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Elayne Harrington

Elayne Adamczyk Harrington, also known as Temper-Mental MissElayneous, is an Irish hip hop musician, poet and visual artist.[2][3]

Elayne Harrington
Elayne Harrington in 2024
Born1987 or 1988 (age 36–37)[1]
Finglas, Dublin, Ireland
Other namesTemper-Mental MissElayneous
Occupation(s)Poet, rapper, sculptor
Musical career
GenresSpoken word, hip-hop
Instrument(s)Vocals, bodhrán
WebsiteOfficial website

Early life

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Harrington (born 1987 or 1988) is from Finglas, a suburb of Dublin.[4][5] She has a sister.[6] Her mother was a union activist and her father a musician. As a child, she attended union meetings with her mother.[7][2] She wrote her first poem when she was nine and started rapping around age eleven. At fourteen, she named herself "Temper Mental".[4][8]

Music and poetry

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According to the Sunday Independent in 2013,[9]

She cannot be categorised. There is no one box into which MissElayneous fits neatly and that's just the way she likes it. "How I'd describe myself as an artist is so broad," she says. "I'm a leonine; an ego-wrestling, lion-hearted one; an androgynous who uses the cultural movement of hip hop as a medium to portray messages of social awareness and individual empowerment."

Her debut EP, Proletarian Restitution, and the single "Step in the ring" was released in 2012.[4][2] The same year, she had a poem published in The Stinging Fly.[2] By then, she had an online following and encouraged girls in Finglas to express themselves through rap.[10] She appeared in the 2012 documentary Ireland's Rappers and in the 2014 RTÉ2 reality series Connected.[11][12] President Michael D. Higgins, seeing her perform in 2012, said she was "letting her life flow through the rhythms and sounds."[1][13]

A writer with The Irish Times stated in 2013 "As long as this country is producing authentic artists with original voices like [Harrington] this is still a wonderful place."[14] The same year she appeared in a commercial for the Arthur Guinness Project, which seeks to promote "creative innovation in Ireland".[1] One critic, who was not a fan of hip-hop and believed that some of Harrington's pieces were "thrown together", nevertheless compared her to the British poet Kate Tempest and said "she is well worth paying to see".[15] A 2015 article in the Irish Independent said that she "serves up her unique brand of rapping, hip-pop, bodhrán-beating, urban spoken word to growing audiences of teenagers in schools in Dublin's Northside. Teachers, impressed by her adept skill at bringing poetry to life for students, often call her back even to read aloud the poetry that's on the curriculum".[16]

Social activism

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Harrington has been involved in the issue of homelessness in Dublin. She was herself homeless at times,[17][8] and carried her belongings in her bodhrán case. She says "I became very resourceful but it was very dangerous and destructive and has had long term implications. It takes years to recover from homelessness - if you ever fully do."[18] She has done community work in primary schools and youth centres, using her own hip hop curriculum. According to Harrington, "Hip hop is central to a sense of crews and a sense of community so I use it to develop that sense in young people."[7] She played bodhrán and read poetry at a protest during a state visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland in 2011, and was arrested together with other protesters.[12][1]

Visual art

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Harrington with Made to be Broken, 2019

As a graduate of fine art of National College of Art and Design in 2019, she displayed her work Instrumental, exploring "the ideas of the working class, the eight hour work day and the appropriation of working class labour and produce."[19][3] In 2021, she received a residency at the Dean Arts Studio in Dublin, in a partnership with the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).[18]

Personal life

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As of 2021, she is married.[18] She is a vegan.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Feehan, Conor (29 August 2013). "Riot-arrest rapper fronts Guinness ad". Irish Independent. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Murphy, Lauren (19 August 2012). "Rolling with the punches and throwing her own". The Times. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Elayne Adamczyk Harrington". Irish Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Heslin, Maeve (6 March 2012). "Miss-Terious Girl". Hot Press. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  5. ^ Goldsmith, Melissa Ursula Dawn; Fonseca, Anthony J. (1 December 2018). Hip Hop around the World: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-313-35759-6.
  6. ^ Rushe, Loreana (3 June 2014). "Inbound: Temper-Mental MissElayneous". The Thin Air. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b O’Connor, Ruth. "Inspiring women, inspiring stories" (PDF). National Women's Council of Ireland. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  8. ^ a b Conroy, Catherine. "A City of Words: Temper-Mental MissElayneous". Dublin City Council. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  9. ^ Kiernan, Joanna (4 August 2013). "Temper-Mental MissElanyneous: People like us". Sunday Independent. ProQuest 1417238883. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  10. ^ Coulter, Peter (15 July 2012). "Irish Rappers Revealed: Meet the new stars of Ireland's booming rap scene". BBC News. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  11. ^ "TV: Has reality TV just got real?". Sunday Business Post. 28 September 2014. ProQuest 1565941234. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  12. ^ a b McCahill, Elaine (2 October 2014). "'I can't get a job with my Finglas accent' - Connected's Elayne Harrington aka Temper-Mental MissElayneous". Irish Independent. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  13. ^ "Watch: Temper-Mental MissElayneous @ The Music Show". Hot Press. 26 February 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  14. ^ "50 Reasons to love Ireland right now". The Irish Times. 16 March 2013. ProQuest 1328324171. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  15. ^ Kelly, Connor (February 2013). "Irish Poetry – The Changing of the Guard" (PDF). Irish Marxist Review. Vol. 2, no. 5. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  16. ^ "Poetry: In motion or going through the motions: Anita Guidera meets the young Irish poets writing from personal experience and winning admirers around the world". Irish Independent. 29 January 2015. ProQuest 1648841591. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  17. ^ a b Andrews-McCarroll, Sophie Jane (6 January 2015). "Temper-Mental, a Truly Dublin Rapper". The University Times. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  18. ^ a b c Sheridan, Colette (17 March 2021). "'It takes years to recover from homelessness': Elayne Harrington on getting her art career on track". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  19. ^ Lindsay, Erin (8 June 2019). "NCAD's 2019 graduates show a bright future for Irish design". Image. Retrieved 23 August 2024.

Further reading

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