Come What Mayo 🏐☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns like a lumbering ox to deliver news of the Irish at home and abroad into your inbox. We are the friendly weekly newsletter from Shift, our platform connecting Irish people and culturally Irish people globally. Not got Shift yet? Oh my, you’re missing out: Get it here. And if you’d like friends and family to get the free Craic every week, well, they can get it here.

News from Home

Box-Office. It’s All-Ireland Football Championship Semi-Final weekend, and boy, oh boy, oh boy do these games look tasty. On Saturday, there’s the brilliant underdogs of the season, Louth, coming up against could-this-be-the-year-they-finally-break-the-curse Mayo. On Sunday, it’s pure heavyweight stuff with 39-time winners Kerry against 31-time winners Dublin. There’s also New York vs. London, and the USGAA vs. Warwickshire in the Junior All-Ireland tonight, plus Down vs. Wicklow in the Tailteann Cup. Who needs the World Cup, eh?

Effigy Watch. Up North, it’s hold-your-breath time to see what’s going to happen with the old 11th and 12th July celebrations. For those not aware, “The Twelfth” is when the unionist community of Northern Ireland celebrates the victory of the British forces over the Irish in 1690, so as you might imagine, it gets a bit hairy at times across the holiday. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be much sign of tensions so far this year, though there has been condemnation of the placing of effigies, including one of a mosque, on some of the traditional 11th Night bonfires.

Hare Ye. We don’t know how we feel about this one: Most of the major Irish political parties have voted against a bill to ban hare coursing, which is similar to fox hunting but with hares and greyhounds. The dogs are muzzled, so it’s not quite as barbaric, but the hares – an underrated icon of Irish wildlife in The Craic’s book – can get injured or killed. Ireland is one of only three EU countries to allow hare coursing.

The Craic Recommends…Jailbreak. 2026 is both the 40th anniversary of the passing of the legendary Phil Lynott and the 50th anniversary of Thin Lizzy’s masterpiece, Jailbreak. It’s surely Lynott’s finest work? But, you know, we did give it a whirl there while sitting in the sun earlier, and the thought hit us: Jailbreak is an album, not a collection of tracks. So, if you ever take any of our recommendations seriously, disable the aul shuffle button on Spotify and give one of Ireland’s greatest records a listen in its entirety as it was meant to be heard. You won’t regret it.

The Irish Influence

Have we mentioned Saoirse Ronan as our Irish Influence before? Perhaps, but while the Oscar-winning actress needs little introduction, we wanted to highlight her today because of the news that she is getting behind the camera. Her directorial debut, Paper Plane, has been selected for the 83rd Venice Film Festival. You know, we don’t really know what it will be like, but since it’s also written by the almost-annoyingly-talented Saoirse, we bet it’s brilliant. If you’ve been missing Saoirse on screen of late (she had her first child last year), know that she’ll also be starring in the upcoming Bad Apples. 

Cúpla Focal

Fonn {Fown} – Melody, Desire, Air, Enthusiasm, Urge. Fonn is one of those Irish words with multiple meanings that don’t really translate directly. Tá fonn damhsa orm – I’m in the mood for dancing. It can also mean tune or melody. 

Blast from the Past

A bitta bite-sized history for ya here. So, today, July 10th, that is, is Dublin’s birthday. The city was officially founded in 980 AD on this day by none other than Jimmy-Joe Dublin. Just kidding, it was founded by a Norse King, Sigtrygg Silkikegg, AKA Sitric Silkenbeard (absolute 13 out of 10 name there). Now, before any of you historians start getting your knickers in a twist and start telling us off for flubbing our history, we know that Dublin was founded long before that as a trading post, and we are sure old Silkenbeard didn’t stick a flag in the ground and say “I proclaim this fair land Dublin” on that specific date, but it’s the officially recognized date for the founding of our capital, and that merits a wee nod in our history section, right?

And One Last Thing….

Here, we are going to finish off this week with our old beggin’ cap out. Don’t worry, we don’t want any money. It’s just, well, we are starting to see a good bit of momentum for Shift in terms of the aul downloads, but we don’t want to let that momentum slip. We’re probably not going to splurge on a World Cup stadium billboard or Super Bowl TV ad slot anytime soon, so we do rely on you guys to help get the word out. So, if you’re not following us already or you know someone who’d be interested in engaging with us, you can find our channels here: Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn. A wee like or share, and a comment (we’re as friendly as can be) really goes a long way, folks. Go raibh míle maith agat.