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(()/(    (   )\())   )\   
/(_))   )\ ((_)\  (((_)  
(_))  _ ((_) _((_) )\___  
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|  _/| |_| || .` | | (__  
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- The PUNC report on Near 90.3fm -
"Treasure on the Wasteland"

PUNC: the Zine

Throughout 2022 while the radio show was on hiatus, I printed and sold a series of zines under the name PUNC. There are many advantages to print, so many that I won't name them here. However I did make digital PDFs of the zines available to some people who couldn't get the print issues for one reason or another. Now that all the issues are sold, I'm making issues 01, 02 and 03 of PUNC available here, along with the 2022 and 2023 Christmas annuals. Click on the images to download the PDFs!

issue 1 of PUNC
issue 2 of PUNC
issue 3 of PUNC
PUNC Christmas Annual 2022

PUNC Christmas Annual 2023

Further Information

The first issue of PUNC was planned for release during the two My Chemical Romance gigs that took place in Dublin in May 2022. In the end, issue 001 wasn't released until early June, with a slightly altered text. Issue 002 came out in August as a belated Pride issue and Issue 003 was meant to come out around Hallowe'en, but in the end came out in early November. The PUNC Christmas Annual was just about released before Christmas, hitting na siopaí on the 23rd of December. The Christmas Annual is out of print: once all the issues & all of the reprints are sold, you'll be able to find the pdf here. A PDF is currently available for purchase on ko-fi. An interim Christmas annual was issued in December 2023 ahead of the Drogheda zine fair. PUNC 5 is in progress.

PUNC 1-4 were sold by the Library Project, Connolly Books, Little Deer Comics & Distro Table. I and my minions also hawked copies of the zines at:
  • the October 2022 Punk Picnic
  • gigs in Bohs
  • A gig in the Bello Bar
  • the second Rock4Culture protest outside the Holiday Inn on O'Connell Street (intended as a fundraiser for the campaign)
  • Dance to The Underground, the Queer Punk night at Fibber Magee's

I have some regrets about that last one as I feel like I brought commerce & advertising & self-promotion into a night that is better without it. However I'm very grateful to Rob & Rod for letting me sell my zines there. They've let me talk about the zine from the DTTU stage, let me sell the zine & even gave me an opportunity to DJ at DTTU. It was at DTTU that I've sold the most zines.

I am also very grateful to all the people who have bought them and chatted to me about zines. You've been very enthusiastic about PUNC, & that's why I've kept going even when I wonder if it's crap.

Issue 4 was also sold at Lucky Lane in Limerick due to the involvement of 3 contributors from Limerick. Thank you very much to all the contributors who were part of that issue & to all the people that I couldn't fit in!

CRIME: The Magazine of the Dublin Union of Punks & Pirates

issue 1 of CRIME

Co-edited by the mysterious DJ MAL & the even more mysterious Kamil, this zine explores the shared political & cultural interests of punks, internet pirates and real pirates. Issue 1 is currently out of print. Issue 2 is in progress abandoned.

Further InformationI'm involved in the Dublin Union of Punks & I liked the idea of doing a zine for the Union, but other members were busy. I contacted my buddy Kamil (not his real name), a member of the Pirate Party, to ask him if he wanted to become part of the honourable Irish tradition of industrial unionism & form the Dublin Union of Punks & Pirates (incorporating the Buccaneer's Guild) & make a zine. Kamil was able to recruit a third & even more mysterious correspondent, the enigmatic Luci Furious, who contributed a cogent essay comparing the golden age of piracy to the first wave of punk.

After much strenuous effort, the DUP(P) produced the first issue of CRIME in time for the DUP's May Punk Picnic (although we had to skip off to an internet café during the picnic to print them). The first print run was printed by Kamil & sold at the punk picnic. Copies of the Pirate Party manifesto & posters of a collage from the zine were also distributed for free at the picnic. The second print run was sold by the Library Project & Distroy. Money made from the zines sold via Distroy (€15) was donated to Medécins Sans Frontières Ireland on behalf of the US online Zine archive Circulation Zero.

Issue 2 was definitely not abandoned because Mal couldn't get it together. It was actually abandoned because Kamil was kidnapped by pirates. Call it an industrial hazard.