A Fighting Farewell 🥊☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns this Fri-Yay, bringing news and views of the Irish at home and abroad. The Irish is the cheeky-but-charming(ish) voice of Shift, our app for connecting the Irish and lovers of Ireland around the world. Want Shift in your life? Get it here, friend. And if you know someone else who’d like to join the 1000s of others getting The Craic each week, they can stick their wee email in here. Takes 2 seconds, so it does.

News from Home

Yes, Katie! Something we have been banging on about for at least a year has been confirmed – Katie Taylor’s farewell fight will, indeed, take place at the iconic Croke Park. It’ll take place in September. Her opponent has just been confirmed on the newswire as The Craic belts this copy out on a rusty old typewriter: It’s going to be French boxer Flora Pili. We can’t wait for this one.

Magic This Gathering. Talk about a family reunion. Members of the O’Sullivan ‘clan’ met in West Cork this week – more than 1,800 of ‘em. It entered the Guinness World Records as the largest gathering of people with the same name. Now, we have done our research and found that O’Sullivan is the 8th most common Irish name in the world. So, any Murphys, Kellys, Byrnes, Walshs, O’Briens, Ryans, and O’Connors out there  - you have the ammunition to beat the O’Sullivans. Do it.

Death of a Lion. The Irish rugby community is in mourning after the passing of former Ireland captain Fergus Slattery. Considered one of the all-time greats to pull on the green jersey, Slattery won 61 caps across 14 years, and he was part of two Lions’ Tours. We love these poignant words from Blackrock College RFC on his passing: “{Slattery played} with ferocity and grace, but without ego or theatre…Modest in demeanour, yet monumental in achievement, Fergus never sought admiration, but earned it universally from team-mates, opponents, supporters and generations of young rugby players, who dreamed of following in his footsteps.”

The Craic Recommends – The Rua Spritz. We are massive fans of Muff Liquor (see our Irish Influence below), and we are hooked (in a responsible way, don’t worry) on one of the company’s signature cocktail recipes, The Rua Spritz: 1.5 oz Muff Irish Gin, 3 oz grapefruit soda, topped with Prosecco, and we’ve just died and gone to a tangy-fizzy heaven. You can check out more of their cocktail recipes here.

The Irish Influence

This week we want to highlight the influence of entrepreneur Laura Bonner, founder and CEO of The Muff Liquor Company. The simple backdrop to Laura’s story is that she founded the company after being inspired by her grandfather, a potato farmer in Muff, Donegal, who crafted his own poitín using recipes that would later influence Muff’s award-winning gin and vodka. Yet, as this intriguing profile piece by Forbes elaborates, her story is so much more than just resurrecting old family recipes and sticking them in a bottle. She’s learned her trade in Asia, fought near bankruptcy, the pandemic and newer shenanigans like tariffs to come out the other side stronger, now with celebrity backers that include a certain Mr. Russell Crowe. Muff Liquor’s wares are now on sale in most US states, and they have a snazzy website where you can shop your own Muff direct. Imagine that. A brilliant Irish success story with an inspiring founder, someone who Paul and Patrick will hope to emulate as they try to build their own global Irish brand. 

Cúpla Focal

Ros na Rún {Ross NA Rune} – Headland of the Secrets. Ros na Rún is an Irish-language soap opera, but while it’s an interesting term due to being ambiguous in meaning, we wanted to highlight it today because we were reminded that Conon O’Brien once made an Irish-speaking cameo on the show. You know, it’s not perfect Gaeilge, but fair play to him for having a crack at it.

Blast from the Past

You know, a lot of people recall with great fondness the visits of Presidents Kennedy, Clinton, Obama, and Biden to Ireland, but one that gets overlooked is Ronald Reagan’s trip here. The 40th POTUS was a busy bee as he arrived on June 4, 1984: He picked up a wee honorary degree from the University of Galway, visited Ashford Castle, addressed the Oireachtas, and even planted a tree at Áras an Uachtaráin. His personal highlight – yes, we will presume to speak for the late President – was visiting his ancestral home in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary. He was visibly moved when seeing the village of his great-grandfather, Michael Reagan. For balance, we should say there were a good few protests across the country at the time, as people voiced concerns about the United States’ (mis)adventures in Central America. Rewatching the speeches and the address at Shannon below, we have to hand it to Reagan; he was a great orator. Would have made a fine actor 😉.

And One Last Thing….

We wanted to finish this week with a little reading recommendation – Ulysses. Nah, nah, nobody ‘wants’ to read Ulysses; they want to ‘say’ that they have read Ulysses, right? All jokes aside, it is a fecking tough read; the kind of book you look at, not read, The Craic’s grandfather used to say. But what if it were made more manageable? That’s the aim of the Ulysses 80 Project, which aims to guide readers through the tome in short bursts, 10-15 pages at a time, across 80 days. It’s a brilliant idea, which you can find out more about here. What better way to celebrate the upcoming Bloomsday in a couple of weeks than finally starting and, hopefully, finishing Joyce’s masterpiece?