Grills & Boys

Originally published in U Magazine, June 2008 Can you get the stench of burning flesh in the air? It’s that time of year again. Any day now, invitations to friends’ barbecues will come flooding in. No one invites you to dinner during this period, no one says they’re having a few nibbles and cocktails in their […]

Memoir of a Soho square

Lately, I’ve been catching up with a month’s worth of weekend supplements. It’s a nice thing to do, especially when you have very little money. All that culture, most of it out of reach and well out of the range of my rather functionless wallet. One thing I love above all else is to read […]

Glory, glory! Red is the colour! Or maybe not.

Just what is it about a red shirt that gets glory seeking fans of non-local teams in such a lather? I ask this as a somewhat bewildered Scots observer of English football from an Irish perspective – if that doesn’t sound like codswallop. I’ll try to explain what I mean, but perhaps my point was […]

Show Them Who’s Boss

Once upon a not-too-long ago, there lived a little man in an old, old street. For a long time, the street was mainly populated by old, old people and the little man was able to win their friendship and trust by routinely asking them about their health, their daily movements and their daily intentions. He […]

Saviours of Irish rock? The return of 79Cortinaz

They’re back! Back?! BAACK!! Carlow’s foremost rock ‘n’ roll sons (i.e. band) 79Cortinaz have risen from the grave and seem intent on returning to the studio to entertain us with further adventures in rural indie guitar rock. They released their debut album Hopioki in early 2008, before apparently breaking up in December of that year. […]

Way to go, Delio!

So farewell, Delio Rossi. After six months at the helm of my beloved Fiorentina, the frustration he, his players and all of us who shout for the Viola share, finally blew into violence when he took several swipes at insubordinate young forward Adem Ljajic in full view of the world. Today, he finds himself fired, […]

I’m your Venus (in blurs)

Did you ever have a dream that was so great, you not only woke up annoyed that it wasn’t finished, but sincerely hoped you could pick it up where you left off the following night? And did you then rack your brain trying to remember exactly what made it so great, only to find that […]

Weebles wobbly wonders

This is a silly anecdote about plastic toy eggs – not much craic here, I assure you. Some years ago, in Dublin, I was reminiscing about Weebles, that society of egg-shaped characters with the slogan, “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”. I never actually owned any Weebles but my cousins did, and these toys […]

I never never want to go home, because I haven’t Gok Wan…

Clever old spammers. No sooner is Gok Wan in Dublin to peddle his range of retro frames at Specsavers than the cookies get to work trying to find appropriate blog posts to spam. Congrats to the cookies, then, for finding several posts on IHGN which, for some obscure reason, seem to suggest that I’m a […]

2002 – A Hella Good year for music?

This week, BBC 6 music is a decade old, a fine landmark for a station which almost didn’t make it this far. Thanks to the efforts of listeners and well-wishers, it was saved from the chop, and thank heavens. The station’s birthday celebrations have kicked off in earnest this week and, as these things tend […]