel’s attacks. 

Since Hamas’ original, appalling attack, which killed 1,400 civilians, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has walked the diplomatic tightrope of asserting that Israel “has the right to defend itself” while calling for respect for international law. However, as the atrocities continue to unfold before our eyes, Varadkar has increasingly caveated this approach with critical language. 

This week, the Fine Gael leader said that Israel’s actions “resemble something more approaching revenge and that’s not where we should be“. The statement came just days after Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in order to allow for humanitarian operations to take place.

At the level of civil society, many in the Irish public have mobilised in such a way as to suggest that more concrete steps could soon be demanded of Irish politicians. Ireland is yet to formally change its diplomatic relationship with Israel, though there have been calls to close the Israeli embassy and expel the ambassador, most notably from People Before Profit.

On Friday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald echoed these calls while casting Israel’s actions in their most forthright language yet, arguing that Israel is “breaking international law by targeting civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, forcing mass population displacement and cutting off vital supplies of water, food, medicines and fuel”. The statement went on to say that the position of the Israeli ambassador is “untenable”. 

Varadkar has defended the government’s current stance, saying that he believes sanctions would “not be effective” and that expelling the ambassador would shutter “lines of communication” between Ireland and Israel. Yet, with each passing day of a public further and further exposed to bloodshed, it’s hard to imagine that calls for a tougher position will simply fall away.

There is a familiar wisdom that audiences can become desensitised to violence through over-exposure, and anyone who has spent any time online over the last few weeks will certainly have been exposed to a level of bloodshed so visceral that it is hard to bear. Nevertheless, there is no sense of fatigue among those Irish organising in solidarity with Palestine. 

A ‘Gig for Gaza’ event featuring the likes of The Mary Wallopers, Lankum, Damien Dempsey and Lisa O’Neill sold out Vicar St in just 90 seconds at a price point of €45 per ticket. After just a few hours, it was announced that the gig would be upgraded to the 3Arena. Capacity: 13,000.

Another event will be held on the same night in the Olympia with line-up that includes Mary Black, Frances Black and The Saw Doctors. An open air screening of the 2019 documentary Gaza takes place at Dalymount Park this weekend. Marches have taken place in virtually ever large town and city in the country. 

Upward pressure will continue to grow for as long as Irish attention remains firmly fixed on the violence emanating from Gaza. As Sinn Féin’s fresh call for expelling the Israeli ambassador shows, elected officials in Ireland now face a decision about how far they’re prepared to go.