Cash Is Queen 💰🥊

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns on a gorgeous April evening with news and views about the Irish at home and abroad. Do us a wee favor? Spread the word to family and friends by asking them to sign up here.

News from Home

Hot Ticket. We all know that Katie Taylor’s trilogy fight with Amanda Serrano is going to be huge, but the Craic fell off its proverbial seat, got back on, and fell off again when learning that some tickets were selling for ONE MILLION DOLLARS. These are VIP tickets, sure, but when any arseholes start yapping on about women’s sports not generating money, you just tell ‘em about Queen Katie of Madison Square Garden.

Pandemic Star. Remember lockdowns during the pandemic? Zoom quizzes with the parents and all that. Dubliners staved off the boredom by watching videos of Sam the Trinity Fox. The cute vulpine became a viral sensation, roaming empty streets around Trinity College in central Dublin. At the time, many thought “he” was a “she” until the randy bugger fathered five cubs. Sadly, Trinity’s little mascot has passed away, being humanely put down after suffering a leg injury.

Netflix Levy. There’s a bit of a row in the Oireachtas, with politicians arguing over whether to implement the “Netflix Levy.” Basically, it’s a tax on streaming services, which would be used to finance home-grown movie and television productions, which have been in decline. It makes a lot of sense, but some politicians believe it will be perceived as a tariff, and well, we all know that’s a sensitive topic right now.

Ireland’s Future. Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has done what so many other politicians do in their post-politics careers – headed to the USA to make money through vaguely-defined consultancy jobs. Yet, he’s still a political beast, and last night, in a speech in Philadelphia, he dipped his toe into the murky waters of Irish reunification. In fact, he dived right in, calling for Irish Americans to help with the “great cause” of Irish unity.

The Irish Influence

In 2015, EA Sports was looking for someone to become the cover star of its PGA Tour Golf video game series. Tiger Woods was on the wane and had his issues, so they naturally landed on Rory McIlroy. It was a passing of the torch moment, crowning McIlroy as the “face” of golf. Ten years later, the Northern Irishman remains the most recognizable figure in his sport. He’s wildly popular at home, sure, but Rory is beloved by American fans, too. Despite being consistently at the top of the world rankings, there is a bit of sympathy for the Holywood (not that one) man’s 14-year drought in Major championships. Everyone would love to see that end at the Masters over the weekend. As an aside, The Craic once witnessed a young Rory crash into a load of tables when blind drunk in a late-night Belfast Chinese restaurant (true bill), but that’s a story for another day.

Cúpla Focal

We were considering taraif (tariff) for our Cupla Focal this week, but instead we are going to go for cogadh trádála {cug-a tra-da-la} – trade war. They are “good and easy to win,” right?

Blast from the Past

Every now and again, we stumble upon greatness on the old YouTube video platform. And so it is we found this golden nugget: a six-minute video from 1986 about The Pint Balancing King. It’s about Mick Mulrooney, a native of the Carlow-Kilkenny border (it seems that’s a thing), who can, as his majestic title suggests, balance pints of beer on his head. He even does a little jig. The whole video is tremendous, with some brilliant Irish 80s haircuts and woolly jumper action. The accordion player is our absolute favorite. He’s got a spectacular 5-star Irish head on him.

And One Last Thing….

This week, the ONLY thing anyone has been talking about in Ireland is much the same as anywhere else – tariffs. Tariffs for breakfast, lunch, and supper. Anyway, it’s serious business, and it could impact everything from Irish pharmaceutical exports to how much it costs to Split the G with a pint of Guinness. Yet, politicians have also been reminded that there’s a special case to deal with – Northern Ireland. The six counties of “Norn Iron” are in the UK (10% tariffs & good relations with Trump), yet, unlike the rest of the UK, NI is also part of the EU Single Market for Goods (20% tariffs & fairly terrible relations with Trump). It’s not all about money: NI’s special status is in place to literally keep the peace. These things matter, and we sincerely hope there is someone with the President’s ear who will remind him of that.

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