In Afghanistan you can tell who the Taliban are. You can’t tell them here in Northern Ireland. They all wear suits. You can’t tell who is a religious fundamentalist, and has these ideas, and who isn’t.
An Afghan doctor based in Belfast compares the North’s antiabortion religiosity to the extremism of the Taliban. The doctor was speaking on the BBC3 documentary about abortion last night.
The lovely street photography of Cork snapper David J. O’Hagan. Images above from Cork city and county, loads more from across Ireland on his Flickr.
A councillor has damned the appearance of Nazi graffiti which has cropped up in her constituency.
Sinn Fein councillor Noeleen Reilly blasted “mindless vandalism” after she was told that a swastika was daubed on a structure in Coultry Park, Ballymun, Dublin last night.
Except it’s the wrong way round. Which actually makes it even more depressing.
Sex panthers – they are 90% likely to be lost works by Michelangelo, 60% of the time.
The official blurb is here:
Introducing Redbreast ‘Mano a Lámh’, the latest edition to the Redbreast Family available on limited release exclusively to our Stillhouse members.
Redbreast Mano a Lámh (meaning ‘hand in hand’ in Galician and Gaelic) is a story of craftsmen separated by almost 2000 miles from Jerez to Cork but drawn together by their shared passions, passed down from generation to generation. It is a story of collaboration and cooperation, of working hand in hand. Or to put it another way, ‘Mano a Lámh’.
Available exclusively to our Stillhouse members, ‘Mano a Lámh’ is a limited edition release of only 2000 bottles, priced at €65 (excluding shipping). It is now available to purchase via our online shop at www.singlepotstill.com/stillhouse/shop.
REDBREAST SINGLE POT STILL IRISH WHISKEY ‘MANO A LÁMH’ IS MORE THAN A FINE WHISKEY. IT’S THE COMING TOGETHER OF TRADITION AND PEOPLE, THEIR TALENTS AND THEIR PASSION.
IT’S ARTISANSHIP AND ABILITY. IT’S THE BEST OF EVERYTHING… HAND IN HAND.
Redbreast ‘Mano a Lámh’, celebrates the relationship and shared passions between the Midleton Distillery and the collective of artisans in Spain, which have crafted our sherry butts for more than 20 years.
Once felled in the forests of Galicia, north-west Spain, the 150 year old wood is treated by some of the country’s most prestigious craftsmen. The Antonio Páez Lobato Bodega crafts the oak into casks, which are then seasoned with Oloroso sherry for two years at the Páez Morilla Bodega in the nearby sherry capital of the world, Jerez. The sherry is then decanted and the butts are transported by boat to the Midleton Distillery, Co. Cork, to be filled with new-make Single Pot Still Irish whiskey for maturation.
Kevin O’Gorman, Head of Maturation.
“We selected three very special casks. We focused in on the sherry element of Redbreast, people love the sherry contribution- the dried fruits, the sultanas, the raisin the nutmeg, the cinnamon, that sort of flavour profile. We’ve taken this out of Redbreast 12 and focused in on it for ‘Mano a Lámh’.”Billy Leighton, Master Blender.
“For me, Redbreast ‘Mano a Lámh’ offers a distinctive, rich whiskey with intense flavours of dried fruit, which gives way to the perfection of the Spanish oak, but I look forward to hearing what our Stillhouse members think of this rare expression.”
Here’s what I think: I bought two and am currently trying to find a way around the purchase limit to buy two more. And I have no job.
More images from the thing I was at that I wasn’t meant to tell anyone about. It was in the distillery here in Midleton and was a sneak peek at the new Redbreast expression, Mano A Lámh, which is exclusively aged in sherry barrels, or butts as they are amusingly known. I like sherry butts and I cannot lie, and the new whiskey is going on sale tomorrow online at singlepotstill.com. It’s a limited edition, only 2,000 being released (initially), and is 65 yoyo. Limits of two per customer, so I can’t go too mad. Also, if I buy any more whiskey I think my wife might leave me.
Anyway, Mano A Lámh is lovely – sweet and delicious. I’d highly recommend it, but then I am on the dole and would therefore drink melted-down shoe polish to escape the drudgery of everyday life.
This is the only thing I found vaguely interesting in American Sniper. Even as propaganda for the US’s military industrial complex, it’s crap. I’ve seen more critical engagement with world politics in Call Of Duty. Jameson seem to be spending more and more on their product placement – they were all over True Detective, and even managed to shoehorn a Jameson juicebox into Sons Of Anarchy. The message is clear – if you are a morally ambiguous murderer, drink Jameson…responsibly. Also, don’t go to see American Sniper as it is balls.
RTÉ’s Mary ‘Benjamin Button’ Kennedy and Marty ‘Martyred Saint’ Whelan abduct a child to celebrate St Valentine’s Day some time back. God be with the days when you could do this sort of thing, now the PC police would be all ‘child protection this’ and ‘WTF that’. Back in the 1990s you could buy a bouquet of posies and a naked human child for as little as one of your Irish púnts.
Triple Distilled Communications 