Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
Eoin Butler
“I’m not sure what the guy’s problem is, but he’s pointing an AK-47 assault rifle at me, so I don’t make a fuss…”
What stands before me is a scene of utter desolation: the chalk remains of roads, buildings and farmland, bombed and bulldozed beyond any recognition… Read the rest of this article here.
The (Mayo) Man Who Went Astray
Tonight I’ve been asked to speak on the topic You Can’t Go Home Again: Stories about Starting Over. Now I’ll be honest. I’ll never turn down an opportunity to waffle about myself in public. But when I sat down to prepare these remarks, I realised something. I’ve never started over at anything in my life.
I’m Irish. I resent things. That’s how we roll. Read the rest of this entry »
Vote Yes For Cute Kittens!
Aidan is buzzing. He’s like a kid in a toyshop. I’m just about managing to keep my excitement under wraps. We’re sitting in Dublin’s first and, to my knowledge, only pull-your-own-pint venue. Aidan thinks it’s amazing. Pulling our own pints. God above. What next? I’m not quite as enthusiastic. They’re making me do something that’s normally done for me by someone else?
Yippee, when we’re finished here, can I clean the toilets?Read the rest of this article here.
“The nets are looking great. The markings all seem to go in straight lines…”
I can’t think of a whole lot else to say to the guy. “There’d be some in this club wouldn’t think twice about playing a match after it pissing down for a fortnight,” he spits. “Then they want to know why the surfaces are cut to shit!” He sniggers bitterly. Read the rest of this article here.
“Half the ads on there were from professional ladies. Solicitors? No, not solicitors.”
You’ve never tried it yourself, of course. Nor, as far as you’re aware, have any of your friends or any of your friends’ friends. But no more than Enya’s record sales, or the viewing figures for Mrs Brown’s Boys, the statistics tell a very different story. They suggest that far more of us dabble in the world of online dating than would care to admit it.
Even in the midst of recession, it has never been as popular. Two year ago, online dating overtook pornography as the third most valuable source of paid-for online content. Only digital music and online gaming generate more revenue. This year it is projected to bring in a staggering $932m in the US alone. Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Irish Times, March 26 2011At the very least, he might come out of all this with a better haircut
Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has announced that he will not smoke cannabis while serving as a member of Dail Eireann. The former Roscommon mayor is Ireland’s best known advocate for cannabis legalisation and, during his recent successful Dail campaign, acknowledged growing “one or two small plants” for his personal use.
The announcement followed an editorial in the Garda Review magazine, which made a veiled call for action against the maverick TD, who was regarded as openly flouting the law. Read the rest of this entry »
St. Patrick’s Day, 2011
According to press reports last week Tottenham are set to introduce new space-age football jerseys, which will alert coaching staff when a player is suffering from fatigue. If I’d be wearing one climbing Croagh Patrick Thursday morning, I suspect my number would have been called before we’d even left the car park.
This was my first time climbing The Reek in almost four years and, man, it was tough going. If it wasn’t for the presence on the mountain of climbers thirty and forty years my senior, I’d have been tempted to throw in the towel. But those pints in Galway that night tasted all the sweeter. Made it Ma, top of the world!
About the blog awards
I have no idea who nominated me for an award at the Irish Blog Awards, which take place in Belfast tonight. I don’t know much about the awards, except that I am nominated in the same catagory as David McWilliams, Jim Carroll and Donald Clarke. So obviously, I am extremely flattered.
I’m not deluded enough to think I have any chance of winning. But whoever nominated me, and for whatever reason, I’m sure it wasn’t for thinking things but not saying them. So here are my two cents. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m a pedestrian
You know the way some people are motorists, and some are cyclists, and others are, I dunno, innocent bystanders? Well I’m a pedestrian. I don’t walk for the exercise or the love of it or any of that crap. I walk because, for me, it’s the optimal method of getting from A to B. Not just that, there are all those extra little perks: no monthly payments, tax, or insurance. There are no timetables, parking spaces or unbecoming head gear of any type. It’s free like the Luas, except that this train leaves when I say it leaves. And – because there are no strikes, signal failures or traffic jams – it’s only late if I’m late.
There’s just one problem: there are no Rules of the Footpath. Honestly, it’s like the Wild West out there. Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Irish Times, March 12 2011“What was the highest grossing movie of last year? Jackass 3. Well, we weren’t trying to make Jackass 3…”
VALERIE PLAME
Ex-CIA agent, now the subject of a film starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
Spies often tells us that the James Bond image is a myth, that intelligence gathering is a dull, unglamorous business. Your career doesn’t really bear out that theory though, does it?
Well, I always loved what I was doing. It was exciting to work undercover in foreign countries, using disguises and hi-tech gadgets. But I never spent much time at the craps table, let’s put it that way. I never owned too many sequined work dresses!
You joined the CIA straight out of college. What did your friends and family think you did for a living?
My cover varied, depending on what the circumstances called for. I usually posed as a businesswoman or a commercial traveller. I was lucky. When my identity was betrayed, my friends understood my reasons for deceiving them. The only thing they said – to my face at least – was, well, that explains a lot… Read the rest of this article here.