State Magazine #1 & #2 (April/May 2008)

State is a new music magazine that started up a while back and is currently on it’s 5th or 6th issue. Can’t exactly remember. But anyway, it’s a far better mass market magazine than the one whoring itself out with criminals at the moment. The cover of State is generally a ‘major draw’ band to get the general music fan to pick it up (#1 has REM on the cover, #2 has Muse) but beyond that is a generally good selection of major indie bands and semi decent coverage of the Irish music scene.

Every month so far in the mag there’s been a really good feature on the underground scene in Ireland with features on U:Mack in #2 and the Hope Promotions Collective in #4 (which sadly isn’t up for download just yet).

The complete back issues are currently up on the State site for free download which is a fantastic idea and should be continued on while the mag is running.

State Magazine #1 ( April 2008 )
A4 professional magazine
circa. 100 pages, full colour
Download Here

State Magazine #2 ( May 2008 )
A4 professional magazine
100 pages, full colour
Download Here

Scarlet Women #11 (June 1980)

Scarlet Women called itself the official newsletter of Womens Liberation Movement and was published by the Scarlet Women Collective based out of North Shields, Tyne+Wear. This issue (#11) was a special issue based on feminist struggles specifically in Northern Ireland. It was put together by the Belfast Women’s Collective and published as a regular issue in England. The zine contains articles on the Irish feminist past, the effect of British occupation on the lives of NI women, critiques of the state, a personal account of life in Catholic Belfast, abortion in Belfast, Belfast Womens Aid, Caigavon Women’s Group and many more beside. It’s a good read and worth a look for those interested in both issues of the North and of Irish feminist struggles.

Scarlet Women #11 (June 1980)
Belfast Womens Collective special issue
A4 semi-prof zine
42 pages, b/w
Download Here

(Note: I am sorry over the quality of this PDF but it’s a scan of a photocopy of an old zine so please understand why some pages are blurry etc)

Fuck You, Fuck Them, Fuck Everyone #1

Fuck You, Fuck Them, Fuck Everyone is a small A5 sized personal zine made by Steven Maher who resides in Limerick. It’s mostly an outlet for Steve’s artistic talents (He is currently a 3rd year sculpture student of Limerick Schooll of Art and Design) and his spordaic ramblings and one line scratchings. All of the hand drawn pictures in the zine are made by Steve himself especially for the zine including the 2 page “Thomas The Train Wreck” centerfold in the middle.

Fuck You, Fuck Them, Fuck Everyone #1
A5 handmade zine
12 pages, b/w
Download here

Welcome to Irish Books & Zines

Hello there,

This here is the first post on this new site Irish Books & Zines.I started this site for the digitization of Irish zines, books, pamphlets, leaflets and other printed material that are all long long out of print so I plan to scan the material and upload it in high quality PDF’s for you to download and read yourself.

I must stress at this point that most of the files will not have the permission from the writers of the zines to be posted. However as it’s all in good faith, and based on a genuine love for old Irish zines, that I hope if you find your zine or book on here you won’t threaten to sue! (If you do feel that you do not want to see your zine up here anymore then please do email me at the address below and I will remove it).

I hope that the site will take off a little and that people will start visiting on a regualr basis and even contributing to the site. If you can help the site in anyway (supplying new zines, scanning etc) or wish to contact the owner of the blog for anything then email: irishbooksandzines@gmail.com

Hope you come back for more.