The Bealtaine Craic ☀️☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is back with a soupçon of summer in the air, bringing news of the Irish and sort-of-Irish to your email inbox. The Craic is the weekly newsletter from Shift, our digital home for the Irish worldwide. You can download Shift here. And if you want someone else to have The Craic each week, they can do so here.

News from Home

Marathon Men. There are a few 26.2-mile-related stories we want to point out this week. The first is the beautiful image of Northern Irishman Aaron Beggs and Brazilian runner Robson de Oliveira helping a fallen runner, Ajay Haridasse, over the finish line in the Boston Marathon. The photo of the three went viral and surely speaks to the power of sport and camaraderie. The second is the inspiring tale of British man Jordan Adams, who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and will run 32 marathons in the 32 Irish counties in 32 days. Jordan intends to raise awareness of the condition, which has affected his family and, of course, raise a bit of dough. His donation page is here, if you are of a mind.

Spoof or Not? Here, help us out, will ya? There’s a viral story going around the internet that claims RTÉ commissioned a 2001 pilot for an Irish version of The Sopranos, called The O’Callaghans. The claim says that the pilot was scrapped after HBO threatened legal action. We tried to research the story, but found that the “sources” seemed to mostly be feedback loops from social media. Does anyone have contacts with RTÉ who can find out? Let us know on Shift or Shift socials. As for the image provided as “proof”, you can’t tell us that’s not Edie Falco on the right? Right?

For Sale. If you’ve dreamed of moving to Ireland, you’ve probably pictured your cozy Donegal cottage or swanky pad in Galway City, but what about owning a whole mountain? Yep, that’s what’s going up for auction, over 1500 acres and a view of Lake Guinness (like the drink), otherwise known as Lough Tay (like the drink 🫖). Anyway, it’ll cost you about 2 mil.

Muscling In. Ahhh, you didn’t think it was only the Steelers eyeing up the fledgling Irish (American) football fandom? The Green Bay Packers also have a finger in the pie, broadcasting their Day 3 Draft Pick (tomorrow, we believe) from Dublin, with the help of a show from Irish singer Gavin James. A new nation of Cheese-heads is born, eh?

The Craic Recommends – Irish Wedding Clobber. The summer brings wedding season, and if you have an invite or two, or maybe you're tying the knot yourself, you’ll be starting to think about what to wear. Why not outfit yourself in some designer Irish clothing for the big event? Helpfully, RTÉ has curated a list of ten Irish designers/retailers who specialize in wedding fashion. There’s some really unique Irish haute couture from local independent designers and fashion houses. Check them out here.

The Irish Influence

It's Aiden Gillen’s birthday today, and most media outlets will prefix it with “Game of Thrones’ actor,” which is fair enough, because he’s brilliant as the fabulously sneeeeaaaaky Peter “Littlefinger” Baelish. Others might say he’s even better as Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, but The Craic thinks his best work is found in the brilliant Love/Hate (iykyk), and waaay further back in the ground-breaking drama, Queer As Folk. Anyway, he doesn’t get the level of attention as the Cillians, Colins, and the Jessies and Saoirses, but he’s brilliant, isn’t he?

Cúpla Focal

Bealtaine {Byowl-tin-eh} – May. Ireland looks really gorgeous at the moment. The sun’s been shining for a week, so we are celebrating Bealtaine (The month of May, the start of the Celtic summer) six days early. It’s really class out there. Please, please let it last. 

Blast from the Past

With the “Michael” biopic out in theaters, and getting some heavy criticism, both for what it is in the movie – and particularly what has been left out – we thought we’d drop back to 1988 and the double header of the Bad Tour, which stopped off for two shows in Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The story of how the gigs came about is well worth reading, covered here in the Cork-based Irish Examiner, but we had to laugh when doing our own research for the story: The Irish reporter here in the clip below; you can tell he wasn’t a fan of Jackson or the gigs, referring to the star as “Wacko Jacko” throughout. Jackson would return to Ireland for gigs in Dublin through the 1990s, but this 1988 double-header has gone down in legend as the definitive “you had to be there” moment that your uncle tells you about every time he’s had a few. 

And One Last Thing….

We Irish really do get around, don’t we? A fascinating piece of history made its way to our attention this week, via The Irish Times, covering the story of the UCD Soccer team that traveled to China in 1976, becoming the first Western football team to play in Mao’s China. Mao’s death would actually occur the same month as the Irish team’s visit (we presume it’s unrelated). Anyhow, the UCD Soccer team is back, fifty years later, to play in a new China. Here’s a question for you, though: Which of the two countries do you think has changed the most in that half-century? Most would say China, but our own transformation has been just as extraordinary.