Give Up Yer Aul Shopping

And so it came to pass that a senior member of the Catholic Church in Co. Galway got mildly peeved about Sunday trading. Fr Stephen Farragher, who works (except, presumably, on a Sunday) as administrator to the Tuam archdiocese, has suggested shops shouldn’t be open for very long on the Sabbath, and also advocates a return to the […]

Masterchef – It’s Final Week

“Pointing out the obvious in clichéd soundbites DOESN’T get hammier than this..!” An army marches on its stomach (and apparently plays hide-and-seek behind the heather too), especially a Scots one, but that’s no excuse for putting the three finalists in charge of their dinner in the open air of the Scottish Highlands, on Masterchef (BBC2) last night. As […]

Oh no, the recession’s going to be THAT horrific…

At last, an unexpected and very welcome side-effect of the recession: it seems business at Ireland’s golf clubs is going to be down by around 25% this year, according to a report in today’s Irish Times. It also appears that all those excuses fat excecutives used to make about conducting their “business” on the golf course were, as […]

Don’t Be Cruel…

Just to make absolutely sure the public are firmly on the side of our over-abundance of taxi drivers, they rolled out the big guns on TV3 News last night. Step forward this big hunk o’ love, Derry “Elvis” Coughlan, a man who firmly belongs to the Ted Bovis school of Presley “tributes”. Like his colleagues, Mr Coughlan just can’t […]

Carry On Comic Strips

Oh, how corrupted we’ve all become…

The Valentine’s Massacre

Originally published in U Magazine, February 2008 If there’s one thing most women desire of their men, to show them just how loving, caring, sensitive and thoughtful they are, it’s a spontaneous display of romance. Presumably that’s why St Valentine’s Day was invented – it’s the most heralded, advertised, hyped and commercial piece of romantic […]

Cabbing It Up

You really have to feel sorry for all those troubled taxi drivers who were protesting in Dublin yesterday, don’t you? You see, they have no control of their working conditions (sitting down in a comfy seat and forced to listen to country music all day; “no rights, no negotiations, no say in working conditions” say the placards) and […]

I’m Throwing My Arms Around Morrissey’s New 7″…

“There’s a naked man standing laughing in your dreams / You know who it is / but you don’t like what it means” Well, Meat is still too much like Murder, clearly, and what better to protect your modesty than a nice 7″. In 1984, when Morrissey was in The Smiths, he told Smash Hits: […]

It’s Not The Enda The World

The Irish government limps from one crisis to the next and what the country needs more than anything is a strong opposition breathing down its neck. Unfortunately, we have Enda Kenny. He might be able to replace his namesake Pat on The Late Late Show for the sake of wooden continuity but, as a politician […]

American… Wonder Pests

“The phone/ The phone is ring-ing.” What the hell has happened to Wonder Pets? Or, more specifically, the UK version? Any parent who spends their mornings, afternoons and evenings being blasted by the unremitting fire cannon of kaleidoscopic, hyperactive, cacophonous, epileptic programming on Nick Jr knows what an oasis of calm and cuteness Wonder Pets […]