Irish Examiner view: It's not just sci-fi — the future may be all about being good with your hands
The new zombie-fest from film director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, 28 Years Later, has a number of rib-tickling, if far-fetched, jokes at the expense of our next-door neighbour.
Who could possibly believe that it would be a good idea to place Britain into perpetual quarantine?
But amid the black humour and the gore — Cork's Cillian Murphy will feel right at home when he returns to his original franchise in the second and third parts of the trilogy — there are a number of discerning pointers about what the future might hold for humankind, notwithstanding rampaging legions of 'The Infected' carrying the 'rage virus'.
We are given insight into some of the employment opportunities of the future.
While many people in 2025 seem to dream of becoming influencers or top sports people, these prospects appear to be fairly thin on the ground in this new world, unless the ability to run away very fast can be considered an important new life skill.
Much more prized and celebrated abilities, according to hand-drawn posters on the schoolroom walls in the movie, are talents which were once ubiquitous in our society until technology took over.
Children are urged to consider a career as a herdsman, or a shepherd.
Job opportunities exist for those who are capable in scavenging and foraging. People who can carry out a few running repairs are highly prized. There are even vacancies for a role which is little advertised these days — that of nightwatchman.
The thought that what we need to carry ourselves through the next 30 years are old-fashioned techniques and experience presented itself this week when the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) fretted about the shortfall of the 40,000 construction workers we need to make a dent in the growing backlog of housing completions.
This acknowledgement that we have been encouraging young people to look in the wrong place for the wrong jobs coincided with yesterday's news that a record 15,747 people — 4,844 of them children — were in emergency accommodation at the end of May.
For more than a score of years, youngsters have been urged to master technology as a route to a more rewarding and secure future, but even that golden opportunity now looks more fragile with the speedy roll-out of AI which has begun by consuming the kind of starter jobs that many new entrants to industry needed to give them early experience and a chance to build networking skills.
'Tsunami of job cuts as AI empowers Big Tech,' said one trade magazine this week.
Other report illustrates how video game developers — one of the high job satisfaction meal tickets across the past two decades — are struggling with the impact of generative AI upon their work and their career prospects.
Two weeks ago, the Irish Examiner published a challenging insight on the influence of AI on our college campuses — and the grades of students — in the Diary of a Gen Z Student column provided by Jane Cowan. She wrote:
'The feeling that 'you'd be stupid not to use AI' is very real, particularly when you see people walking away with high grades that they didn't really work for.'
If everyone has an unearned advantage, then no one has an advantage.
And if thought processes can be so easily reproduced, we may indeed find that the key jobs go to those who can solve practical problems, and work with their hands.
A real example of going back to the future.
End of the free ride for cycling coverage
There will be many among us this morning who rise to watch the British and Irish Lions begin their antipodean campaign at 11am in the Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, under the guidance of Ireland's favourite Englishman, Andy Farrell.
Ireland's Stephen Roche celebrates after winning the 1987 Tour de France. After this year's Tour, the event will no longer be free to air. File picture: Billy Stickland/Inpho
And each and every one of us will be familiar with the proposition that our rugby is made available from behind a paywall.
If we want to watch the nine-match tour, then fans must stump up for Sky Sports, or join friends in a bar or sports club.
There are very few blue riband events which are free to air these days and it's sad to note another — the Tour de France which starts from Lille on July 5 — will be disappearing after this year's race.
It's an event which has provided glorious moments over the past four decades of television coverage including the 1987 triumph of Dundrum's Stephen Roche and the green jerseys of Waterford's Stephen Kelly.
In a competition which has always been visually exciting and which has taught us a host of new words — not least the meaning of peloton — it was inevitable that the growth of cycling would eventually command a large worldwide audience ready to be 'monetised".
We will be sorry to see it roll off our screens on the final day in Paris on July 27, but many of us will become poursuivant, chasing our annual fix of a sport which can be rough, tough, and chic all at once.
What's your view on this issue?
You can tell us here
Appetite for apocalyptic news is falling
There used to be a marketing slogan favoured by some publishers which told readers that spending time with their newspaper was 'like a friend dropping in'.
This conjured up a convivial picture of happy occasions spent around the family fire, perhaps with a cup of tea, exchanging and debating the news of the day or the week.
Until, someone archly observed, the 'friend' became more prone to delivering tidings of a gloomily depressing nature: Crime reports, political scandals, economic shocks, accidents and disasters, a catalogue of human failures and failings.
They, and their diet of despair, were not as welcome then.
And increasingly less so, if we are to accept the conclusions of the always interesting Reuters digital report which maps the tastes, responses, and conclusions of readers and news consumers around the world.
The findings of the 2025 Reuters digital report show that, while overall trust in news has remained stable at 40% globally, news avoidance is higher than ever.
Across markets, four in 10 people say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017.
The figure for Ireland — which recorded its biggest ever increase last year, up 10 points to 44% — drops back to 41%, comparable with the US and Canada, and behind Britain.
The reasons for avoiding news may seem achingly familiar.
Some 39% of respondents said the news has a negative effect on their mood, while 31% say the volume 'wears them out'. A similar number, 30%, say there is too much coverage of war and conflict and 29% feel the same about politics.
One in five people say there is 'nothing they can do with the information', while 18% say that it leads to 'arguments they would rather avoid'.
Of course it is easy to see, through even a cursory check of today's Irish Examiner and its related supplements, that there are many examples of happy and positive coverage.
But it can seem that the devil, while not possessing the best tunes, certainly has some of the loudest.
'Humankind cannot bear very much reality,' wrote TS Eliot in Burnt Norton, one of his Four Quartets, an observation validated by the latest Reuters' findings.
One of the striking features of the past 10 years has been the increasing role of influencers and podcasters in the news ecosystem, and several prominent examples are name-checked in the report: The Joe Rogan Experience, the Tucker Carlson Podcast, Candace Owens.
On the weekend that RTÉ broadcaster Joe Duffy signed off Liveline after 27 years, we can acknowledge his place in a lineage of Irish anchors who have had significant impact, and built large followings, over the years.
The ability to deliver the news with a helping of personal spice and perspective is a characteristic in demand, although not everyone believes it is the future.
In a telling interview earlier this month Mathias Döpfner, CEO and co-proprietor of the expansionist Axel Springer empire — which includes Politico, BILD, and Die Welt — warned that one of the reasons people lose trust in the media is because many reporters confuse journalism for activism, telling us what the world should look like and ignoring inconvenient news.
This is a dangerous dilemma for newspapers and digital news providers.
Trust, and its vital partner, credibility, once lost, cannot be recovered.
Read More
Irish Examiner view: Ireland needs immigrants to help address our labour shortage
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Irish Examiner
18 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: It's not just sci-fi — the future may be all about being good with your hands
The new zombie-fest from film director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, 28 Years Later, has a number of rib-tickling, if far-fetched, jokes at the expense of our next-door neighbour. Who could possibly believe that it would be a good idea to place Britain into perpetual quarantine? But amid the black humour and the gore — Cork's Cillian Murphy will feel right at home when he returns to his original franchise in the second and third parts of the trilogy — there are a number of discerning pointers about what the future might hold for humankind, notwithstanding rampaging legions of 'The Infected' carrying the 'rage virus'. We are given insight into some of the employment opportunities of the future. While many people in 2025 seem to dream of becoming influencers or top sports people, these prospects appear to be fairly thin on the ground in this new world, unless the ability to run away very fast can be considered an important new life skill. Much more prized and celebrated abilities, according to hand-drawn posters on the schoolroom walls in the movie, are talents which were once ubiquitous in our society until technology took over. Children are urged to consider a career as a herdsman, or a shepherd. Job opportunities exist for those who are capable in scavenging and foraging. People who can carry out a few running repairs are highly prized. There are even vacancies for a role which is little advertised these days — that of nightwatchman. The thought that what we need to carry ourselves through the next 30 years are old-fashioned techniques and experience presented itself this week when the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) fretted about the shortfall of the 40,000 construction workers we need to make a dent in the growing backlog of housing completions. This acknowledgement that we have been encouraging young people to look in the wrong place for the wrong jobs coincided with yesterday's news that a record 15,747 people — 4,844 of them children — were in emergency accommodation at the end of May. For more than a score of years, youngsters have been urged to master technology as a route to a more rewarding and secure future, but even that golden opportunity now looks more fragile with the speedy roll-out of AI which has begun by consuming the kind of starter jobs that many new entrants to industry needed to give them early experience and a chance to build networking skills. 'Tsunami of job cuts as AI empowers Big Tech,' said one trade magazine this week. Other report illustrates how video game developers — one of the high job satisfaction meal tickets across the past two decades — are struggling with the impact of generative AI upon their work and their career prospects. Two weeks ago, the Irish Examiner published a challenging insight on the influence of AI on our college campuses — and the grades of students — in the Diary of a Gen Z Student column provided by Jane Cowan. She wrote: 'The feeling that 'you'd be stupid not to use AI' is very real, particularly when you see people walking away with high grades that they didn't really work for.' If everyone has an unearned advantage, then no one has an advantage. And if thought processes can be so easily reproduced, we may indeed find that the key jobs go to those who can solve practical problems, and work with their hands. A real example of going back to the future. End of the free ride for cycling coverage There will be many among us this morning who rise to watch the British and Irish Lions begin their antipodean campaign at 11am in the Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, under the guidance of Ireland's favourite Englishman, Andy Farrell. Ireland's Stephen Roche celebrates after winning the 1987 Tour de France. After this year's Tour, the event will no longer be free to air. File picture: Billy Stickland/Inpho And each and every one of us will be familiar with the proposition that our rugby is made available from behind a paywall. If we want to watch the nine-match tour, then fans must stump up for Sky Sports, or join friends in a bar or sports club. There are very few blue riband events which are free to air these days and it's sad to note another — the Tour de France which starts from Lille on July 5 — will be disappearing after this year's race. It's an event which has provided glorious moments over the past four decades of television coverage including the 1987 triumph of Dundrum's Stephen Roche and the green jerseys of Waterford's Stephen Kelly. In a competition which has always been visually exciting and which has taught us a host of new words — not least the meaning of peloton — it was inevitable that the growth of cycling would eventually command a large worldwide audience ready to be 'monetised". We will be sorry to see it roll off our screens on the final day in Paris on July 27, but many of us will become poursuivant, chasing our annual fix of a sport which can be rough, tough, and chic all at once. What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Appetite for apocalyptic news is falling There used to be a marketing slogan favoured by some publishers which told readers that spending time with their newspaper was 'like a friend dropping in'. This conjured up a convivial picture of happy occasions spent around the family fire, perhaps with a cup of tea, exchanging and debating the news of the day or the week. Until, someone archly observed, the 'friend' became more prone to delivering tidings of a gloomily depressing nature: Crime reports, political scandals, economic shocks, accidents and disasters, a catalogue of human failures and failings. They, and their diet of despair, were not as welcome then. And increasingly less so, if we are to accept the conclusions of the always interesting Reuters digital report which maps the tastes, responses, and conclusions of readers and news consumers around the world. The findings of the 2025 Reuters digital report show that, while overall trust in news has remained stable at 40% globally, news avoidance is higher than ever. Across markets, four in 10 people say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017. The figure for Ireland — which recorded its biggest ever increase last year, up 10 points to 44% — drops back to 41%, comparable with the US and Canada, and behind Britain. The reasons for avoiding news may seem achingly familiar. Some 39% of respondents said the news has a negative effect on their mood, while 31% say the volume 'wears them out'. A similar number, 30%, say there is too much coverage of war and conflict and 29% feel the same about politics. One in five people say there is 'nothing they can do with the information', while 18% say that it leads to 'arguments they would rather avoid'. Of course it is easy to see, through even a cursory check of today's Irish Examiner and its related supplements, that there are many examples of happy and positive coverage. But it can seem that the devil, while not possessing the best tunes, certainly has some of the loudest. 'Humankind cannot bear very much reality,' wrote TS Eliot in Burnt Norton, one of his Four Quartets, an observation validated by the latest Reuters' findings. One of the striking features of the past 10 years has been the increasing role of influencers and podcasters in the news ecosystem, and several prominent examples are name-checked in the report: The Joe Rogan Experience, the Tucker Carlson Podcast, Candace Owens. On the weekend that RTÉ broadcaster Joe Duffy signed off Liveline after 27 years, we can acknowledge his place in a lineage of Irish anchors who have had significant impact, and built large followings, over the years. The ability to deliver the news with a helping of personal spice and perspective is a characteristic in demand, although not everyone believes it is the future. In a telling interview earlier this month Mathias Döpfner, CEO and co-proprietor of the expansionist Axel Springer empire — which includes Politico, BILD, and Die Welt — warned that one of the reasons people lose trust in the media is because many reporters confuse journalism for activism, telling us what the world should look like and ignoring inconvenient news. This is a dangerous dilemma for newspapers and digital news providers. Trust, and its vital partner, credibility, once lost, cannot be recovered. Read More Irish Examiner view: Ireland needs immigrants to help address our labour shortage
Irish Post
4 days ago
- Irish Post
Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later packs a grotesque punch with a political message
IT'S been 23 years since Danny Boyle's iconic 28 Days Later hit the cinemas. Some of you may not even have been born then, but for those of us who were you no doubt will recall the zombie apocalypse thriller which put chills up everyone's spines. A youthful Cillian Murphy was the central character of the film. He played delivery driver Jim who woke up from a coma in a London hospital 28 days after the outbreak of a deadly virus which had subsumed the country. Danny Boyle guides Aaron Taylor-Johnson on the set of 28 Years Later Naomie Harris and Brendan Gleeson were there too. The 'rage' virus had taken over Britain and civilisation had collapsed. There were only a few survivors left roaming what was left of the country, which was now littered with the blood-thirsty infected. Written by Alex Garland and directed by Boyle, this was terrifying stuff. Humans hunting humans. Life as we know it gone in a matter of days. There are terrifying new variants of infected in 28 Years Later The world that modern civilisation had worked so hard to build, Boyle had reduced to nothing. There was no law, no rules, no authorities. All that mattered was staying alive. It was ground-breaking in its ability to scare the bejeesus out of us while sending a clear political message too. There but for the grace of God go us, if we can't keep a handle on the darker side of humanity and the order that we have constructed to live within. Now, 23 actual years later, Boyle has done it again. He is back to tell the tale of what happens when zombies take over, but there is an underlying message about the dangers of nationalism, isolationism and some pretty pointed Brexit references too. Newcomer Alfie Williams and movie icon Ralph Fiennes give standout performances in the film In 28 Years Later we have a set of new characters, but the story is directly linked to the original. We meet survivors of the rage and we meet the infected too, in far greater and even more grotesque detail. Over the years the disease has evolved and there are a range of terrifying new variants of infected. There are 'fast ones', slow ones' and now there are 'alphas' too, which boast way more power and cunning than the undead that you will recall from the first film. Boyle and Garland are both back on board for this film, which is the first instalment of a planned trilogy. In it they offer a deep dive into the impact the virus has had on Britian, where an island society has formed away from the infected mainland – which is now under international quarantine. Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes star in Boyle's epic sequel The rest of the world has seemingly moved on, relatively unaffected, and left Britain to its own plight (which is pretty much Brexit in a nutshell). All that they must do is police the borders to ensure no one can leave the island. That doesn't stop people going in however, and one family's decision to make the dangerous journey to the heart of the infected mainland comes with horrific consequences. This is true horror in all its bloody glory, and it comes with an uber-accomplished cast – including Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Alfie Williams - who more than do it justice. In 28 Years Later Boyle and Garland have produced an epic extension on their zombie franchise. Luckily for us, as the first instalment of a trilogy, there is much more still to come. See More: 28 Years Later, Cillain Murphy, Danny Boyle, Jodie Comer
Irish Times
7 days ago
- Irish Times
Four new films to see this week: 28 Years Later, Elio, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, and S/He Is Still Her/e
28 Years Later ★★★★☆ Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Edvin Ryding. 16 cert, gen release, 115 min Splendid second sequel to Boyle's zombie flick 28 Days Later that finds Britain back as the sole habitat for the rage-infected undead. One patriotic island just off the northeast coast resists. It requires no awareness of that Brexit analogy to enjoy a rattling quest narrative that never lets up in pace or invention. Boyle knows that 28 Days fans, though happy to enjoy all that political padding, will expect some grade-A gore from such an entertainment. The momentum continues right up to – fair warning seems required – an open ending that will leave most panting for an imminent part four. Full review DC Elio ★★★☆☆ Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina. Starring Yonas Kibreab, Zoë Saldaña, Brad Garrett, Remy Edgerly, Jameela Jamil, Shirley Henderson. G cert, gen release, 98 min A kid is beamed among aliens in the latest from Pixar. Aesthetically, the film recalls Coco without the earlier picture's elaborate world-building. Emotionally, it's pitched at the level of Onward, with plenty of synthetic lifting from Rob Simonsen's score and a lot of leaning into the magic of the Voyager probe programme of the 1970s. Elio is a half-formed thing. The basic story beats suggest that subplots have gone missing. Even the buddy comedy is curiously marginalised. The candy-coloured character designs will please smaller viewers, but the all-ages pleasures of peak Pixar are nowhere to be found. Full review TB READ MORE Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story ★★★★☆ Directed by Bruce David Klein. Featuring Liza Minnelli, Mia Farrow, Michael Feinstein, Lorna Luft, Joel Grey. No cert, 104 min Those concerned about Liza Minnelli after her delicate appearance at the Oscars three years ago – friends deny she needed the wheelchair provided – will be reassured by her sharp performance in this hugely enjoyable documentary. We hear sad stories of an often unhappy love life, but there is no sense of Minnelli being a tragic figure. One can easily understand how endless comparisons with her mother weary her. On the evidence here, she seems smart, charming and greatly, greatly loved. It might, however, have been nice to hear more about her work either side of the 1970s. Full review DC S/He Is Still Her/e: The Official Genesis P-Orridge Documentary ★★★★☆ Genesis P-Orridge in 2018. Photograph: Gioncarlo Valentine/New York Times Directed by David Charles Rodrigues. Featuring Genesis P-Orridge, Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, William S Burroughs, Alice Genese. 18 cert, limited release, 98 min The challenge of distilling the life of the occultist, performance artist, avant-garde musician and pioneering pandrogynyst Genesis Breyer P-Orridge into a single documentary is akin to bottling lightning. P-Orridge – who preferred s/he as a pronoun – lived not just many lives but many selves, spanning punk rebellion, occult philosophy and tender parenthood. There isn't nearly enough space afforded to either the music or the absurd Channel 4 Dispatches documentary that wrongly alleged satanic ritual abuse. The fallout was serious enough for P-Orridge and family to remain in exile in – wait for it – Winona Ryder's old bedroom. Full review TB
