“You do realise this will be on Reeling in the Years 2011 with, like, Justin Bieber playing in the background?”

The fish are nibbling away at the dead skin on your feet. They’re scavengers, so they’ll latch onto anything they find in the water… Read the rest of this interview here.

Published: Irish Times, May 1 2009

Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before…

“It’s like a cross between going back to university and joining a religious cult,” reckons Steve Berry from Hertfordshire, as he surveys the scene. I’d have said a “rockabilly Star Trek convention” myself, but we won’t split hairs. Read the rest of this article here.

Miscellaneous nostalgic items I come across #58

By a cunning process of elimination, I’ve deduced that I illustrated this headboard when I was in late second or early third year i.e. some time after the release of Suede’s debut album in March 1993 (I’ve clearly copied the Suede logo) but before the release of Pulp’s His n’ Hers in April 1994 (or else that surely would have figured.)

I’m not sure how much peyote was floating around Ballyhaunis in the mid-nineties, but I had (until now) blotted out all memory of having ever liked The Doors. Read the rest of this entry »

Published: Irish Times, September 3 2009

And your new flatmates are…

So you’re finally moving into a place of your own? Congratulations, first and foremost. In a world that never fails to deliver its share of letdowns and crushing disappointments, this is one rite of passage that actually lives up to the hype. Before outlining some of the comparatively minor pitfalls that may lie ahead, it is worth taking stock again of what precisely you stand to gain. Read the rest of this article here.

‘A schlub in an expensive suit is still a schlub’

“Let’s say you have a job interview?” Louis Copeland runs his tape measure around my back, pinches it at the chest and squints. “My first question to you would be, what line of work are you in? Because it depends, doesn’t it? Architects go for a wacky, modern look. Solicitors tend to prefer a classic style. Whereas journalists…”

He looks me up and down and trails off, somewhat despondently. Read the rest of this article here.

Published: Irish Times, 9 September 2011

‘A schlub in an expensive suit is still a schlub’

“Let’s say you have a job interview?” Louis Copeland runs his tape measure around my back, pinches it at the chest and squints. “My first question to you would be, what line of work are you in? Because it depends, doesn’t it? Architects go for a wacky, modern look. Solicitors tend to prefer a classic style. Whereas journalists…”

He looks me up and down and trails off, somewhat despondently. The adults talk amongst themselves. Copeland turns to his assistant Cathal O’Brien. “Something dressy?” he suggests. The photographer certainly concurs. “We’ll be doing before and after shots,” he advises. “So the more you can smarten him up, the better the contrast works.”

Lads, I’m standing right here. Read the rest of this entry »

“I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of small children…”

On the evening of September 11th, 2001, as the initial shock of what had happened began to abate, I remember my thoughts turned to what would come next. Events were still in flux, but it was already clear that whatever happened after the dust settled in New York, it wasn’t going be pretty.

That evening I was sick of staring at the television so I went out for a drink. It was Slattery’s on Capel Street. On the television in the corner, Sky News was showing night vision pictures of the skyline over Kabul. I assume now that those pictures showed the Northern Alliance shelling Taliban positions. But at the time no one, not even the Sky News reporters, seemed to be quite sure who was firing, or who was being fired upon. I just remember people – punters, barstaff, everyone – staring at the television screen in grim silence. And this ominous refrain playing over and over in my head… Read the rest of this entry »

Published: Annagh Magazine, December 2011

Our Man in South Sudan

In July 2011, photographer Ross McDonnell and I visited the city of Juba in East Africa to witness independence celebrations for the newly sovereign state of South Sudan. It was a short enough trip. We left the day after I saw Mayo beat Galway in Castlebar. And I was home in time to see Roscommon go down in a wet and windy Connacht final.

But this was no summer holiday. As a journalist, I visited the Gaza Strip during the Israeli blockade in the summer of 2008. But Gaza was a holiday camp compared to this place. South Sudan is one of the poorest, hottest, most remote and dangerous places on earth. A place where there are guns on every street corner. A place where a 15 year old girl is more likely to die in childbirth than she is to have finished primary school. Read the rest of this entry »