Nostalgia time. And a list.
Ten pieces of prime advice from an Irish childhood.
Universal themes I suspect.
All in all, as a child it was a […]

Read: Irish Parental Advice »

A couple of years ago there was a lot of Scottish music at the Irish festival in Crown Center, some of it by way of […]

Read: Kansas City Rejects Sue For Millions »

Currently on tour with the Chieftains, the all-female Irish traditional outfit Líadan, graduates of the Irish World Music Center at the University of Limerick, are […]

Read: Líadan and Kansas City »

When I was growing up in Dublin West, which is like West Dublin only wilder, I didn’t know anybody who played rugby, and I never […]

Read: Wanting Ireland to Lose »

Here’s a little something for fans of Kansas City’s Celtic Rock Band The Elders.
Secrets* from Kansas City were Brent Hoad and Norm Dahlor, who are […]

Read: Kansas City Secrets* »

Q. What is it like to drive on the left-hand side of the road?
A. I hate cars. Everything about them. I couldn’t even tell you […]

Read: FAIQ #20: What’s it like driving on the left-hand side? »

By popular demand, here is a second snippet of a story of drunken fortitude in one Irishman’s quest to travel directly from a Christmas work […]

Read: Drunken Christmas Story - Part II »

If you come from a country which celebrates Christmas over the Twelve Days, then to enjoy Christmas in the US you need to learn to […]

Read: Christmas, It Could Happen to a Bishop »

Dublin’s Balcony TV is great for keeping an eye on unsigned and up and coming Irish acts, though it also throws the odd establisher performer […]

Read: The Pale on the Balcony »

Q. What’s With You Irish And All This Guilt Stuff?
A. I like guilt. And I think it gets a bad rap.
People who go around […]

Read: FAIQ #18: What’s With You Irish And All This Guilt Stuff? »

Q. You Travel By Train In Ireland, Don’t You?
A. We didn’t have a car when I was growing up. One appeared when I was around […]

Read: FAIQ #22: You Travel By Train In Ireland, Don’t You? »

A long time ago, when I was living in Liverpool, new pint glasses were brought out. Imperial pint glasses of course, this being the empire […]

Read: Bottomless Cups of Beer: Liverpool Roulette »

If you’re Irish and like horses racing you’re supposed to prefer National Hunt to the Flat. In fact you’re not supposed to really like the […]

Read: Horses and Courses »

It is twenty to five on a Saturday. Rupert Murdoch has yet to invent English football, and Al Gore has not yet invented the Internet. […]

Read: Reason to Leave Ireland #162 »

Trup Trup a Chapaillín - Or, Giddy Up There Pony. The first song I learned at school, but being aged four, and it being a […]

Read: 10 Songs They Taught Us In School »

As my own review of the 2006 KC Irish Fest remains an unfinished unpublished monster, here’s something shorter on former years while I try and […]

Read: Top Ten Irish Fest Memories »

Walking the streets of Dublin always brings back memories of the early days in Kansas City. I bought a pair of socks today, and it […]

Read: Purple Haze: 119th Street Town Center »

The recent Chris Moyles Bob Geldof thing reminded me of when I worked in England and my English boss - who was about to go […]

Read: Irish Press Banned as Irish Independence Revoked »

In the mid 1980s I was responsible for auditing the Irish Singles Charts prior to an overhaul of the system. The final calculation of chart […]

Read: Irish Music Charts and Bandwagon »

On the Official English FA website the Irish flag is represented by an oversized McDonalds logo rather than the Irish Tricolour. No idea why - […]

Read: Ireland, McDonalds, and Football »