Boxing Queen 🥊☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is back on a windy Friday, bringing you news of the Irish and Irish-ish at home and abroad. Who are we? And what are we doing in your inbox? We are the weekly newsletter from Shift, our app for connecting the Irish and Irish-enjoyers globally. If you haven’t got Shift yet, it’s right here. And if you’d like a friend to have The Craic every week, pop their email in here. GRMA

News from Home

Fight Night. Yerrooo! We are ecstatic that Katie Taylor is getting the send-off she deserves in front of 80,000 fans at a sell-out Croke Park. The fight against Flora Pili is Saturday night, with the ring walk expected at just after 10pm (Irish time). Westlife will also be performing as the musical act, though with all due respect to the lads, a boy band doesn’t feel very boxing-y. Anyway, fair play to RTÉ, which is showing the fight free on telly. If you’re not in the 26 counties, you’ll have to go through DAZN. Oh, and we may be biased, but the video below might be the best hype package of all time, and not just because of Barry Keoghan’s perm-ariffic new hairdo.

Black Market. We don’t think robbing a lorry usually makes national news, but since this heist relieved the lorries (there were two of them) of about 70.000 pints worth of Guinness, the story seems to be everywhere. Anyway, the haul of the Black Stuff in Liverpool, England, is estimated to be worth about 240K Euro ($280K), so it’s not to be sniffed at. We’d imagine the booze would be on the black market (eh??) to some dodgy pubs. Surely, the thieves won’t try to drink it all?

Not the Zoo. All the bits and bobs are falling into place around President Trump’s visit next weekend. We now know that Phoenix Park will be closed for two days while he’s here, which will mean Dublin Zoo is closed, too. The (our) President’s residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, is in Phoenix Park, and Trump will have a few meetings there; as a result, they are keeping it secure. We also know that Melania Trump won’t be coming. Her husband will round out the trip with a visit to his Doonbeg golf course to catch the conclusion of the Irish Open on Sunday.

Milestone. The Craic has just hit 10,000 subscribers. You liked us before we were cool, obviously😘. No, seriously, we are blown away by the fact that you give us ten minutes of your time each Friday, and that many of you have told your friends, and they’ve told their friends. We must be doing something right. But look, we really appreciate it. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

The Craic Recommends…falling hopelessly, recklessly in love. The entire month of September is given over to the Lisdoonvarna Match-Making Festival, and already tales of romance past and present are pouring out of the County Clare town, including the story of the Colorado woman, Mary Timby, who found true love at the festival. Mary traveled over on a whim after hearing about the festival, of all places, on the TV show Schitt’s Creek.

The Irish Influence

There’s no bigger Irish band right now than Fontaines D.C., and boy are they having a moment. They were announced as headliners for Slane Castle next summer, and as 80,000 tickets sold out in just a few seconds, they casually added a second date. The Grammy-nominated quintet has become the epitome of cool; the kind of band your teenage kids stop liking if they hear that you do. Their new album, Dopamine Chamber, is coming out in mid-October.

Cúpla Focal

Dornálaíocht {dornAW-lee-ukht} – boxing. Dornálaíocht looks like a fair aul jaw-cracker for anglophones to pronounce, but it’s not so bad when you break it down. Dornálaí is the word for boxer. 

Blast from the Past

We are all about the boxing this week, but did you know that Katie isn’t the first all-time great to box on the hallowed ground of Croke Park? Boxing is rare in Croker, but there were a handful of fights in the 1920s, including ones headlined by Ireland’s Bartley Madden and the wonderfully named “Battling Branigan”, aka Gerald Hurley. Yet, the most notable fighter to headline Croker was, of course, Muhammad Ali, who fought Al Lewis in 1972. Now, we would love to tell you it was a classic in front of a sell-out crowd, but it was one of Ali’s more forgettable bouts, more of an exhibition. Indeed, the story of how a former circus strongman, Michael Sugrue, convinced Ali to come, and the craic he had when he got here (Ali being taught hurling‼️) are more interesting than the fight itself. They are covered in the 2012 documentary, When Ali Came to Ireland.

And One Last Thing….

We’ll round off The Craic by letting you know what’s happening with Shift: where we’ve been, where we’re going. First up, Patrick has been on the podcast circuit, appearing on the Rolling with the Rowes podcast to talk all things Shift and all things Patrick (in a good way, boss). You can listen here. We’ll also be out and about at Kansas City Irish Fest this evening and the rest of the weekend. We’ll be at the Pittsburgh Irish Festival(Sept 11-13) next weekend, too. We are basically chocablock with festival dates over the next month, so if you see any festival with “Irish” in the title anywhere in the Lower 48, you’ll no doubt see our wee heads bobbing about – come say hi! Until then, check out this wee “Green Wave” playlist in honor of KC Irish Fest 2026!