With or Without Craic 🎸☘️

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic returns for the last Friday in September, bringing you news and views of the Irish at home and abroad. The Craic is the weekly newsletter from Shift, our app for connecting the Irish and Irish-enjoyers all over the world. You can find the Shift app, a veritable treasure trove of Irish goodness, here. And if you’d like someone else to get The Craic each Friday, pop their wee email address in here, please.

News from Home

One Love. It is U2-mania this week in Ireland, as a number of special events are set to take place (in Dublin mainly) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band’s formation. It also includes a surprise gig at their former school, Mount Temple Comprehensive. The lads have also dropped details of their new album- well, the title, Carnaval de Luz- which is due out in November. We have a few more thoughts on U2’s big anniversary in the Blast from the Past section below. But for now, a little Craic Prediction: We reckon the anniversary and new album will coincide with a MASSIVE world tour in the next year or two, including some big homecoming gigs in Ireland.

Gutted. We wouldn’t say that Belfast’s Big Fish sculpture was beloved by the city’s residents – it’s just kind of there – but jeez, the fact that someone premeditatedly (he took a sledgehammer) would try to destroy it is beyond our comprehension. The (alleged) perpetrator has been arrested. In other let’s-destroy-stuff-because-I’m-a-loser news, someone has defaced a 5,000-year-old megalithic tomb site in County Meath. Come on now, lads. Have a look at yourselves.

Top Spots. A couple of additions to global lists for Ireland this week. First of all, Bar 1661 in Dublin has been recognized again, listed in the Best Bars in the World 2026 List. Pro tip: if you head in, try the Northern Oates cocktail, named in honor of notable Belfast publican and friend of Shift, Colm Oates. Also, Killary Fjord in County Galway has been named in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2027. The glacial fjords are simply majestic, so well deserved. Oh, rumor has it that Patrick will be visiting Galway in the next week or two. Gets around a bit that lad. Like the Irish Tin-Tin.

The Craic Recommends……A Letter Home: Irish Correspondence from America 1818-1972. This gorgeous collection, beautifully illustrated, is both joyous and heart-breaking. As the name implies, it is a collection of letters sent from home by Irish immigrants across the decades and centuries. Their words and stories are….surprising, far from the stereotypical image of the Irish immigrant. An outstanding book that somehow puts individual human faces on the story of millions. Check it out here.

The Irish Influence

Sharon Horgan is a bit of a Swiss Army knife when it comes to entertainment. We suppose you could call her an actress, as there are numerous superlatives we could apply to that, including the fact that she may be Ireland’s finest comedy actor. She also produces, writes, and creates most of the major shows she stars in: Catastrophe, Motherland, and Women on the Verge are on that list, as is Youth, her latest show, which is getting rave reviews (we smell Emmy success for this one), including a stunning 5-star one from The Guardian. She’s been on an incredible roll over the past couple of decades, and we can’t wait to see what comes next. Youth is streaming on HBO right now.

Cúpla Focal

An Cat Dubh – {An Cat DOVE} – The Black Cat. We’re all about U2 today, so we had a little search through the discography* for any Irish lyrics or song titles, and we could only come up with An Cat Dubh, a song from the band’s debut album, Boy. And no, it’s not about a literal black cat. Apparently, it’s a euphemism for the aul, you know.

*If any U2 superfans know more about Bono singing as Gaeilge, please let us know on Shift or Shift socials.

Blast from the Past

On September 25, 1976, a group of young men, boys in truth, gathered in Larry Mullan Jnr’s kitchen (his ma’s kitchen; Larry was 14), setting in motion events that would change Irish popular music forever. This was the formation of U2, though that name would come later. It is strange to think that U2 are technically contemporaries with Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys, as well as Taylor Swift and Charli XCX. And perhaps the biggest accolade we could give the 22-time Grammy winners (more than any other rock band) is that they don’t ‘feel’ like ancient, wrinkly rockers. Yes, it might be “your dad’s” music now, but U2 don’t feel stuck in any era. It’s hard, too, to describe how big they were in their pomp in the late 1980s, easily carrying the “biggest band in the world” suffix for several years. It’s fashionable to diss them today, sure, and Irish people roll their eyes at Bono’s savior act more than anyone else, but we are also protective of them. It’s like that sibling thing: We can be snide about them, but if anyone outside the ‘family’ dares to be mean about U2, we’ll be ready to defend them to the death. Congratulations on the Big 5-0, lads. We hope you found what you were looking for. 💚🎸

And One Last Thing….

Public Service Announcement (Sort of): We do like to use this spot to tell you where we are going to be, but in this case, it’s where we won’t be. We’d grand plans to be at this weekend’s Central Mass Irish Festival in Winchendon, but the aul Nor’Easter has scuppered it. The event has been postponed until October 24. A little shout-out to the organizers and our partners at the festival. It takes a lot of hard work to put these things on, so it is heartbreaking to be beaten down by the weather. On the bright side, you can get tickets for the rescheduled event here. We’ve got no playlist this week, but we thought we’d play you out to the weekend with a clip of U2’s first-ever televised gig. Bit unpolished, but the signs of the big things to come were there.