I don’t really have the time today to do justice to Bertie’s excuses or to savage the Health Service Executive’s Taleban-style priorities, so I merely offer a link to some startling photographs I came across recently*. They reveal that, pace most febrile Western reporting, modern life in China is not all about iPod factories and […]

“You have the right to remain silent…” The cop shows have taught us that the accused in the interview room has the option to keep schtum while being grilled by the fuzz. This prerogative is not something we usually associated with a head of state looking to renew his contract. But this is Ireland, and […]

Now I have an environmental as well as an aesthetic justification for the somewhat crepuscular vibe at The Monkey’s Typewriter.Click here for the “low-wattage” palette.(Thanks to Catriona for the tip.)

As the great and the good (as well as John Major) filed into Moscow’s reconstructed Christ the Saviour cathedral to pay their last respects to Boris Yeltsin, the debate over the legacy of Russia’s first elected president was only just beginning. As the more generous appraisers of our own Charles J. Haughey were apt to […]

The New York Times website offers a beguiling multimedia feature on the enigmatic patterns formed by huge flocks of starlings that gather in the skies above Rome during Autumn and Winter. The final photo in the selection suggests, to my eyes at least, a haunting sketch of a winged, humanlike figure descending.Bonus info: apparently, the […]

In today’s post, Twenty Major–the Irish blogosphere’s answer to Jim Davidson–cracks some laboured gags about the “little things” that annoy him.To give a flavour of the comedic mind at work, “dwarves” are listed.But, reflecting his position as Ireland’s premier blogger, Twenty Major does not shy away from the major stories of the day. A throwaway […]

Covering the interminable contract dispute between hospital consultants and the state, the Irish Independent today described the latest offer on the table: “On top of the €205,000 for a 39-hour week, they [the consultants] would also get an additional €40,000 if they meet targets for treating patients.” But for some, the prospect of a quarter-of-a-million […]

Despite having about 120-seconds’ worth of facts to report, the 24/7 news channels have devoted 1200 minutes to the carnage at Virgina Tech. CNN International has yielded the airwaves to its U.S. big brother, allowing viewers to witness improbably burnished anchors pepper dazed students with questions of staggering inanity. Meanwhile, camera-phone footage of the event […]

Recently I was driving down Dublin quays, from Parkgate Street on to O'Connell Street. Fortunately, it's not a route I need to take often, so I gawked at my surroundings a bit more than usual. Whereas there's been a lot coverage of the Dublin Boardwalk–and the drug addicts who tend to frighten the office workers […]

A marble bust of Kevin Myarse’s senatorial features deserves to be placed in Pseuds Corner in honour of the hack’s paean to Manchester United’s thumping of Roma during the week. Having gone through the formality of establishing his Decline-of-the-West credentials (“ I don’t particularly like modern soccer players, with their culture of overpaid celebrity, extravagant […]