Hard Work Alright

So, What’s the Craic?

Well, Shift.irish is officially live, but while it’s all systems go over there, the Craic returns to your inbox with a spring in its step, bringing you all the news from the Irish at home and abroad. Now, if you haven’t checked out Shift yet, pop on over to shift.irish today. Of course, we wouldn’t mind if you shared it with your friends and family too, but for now, on to the craic…

News from Home

We Aren’t All Like That. Pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter was in Dublin this week, delighting the crowds at Dublin’s 3Arena. In between banging out the hits, she earnestly told the crowd, “Irish boys are hard work.” We think she was referring to her relationship with Barry Keoghan, yet the thousands of girls, young women, and, to be fair, a few lads in the audience nodded along knowingly.

Round 3. Fight! We wish it could have happened at Croke Park, sure, yet we are over the moon that Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have agreed to another fight, making their epic rivalry into a trilogy. The fight will take place on July 11th at Madison Square Garden, with the pair headlining an all-female boxing card that will be broadcast on Netflix.

Tiger Roars Again. If you didn’t know already, Ireland’s stock market (and economy at large) got absolutely battered in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. This week, the ISEQ finally exceeded the highs made in 2007. It’s been a long, hard road to recovery.

Presidential Proclamation. Amid the chaos in DC, Trump found the time to sign an official proclamation declaring March as Irish-American Heritage Month; he even did that official thing where he holds the book up in the Oval Office. Now, we always love a bit of attention, and every March, we most definitely get it, so worth remembering it’s also still “Women’s History Month” too.

The Irish Influence

The Cheltenham Festival gets underway next week. For American readers, you can think of it as something like the UK’s answer to the Breeders’ Cup Festival. Anyway, while the event is held in merry old England, it has more Irish flavor than a packet of Tayto. Thousands of Irish will cross the sea, descending on Cheltenham, bringing the craic, and getting ripped off with Airbnb prices in the local area. One figure looms large above the week, however – Willie Mullins. The Irish trainer has had such success at Cheltenham that he has caused an existential crisis in British racing. He is a winning machine. We like to highlight the best Irish sportspeople, our girl Katie included, but Mullins is arguably the most dominant in his field. He looks like your quietly-spoken Irish grandad, but below the wide-brimmed hat, a genius mind ticks. He may be the best national hunt racing trainer in history.

Cúpla Focal

Seachtain na Gaeilge {shock-tane na gay-li-ga} – Irish Language Week. We aren’t really here to explain a Cúpla Focal this week. Instead, it’s to point you to Seachtain na Gaeilge 2025. It’s a global event taking place across the first couple of weeks of March aimed at promoting the Irish language at home and abroad. Find out more here.

Blast from the Past

What’s the definitive sound of Irish pop music? U2? Thin Lizzy? Enya? Nah, at least not for those who came of age at the turn of the millennium. 25 years ago this month, Maniac 2000 by Mark McCabe was released, and it instantly became a dancefloor classic, spending ten weeks at number one. The song is cheesy, and the rapping (if we could call it that) was cringe even back then, yet somehow it caught fire. It’s the kind of song wedding DJs pull out to get the crowd pumping, instantly filling the dance floor with 40-something-year-olds on a quest to relive teenage dreams. You may need to be Irish to fully understand, but there is no zeitgeist song for millennial Irish youth quite like Maniac 2000.

And One Last Thing….

If you’ve been with us over the months since The Craic emerged from its cocoon, you’ll probably note that we tend to skirt the old question of Irish reunification. Why? Because it’s a fecking sensitive topic. It’s also a complex one: Some people in the North wish to remain part of the UK; others wish for a united Ireland; some are on the fence. And believe it or not, not everyone in the South is keen on reunification, either. Yet, it is a topic that deserves political respect and grown-up conversations, and to be treated with the sensitivity it deserves. That’s why we are here to tell you – without further comment – that the Irish government announced this week that it would begin ‘costing’ plans for a united Ireland.

Yay! You made it all the way to the end! If you liked this bit of craic, remember to pass it on to your mates. When they sign-up to Shift, they’ll be signing up for the Craic too!

The Craic is brought to you by the lads from Shift. Shift is the directory of all things Irish, just in time for St Patrick’s Day. Then the first of its kind IRL social, dating and everything else - network rolls out later this year.