“I want to be up there with the greatest legends of showbiz: the Judys, the Sinatras, the Oliviers, the Clark Gables…”

He’s a prodigiously talented performer and composer who has battled addictions to drink and drugs. But for now the sun is all that’s frying Rufus Wainwright’s brain… Read the rest of this article here.

Published: Irish Times, March 8 2008

“Piddlers… Piddlers!? Can you imagine?

It’s eight o’clock on a Wednesday evening in leafy south Co. Dublin. The tea has been poured, biscuits passed around and I’m about to get my ass handed to me in Scrabble by a woman old enough to be my grandmother. The popular board game is celebrating its 70th birthday this year. In that time, 100m sets have been sold in 29 languages across 121 countries.

But the Irish Scrabble-playing community are a small, tight knit bunch. Anne Lyng knows most of the faces. “One of our regulars is an inmate at the Central Mental Hospital” she chuckles. She rummages in the cloth bag, plucks out seven tiles and passes the bag across. “He’s very good,” she says. “He has them all playing up there now.” Read the rest of this entry »

Published: The Dubliner, 15 April 2010

“My personal preference would have been for a campaign of violent retribution, loosely modelled on the plot of the motion picture Rambo: First Blood

I have a beef with Dublin Street Parking Services. Actually, I have several beefs. For starters, what array of “services” do these assholes actually provide? I mean, have you ever tried flagging them down, explaining that parallel parking isn’t exactly your forte and asking them to do the honours?

No, DSPS are clampers. That’s the only “service” they provide. Read the rest of this entry »

Published: Irish Times, 20 November 2010

“Auld negative thoughts would be going through your mind. About where you’re from. About being a Traveller…”

WILLIE CASEY
Newly crowned European Super Bantamweight Boxing Champion

Congratulations, first of all. It must have been a thrill to win like that in front of a home crowd?
It was. Even having a European title fight in Limerick was a dream come true, to be honest. So winning it was just the icing on the cake. But it wasn’t just a case of turning up on the night and going through the motions, you know? A lot of time and preparation went into it. Luckily, it paid off. I’m over the moon.

You were away from your family for eight weeks training. Was that tough?
It was because, at the end of the day, family is first. My kids mean more to me than anything else in the world.

You grew up in a family of 23 children yourself.
That’s right. I grew up in the travelling community. There were twenty three of us. We’re all good now. We get along. But it’s tough. You’ve a lot of kids leaving school early and not doing much with themselves. People fall into depression and then drugs and drink come along and that’s a lot of worry for their parents. Read the rest of this article here.

“I haven’t been this excited about a technological breakthrough since they invented the dish scrubber with the washing-up liquid inside it…”

Until quite recently, I was very pernickety about punctuality. Your punctuality. If you were five minutes late, I’d be strumming my fingers on the tabletop when you arrived. Ten minutes and I’d be shooting you the old stink eye. Twenty minutes and I’d have prepared a short monologue in which I outlined all your deficiencies as a friend and a human being. Yeah, I was kind of a hard ass. Read the rest of this entry »

Superstar (1994)

David Norris presidential campaign: photo-op latest

Say what you like about him, he is a man of many talents: Senator. Scholar. Indie-rocker.

Breaking: Singer-Songwriter Taken Captive by Somali Pirates

From the Associated Press this morning… Read the rest of this entry »

Hellooooooo!

Gawker reports Mrs Windsor has entered a “delayed rebellious teen phase.” I’m sure Kanye would approve.

Before I begin, I’d like to address a few words to the Garda Road Traffic Corps…

Officers, lads… I know we’ve had our differences. We’ve both said things that, in the light of day, we probably regret. But look what you’ve reduced me to. I’m using public transport. Dear God, hasn’t this madness gone far enough? Read the rest of this article here.