Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year

Tripping Along The Ledge


margaret thatcher

He was first to use the phrase “Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye” in the modern, ironic sense…

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It met with heavy criticism at the time, of course. But that usage has since become standard. Read the rest of this article here.

Published: Mongrel Magazine, July 2006

“The Charles Haughey I Knew”

by an old school friend

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My best memory of Charles J. Haughey? Probably of him hanging from the monkey bars in Donneycarney primary school, singing the theme from the Lone Ranger. It was 1982, and Haughey was facing a motion of no confidence from the parliamentary party. It’s hard to imagine another Irish leader preparing for a major political battle in such a fashion.

But then Charlie was never ordinary. Even on our first day at school he stood out from the other boys, decked out (as he was) in the dazzling capote de paseo of a Basque Country matador. Read the rest of this entry »