A Pint of the Craic Stuff ☘️🍺

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns - rejuvenated, reinvigorated, revived, restored and rehabilitated - on this lovely Friday evening, bringing you news and views concerning Ireland and Irish culture. The Craic is the weekly newsletter from Shift, our app for connecting Irish people and lovers of Irish culture globally. Not got Shift yet? Get it here. If you want to send someone else The Craic (we don’t bite), pop their email address in here.

News from Home

Striiiike! Ireland had one of its biggest public sector strikes in ages this week, with around 300,000 (about 6% of the population) nurses, doctors, teachers and others who make the country tick walking out. It’s over a pay dispute, as you might expect. Another strike is planned for October 21. We’d say most of the country is on the strikers’ side, or at least they will be until they try to get a doctor's appointment next week. Credit to the superlative Waterford Whispers News for the image below.

Save the Store. The Craic has had the pleasure of milling through Keats and Chapman bookshop in Belfast many a time. It’s one of those marvelous, musty old spots with character and charm you simply can’t buy. The kind of place where you might hide from bullies and pick up a copy of The Neverending Story and end up riding a weird dragon-dog-thing…right, 80s kids? Nah. It’s a true Belfast icon, with floor-to-ceiling books and plenty of bargains. Some big, bad property developers want to close it, but Belfast says NO! A fundraiser has been started to try to save the shop, and by gum, we are doing well so far, with around $20K raised. If you love books or Belfast, or just want to stick it to the man, you can donate here.

He’s a Harp Man. We all had a laugh at the viral video of Mark Zuckerberg trying (presumably his first-ever) Guinness. Look, we know that the billionaire is a bit gauche, but to be honest, we have seen worse first-try-Guinness-faces. And to be fair to Mark, his response, “that’s just my face,” was pretty funny.

We Called It. Not to toot our own horn, but we love to toot our own horn, so we have no shame in saying we were right to say that U2 would launch a mega world tour on the back of their new album. Irish dates have yet to be announced, but we know those gigs will be special. There’s another wee bit of tour news, as Damien Rice has announced a tour to mark the 25-year-anniversary of his brilliant album, O.

Leave Him Alone. There’s a lot of weird aul bollocks going on online, with AI versions of Glen Hansard being used to sell some crappy trading platform product, which looks totally like a scam. The man has only recently passed away, so we think this is beyond the pale.

The Craic Recommends…..Dopamine Chamber. “A masterpiece from the greatest band of their generation” – 5 stars. That’s the take from The Independent, whereas The Guardian called it “gloomy, gorgeous and a gargantuan triumph” in its 5-star review. Fontaines DC have really hit the heights with their 5th studio album. World domination awaits.

The Irish Influence

You know, when coming up with an idea for this spot, we sometimes look at famous Irish birthdays, and boy, did we have to choose from for October 16. For a start, you have the most famous-ist of Irish revolutionaries, Michael Collins, who was born on this day in 1890. You also have a certain Oscar Wilde, born today in 1854. Aidan O’Brien, possibly the greatest horse racing trainer of the 21st century, is also a birthday boy. Joe Dolan, one of our beloved entertainers, would have been 87 today. John Delaney (who ruffled a lot of feathers at the FAI), Paul Durcan (a wonderful poet), Patsy Watchorn (an equally wonderful singer), and many others have birthdays today. We don’t have a video of all those folks together – for obvious reasons – so here’s a video of Big Joe Dolan performing Make Me An Island. If you want to know what to make of Fontaines DC’s new album, it’s the exact opposite of this.

Cúpla Focal

Álainn {Aw-linn} – Beautiful. Álainn is actually Word of the Day at the brilliant Transparent Language website. It’s worth a visit if you want to learn a few words on the regular, as they will pop a daily email with a cúpla focal in it. 

Blast from the Past

We considered keeping this video for a couple of weeks’ time, but since The Craic’s progeny has already decorated the house in Halloween garb and we’ve already had trick-or-treaters at the door, it seems we are celebrating early. Now, if you know Eddie Lenihan, he needs little introduction. If you don’t, well, you are in for a treat, no tricks. When we think of “Irish Storyteller,” we picture Eddie. This is 40 years ago, and Eddie is still going strong (he has an awesome podcast). Anyway, this is just over 11 minutes of wonder for us, so we hope you enjoy it too.

And One Last Thing….

Mayo on Tour! (Uncle) Sam Maguire is on a tour of the US. That’s right, the triumphant All-Ireland-winning Mayo team are in America this weekend, bringing the famous Sam Maguire trophy with them. The Mayo lads had a meet-and-greet in Chicago yesterday, and there’s the Cairde Mayo Homecoming in the Windy City today. Tomorrow, it’s NYC for a big banquet. All the details are on Shift if you want to catch up with the lads who finally broke one of the greatest curses in all of sports in 2026.