Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
Published: Evening Herald, July 2007
Zumo Juice Bar
“Barkeep. Hit me with a Blueberry Burst – and don’t spare the blueberry!”
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RODY BOLANDS
My phone is ringing. It’s Aidan. I might have guessed. “You know the way life isn’t fair..?” he begins. As opening gambits go, this is one of his better efforts. (The last time he rang with bad news, he went with “You were never too fond of that coffee table, were you?”) Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Irish Times, November 15th 2008KISSING IN THE WIND
As interviews go, it’s not your typical scenario. I’m seated on a barge on Dublin’s Grand Canal. In my hand is a list of handwritten questions. On the bench opposite are sitting the two young stars of Lance Daly’s highly acclaimed new feature film Kisses. My Dictaphone is lying on the table between us switched on. So far so good, you might think. Well yes, except that at some point in the last five seconds World War III has broken out. Read the rest of this entry »
The Song Who Can’t Be Moved
I’ve got a very embarrassing problem and I don’t know where to turn.
For eleven consecutive days now, I’ve had the The Script’s cheesy smash hit The Man Who Can’t Be Moved playing in a constant loop in my head. If the situation continues, I may have to seek psychiatric assistance.
“The irony in all of this” I tell Declan and Tina, over a pint in the Flowing Tide. “Is that 95% of me despises the song. Hates it. Thinks it’s just the plot from some ludicrous chick flick set to music.” Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Mongrel Magazine, May 2007The top 5 funniest thing people said to me when my father died
The recent death of my father was undoubtedly the least funny event of my entire life. It came as a savage shock to me, like a stranger approaching me on the street and punching me in the face. Now I find myself banjaxed with grief: for my father, for my family and for myself. Read the rest of this entry »
THE FLOWING TIDE
I’ve got a very embarrassing problem and I don’t know where to turn.
For eleven consecutive days now, I’ve had the The Script’s cheesy smash hit The Man Who Can’t Be Moved playing in a constant loop in my head. If the situation continues, I may have to seek psychiatric assistance.
“The irony in all of this” I tell Declan and Tina, over a pint in the Flowing Tide. “Is that 95% of me despises the song. Hates it. Thinks it’s just the plot from some ludicrous chick flick set to music.” Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Mongrel Magazine – March 2007SMOKE & MIRRORS
When someone’s welcomed you into their home, and introduced you to their family, its awkward having to confess to them that you don’t really believe a word they’re saying. It’s a trickier proposition still, when the person in question is Dr. Latif Yahia. The 42-year-old is best known as the author of I Was The Devil’s Double – a sensational account of his life as a fidi (or body double) for Saddam Hussein’s psychotic son Uday. More recently, his quest for an Irish passport has brought him a new nemesis in Tanaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
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“IT’S LIKE A HARD ON…”
Mumblin’ Deaf Ro is a bona fide cult hero. Reedy voiced and unassuming, the Dubliner has penned some of the most startling and original lyrics you’re likely to hear. Songs about amorous mental patients, doomed boxers and disillusioned monks. To date he has released just two (self-produced, home-recorded) albums: 2003’s Senor, My Friend and this year’s follow-up The Herring & The Brine. He plans to record just one more album. So should we be expecting it around 2011, I inquire? “Oh no” he laughs. “It works on a kind of logarithmic scale. So it’ll probably be more like 2015.”
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THE HORSESHOE BAR
Baaam! Didn’t see that one coming, did you? It’s Friday night and I’m chilling in Ireland’s most exclusive bar. Finally, it somehow feels like I’m amongst my own kind. Before I order a drink though, I’ve got a few old scores to settle. I press the mobile phone to my ear. It’s ringing. Read the rest of this entry »
And finally…
[It was Mongrel editor Michael Freeman who came up with the idea for the ‘And Finally…’ articles. Each month, for the back page of the magazine, he would ask a different writer to contribute 650 words on any subject they wished. The only catch was that the piece had to reference the same random photo (right) and incorporate the same ludicrous pull quote “like a ferret trying to escape from a jar of silly putty”. To this day, I still don’t actually know what silly putty is…]
Anne Marie Mularkey. The gorgeous Anne Marie… Jaysus, now you’re taking me back. Swanned into French one day like she was God’s gift. Threw her schoolbag on an empty table and plonked down on a chair. Anne Marie was tall and elegant, with the saddest brown eyes I’d ever seen. She had a face like a shovel, of course, but that only added to her allure. Girl blew that fringe out from her eyes and swung back in the chair. And, with that, I fell in love. Read the rest of this entry »