Ireland Best Blogs
The best Irelandlogue blog entries, selected by the blogger.
Most popular blog entries
For the past year I have woken up every morning wondering what I would write about that day. When I leave the house, I carry a PDA, digital camera and mp3 recorder. When I walk into a shop, stop for lunch or even have a conversation I’m always thinking, “is this blog-able?”
So, a year later, it’s quite interesting to see which of those blog entries I’ve committed to the web have become most popular.
The most popular entry ever on Irelandlogue.com is . . .
Date: September 25th, 2007 |
2 comments
Sex in Ireland - Part 2
This is the second in a two-part article on sex in Ireland. Read the first Sex in Ireland article here.
Let’s get right down to it.
*insert 70’s wah-wah guitar sound here*
Last fall the Irish government published the Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships. It basically indicated that Ireland is undergoing a sexual revolution. Sure, there may not be flowers in their hair, but just 6 percent of today’s Irish population feel that pre-marital sex is wrong.
If that doesn’t sound so odd to you, consider that when the same question was asked of Irish people in 1973, 71 percent said it was wrong.
Yeah, I gotcher generation gap right here, chachi.
And, just like the San Franciscan hippies in 1960s, there has been a flourishing variety of sexually transmitted infections. How much? Well, between 1998 and 2003 the incidence of STIs in Ireland increased by 243 percent.
Holy crap.
Date: August 26th, 2007 |
5 comments
On being Irish
I was reading a newspaper article in the Westmeath Independent the other week that stated, “More than one in seven of Athlone population is now non-Irish.”
In the article it delineated the major groups of foreign nationals and stated that there were 91 “Americans” (although I’m sure the paper meant “United States citizens” and didn’t mean to include people from Canada, Mexico and all the countries of South America) and I realised that wifey and I wouldn’t be counted among them as, although we are indubitably from the states, we are registered Irish citizens.
What would have been more interesting, I think, would be to have reported on Athlonians’ places of birth. I know of a German Athlonian, for example, who was born in Saudi Arabia.
This got me to thinking about “Irishness” and being Irish.
Date: July 30th, 2007 |
2 comments
Irish slang - Bye bye bye . . .
Begorrah! Top of the morning!
Yes, two phrases you may have heard on Darby O’Gill and the Little People but that you will never actually hear spoken in Ireland. Most people have heard the Irish speak, but there are a lot of little things about their slang and turns of phrase that are often misunderstood by visitors.
Irish slang is definitely the thing that tickled our ears the most when we first moved here and that frequently tends to confuse our stateside guests. Below is the fourteenth in a series I’m publishing of some common Irish slang that used to confuse us when we first arrived.
Date: February 19th, 2007 |
4 comments
Irish slang - the Gasping
So you think you’ve got a handle on the English language. So ya think you’ll take a holiday (that’s vacation to you, Mr & Mrs USA) to Ireland and understand what folks are saying.
Think again.
Although Ireland is a predominately english-speaking nation, there will be moments when you’ll wonder whether that’s true or not. It’s not the Irish language, but the way the Irish use English that is truly unique. One of the things that tickled my ears the most when I first moved here and that tends to confuse our stateside guests is some of the slang. Below is the second installment in my series of common Irish slang that used to confuse us when we first arrived.
Date: November 27th, 2006 |
2 comments
One year of Irelandlogue
It’s been a year in the ‘logue, folks and, as I promised in an earlier post, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look over the year of blogging that’s been. What follows is a review some of the highlights of the past year’s logue-ing.
Over the last year I’ve spent every day blogging about interesting Irish things. Now that irelandlogue has been in existence for a year, it’s become an interesting Irish thing in itself. It’s a great thing: I’ve had the good fortune to have lived a fascinating year and to have had a blog to reflect it in.
Date: September 22nd, 2007 |
1 comment
Sex in Ireland - Part 1
Things sure have changed in the aul emerald isle since the celtic tiger came along. The chaste masses of churchgoing Irish are now having unprotected sex out of wedlock at a rate that could give a migraine to a Thai health official.* Let’s step back in time - there once was a time in this fair country (most of the past century, actually) when there was no such thing as separation of church and state.
I’ll give our US readers a second to catch their breath there.
No, but seriously, when Ireland gained its independence they turned to the people who had stood by them as they were killed for using their language and religion: the Catholic church. When the people who dictate your morality also make your laws it really stifles any ribald behavior.
For example, here in Ireland - and not so long ago - you couldn’t even purchase a condom. Families were big, marriages were made young and, let’s face it, Irish weather has never encouraged miniskirts or midriff-baring tops. But despite the priests in political power, rampant morality and layers of clothing, any visitor to Ireland in the past century could tell you that flirting has always been the national past time.
Date: August 23rd, 2007 |
3 comments
Fog on the Shannon
I mentioned the magical dawn mist on the River Shannon a few posts ago, and here is the video I captured. The music I used is a live recording from the Brideswell Session a few months back (that’s Damsel and milo playing there). This mist is something that happens so fleetingly and so early in the morning (long before the town is awake), I’d imagine normally only fishermen and early morning delivery workers get to see it.
Take a deep breath and enjoy:
Date: May 7th, 2007 |
3 comments
The Wren Boys
It was the evening of the day after our first Christmas in Ireland when the phone rang.
“Seán,”it was the voice of hacky, a local musician and good friend of mine. “Get that bodhrán out and put on the strangest clothes you have.
“What? What’s this all about?”
“Seriously, Seánie, get that goatskin and put on a hat and a shirt backward or some such nonsense, you know what I’m gettin’ at - wear something so folks won’t know you to see you and I’ll be there to pick you up in 10 minutes.”
What could I do but comply?
Ten minutes later, with three mismatched ties around my neck, a ridiculous hat and a bright yellow shirt worn over a puffy vest I stood outside as a small blue van pulled up out front. The back gate burst open and someone in a plastic clown mask with straw sticking out of their hatbrim leaned out,
“Get in!”
Date: December 26th, 2006 |
No Comments
Bad pint/Good pint - rules for finding the perfect pint in Ireland
This is something that is of grave and serious concern in Ireland: the quality of one’s pint.
Arguments are started, families have been split and lives have been formed around the difference between a pint served in one place and the pint served in another. It can be argued sensibly that there are, of course, some places where you’re guaranteed a bad pint, but there are also places where the opposite is true. To your average Irish punter, it makes complete sense that beer distributors (well, some of them) spend a huge amount of money checking every single venue where their beer is served throughout Ireland to ensure consistency.
Before moving to Ireland, I really thought that this was a myth. If you have ever been with an Irishman (or woman) stateside when they’re ordering a pint of stout you may have seen them refuse a pint because it was not allowed to settle before being served to them.
I myself have seen the dumbfounded shock and horror firsthand on an Irishman’s face when he ordered a Guinness stateside and the bartender placed a non-tulip glass on the drain under the tap, hit the handle to dispense, walked away, returned as it was overflowing and then simply wiped the spill off the outside of the glass with a bar towel before serving it to him.
Here in Ireland This. Is. Simply. Not. Done.
Date: November 19th, 2006 |
1 comment
