Bad Craic 🎃🃏

So, What’s the Craic?

We’re back with more craic this Friday, motoring into November with some news and views from home and, hopefully, a bit of a laugh, too. The Craic’s inbox is filling up with new friends each week, so if you know anyone who’d like to join in, help us by sending this on.

News from Home

No Treat. Just an Evil Trick. Hundreds of jovial people lined O’Connell Street in Dublin for a Halloween parade yesterday evening. Spirits were high as the weather wasn’t bad for late October, either. Just one issue: there was no parade. It was all a hoax, started online by some eejit, no doubt. Back home, this is what we call bad craic.

Literally Running for the Craic. Congrats to the 25,000 hardy souls who took part in the Dublin Marathon at the weekend, especially Dundrum man Hiko Tonosa, who set the all-time record for an Irish marathon runner. Yet, we also got our eye caught by four Belfast students, who decided to simultaneously run their own marathon around and around and around The Holylands (a tiny Belfast neighborhood, not the Middle East) for, in their own words, “The Craic”.

Pack Your Bags, Lads. Rail timetables have been a talking point this week, notably the earth-shattering news that there would now be trains running every hour from Belfast to Dublin. It’s a hot topic as it has always been a travesty that the island’s two biggest cities haven’t had decent transport links between them. The genius idea of frequent trains is all tied into the unveiling of Belfast’s shiny new Grand Central Station.

Kilkenny in Top Spot. Kilkenny has been named “Cultural Destination” at the 2024 World Luxury Travel Awards. We aren’t surprised: the county has always been a cracking tourist spot thanks to its medieval sites and gorgeous scenery, but it’s built itself a reputation as a cultural hotbed, hosting world-class music and arts shows, food and drink festivals, and everything in between. For a flavor of what they get up to in the Marble County, check out the unique Toil and Trouble Festival happening this weekend.

The Irish Influence

We’ve had a slew of great actors coming from Ireland in recent years: Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, Ruth Negga, and Barry Keoghan, to name a few. But the brilliant Saoirse Ronan stands out among the bunch. She’s already got four Oscar nominations under her belt – she should have won for Lady Bird, not that we’re biased… Well, Ronan went viral this week for her comments on The Graham Norton Show highlighting women’s safety and male privilege. She left the men on stage speechless, while the audience reacted overwhelmingly in support. Saoirse Ronan is always very direct and down-to-earth, and while she certainly didn’t plan to bring this topic to the forefront, she addressed it perfectly in the moment, and we applaud her for it. 👏

Cúpla Focal

Shebeen. Most of you will have heard the word, knowing that it means drinking establishment with a touch of illicitness, something similar to speakeasy. The word is an anglicized form of síbín (it’s almost pronounced the same). But there’s a lot of meaning packed into this short 5-letter term. It literally means mugful (séibe) + small (ín), suggestive of small ‘nips’ of alcohol. Later, it became a byword for the unlicensed establishments that sold a bit of whiskey or poitín on the sly. Speaking of shebeens/síbíní, hopefully you got our email yesterday while we were recording the Shift podcast at one of our favorite pubs, The Auld Shebeen, Fairfax, which, we assure you, is fully licensed and a great spot for a pint of stout.

Blast from the Past

This week, we are taking you much, much further back in the past – about 700 years, in fact. The Red Book of Ossory, which is currently on display in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny (told ya it was class), is a medieval manuscript containing, among other things, a recipe for aqua vitae, Latin for the “water of life.” Now, if you have been paying attention to our Cupla Focal, you’ll know that uisce beatha also means “water of life” in Irish. And that, friends, is the craic: The Red Book contains the earliest known recipe for whiskey. Neat, right? The tome usually lives in Dublin, but it’ll be on show in Kilkenny for the time being. For whiskey historians, The Red Book of Ossory is like seeing the Rosetta Stone.

And One Last Thing…

Happy GAAnniversary everyone!! Yes, November 1st is a big day in the calendar of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It was on that date in 1884 that Michael Cusack led a group to found the organization. It wasn’t just a matter of founding a sport league: it was about the preservation of indigenous Irish athletic competition. Like any sports body, the GAA can piss fans off. But overall it’s done a good job of adhering to the principles of the ‘founding fathers’ from 140 years ago. Back in the present, we’ve just got the announcement of the GAA Football All-Stars 2024, an honor similar to being named to the NFL’s Pro Bowl. The BIG talking point has been the lack of representation from Dublin or Kerry – the first time in 21 years that at least one player from those counties has not been on the list. All-Ireland Champions Armagh deservedly get six players in the line-up. And we were glad to see the inclusion of Louth’s Craig Lennon. It’s only the second time in history that a player from “The Wee County” has made the All-Star Team.

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