Nollaig na mBan ☘️🎄

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is back with more news and views concerning the Irish and Irish-minded people around the world. The Craic is the weekly newsletter from Shift, the app for the global Irish.

Before jumping into the newsletter, we’ve got big, big news on Shift. First, we just launched a brand new website that explains everything about Shift, and what it offers the global Irish community, from Pubs to Irish Centers, and from Performing Artists to those just looking the shift 😘. We also just made added a lot more Irish everything to the directory, and we’ve got a brilliant new version of the app appearing on the App Store and Google Play later this weekend. Tell your friends to get hold if it at https://shift.irish.

News from Home

Sure It’ll Be Grand. A major survey of adults worldwide has pegged Ireland as one of the most pessimistic countries looking ahead to 2026. The methodology examined outlooks on economic prosperity, peace, and hope. Yet, we’d disagree that this means we are a gloomy country. Indeed, it was reported last year that Ireland was one of the happiest countries, with the story even making its way into The Craic. Perhaps it’s more a case of being pragmatic, especially in areas like global peace (we may have been proven right about it already this year). We’d also love to know ‘when’ these questions are asked, surely not in the depths of winter when we are all miserable?. Come ask again in July. Solar-powered, we are.

Hero. Ireland’s oldest man has passed away this week. The larger-than-life Josef Veselsky died at 107. He led a remarkable life, fighting in the Czechoslovakian resistance and surviving the Holocaust before emigrating to Ireland in 1948. While here, he started a jewelry business and became a table tennis champion. He was also a student at Trinity College Dublin in his 90s, earning an honorary degree in 2016. Incredible.

Big Beef. The EU-Mercosur deal has just been agreed, causing farmers across Europe, including Irish farmers, to protest. The agreement is a massive trade deal between the EU and Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, etc). It cuts tariffs (say, what?) by about 90% in both directions. But Irish cattle farmers have had a beef with the agreement, worried about those super-ranches flooding the market with cheap steaks, prompting our government, along with a few others like France (love a protest, the French lads do 🇫🇷🚜), to oppose. Majority calls in the aul EU, though. Never a good idea to upset people with ready access to stockpiles of manure.

The Craic Recommends. We are all excited here as The Late Late Show is having its first-ever “trad special” this evening, promising a spectacular showcase of Irish traditional music across the broadcast. It’ll go out on the regionally-restricted RTE Player soon after, but some sound lad will probably stick up the best bits on YouTube if you live outside the Parish and can’t get access. Apropos of nothing, last week, the Late Late Show featured a ‘trad version’ of the Kpop Demon Hunters (ask your kids) song Golden. This is amazing, and we just had to share:

The Irish Influence

It's Hollywood awards season, and as we predicted last week, Jessie Buckley is already hoovering up the gongs, getting a Critics’ Choice Award last week and a Golden Globe nomination this week. But we wanted to highlight Dublin-based Element Pictures, one of the production companies behind Bugonia, which has been nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical). Element Pictures has been behind a huge number of hit movies and television shows, including Normal People and Oscar winner, The Favourite. It has become the backbone of the Irish film industry in what increasingly looks like a golden era.

Cúpla Focal

An Geamhradh – The Winter. It’s really hit home in the past week, with January delivering a dose of sneachta (snow) and freezing temperatures; just what you want when making your way back to work after the holidays.

Blast from the Past

Dermot Morgan is an absolute legend in Ireland, one of those unifying figures who always raise a smile. The man who will always be known as Father Ted sadly passed away in 1998, aged just 48. But while he is synonymous with that role, Morgan had a long, successful comedy career and a musical one, too. In fact, forty years ago this week, he had a number one hit with My Lovely Horse Thank You Very Much, Mr Eastwood. Let’s be honest, it’s terrible, really, really terrible, but the novelty song, which lampooned champion boxer Barry McGuigan, ruled the airwaves for a few weeks back in ‘86. Who said 80s music wasn’t cool?

And One Last Thing….

“On this day it is the tradition in Ireland for the women to get together and enjoy their own Christmas, while the men folk stay at home and handle all the chores.” – We took that little snippet from an Irish tourism website. It’s an explainer on “Nollaig na mBan,” aka Women’s Christmas, which is celebrated on January 6th. But does it really apply to Ireland in 2026? Having the temerity to suggest that women would be ‘allowed’ a day off would be greeted with a smack around the gub in The Craic’s household, as it would in many others. Still, for some, January 6th is a celebration of the past and a good excuse to have a night on the town. The event does have a rich and interesting history, worth reading up on if you want to learn how Ireland has changed and how, in some instances, we can celebrate the past without judging it.