Niall O'Dowd: They say Thierry Henry will be playing with the New York Red Bulls in the near future that he will do a David Beckham and make some money in America. After yesterday the Red Bulls may not want him –not if Irish fans have their say. FULL STORY >
Tom Deignan: Clearly, in the "Mad Men" season finale, the show’s creators were linking the public tragedy of JFK’s assassination with the private tragedy of the crumbling Draper marriage. It was fine television. The problem is that TV shows and movie makers and book writers have been hauling out the events of November 1963 for, well, five decades now. FULL STORY >
Cormac MacConnell: I have written here recently about just how socially serious the disappearance of the rural pubs is for the folk who live in the very real but Hidden Ireland. John Spain put it powerfully when he said in his piece that politicians have been silent and compliant in the face of their ministers, slashing cuts and sounding dire pre-budget warnings over recent months. FULL STORY >
How times have changed since Pope John Paul visited Ireland in September 1979 – and I’m only talking about smoking. When the Pontiff flew to Ireland on the Aer Lingus Boeing 747, named the St Patrick for the occasion, the stewardess announced after takeoff , “Holy Father, distinguished visitors, you may now smoke if you wish.” FULL STORY >
Cathal Dervan: Ireland have to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the French in Croker this Saturday night and then again in the Stade de France the following Wednesday. These players have to give it their all against Henry, Anelka and company for the 180 minutes that will decide who goes to South Africa next summer. FULL STORY >
Mike Farragher: Snow Patrol has beaten most bands to the punch by coming out with a greatest hits collection for the holidays. After all, there are only about six weeks between now and Christmas! FULL STORY >
Paul Keating: The Darrah Carr Dance Company completed another New York season with their weekend performances at the Irish Arts Center this past Sunday. FULL STORY >
Question: Old Green Card “My uncle is originally from Ireland. He received a green card back in 1982 that has no expiration date on it, and it doesn’t look very good. As a regular reader of your column, I remember at one point you mentioning that these kinds of ‘old’ green cards would have to be replaced at some stage. He is planning to go away later this year, and I told him he’d have to get a new green card as he wouldn’t be able to travel on the one he FULL STORY >
Eddie Holt: The Pope called to Ireland in 1979. He had never come here before, despite Ireland’s reputation as “the greatest little Catholic country on Earth”. I was in London but I watched most of the scenes that greeted his arrival. Thirty years later, the Catholic Church is in rag order. Were the current Pope – Benedict XVI – to visit Ireland, he could not expect crowds like his predecessor Pope John Paul II. FULL STORY >
Father Tim: Somewhere in Ireland right now, there are some sadly misguided Irish Catholic priests who are probably just plain dee-lighted that thousands of the faithful went home in disappointment from the Knock Shrine without having seen the Blessed Virgin Mary appear. FULL STORY >
John Spain: There's nothing like a recession to concentrate the mind! One of my kids is at the stage in school where he has to make choices about the subjects he wants to do in the Leaving Cert, the exam that Irish kids do before they leave school and either go on to university or out into the world of work. Or maybe that should be the world of unemployment. FULL STORY >
Oh dear. Looks like my favorite Irish soccer player-turned-manager Roy Keane is about to get another pasting in Ireland after he blasted the FAI for complaining about Ireland's exit from the World Cup. "France are going to the World Cup," said former Irish captain Roy Keane said today. "Get over it. They (the FAI) want sympathy as usual. It is the usual carry-on and it is boring.” FULL STORY >
Tim Pat Coogan: “What should I do with the cow’s teat”, inquired the interviewer from the Newstalk Radio station covering the recent National Ploughing Championships. “Squeeze it gently”, replied the lady agricultural instructor evenly,” as though it were your willy.” In all sorts of ways that exchange, and the generally amused reaction to it, encapsulates the difference between to-day’s Ireland and that which existed at the time of the pope’s visit 30 years ago. FULL STORY >
