Parallels between Dublin and East Berlin became clear when hacks taking us for Osties began to ask for interviews, writes ANN MARIE HOURIHANE

YOU KNOW those columns where boring old hacks reminisce about times gone by, the fascinating events they have lived through and how right the boring old hack has always been about everything? Well this is one of those columns. By rights it should be delivered from the book-lined reading room of some old colonialists’ club, with me swigging whiskey and soda and you furtively ordering a cab. Instead I’m on a computer, and you might be too. Luckily, smugness does not change with the fashions. The thing is, I was in Berlin when the Berlin Wall came down.

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In Berlin, Hamburg und München kann man sich in Filialen von ‘k presse + buch’ etwa 850 Zeitungstitel aus 80 Ländern ausdrucken lassen. Angeboten wird der Print-on-demand-Dienst zum Beispiel an den Hauptbahnhöfen Hamburg und München sowie am Berliner Bahnhof Zoo.

Ob Irish Independent, Arab News oder San Francisco Chronicle – der Käufer sucht sich an einem Touchscreen-Monitor einen Zeitungstitel aus und hält nach wenigen Minuten das tagesaktuelle Exemplar in den Händen. Die Print-on-demand-Ausgaben werden im DIN-A3-Format ausgedruckt und in der Filiale geheftet.

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Langenfeld bemüht sich um Ennis im südlichen Westen der “grünen Insel”. Die 24 000-Einwohner-Stadt könnte die Partnerlücke im englischsprachigen Raum schließen. Irlands Botschaft in Berlin unterstützt die Brautwerbung.

Eines haben beide Städte schon mal gemeinsam: Ihre Lenker wissen, wie man trotz bescheidener Größe überregional Schlagzeilen produziert. Während es Langenfeld mit der Schuldenfreiheit in zahlreiche Gazetten schaffte, hat das irische Ennis jetzt mit der Verleihung einer Ehrenbürgerschaft reiche mediale Ernte eingefahren.

Denn der von laut “Irish Times” zehntausend Schaulustigen umjubelte erste und einzige “Honorary Freeman of Ennis” ist kein Leichterer als Boxlegende Muhammad Ali.

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By Aoife Finneran

The first time I stood at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, I was a lowly student. It was 2001 and Michael Jackson had yet to dangle his child out that now-famous hotel window.

Nonetheless, being a woman of vision, I had already earmarked the Adlon Kempinski Hotel as a fitting abode for my future rich and famous self.Fast forward eight years and, while fame and fortune haven’t come a-knocking, the chance to stay in one of the world’s most magnificent hotels did.

It’s not just the location of the Adlon — directly in front of the Brandenburg Gate — that sets it apart. Factor in 400 staff used to catering for everyone from various royals and heads of state to barmy celebrities with child-dangling propensities, and it makes for an uber-slick machine that leaves every guest feeling as if they’ve just entered heaven.

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By Cathrin Schaer in Berlin

There are no tickets and barely any advertising. But the karaoke sessions that take place in what was once the Berlin Wall’s death strip every weekend are rapidly becoming an entertainment phenomenon. And it’s all thanks to an enterprising Irish cycle courier with a big bike and some speakers.

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Keine Angst, wir wollen Ihnen keinen Sprachkurs in der nnz verordnen, aber nnz-Autor Olaf Schulze freut sich schon auf ein außergewöhnliches Konzert Anfang Oktober. Hier sein Vorbericht.

Seit vielen Jahren schon ist Nordhausen Station eines einzigartigen Tourneeprojekts. Unter dem Namen „Pure Irish Drops“ versammelt der Berliner Konzertveranstalter Florian Fürst jährlich drei irische Musiker, die jede(r) für sich großartige Instrumentalisten sind und mit den anderen noch nie im Trio gespielt haben. Im Herbst unternehmen sie dann jeweils eine ausgedehnte Europatournee und präsentieren wirklich „reine irische Perlen“, indem sie ihr Instrument einzeln vorstellen und gemeinsam musizieren.

Wie im vergangenen Jahr lädt das Nordhäuser Kulturamt zu diesem großartigen Konzert in den altehrwürdigen Tabakspeicher. Am Vorabend des Nationalfeiertages stehen am Freitag, 2. Oktober herausragende Vertreter des blau-gelben Counties Clare im Südwesten Irlands auf der Bühne.
„Clare Music“ heißt das Projekt folgerichtig und stellt drei außergewöhnliche Könner vor: Conor Keane (diatonic accordion) ist schon gut bekannt aus seiner Zugehörigkeit zu der Gruppe „Four Men And A Dog“ und der Zusammenarbeit mit dem bekannten bretonischen Musiker Gilles Servat. Dave Harper (flute, banjo & guitar) ist ein großartiger Musiker mit außergewöhnlichen Kenntnissen der Musik aus dem County Clare. Michael „Blackie“ O’Connell (uillean pipes) schließlichist der neue aufgehende Stern am Himmel der landestypischen Musik Clares.

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THE IRISH IN BERLIN: Is Berlin a capital of creativity, as the hype would have you believe, or rather a slacker’s paradise, where every day is a Saturday? DEREK SCALLY talks to some Irish immigrants who have managed to forge careers there

JOHN LENNON ONCE remarked that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. For many Irish, the German capital is a place they never intended to make their home but, to stretch Lennon’s logic, they have found Berlin to be a fine spot to live while making other arrangements.

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Our train passed many parts of the metropolitan area known as Berlin before we arrived at the main station. This introduction laid out in front of us one warning: Berlin is huge. Arriving from the east, our hostel was at the west end of the metro system (conveniently located next to the stop named ‘Westend’). It was a long trek from the center – about 20 minutes by metro – but cheap enough to swallow the minor inconvenience. Berlin is known to be one of the few capitals in Europe in which you can really stretch out each euro. Despite its cheap reputation, we managed to spend a bit more than we had planned.

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A NEW DIRECTION: From the ashes of the second World War, the self-assured German state achieved decades of sustainable economic growth. It’s not too late for Ireland to follow in its footsteps.

IT’S NINE YEARS since Mary Harney remarked that Ireland, though physically closer to Berlin, was spiritually closer to Boston.

What a difference a decade makes. Harney is still hanging on but her political home is gone, the neo-liberal policies of the Progressive Democrats undermined by the financial crisis.

Ireland, after putting its eggs in twin baskets of property speculation and financial services, is now a financial basket case, its eggs thoroughly scrambled.

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Some of the oddest things about Germany are the soundtracks you hear in its hotels. Not for the first time in the past two days, Enola Gay by OMD, Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, and Guns N’ Roses covering Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door have wafted out of the elevator.

These are songs I have not heard since the 1980s but, then again, there is a very 1980s – or, at least,1990s – feel to Germany. This feeling is most pronounced in Berlin – the capital not only of Germany, but also of the new Europe.

The place seems to have 1990s prices, for a start. We in Ireland should take note of these prices because Germany is, somewhat unexpectedly, the only country to have gone through a period of deflation stemming from its membership of the eurozone. This is unexpected because, 20 years ago, had you suggested that Germany would suffer economically from reunification and membership of a monetary union, many people would have thought you mad. Yet that is exactly what happened.

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