Taylor Made 🥊🥔

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns this Friday, bringing you stories you may have missed from home and news about the Irish abroad. If you’ve been enjoying this weekly digest on all things Eire, pass it on to a friend by asking them to sign up here.

News from Home

Super Babhla. Big old rumors that the NFL is planning to host a game in Ireland, perhaps as soon as the 2025 season. “A possibility,” says NFL supremo Roger Goodell, but he’s said that a couple of times in a week now, so we are taking those “maybes” as a yes.

Ireland at the Grammys. The Grammy short-lists were announced – unfortunately, no luck for our hip-hop kids with The Spark – but we have two acts on the list. Belfast rapper Jordan Adetunji (he’s great) has been nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, and Dublin rockers Fontaines D.C (also great) are up for two awards, Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance.

An Accidental World Record. Hundreds of thousands of people do Parkrun every Saturday morning, with many of us just trying to get through it without keeling over. Yet, for Irish teenager Nick Griggs, it seems easy. The Tyrone youngster broke the world record – 5km in 13 mins 44 seconds – last week. Amazingly, he claims he wasn’t even trying.

Fella, This Is a Wendy’s. Ireland is set to get its first Wendy’s franchise, with at least 10 restaurants planned to open by 2027. We got Five Guys (quite popular) and Krispy Kreme (meh) a few years back, too, but if you continue to send us stuff, is there any way you can take some of your Subways back?

The Irish Influence

The Craic has little interest in watching 91-year-old Mike Tyson boxing YouTuber Jake Paul on Friday night at the AT&T Stadium in Texas. It’s the undercard where the real clash of the titans is to be found. Katie Taylor, current WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring female light-welterweight champion of the world (just count those belts), will take on Amanda Serrano in a bout that provides a purist’s antidote to the carnival of Tyson and Paul. Taylor is one of the greatest Irish athletes of this – or any – century: a world-beater and a trailblazer for women in boxing regardless of nationality. The word is that this could be Taylor’s final fight, so it is fitting that it is against Serrano, as the pair made history in 2022 when becoming the first women to headline a boxing event at Madison Square Garden. Yet, our selfish side would love to see just one more Taylor bout taking place; a homecoming at the iconic Croke Park in Dublin. It’s what this icon deserves.

Cúpla Focal

As you might expect, Ireland has several words for songwriter. Sadly, we lost one of the best this week. Scríbhneoir amhrán is a common term for the craft, literally meaning writer (of) songs/lyrics. Yet, Johnny Duhan, who tragically died swimming off the coast of Galway on Tuesday, can better be described as a file amhrán, which means poet of song, a more applicable term for some of our best lyricists. Among other beautiful songs, Duhan wrote “The Voyage,” which was covered by Christy Moore – our best-known file amhrán – and is now a staple of Irish weddings. Moore was among those paying tribute to the genius of Duhan this week.

Blast from the Past

There’s nothing as Irish as the Tayto crisp, so ubiquitous here that you can omit the crisp part and just call ‘em Tayto. We once even had a Tayto Park – a kind of potato-themed Disney World (yes, really). Tayto is celebrating 70 years in business, and to celebrate there’s a new book out on the art of beating a bit of taste into a spud. Cheese & Onion is arguably the definitive flavor, trumping even the fanciest food and wine pairing when matched up with a glug of Guinness on a rainy Sunday. But if you really want to go full native Irish, you can stick your Tayto in a sandwich (with real Irish butter). There is also a Tayto schism across the island of Ireland, with competing Southern and Northern versions of the crisps. The debate over which is the superior snack continues to divide us all, like a crunchy, cheese & onion flavored allegory for the island’s history.

And One Last Thing….

As a nation of travelers, we head for new shores full of excitement but rarely consider that the worst can happen. When tragedy strikes, families must think of logistical hurdles while grieving, such as how to organize bringing a body home and how to pay for it. Since the death of Kevin Bell in New York in 2013, the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust (KBRT) has been helping bereaved families bring their loved ones home to Ireland, ever-so-slightly softening the blow when the unthinkable occurs. Just last week, the charity made its 2000th repatriation. The Bell family and trustees of the charity deserve so much credit for their tireless, vital, and underappreciated work. If you have some money to spare for a worthy cause, donations to the KBRT can be made here.

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