Alan Johnston

John, my mistake. You remember Ronan O'Sullivan, his friend? My cousin.

Btw, I love your work and greatly admire your talent.

Grá agus síocháin!

Jeez, can you just be nice and not always have to prove yourself - you already have. Take a breath.

Did you know we've met? I've been in your house in Drumcondra. Ur bro Pat was in college in Bolton Street when I knew him.

Did you write the lyrics? No, it's traditional.

Did you write the music in a vacuum? No, the notes on the beat pretty-much match the traditional.

Is your version different and original? Absolutely! And I love it.

I'm not trying to be a shit, but give a nod to acknowledge tradition, that's all.

Ah now Michael, I was singing along to Clannad's version of it in 1977. Granted, your tempo and arrangement is quite different but the majority of the lyrics and basics of the tune are unchanged from when the seaweed gatherers of Annagassan first composed it.

Sign the Petition Cosain Eitiltí Ailse Dhún na nGall / Protect Donegal Cancer Flights

Please support the continued Public Service Obligation for the Donegal-Dublin flights. It's an essential service for the region which is so poorly serviced by other transport means.

c.org/WjzKbCz9zJ

FrisBríde.

A Canadian friend was intrigued with the St Brigid's cross. He reckoned they were perfect for throwing. "Like a Celtic ninja-star."

After a short thought: "They should be called a frisBríde"!

#seanjócnua ##spéirgorm

Just how large was Brat Bhríde? According to tradition, when St Brigid cast her mantle to be gifted the land it covered, it stretched from Dún Ailinne to Cill Dara to the Hill of Allen and to the mound at Naas.

That was 125 square kilometers.

#LaFheileBride #LáFhéileBríde #speirgorm

After what I heard in the past short weeks and confirmed again with this latest Epst document dump, if you had the misfortune to accidently step on to that putrid pustulence of a president, you'd gingerly remove your shoes, jetison them as far as you could and walk home shoeless.

Ye might want to put on a coat and look at the sky.

Imagine if they gave absolute power over the area to three random mothers, say, one from Dublin, one from Lagos and one from Kabul.

The resultant peace would last for centuries.

Keep war-mongers out of peace talks.

Just about all of the decadence of Christmas has been consumed by now. But it's Friday and January is bleak so I was seeking some "nibbles".

My wife said "you know there's a box of crisps in the garage".

Saved!

I went looking if it existed in Irish and found 'giúsach', pretty close. Our heritage website duchas.ie has a few entries, but just had to stop and admire this stunning handwriting!

Sunday? There was "holy hour" every day of the week before 1988 in Dublin.

Yeah, as I said, there's nothing to worry about. Strange that the Danes are worried at all about another NATO member eyeing up their dependency.

Tell Denmark they've nothing to worry about with Greenland so.

Excuse my ignorance of US wiring regulations - I'm Irish, but, don't you need a different outlet configuration for 240V? Plugging any 'typical' appliance expecting 110V into 240V would be chaos.

You mean there's usually 224V on a US standard power outlet?

Looks to me like the person on call to flick the circuit breaker in Sallins had a few and was told to sleep it off until 4:00 and try again. That's at least 4000 people without light or heat due to (A) a ridiculously over-burdened line and (B) taking the on-call payment without responsibility.

Uh-oh, this does not bode well. Electricity has gone with no sign of it coming back soon.

By way of compensation, my daughter is playing Clair de Lune on the piano by the light of the full moon.

Happy New Year Colin. Looking forward to more beautiful shots of Ellan Vannin in 2026.

Machair Aignish nan laoigh 's nam bo.

It should be twinned with Carrickfinn in Donegal. Both are at the end of an isthmus called Braighe/Braade, both have an airport and are largely machair.

Happy Solstice, people.

Maybe not today, but let's face it, Cos(2°) is 0.9994, which, for humans, is the same as Cos(0°). My Solstice marker is lit!

The time is 23:22. The current temperature at 54.004, -6.523 (Dundalk, Ireland) is 5°C. The wind is 11km/h at heading 165.

Your Dundalk is named after my Dundalk because it had a railway!

I remember the evening of Dec 19th 1975 in Dundalk. I was standing in my bedroom when the window flexed with the blast and I was 1.5km from the bomb.

Two men were killed and many injured in the explosion. It was 100m from where my dad worked. The "Troubles" suddenly came a lot closer to home.

My Winter Solstice marker doing its thing. The low sun shines through a high round window fully lighting up a bronze disc on the chimney breast. It's much nicer in real life, something about the sun's glow at this time of year.

My Winter Solstice marker doing its thing. The low sun shines through a high round window fully lighting up a bronze disc on the chimney breast. It's much nicer in real life, something about the sun's glow at this time of year.

D'you know, when you look at it, we've more in common with our local piece-of-shit right-wing neighbour than our manipulative multi-millionaires.

Start from there, surely, then eventually we can narrow it down to the purism of our socialism if the majority of our problems haven't gone away.

That glass was washed with the dishes. The bubbles on the glass are an indication of grease in the wash. Wouldn't happen with a stand-alone glasswasher.

If you're a native of Dundalk and I'm told, way up into the north too, you'd have heard something like "Givvus a lock-ah that cheese". 'Lock of'/lock-ah comes from Irish 'loca' meaning a wad.

#Hiberno-English