Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
irish
St. Patrick’s Day in Chinatown
I’ve been waiting all year to post this. One of my favourite ever bits from Late Night With Conan O’Brien. I promise, this is my last Conan-related clip for at least six months. Oh go on then sure, I suppose, one more won’t hurt… 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.
OBAMA = HITLER… OBVIOUSLY
There’s a line you’ll be familiar with from Yeats that has been repeated so many times, in so many contexts, as to have become rather hackneyed. You know, the one about the best lacking all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Its a cliche. But it’s hard to think of any recent debate to which that line might more appropriately have been applied than the push for healthcare reform currently underway in the U.S.
The eventual outcome there will be of borderline relevance on this side of the Atlantic. But there are a couple of observations that can already be made: Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Mongrel Magazine, March 2004Ollie Higgins
It’s Friday night and the atmosphere in Whelans is so electric you could cut it with a knife. Declan O’Rourke – the enfant terrible of Irish song – has an American tourist in a headlock and is attempting to extract cash from her purse. In the far corner Gemma Hayes and Paddy Casey are huddled over a Connect 4 set, lost in thought. It’s a heady scene. But for now the buzz is all about one man: Ollie Higgins.
The former drummer with ill-starred Dublin rockers The Kill City Snowmen is here to launch his debut solo album, Hope Street. (“It’s like a cross between Black Sabbath and The Andrews Sisters” he explains. “If that makes any sense!”) Read the rest of this entry »