Oíche Shamhna Shona Daoibh 🎃☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is back on this Halloween Eve Friday, bringing you news and views on the Irish at home and abroad. The Craic is the weekly newsletter from Shift, our app for connecting Irish people and those who love Irish culture around the world. If you haven’t got Shift yet, download it here. And if you know someone who’d like The Craic each week, pop their email in here.

News from Home

Big Question. Irish neutrality in global conflicts is often misunderstood, both in its reasons and in how it actually works. For the latter, it’s all about the Triple Lock, meaning Ireland can only go to war if 1) the UN authorizes the mission, 2) the Irish Government agrees, and 3) there is a vote in the Dáil Éireann to approve the action. So why are we telling you this? Well, there is a government-backed bill working its way through the Dáil right now, so it’s been the biggest talking point of the week at home.

Vote. Rolling Stone has listed its top 200 tracks of the 21st century so far, and two songs from Irish artists made the list. Care to hazard a guess as to which two? The answers are U2’s Beautiful Day, which placed at number 24, and (perhaps surprisingly for readers over 50) Starburster from Fontaines DC came in at 64. We aren’t going to argue with the list, nor claim there should have been more Irish names on the list, but we reckon some artists, like Hozier, may feel aggrieved. If you were wondering what the number one was, it was Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Deserved. Banger.

Flint Stones. Archaeologists excavating in (delightful) Wicklow have unearthed a 9,000-year-old ringfort site, believed to be the county's oldest. The site gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of Irish people in the Stone Age. The diggers also found what experts describe as a Swiss Army kit, i.e., loads of tools and flint that the Stone-Agers would use for cutting, crafting, shaping, and the like.

Bus Spell. We came across an older story this week, but one that made us laugh out loud. An old episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured a spell purported to be written in some archaic language, which the gang works out as “Gaelic”. Now, did the show’s researcher trawl through some old pagan books to find an ancient text of conjuration? Of course, not. The “spell” was actually lines of an Irish news article about the opening of a new bus lane in Dublin. Dublin buses are terrifying, so maybe the Buffy lads were on to something.

The Craic Recommends…Derry City for Halloween. We do shout out to the Maiden City every year, and we’ll do it again and again: The best place to celebrate Halloween on the island of Ireland is Derry City. The festival that they put on is world-class – Europe’s biggest – and it’s celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Bucket list stuff for any fans of spookiness and that gorgeous ‘deery’ accent.

The Irish Influence

This week’s Irish Influence is Samhain. Did you know the Irish “invented” Halloween? Course you did, because it’s mentioned in about a billion news articles every October. Nah, you know the story: Halloween traces its roots to Samhain, the ancient Celtic festival that marked the end of the harvest season and welcomed (not sure if ‘welcomed’ is the best term) the darker part of the year. But leaving aside the chest-thumping about who invented what, there is so much to discover, from the origin of turnip carving (that became pumpkins later) to the history of the Gate to Hell in Roscommon (No, it’s not Athlone). We also rather liked this little video with the magnificent-at-any-time-of-the-year Gay Byrne and Professor Patricia Lysaght, who explains the origins of the Banshee. 

Cúpla Focal

Oíche Shamhna – {EE-ha SHAM-na} – Halloween. The translation literally means Night of Samhain. So, if you want to wish everyone a happy Halloween, say “Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh”. If it’s just one person or your cat, say “Oíche Shamhna shona duit”

Blast from the Past

We only have a wee short video below to celebrate a Halloween Blast from the Past this week, but we’ve genuinely been pissing ourselves (figuratively speaking) while watching it. It is a mish-mash of interviews with Irish kids from Cavan in 1986, showing off their Halloween fancy dress. The young fella dressed up as a “robot” 🤖 😆😆 📦 and the young lad at the start who is saving up for a penknife at 95p 😆. Brilliant stuff. But look, this will resonate with readers who grew up in Ireland in the 80s or before, because none of us had any fecking money for fancy costumes and the like. And sure, if your ma was willing to find you a cardboard box and cut holes in it for your robot costume, you’d be the luckiest kid on the street.

And One Last Thing….

Shift has been going from strength to strength in recent months, but it feels like we are just getting started, and that we will soon be moving to the next level. Right now, the seed round is open for new investors. This is a great opportunity for anyone passionate about what we are doing to get involved. If you are interested in seeing the pitch deck (that’s the fancy brochure we lay out for potential investors), send a wee email to [email protected]. We are happy to talk to investors, big or small, so give us a shout before the window closes. GRMA.