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So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns for this final Friday of September, delivering news of the Irish at home agus abroad to your email inbox. Know a good home for this weekly newsletter? Ask a friend to input their particulars into our sign-up form here. We won’t bite.

News from Home

Americana. Dublin is really gearing up for a weekend of all things U, S of A this weekend. For a start, the NFL game between the Steelers and Vikings takes place on Sunday afternoon, and there’s a whole host of football-related events across the city to go with it. And for good measure, Barack Obama is in town, doing his long-awaited show (interview-type-thingy) this evening. Obama is also being given the Freedom of Dublin. The honor was bestowed upon him in 2017, but he hasn’t had a chance to collect it formally yet.

Big Ed. We have to admit, we always used to think Ed Sheeran played up to his Irish roots (Galway Girl, and all that) for a bit of clout (it’s cool to be Irish, right?). But he’s changed our minds in recent months, not least when he turned up at the Fleadh in the summer. Anyway, Ed has risen even further in our estimations by choosing three Irish acts to support him on his upcoming US stadium tour. Amble, Aaron Rowe, and Biird get the nod to join the Englishman-who-looks-like-an-Irishman-but-isn’t on his jaunt across the US. You’re sound, Ed. Sorry for doubting you.

Court Victory. The long-running legal saga against Kneecap’s Mo Chara has finished, with a British court acquitting the Belfast rapper-as-Gaeilge of all charges based on a technicality. The legal soap opera might be over, but we’d be fairly certain that the political point-scoring from the band’s antics won’t end anytime soon.

The Craic Recommends. The reviews are out on Netflix’s Succession-style drama based on the Guinness Family. And, we are pleased to say, that they have been universally praising the House of Guinness, with some saying it’s Steven Knight’s finest work. Knight created everything from Peaky Blinders to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, so that’s high praise indeed. The Craic will be glued to its couch with a ginormous bag of Skittles watching this all weekend* ‘cos everyone is saying it’s unmissable telly.
*Unless someone invites us out for a pint.

The Irish Influence

As a people, athletics really aren’t our thing, and you could count on one hand our Olympic gold medalists in track and field down the centuries. Yet, that means when we do get someone who rises to the top, we love them all the more. Right now, that’s Kate O’Connor, recently minted as an historic silver medalist in heptathlon at the World Championships. There’s a big dose of Kate-mania going around the country right now, and everyone, including politicians in this election season, wants a piece of her. Just keep doing what you are doing, Kate, and we will hopefully see you in LA in 2028 🥇.

Cúpla Focal

Práta {Praw-tah} – Potato 🥔 or “spud” if you must. We all know the stereotype about the Irish and potatoes, but despite attempts to combat the cliché, we sometimes don’t help ourselves when it’s baked (😉) into the language. Apropos of everything, did you know we have 90 words in Gaeilge for potato? Check them all out at tearma.ie, and a shoutout to the great bunch of lads at Irish Central for bringing this story to our attention.

Blast from the Past

We have Guinness on our minds right now, so we wanted to take you back to the not-so-distant past to discuss the short-lived Arthur’s Day celebrations. The concept came about in 2009, ostensibly as a celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of the Guinness Brewery. It would involve concerts and other entertainment (around the globe, actually), and at 17.59pm (a reference to the year of the company’s founding, 1759), everyone would raise a toast “to Arthur.” It was decent aul craic for a few years, even if most people knew it was more of a corporate marketing ploy by Guinness’ parent company, Diageo. Anyhoo, Diageo got a lot of flak for it, both for encouraging drinking and, as the Irish Times put it, creating a “Masterclass in how to fabricate a national holiday,” so they eventually pulled the plug before the 2014 event. To sum it all up, here’s a clearly-skeptical Christy Moore singing about the corporate “Arthur’s alchol-iday” on telly back in 2013.

And One Last Thing….

This week, Time Out Magazine placed the Dublin district, The Liberties, on its list of the world’s coolest neighborhoods. It is, of course, a wonderful accolade and richly deserved, as the district has an amazing blend of unique places to eat and shop, and absolutely great people to meet. And yet, with such recognition can come a sense of lamentation. The Liberties was – and still is to a degree – a working-class suburb, but it has been described as an area with “gentrification on steroids,” as luxury apartments and Airbnbs pop up to push out the people who made the district wonderful in the first place. We aren’t nostalgists, and we know that progress is inevitable, but as some of the folks in the video below make clear, you can lose something when you move forward.

Go on ya good thing! You made it to the end. If you enjoyed The Craic, remember to share the love. Everyone who gets The Craic will get early access to the Shift mobile app, which is coming very, very soon! And if those friends or family are doing alright for themselves, if ya know what I mean, let them know we’re still looking for investors to help us come out of the traps roaring ike a Celtic Ti- eh… Horse. 🐎 Hit us up on [email protected].