Plastic McPaddy 🧋☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is brought to you by the lads at Shift! Before we get cracking (craicing?) this week, we want to make sure you know about what’s happening over at Shift.irish. Our dev team is actively working on our new website - the ultimate directory of all things Irish, which will be going live in a few short weeks! Because you’re on this mailing list, you’ll be first to know when it does. To help us out ahead of launch, please share Shift.irish with your friends and family. They’ll thank you later, I’m sure!! Now back to the Craic, your weekly source of news and happenings from the old country.

News from Home

Plastic Paddy Alert. McDonald’s has resurrected its old mascot, Uncle O’Grimacey, for the first time since the 1980s. The mascot became something of an internet cult star in his absence, mostly due to a decades-long spoof that he was in the IRA. While he is a ridiculous top-o-the-mornin’ stereotype and is an example of the Plastic Paddyism that that drives us up the wall (read our blog on that here), there was some good that came out of O’Grimacey and his promotion of McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes: Sales of the drink built the first Ronald McDonald House in the 1970s. The houses, which now operate worldwide, support families of seriously ill children.

Done Deal 🏈 🇮🇪. The NFL is coming to Croker!! Croke Park, Dublin, that is, with a deal in place to bring the Pittsburgh Steelers for a game in the 2025 NFL regular season. We can tell you little else for now, except that tickets will cost an arm and a leg, and Dublin hotel prices will probably cost the equivalent of the GDP of a small country on gameday.

Trump Tariffs. A big talking point in Irish economic circles at the moment is the prospect of Donald Trump’s tariffs on the EU and the fact they might hit Ireland disproportionately. Everything from Kerrygold butter to spacecraft (yes, apparently we sell to NASA) might get slapped with tariffs. Ireland’s solution? It seems we are going to turn on the charm, so expect a little bit of arse-kissing when the traditional gaggle of Irish politicians turn up to the White House around St Patrick’s Day.

Sorry, We’re Closed. One of the biggest tourist attractions on the island – the Cliffs of Moher – is set to see significant parts of its trail closed in 2025. Around 1.5 million visitors went to see the cliffs last year, but inspectors want safety improvements to the trail before it can re-open. Several people died at the cliffs in 2024, so, you know, better safe than sorry.

The Irish Influence

If you think Irish fashion is all woolly jumpers and tweed, think again. Several up-and-coming designers have been highlighted for their impact on the fashion industry. These include 20-year-old Oran O’Reilly, who has created custom-made pieces for American megastar Chappell Roan and Irish star CMAT. O’Reilly seems to be one of those annoyingly brilliant people who are good at everything. He hasn’t even finished college yet and fell into fashion by accident. He made Roan’s outfit in his bedroom and used his ma as a model, but we are sure a glittering career lies ahead for this talented Dubliner.

Cúpla Focal

Sin Sin (pronounced shin-shin) is an Irish phrase that means “great great” or, more aptly, “that’s that.” You’d use it to wrap up a conversation or signal that a matter has come to a conclusion. Similarly, Sin é (shin a) means “that’s it” and has been adopted into modern slang as a way to say “it’s over,” “finished,” or “I don’t want to hear any more about it.”

Blast from the Past

The USA had New Kids on the Block. Britain had Take That. In the mid-1990s, Irish music boss Louis Walsh thought to himself, “Surely, there’s a way I can drain the money from teenage girls’ pockets, too?” He came up with Boyzone.  Ronan, Stephen, Keith, Mikey & Shane soon became household names, conquering the charts in both Ireland and the UK. A new documentary looks at their rise to fame in the '90s boyband era, their split, and the tragedy that took the life of Stephen Gately. But we’d like to take you back to their first television appearance in 1993. So sure was Walsh that he had struck gold that he put them on Ireland’s biggest chat show within hours of the band being put together; they didn’t even have a song. They just stood there looking pretty, soaking up the mockery thrown at them by host Gay Byrne and the audience, then did a little dance for a few minutes. It’s 7 minutes of Irish telly gold.

And One Last Thing….

James Joyce, arguably Ireland’s most influential writer, was born on February 2, 1882. On the same date, 40 years later, he published the book that every pseudo-intellectual pretends to have read – Ulysses. It’s difficult to know where to put the book in the pantheon of English language literature. Some believe it is the greatest work of art ever put to paper. A minority believe the 700 pages charting a single day’s events in Dublin, paralleled with the journey of Odysseus, is unreadable garbage. Wherever you sit, nobody can deny that the book isn’t important; perhaps the most important work of the 20th century. While February 2 is noted for the birth of Joyce and the publication of the book, the big celebration takes place on the date the events of Ulysses were set, June 16 – Bloomsday. A fantastic literary festival takes place in Dublin, with fans coming from all over the world to follow in the footsteps of protagonist Leopold Bloom. Even if you’re not a reader, the craic’s mighty on that day in the nation’s capital.

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The Craic is brought to you by the lads from Shift. Shift is the directory of all things Irish, first of it’s kind IRL social network, rolling out in the next few months.