Indo col 44: In May 1846, a wagon train of pioneers set out for from Missouri for California, looking for a new life and the dream of fulfilling their manifest destiny. The group, led by George Donner and Armagh man James F Reed, became trapped by snow high in a pass known as Hastings Cutoff […]
Tag: paid work
Asimov, robots, humans, gods
Indo col 43: Isaac Asimov loved the future. As a professor of biochemistry and prolific science fiction writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books, along with a vast archive of correspondence. He is considered, along with Robert A Heinlein and Arthur C Clarke, one of the greatest names in sci-fi. Asimov’s embrace of […]
Bill Linnane – misogynist, love and other drugs, war, shifting
Hate to break it to you @Bill_Linnane but doing your half of the housework and caring for your own kids ain't romance! 💔 pic.twitter.com/Wj0xmY4F6N — Leslie Ann Horgan (@LeslieAnnHorgan) February 14, 2018 Indo col week 42, a Valentine’s special which has somehow made me History’s Greatest Monster. I am not especially romantic. My wife would […]
Brexit of champions, Irexit, Barrage, freedom
Wee 41 of the column and this time I get political, with terrible results. As a portmanteau, Brexit works quite well. It rolls of the tongue, and its similarity to the word breakfast gave great material to headline writers: Full English Brexit, Brexit buffet, bed and Brexit – all potentially great headlines. Granted, none of […]
Ash Valentine’s, Nollaig na mBan, huntsmen, love
Please spare a moment's thought for this poor fool, married to Ireland's Biggest Dickhead™ for a miserable 12 years today. #PrayForCiara #Condolences #NotOnTwitter pic.twitter.com/jMuDTQadsx — Bill Linnane (@Bill_Linnane) December 1, 2017 Week 37 of the column: Rejoice, cheapskates of Ireland – the stars have aligned and for the first time in decades, St Valentine’s Day, […]
Run, fitness, fatness, run some more
Week 36 of the column, in which I stare at myself naked in the mirror, crying: The Rarámuri are an indigenous people who live in the mountains northwestern Mexico, in the Sierra Madre. They didn’t always live here – this is where they fled to when the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century, and their […]
Happy Middleclassmas
Wrote this for the Indo as I am the go-to guy for middle class ennui. There are few events in the annual calendar more middle class than Christmas, save perhaps the Grand National, Irish Open or Ideal Homes Exhibition. It is a time of year to gather round the Rangemaster in the back kitchen, […]
The ghosts of Christmas past
Wrote this for the Indo about everyone I went to school with, burn in hell guys. Ah Christmas – a time to get together with old friends, when everyone comes back home and reunites, talks about how their lives have changed and gain a deeper understanding of who we really are, and the strange elliptical […]
Christmas, shops, Matt Damonnnn, Popefest
Week 35 – It turns out that I wasn’t all set for the Christmas at all. I think I was asked the question so many times that I actually lost all sense of the true meaning of being ‘all set for the Christmas’, and basically forgot that gift-buying actually takes a little bit of effort. […]
Varadkar kar away, more Brexit, Meehawlll, Celtic Phoenix
Week 34 – At this time of year, there is nothing better than settling down to enjoy a classic movie. I was delighted to catch a screening of Disney classic Darby O’Gill And The Little People at the weekend. It is a gem of a film: There is something so natural about the old […]
Taxes, welfare, Black Friday, KISS
Indo col week 30 I quite like paying taxes. This is partly because, as a low earner, I don’t pay a lot of tax. However, it is also because I have been so well supported by the State over the course of my life. In my 20s, I went from work to the dole to […]
Cars, freedom, men, Weinstein
Week 29: I am driving. Not as I write this – I’m not quite at that level of proficiency just yet, where I can stare down at a glowing screen in my lap while careering across lanes at 105kph. In fact, I’m not even at the stage where I can confidently pick my nose when […]
Gods, death, poppies, war
Week 28 of the column. Being an atheist is a lonely old slog. Most people will cling to the belief that there is something out there watching over us, be it Jesus, Yaweh, Allah or whatever MechaGodzilla the Scientologists funnel their taxes towards. Few people will actually offer such a bleak world view as the […]
The 12 drinks of Christmas
Wrote this for the Examiner: Our little nation may not have the respect for its food culture, but when it comes to drink, few nations do it better. The last two decades have seen us spread our wings, with an explosion of craft breweries, distilleries, even wineries. With all that we have to […]
It’s beginning to look a lot like advertorial
I wrote a few bits for the Examiner to go in a seasonal supplement on Midleton, naturally I started with the distillery, then a well-curated email interview with Ignacio, above, GM of the heritage centre, and a couple of other bits, including one on Iceland. You pay me and I will write about anything guys, […]
RTE, Supremes, JFK, Duchas
Week 26, six months of being an opinionista and nobody has threatened to kill me yet, WTF am I doing wrong? It seems odd that I grew up in the age of one TV channel. It doesn’t seem like a million years ago, but I can still remember the excitement when Network Two […]