It’s the last ever outing for this column

“By the way, Butler’s paying for everything,” says Aidan, before we sit down. “Why the hell am I paying?” I ask. “I’ve given you enough material over the years,” he says. “You’re lucky I haven’t sued for commission!” I suppose, the man has a point. Read the rest of this article here.

Night on the Great River

Steering my little boat towards a misty islet,
I watch the sun descend while my sorrows grow:
In the vast night the sky hangs lower than the treetops,
But in the blue lake the moon is coming close. Read the rest of this entry »

Misty (1959)

Published: Evening Herald, April 2010

The Bull & Castle

It’s the last outing for this column. Aidan and I are celebrating at the Bull & Castle in Christchurch. We’re joined by our friend, Johnny, briefly home from the States. “Butler pays for everything, by the way,” says Aidan, as we take our seats. “Why?” I ask. Aidan snorts. “I’ve given you enough fucking material,” he says. “You’re lucky I don’t sue ya for commission.”

He has a point. Read the rest of this entry »

Student hack bites back!

If there’s one thing this blog is fond of doing, it’s recycling old material. And the hardiest of hardy perennials in that respect is this wildly inaccurate perhaps-not-entirely-definitive profile of me written, in 2005, by a young student journalist from DCU. No matter how many times I post it, it never fails to raise a chuckle. But now the hapless anonymous author has stepped forward to answer his critics. Read the rest of this entry »

Isn’t Sinead O’Connor overdue a massive, grovelling apology from absolutely everybody?

In 1992, Sinead O’Connor ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live as a protest against paedophilia in the Catholic Church and the complicity of the church hierarchy. It was viewed as an act of career suicide. The following day, steamrollers crushed hundreds of her CDs outside Rockefeller Center to huge cheers from protesters. On the next SNL, presenter Joe Pesci quipped that “if it had been my show, I would have gave her such a smack.”

A few days later, O’Connor was booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan Tribute in Madison Square Garden. (That last clip is particularly well worth watching, by the way, both for the virulence of the abuse directed towards her, and the courage with which she stands up to it.) Read the rest of this entry »

Where is my Mind? (2010)

The scene is from The Mysterious Lady (1928), starring Greta Garbo. Music by Maxence Cyrin.

Gone fishing

Urgh. Too tired to blog today. It’s been a long week. Some interesting stuff you might have missed elsewhere:

1. Andrew Sullivan’s piece in The Atlantic is the most rational explanation for why so many priests become abusers that you will ever read. How is this man still a Catholic?

2. Hot Tub Time Machine!? I haven’t been this excited by a movie title since Snakes on a Plane… Read the rest of this entry »

The Live Parrot Sketch

I got an email this afternoon about a new TG4 sitcom called An Crisis, starring Ristéard Cooper, Norma Sheahan, Don Wycherley, Kate Nic Chonaonaigh and Donncha Crowley. I was about half way through the PR spiel before the penny finally dropped… I fucking wrote this show! Read the rest of this entry »

There’ll be shlaps…