The exhibition This Is The Modern World ran at Galway City Museum from June to September 2023. Celebrating punk and rock bands who played in Galway from 1977 to 1982 such as The Jam, The Boomtown Rats, Graham Parker, and Tom Waits the exhibition gave visitors a glimpse at the societal and musical changes that were happening in Ireland at the time.
Lyrics such as ‘Septic Isle, Suffer in the Screaming sea ‘by The Boomtown Rats in their 1981 hit ‘Banana Republic’ echoes the anger felt by the youth in a conservative Irish society. There was an increasingly visible feminist movement and Irish people had begun to question the political and religious establishment. The posters represented a moment in time before Irish bands such as U2 emerged on to the international music scene.
Rocky DeValera and the Gravediggers were among the many bands who played Seapoint in Galway in 1979. Their poster below was designed by the band’s roadie Dave ‘The Rocker’ Notman and featured in This Is The Modern World. The curator of the exhibition sent a copy of the poster to the band’s singer Ferdia McAnna, now a successful author, filmmaker and lecturer.
On the 14 July 2026 the curator learned from McAnna that a comeback gig was being organised after almost 20 years of not playing together. He shared that they were deep into rehearsals with four members of the original band and it was indirectly due to the curator including the original poster from 1979 in the exhibition and sending him a hi-res copy of it. The re-vamped poster for the reunion gig, pictured below, is by their rhythm guitarist and designer Jack Van Diemen and is based on the original design.
This rock and roll resurrection is happening this evening at the Grand Social, Dublin City.
Well done guys! All the best with the reunion! Rock n’ Roll will never die!!
