Ball(ot) Bustin’ 🇮🇪 🗳️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns like succulent turkey leftovers this Friday, bringing you news from home and snippets of Irish life abroad. If you’ve been enjoying this wee newsletter, pass it on to friends and family by asking them to sign up here.

News from Home

Ireland Decides. It’s election day here today, a more sober occasion than a few weeks ago across the Atlantic. In fact, it’s all a little bit boring. We will most likely end up with some form of coalition government with two, perhaps three, parties in charge, a prospect that most across the island are treating with extreme apathy. Still, we were treated to some comical moments throughout the campaign, including Taoiseach Simon Harris getting absolutely roasted by a woman in a shop.

You Know Who You Can Trust. A major international survey has found that Irish workers are among the most honest in the world, being reluctant to take sneaky sick days or even engage in the odd bit of nepotism. No good theories for what’s behind this guilt complex. Maybe something the priests said in childhood sank in, or maybe we all have a deep-rooted Freudian fear of disappointing our mammies.

The ‘Christmas Chip’ Goes Viral. Irish stew? Nah. Traditional Dublin Coddle? Nope. The winter dish everyone is talking about right now is the Christmas Chip – Fries, Turkey, Sausages, Gravy, Stuffing & About Seven Billion Calories. The dish seems to be on sale everywhere within walking distance of a deep-fat fryer. It’s delicious, but you feel a special kind of dietary shame after scoffing it down.

More than Big Cliffs. The lads at Condé Nast know a thing or two about traveling, and the magazine has cited County Clare as one of the top destinations to visit in Europe next year. It does get a fair few tourists traversing the county to see the Cliffs of Moher, but Clare is so much more than its rough edges upon the Atlantic. Condé Nast cited traditional Irish music, the county’s ecotourism movement, the stunning lunar-like landscape of the Burren, and many other reasons to choose the Banner County for your next dream vacation.

The Irish Influence

At the tender age of 21, Erin King has the world at her feet. She’s just been named the World Rugby Women’s Breakthrough Player of the Year – the first Irish woman to gain individual recognition at the awards. King is among the most prodigious talents in an Irish Women’s Rugby Team that is growing into something special. King’s super-strength went viral in the fall after images flooded social media of her holding teammate Emily Lane aloft in the air, but King has a lot of brains to go with the brawn. She’s a superstar in the making. Watch this space.

Cúpla Focal

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, what could be better for this week’s cúpla focal than thank you? As Gaeilge, it is, of course, go raibh maith agat {Guh rev mah a-gut}. It literally means “May good be at you.” And if you want to be a Fancy Dan, you can jazz it up a bit by saying go raibh mile maith agat, which basically means “one thousand thank yous.”

Blast from the Past

Oh my. Almost thirty years ago, Ireland held its last-ever Housewife of the Year competition, featuring fierce rivalry between contestants who were judged on “cookery, nurturing and basic household management skills.” The prize for winning one of the regional heats? A gas cooker👌. The event, which is the subject of a new documentary, is, of course, cringe-worthy, often seen as the epitome of what was wrong with a past Ireland so far removed from Celtic Tigers and Big Tech HQs that it defies belief. Yet, as the documentary shows, there is something powerful in it, too. It’s a relic of the past, and the event deserves to be in the dustbin of history, but we can do more than patronize and snicker when faced with the looking glass of Irish history. There are lessons about Ireland’s present in here, too. Housewife of the Year is currently playing in Irish theaters, but make sure to catch it when it lands on streaming services in 2025.

And One Last Thing….

The Visit Belfast tourist board is celebrating 25 years in business. The fact it exists at all is something of a minor miracle. Back in the 1990s (and before, obviously), Belfast was considered one of the 4 ‘Bs,’ joining Baghdad, Beirut, and Bosnia as the places your government tells you not to visit. Today, huge cruise ships dock in Belfast Harbor, the streets are thronged with tourists – 1.7 million of them flocking there per annum – and there’s a general buzz of optimism about the city’s future. Personally, what we love about Belfast is that it’s aware of its position within the legacy of the Troubles, but it is no longer encumbered by it. The words that adorn the wall of one of our favorite Belfast pubs, The Garrick, ring true: A nation that keeps one eye on the past is wise. A nation that keeps two eyes on the past is blind.

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