Observations. Satire. Politics. Interviews.
I spent the summer of 1990 in New York. Nassau County on Long Island to be exact. I was 16 years old and it was a mixture of vacationing and part-time work. 10 years previously my parents had made the decision to leave Long Island and return home to Ireland. So this trip in 1990…
There was a concise anecdote, amongst Arts students in U.C.G., back in the 1990’s about student union politics. It went something like this: 1st years: Don’t know who runs the campus. 2nd years: Think they run the campus. 3rd years: Don’t give a fuck who runs the campus. I am frequently reminded of this and…
When the dust settles in the Salem Witch trials that are ongoing in the United States at the moment, the future of the 45th President of the United States will be determined for good or for ill. Game of Thrones eat your heart out. I will wager a bet, that if history records the contributions…
Today, I am going to highlight some of the reporting issues, as I see it, in modern main-stream media. Particularly how ambiguous quotes are fashioned into facts to feed a particular narrative. Both sides do this a lot. But Today’s focus will be on how news publications misuse sources and source material. A new…
It is, maybe, an unfortunate quirk of fate that Mr Tim O’Leary, of Mayo GAA fundraising fame, bears a more than passing resemblance to the latter day appearance of one Nick Leeson. If the name doesn’t ring a bell Google Baring’s Bank. As we might say here in the West, while Nick Leeson was a…
I was hazily reminded of a sporting scene from the 90’s yesterday as I watched Shane Lowry’s homecoming celebrations in Clara, Co. Offaly on the RTE News. I seem to be on a 90’s roll the last two weeks. In the 48 hours after his British Open victory in Portrush, the phrase ” The People’s…
One of the many inconveniences of working at night is the sleep patterns. The nights you work aren’t the problem, it’s the nights you don’t that cause the trouble. Last night was one such night for me. Two attempts to hit the hay failed miserably and so I got up at about 5:30. Non- smokers…
When you get to a certain vintage only a select number of years in your life jump out in technicolor. For most of us that last year of school is one that is permanently scorched in our brains. A long, slow march to the inevitable examination of our Leaving Cert subjects. In our school there…
I wrote this original piece over a year ago but I think it still has relevance today. Conor McGregor has been in yet another skirmish with the law and surprise, surprise, social media has exploded. Since I originally wrote this article, the fascination with him by all areas of the press has increased even further…
#observational So the phone rings at 7 pm last Thursday. I’m in bed. The joys of night shift living and all that good stuff. A sibling is on the other end of the bat-phone. ” Mom was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Can you go up? “ ” Yes” I said. Well I thought…
It annoys me intensely that Tommy Tiernan writes for the Sunday Independent. Among comics of his generation I think he is alone, in that his brilliance on the stage transfers seamlessly to the page. If you’re from Ordinary Man Ireland buying the Sunday Independent is not an easy proposition. Filled as it is, wall to…
If you are a man or a woman of a certain vintage you will probably remember the Jim Hensen created Children’s programme Fraggle Rock. Quite often the Fraggles of Fraggle Rock were in need of a little wisdom (every episode) and in their desperation quite often turned to Marjory – The Trash Heap. Marjory would…
My favorite part of Breaking Bad was about 3 episodes before the end of each season. That’s when all the plot lines started to knit together. At this point Walter White and Jesse started to get their shit together or not at all as the case may be. We are now at the same stage…