At this moment in time I’m holed up in the loft of a stable in Ireland, my studio, for every waking hour and most of the sleeping ones too.

On Saturday, March 19th 2011, I’m showing paintings in Belfast at the Europa Hotel. I’m leaving Dublin west and taking them up on Friday but first I have to finish painting them or there’s nothing to take.

That means Thursday is the final day for painting. Thursday, March 17th - St Patrick’s Day. National holiday it may be but there’ll be no parade, festival, music, or drink for me that day in Dublin as I’ll be working away here maybe stopping to watch the chickens or walk through the woods to the river.

If I get a chance I’ll post some more Irish events in the KC area for the rest of this week and the big day - but I may not get that chance. You’ll be grand without me again anyway, I’m sure.

The paintings in progress are all Irish ones - of Dublin city centre, trees, leaves, and birds, and Donegal, Kerry and the west of Ireland. After the show I’ll post them online. They’ll first be shown to my mailing list, then onto my personal blog, then I’ll tell people following me on twitter, and finally I’ll tell those who have friended me on FaceBook.

I may or may not post them here on IrishKC too, but if I do it’ll be the last place to be notified. If you wish to see the paintings first - go to Belfast. If that’s not an option then if you want to be among the first to see the paintings online sign up for my mailing list - you can do that in the sidebar of my blog, Bicyclistic. It should only take a few seconds as nothing is needed except your email address (and you have to confirm it so I don’t spam you).

In case we don’t talk again: Enjoy your week! I’ll be working.

Read: Paddy’s Week For Me »

It’s that time of year.

5 years ago yesterday IrishKC started quietly with this tiny post. A week from tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day, traditionally the biggest day by a mile on IrishKC, followed shortly after by Hoffenpurpenburger Day.

Before we get to those dates IrishKC will tick over its one millionth visit. If I paid close attention I could even give the millionth visitor a prize. I won’t (give a prize, or indeed pay close attention).

While IrishKC might have appeared semi-dormant this past year there are still typically 400-1,000 views a day here on the site and hundreds more elsewhere. Also it’s not as neglected as it may appear; every week I work away on it in the background - adjusting navigation, tweaking elements of design, and updating links. There’s approximately 5,000 pages here and it takes a bit of work keeping them in order.

Every week the blog brings in questions from people looking for info and unfortunately I only get to reply to about 20% of them - sending them to the relevant Irish shops, performers, etc. This may or may not be related to the fact that a much smaller % actually get back to me and thank me.

I also get many people thinking the site is where they book a table at an Irish restaurant, book an Irish performer, volunteer for an Irish festival, register for an Irish parade, etc - as if it were the official site for those businesses. I used to point those people in the correct direction too, as well as let the relevant business know, but with an almost non-existent % of thanks for that I no longer do this. If people choose not to read and to believe that this is the official website of Daniel O’Donnell or KC Irish Pub Dot Com etc., I’ve decided it’s not my responsibility to disavow them of the notion.

Some good things come out of the archives too. In the last year a painting that featured on IrishKC was chosen to be the cover of a book of true Irish stories. And a post that first appeared on IrishKC was selected to be among the 70-odd stories included - it’s the only story in the Irish book with a reference to Kansas City. The book sold out its print run of 2,000 so you can now only purchase it as an e-book - I heartily recommend it.

To those who only perceive a lack of activity on IrishKC and think I’m therefore fairly inactive these days online, I’ve never been more active.

In the 5 years since starting IrishKC I’ve also started my cartoon site American Hell - in 2007. It’s been a finalist in the Irish Blog Awards, had syndication requests, and been the subject of a possible book deal. It’s readership is around the 1,000 a day mark and growing.

In 2009 I also started the blog that concentrates on my paintings, my photographs, my cycling, and my dog - Bicyclistic. Much of this is material that once would have appeared on IrishKC. It gets just 100 visitors day typically but with major spikes over 1,000 for certain posts. Last year in Galway it made me very proud when it won at the Irish Blog Awards.

Also, today 4 years ago - after lurking for a few months - I joined twitter. I was just a few days outside the first 100 Irish people to join, and I have been singing its praises since. In fact not only am I eolai on twitter, but the dog is on twitter (1st dog in Ireland on twitter), American Hell is on twitter and even IrishKC has its own account.

When you throw in a few accounts on FaceBook, and even keeping up with communications from people on MySpace, I’ve never been busier, or more present, online. And Kansas City is still in there. It’s a lot of work, but like a seemingly dormant IrishKC, it sells paintings. That’s the bottom line for me.

To those who are interested in my take on things Irish, you can follow me on twitter or my Bicyclistic blog. I still follow online everything Irish and related in KC but rarely get to write things up. Painting and paintings dominate. When television and radio programmes want to talk to me about my paintings, IrishKC is first to take the hit. I wished I’d told you about that presentation by Dr. Matthew L. Jockers on Charles Driscoll’s Irish in Kansas at Benedictine College in Atchison the night before last. I’d planned to for ages, but…time. Did you go?

If you are interested in Ireland itself (rather than slagging off green beer whilst drinking copious amounts of other beer so as to celebrate the country, your heritage, or something) you might be interested to know that later this year I’ll be doing my biggest adventure since cycling across America 15 years ago. It should be my biggest online venture yet - when I tour Ireland, thousands of miles of it all going well, painting it, photographing it, and blogging & tweeting it as I go.

It’ll probably mean a new website. I might tell you on here about it, I might not. But I’ll definitely be talking about it on twitter and on my personal blog.

Talk to you later - maybe tomorrow, maybe next month. If you’re reading this on my IrishKC rather than on a reader, your visit is one in a million. Thank you.

Read: One Million and Five »

It’s that time.

A special time.

Here’s a new painting of a panda.

Party.

It’s not for sale.

Read: Panda Picnic »

This weekend O’Malley’s Pub in Weston, Missouri are celebrating the pending arrival of St Patrick’s Day with Reverse Cowboy.

If you haven’t caught them yet, they are a lot of fun. They are from Minnesota and have a very fresh take on your Irish favorites. Amazing musical ability mixed with a great sense of humor.

The Reverse Cowboy duo will be in the lower cellar Friday Feb 25, 2010 and Saturday night Feb 26, 2010 from 8pm to midnight.

Adam Braunschweig of the Three Dollar Band will be in the lower cellar Saturday afternoon from 3pm to 6pm and Bob Reeder will be performing Saturday evening in the Upper Cellar from 8pm to midnight and again on Sunday from 3pm to 9pm.

See also Irish & St Patrick’s Day events in Kansas City

Read: O’Malley’s Big February Irish Weekend »

One Ireland. Two Irelands. I had asthma as a child. A relative of mine once beat an Englishman to a pulp.

On the week of the 2011 Irish General Election, it’s more from the 19th Minute of RTE’s Eleventh Hour. Barry Murphy and Gary Cooke give you a party political broadcast on behalf of “The Irish Political Party”:

For more Irish goodness, see also Barry Murphy’s Dublin Airport sketch

Read: The Irish Political Party »

You may have heard recently that Ireland lost its place at the Monopoly table and, having surrendered the independence it fought itself for, is currently in the middle of a campaign to elect people who for the foreseeable future will be little more than civil servants administering an IMF/ECB instructed budget.

The nation has already been through the For what died the sons of Róisín and Was it for this phase, and if the 5 stages of grief wasn’t a load of guff it’d be said the country is now in the Acceptance stage. But those outside are reflecting on how it all went wrong, and frequently with a certainty that must reap great dividends when they go horse-racing.

So here are 4 articles on our situation (I’d say ‘troubles’ only well, you know…) that have attained some celebrity of late. They’re a mixture of views from outside and inside Ireland:

  • When Irish Eyes Are Crying Michael Lewis Vanity Fair
  • An Irishman’s Diary Frank McNally The Irish Times
  • Death of the Celtic tiger: A Cautionary Tale Mishel & Campbell Huffington Post
  • Ireland’s Crash - After The Race The Economist

Write your own, and tell me where it is.

Read: Ireland - The End: 4 Views »

I’ve created another photo collage of scenes from Ireland - specifically the back lanes of my Dublin.

It’s of garage doors - 50 of them.

It’s over on my personal blog. You’ll have to look elsewhere for photos of Georgian doors of Dublin, real or otherwise.

See earlier photo collage of Dublin Back Lane Doors

Other Collections of my Photos:
   • Dublin Walls, A Photo Essay
   • The Walls of Kansas City
   • The Walls of America
   • The Walls of Cambodia

Read: Dublin Doors - A Photo Collage »

Oh, what the heck - Valentines Day in America reminds me of an experience I had with the British Police

Read: Irish American (And British) Valentine’s Day »

You may have seen the Irish comedian Barry Murphy in Kansas City. You may not.

It was 90-odd degrees; he was wearing a suit. Here’s a very popular comedy sketch he did this last week on Irish TV. He’s still wearing a suit.

Barry Murphy’s DAA skit was shown in the series of “19th Minute” sketches in national broadcaster RTE Television’s new political programme, The Eleventh Hour

To put this in context, here’s the original DAA (Dublin Airport Authority) ad made to make us in Ireland feel all that much better - even if that means leaving the country to do so:

See Also:
    • I Have Hankies, but I’m a Publisher
    • If 9 Irish Wishes Came True
    • Irish Inventions and their Inventors

Read: Barry Murphy - Dublin Airport - Ireland »

Doing the rounds in Ireland these days is a clip from back when things were picking up, the last days of innocence in other words - 1994 to be specific - of a Donkey Derby in Castletown in County Limerick.

I shouldn’t have to say this but you need to stay with it right to the end.

If you want some background to the video, The Limerick Post has the backstory

Read: Funny in Ireland »

Yesterday I launched my annual sale of Irish paintings - all new works being offered for sale for the first time.

The sale started with 30 paintings and will have many more added to it before the sale ends at the end of the month. Prices just for this sale are 30%-50% off regular prices.

Long-time Irish KC readers might be interested in several more paintings which have come from the the Cottage Chronicles and some other stories documented here.

As well as Donegal scenes, in this group of paintings you’ll also see scenes of Dublin, Kerry, Galway, Italy, some sheep, some leaves, some men, some hearts, and some birds on wires.

At the time of writing 11 paintings have sold already.

Read: Irish Paintings on Sale »

Three views for you into the state of Ireland today, in plenty of time for taking account of for whenever you might be developing themes for Irish parades, festivals, and events in 2011:

1. Great Things About Ireland. For a newspaper feature, Shane Hegarty of The Irish Times, asked on twitter what - notwithstanding the current problems - people thought was great about Ireland. The article highlights 50 but there are thousands more if you care to browse back on twitter at the hashtag #greatthingsaboutireland. For a more commercial slant on how great we Irish are, you could also have a look at the new advert for Dublin Airport’s brand new Terminal 2

2. Ghost Estates of the Irish Property Bubble A google map of Ireland showing rather a lot of empty property developments in the Republic. Note the impact on lesser populated areas like counties Longford, Carlow, Roscommon and Louth - and high tourist rural destinations such as Killarney and the Ring of Kerry, West Cork, and well, everywhere. Places like the Dingle peninsula in Kerry and the very north of the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal are not untouched.

3. Live Blog of Debt Crisis Updated every minute is a feature in The Guardian, a newspaper of our nearest neighbour, on a crisis that in Ireland we are hearing wall to wall coverage of across all media. If you have the stomach for more of this stuff there is an infinite amount of it appearing every second on Twitter under the hashtag #bailout

Read: Ireland November 2010 - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly »

Last month the calendar did one of those things with numbers, where there was a sequence that made loads of people go hey.

And because the month and the day were the same number, the sequence worked in Ireland just as it worked in America despite our typically different date formats (In Ireland the standard is dd/mm/yy in contrast with the default mm/dd/yy of America).

Anyway, long-time Irish award-winning photoblogger Redmum used the occasion to solicit photos of the 10:10 10/10/10 moment, and the resulting pictures give you a snapshot of Ireland as accurate as any.

Indoors, outdoors, suburbs, landscapes, kids, pets, clocks, it’s all there in what I counted as close to 90 photos of a moment in time in Ireland.

Also, to show how talented Redmum herself is at the oul’ picture-taking, have a look at her most recently posted wonderful photo, of a couple kissing in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin

Read: A Moment in Ireland »

I’m about to spend our most Irish of holidays, Hallowe’en, at home in Ireland again.

Despite it’s slide towards the crass and sanitised showpiece that it as an Irish gift to America evolved all too quickly into, there is just enough that is still old about it at home that I’m likely to enjoy it.

It will be quiet for me but somewhere in there, such is its history, will be fire and death and stories and food. And spookiness that doesn’t come in a packet.

Gorilla suits and nurse uniforms won’t be necessary.

In more detail, over several posts, here’s more about Halloween in Ireland and its Irishness:

   • The Irish Halloween Links
   • How to Describe Help The Halloween Party
   • Hallowe’en in Ireland: A Quiz
   • Profiling Halloween
   • How Do You Pronounce Samhain?
   • Do You Have Halloween in Ireland?

Read: Halloween in Ireland »