The National Affront

No doubt, people will be organising little office stakes for the Grand National today; you may drop some cash into the hat, believing that this just a bit of harmless fun, pass it off as a little flutter. Well, it’s not. It’s complicity in a barbaric, heartless and cruel “sport” which yesterday, the first day of the Aintree […]

C.S.I. Carrick-On-Suir

*SPOILER ALERT FOR PROBABLE FORTHCOMING TV DRAMA* Just when I thought that Dublin life was getting far too dangerous and violent, I read with horror in the Nationalist And Munster Advertiser that rural life is even more precarious. It seems that residents of a Carrick-On-Suir house were wakened in the small hours by a “hoody wearing youth climbing on […]

Please “Give It Up”, For God’s Sake

I dreamt about Fame Academy the other night. There are reasons for this that I won’t get into but it’s fair to say I woke up terrorised, breathing like a hyper-ventilating Phil Mitchell. Mercifully, Patrick Kielty isn’t on the telly so much these days – but it’s not nice that he came crawling into my head […]

Not Racist In The Slightest

Who exactly is accusing Ireland’s most stylish taxi driver of racism? How on earth could any of Derry “Elvis” Coughlan’s recent points of view be construed as racist, or even excuses for racism? He’s already stated quite clearly that his union, which goes by the equal opportunities-friendly name of the Cork Taximen’s Association, contains members from Tunisia, Chile, Poland, Albania, Bangladesh, England […]

CowenGate – RTÉ News Too Full of the Milk of Human Kindness

There’s no magic formula for popularity; and how the demand for an apology from RTÉ by the Irish leader’s spokesman Eoghan O’Neachtain is backfiring splendidly. The fact that many news outlets abroad, like the BBC, The London Times and The Guardian, had already carried headlines about the Taoiseach’s finely-reproduced moobs to their worldwide readerships, makes Cowen’s bizarre vanity look, incredibly, even more ridiculous and humiliating. Sadly, it […]

Pat Kenny, Again

Another example of why the Late Late continues to be essential viewing.

There Ain’t No Show Like A Joe No-Show

Stand by your wallets, fools – you and your money are soon to be parted. Although it sounds like one of those more-money-than-sense events they used to throw on in the old days of the economic boom (if that ever really happened), some promotional genius really believes this is a winner. Joe Dolan – The Reunion Show runs for […]

FF Pinning Recovery Hopes On Secret Assets

Like many of Social & Personal‘s loyal male readership , I wondered when Fianna Fail’s most devastating secret weapons would be unleashed. I should have guessed, really. Where better than their Ard Fheis? Yes, we’re talking Mary Coughlan’s legs. I hasten to add, dear reader, that this is not a personal opinion. Back in July 2008, Social & […]

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 […]