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Archive for November, 2008

Two in a Million: One of Eason’s ‘Best of Irish’

Mum, Dad, and I pulled into the car park at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children at around lunchtime. The three of us prepared to plod the familiar walk to St John’s Ward. I paused just before entering the hospital, and let my parents move a few steps ahead. I looked out over the car park, and breathed in deeply. I knew this would be my last breath of fresh air for a long time. ‘Ben?’ my mum called, from beyond the hospital doors. I turned. ‘I’m coming,’ I said.

A Very American Blog: John Hawkins Interviewed

‘I thought the press coverage of the 2000 election was horribly biased against George W. Bush’, says John. ‘It was clear as a bell that Bush had won the election and that Gore was trying to steal the election with the help of the ultra-liberal Florida State Supreme Court. As the controversy over the elections dragged on and on, I became more and more disillusioned with how the media was covering it. The breaking point for me came when I was watching TV and a viewer commented that Bush should concede. Concede? Concede?! The votes had been counted multiple times and he had never been behind! That was the moment I decided to create a conservative website…

Kingdom (Here I) Come

It’s nice to get away from it all. Last March, my dad announced that he was slipping off to Killarney for three days to the annual Chartered Accountants in Practice conference. Thinking my cries would be in vain, I pleaded with him to take me too, so I could get a break from my satisfying-yet-tedious year-out home-bound book-writing.

Book Hits Shelves (no one injured)

Well, we had the book launch just under two weeks ago and copies have now started trickling onto the shelves. It was quite a thrill to see it in the Irish Biography section of Waterstone’s the other day. I felt like saying to the other browsers around me: ‘Hey – THAT’S MY BOOK! I WROTE IT!! WHY AREN’T YOU BUYING IT??!!!’

On a pint-sized stage

AROUND EIGHT O’CLOCK, it starts to get crowded. I’ve been sitting here, with my bottle of Miller and my Newsweek, for quite a while. In this Connemara pub, I couldn’t look more like a blow-in if I had orange ears and five eyes.

But that doesn’t matter. I know, because I’ve been coming to Paddy Coyne’s in Tullycross for years, sitting by the fire in the cosy front room. I still smile when I see the sign over the bar: “No Credit Given to Women” (beside it there is one that reads simply, “No Credit”). Wednesday is the best night here.

As I finish my beer, summer tourists are drifting in – a French family, an English family, some Italian students . . . They come in the front door and go out the back, brushing past the nonplussed locals. Some of the locals get up and join them. Different accents and languages are heard in the queue to leave. Everyone (except children) pays €5 to walk out of the pub.

Outside, there is a small blackboard with “Smoking Area” chalked on to it, and a sign pointing towards the “Beer Garden”. Tonight, however, there is no beer garden. Under the hanging baskets and the old beer ads, there is a stage.

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