The Refreshing Craic 🍑🍋

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is back on a fine Friday evening, bringing you news of the Irish and Semi-Irish at home and abroad. What’s The Craic? We are the weekly newsletter from Shift, our app for connecting Irish people and those interested in Ireland globally. You can get Shift here. And if you want someone else to have The Craic each week, send ‘em this way here.

News from Home

Powerhouse. Sometimes we shake our heads in disbelief that two lads from Limerick founded the biggest private financial tech company in the world. We are, of course, talking about Stripe – the backbone of payment processing on the aul internet – and John and Patrick Collison. Well, their ambitions have just got even bigger, as it emerged they want to buy PayPal for $53 billion. Look, we are well aware that the Collisons made their fortune in America, so it’s a bit misleading to call Stripe an Irish company, but, jeez, haven’t the two lads done well?

Passings. The great Brenda Fricker has died, aged 81. It’s a bit of a shame that some will only know her as the ‘pigeon lady’ in Home Alone 2, yet her work on films like My Left Foot, A Time to Kill, The Field, and many other productions was special. In 1990, she became the first-ever Irish actress to win an Oscar. Oh, and there were lots of lovely tributes to the late actor Sam Neill. The Jurassic Park star was a proud Kiwi 🇳🇿, but he was born and spent his early life in Omagh, Co Tyrone. We lost two good’uns this week. RIP.

Insightful. “I wish Lionel Messi had retired after the last World Cup. What he did four years ago, carrying that team to a World Cup win, was exceptional. I think that Lionel Messi exists in the past.”  Former Ireland player and TV pundit Kenny Cunningham’s comments last weekend on Lionel Messi – seven goals, four assists, favorite for the Golden Ball (best player) award, England heart-breaker, and single-handed dragger of Argentina into the World Cup Final. Good one, Kenny lad.

GAA Round-Up. Sunday is the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final, with Limerick taking on Galway. Limerick are the favorites, but Galway were mightily impressive in dispatching Cork in the Semi-Final. The stage is now also set for the Football Final, too, with Mayo setting up a Final with Kerry. We’d say most neutrals – anyone with a beating heart, really – would like to see Mayo lift the curse and beat the 39-time champions. They (Mayo) will be wearing a special white jersey inspired by the 1951 team, the last Mayo side to win it. The game will be at Croke Park next Sunday.

The Craic Recommends…..Rock Shandy. Look, wherever you are in the world right now, it’s probably hot (we refuse to believe that Australians have a winter), and we’d be a little irresponsible if we advised drinking beer to cool down. But we can recommend another Irish icon – Rock Shandy. It’s a mix of orange and lemon soda. For the best results, you need to use Club Orange and Lemon, but Fanta will just about do the job.

The Irish Influence

If younger folk might struggle to recognize Brenda Fricker, then it’s yer da who will probably be left all at sea if you ask him about Mara Higgins. She is, almost certainly, Ireland’s biggest influencer. Yes, we can all snicker at the “get a real job” elements of being an influencer, but Higgins is a powerhouse, a brand and a business in herself, and she’s going increasingly global too, appearing in loads of US reality telly shows over the past couple of years. She’s also just been named in TIME’s list of the world’s100 top digital creators for 2026. Not bad for a lass from, of all places, County Longford.

Cúpla Focal

Misneach (Mish-nock) – Courage. The Craic was possibly in the minority at not laughing at England’s heartbreak the other night, but the Argentines certainly had misneach in abundance.

Blast from the Past

132 years ago today, Irishman Joshua Pim won the men’s title at Wimbledon. Of course, technically back then he was representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (fancy that), but a man born in Wicklow and dying in Dublin is Irish enough for us. It was actually Pim’s second successive title at the then-amateur championships. All in all, he appeared in four finals, and he won the doubles twice. Pim also found the time to become a successful doctor. We don’t have video footage from Wimbledon 1894 for obvious reasons, so you’ll have to make do with this snazzy little graphic instead. That lad at No.7, Manliffe Goodbody, looks like some operator.

And One Last Thing….

We know that we’ve been a bit sport-heavy these past few weeks, but t’is the season for it and all that. Anyway, we wanted to finish this week by mentioning that the GAA World Games have been taking place in Waterford over recent days, featuring over 100 teams from 30 countries. It reminded us of the fact that Gaelic Sports are global – niche, yes, but still global. The thing is, GAA clubs are also social community hubs, so you don’t need to be an athlete to get involved. The GAA’s official website has loads of links for ways to get involved, including a snazzy interactive map that can hook you up with a nearby club, regardless of whether you are in LA, London, Lyon or Lagos. Of course, you can also check in on GAA events on Shift. Whatever way you do it, it’s worth it to join a global family.