Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
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THIS IS FUNNY
What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a pile of leaves? Read the rest of this entry »
NO JACKET REQUIRED
[This is from a very early issue of Mongrel. I ambushed this guy backstage at the Temple Bar Music Centre after a gig. There is no word in the English language for drunk I was. An hour or so afterward, my friend Scally tracked me down at the counter in Zaytoon (kebab house) on Parliament Street trying to order a round of drinks… Not my finest hour, I’ll be the first to admit.] Read the rest of this article here.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN BALLYHAUNIS…
Nazis, Christy Moore, reality TV, Charlie Haughey as Antonius Block and the true story of how I bested a Professor of Thermonuclear Physics live on national radio… Yip, this is quite possibly my favourite thing I ever wrote. Read the rest of this entry »
“Fashion, for most Irish men, is a song we heard once, whose tune we half-remember and whose words we never knew…”
We Irish men are renowned for our sartorial nous and exquisite appreciation of couture. When we’re not pouring over style bibles, we’re scouring clothes shops and boutiques for bargains, mixing and matching styles, and talking, always talking, about the latest designs and trends. Fashion is like a drug to us. One we cannot get enough of.
Well, okay . . . not all of the above is strictly true. In fact, if any of it applies to you, you’re one of a prominent, but demographically paltry, minority. Read the rest of this article here.
BROWNSVILLE GIRL (1986)
Co-written with playwright Sam Shepard, Brownsville Girl is one of Bob Dylan’s greatest ever songs. Click on the wide, elongated rectangle above to hear it – the video is too lame to bother sharing. I had a notion once that every single line of this song would make a really badass Twitter update. And, you know, I might have had a point… Read the rest of this entry »
FAITH ALIVE
1. The new head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is a creationist.
2. Young Israeli volunteers patrol shopping centres and public places to break up Jewish-Arab dates… (God knows the last thing that place needs is an outbreak of tolerance and understanding!)
3. If it ain’t King James…
BANK ERROR IN YOUR FAVOUR?
HOW WOULD you react if a substantial sum of money was mysteriously lodged to your bank account one day? Would your first phone call be to your bank manager or your travel agent? Would you attempt to find out where the money came from? Or would you cross your fingers, do nothing and pray that no one ever noticed?
It’s not an abstract question. Read the full article here.
BATTLE OF THE SURVIVORS (2004)
THIS IS FUNNY
The debut album drops late Fall ’09. But Tom O’C already sounds the finished product to me… The only snag is, I think this guy might actually be serious. Read the rest of this entry »
“KEEP F***ING THAT CHICKEN!”
Not sure why I find this so funny. Maybe it’s because, with most clangers, you understand what the person intended to say, even if came out a little garbled. In this instance though, I have no earthly idea of what was this man could possibly have been trying to say. Even Will Ferrell would have trouble delivering lines this absurd.
During a routine back-and-forth with his local weather guy last night, veteran New York news anchor Ernie Anastos observed (bizarrely) that, “It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast, Nick.” Read the rest of this entry »