It was a conversation with a greyhound man that got me thinking.
Like fishing it’s one of those sports with a popularity that’s never really reflected in any form of media save the dedicated magazines and papers you see stock piled in the your favourite bookshop. Popularity doesn’t determine how the sport is treated by the [...]

An interesting interview with former Irish soccer player Phil Babb in today’s Irish Times. Babb, who’s best days in an Irish jersey were probably the 1994 World Cup when he was a rock at the heart of the Irish defence when Ray Houghton’s goal led to a famous win over Italy, had a rather slow [...]

Working on a bank holiday isn’t as bad as you always think it will be, of course it helps if you’re not hungover or getting reports from others about hangovers and all day sojurns in bed, but with a clear head and a fresh face you can face the workload. It’s quiet outside, it’s easy [...]

There’s a scene in the film Die Hard 3 when Bruce Willis’ character John McClane, he of the atomic hangovers and even more explosive crash scenes, is sent to Harlem wearing boxer shorts, a placard stating that he hates niggers and of course, an atomic hangover.
It brings him into contact with Zeus, who becomes his [...]

Okay the snooker scene in the very first episode got to me but I’d hate to be the ones making a programme and not incite any sort of reaction. A television show isn’t a television show unless people bother to watch it.
I was hasty in my judgement of Raw though still think getting the snooker [...]

The problem with any Irish programme that is merely a version of another show is that we often can’t get passed the Irishness of it. We know it as a programme from another country on another channel, we can only cringe when we sit down to watch our version, a remake of another show [...]

A friend, returned from London for the weekend, looked on bemused as we argued about the return of college fees and the problems of the Irish economy.
Conversations like this can only take place in a pub because to really get a handle on the importance of an issue to the Irish people you have to [...]

RTE have tried their hands at another new drama series, called RAW, about the turbulent lives of the staff who work in the turbulent kitchen of a well-to-do restaraunt called, RAW.
It’s first achievement was in looking like something that wasn’t produced by RTE. Instead it felt like Channel 4 had combined with the BBC for [...]

Bulldog is one of those things makes lads lads and makes school worth getting through just so you can get out into the schoolyard at break time to release all that energy.
It reminds of innumerable school trips to Dublin Zoo, and later when we are able for it, Kilkenny Castle.
The last hour we were always [...]

The Michael Neary scandal has just been televised on RTE.
A surgeon in a Co Louth hospital carried out unnecessary Caesarean hysterectomies on many women in his care. The details are harrowing but it’s only when the torment of what happened is actually transmitted into the comfort of your sitting room that you realise the [...]