Monthly Archives: March 2010

Greetings From Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore


I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy St Patrick’s Day. My own name is Pat, my late father’s was Paddy and my youngest nephew is called Patrick. So, here are a few songs from Irish singers about Pats, Paddys and Patricks as well as one “sung” by a Pat. I’m planning to spend the day absorbing myself in Irish culture. I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to entail, but I’ll let you know how it turns out


Uncle Pat – Ash

Poor Paddy – The Pogues

Paddy Rolling Stone – Shane MacGowan

Rock and Roll Paddy – Shane MacGowan

Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore – Paul Brady

Paddy’s Lament – Sinéad O’Connor

St Patrick’s Day – Damien Dempsey

The Jumbo Breakfast Roll – Pat Shortt

Níl Aon Tinteáin Mar Do Thinteáin Féin*


Seachtain na Gaeilge is taking place in Ireland this week as part of the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. According to its website, “Seachtain na Gaeilge is a non-profit organisation, which promotes the use of Irish language and culture both at home and abroad within a two-week festival held in March every year”. The literal translation of “Seachtain na Gaeilge” is “Irish Week” but in Ireland the concept of time is quite fluid and arbitrary. This year’s celebration of Irish culture began on the 5th of March and will finish on Paddy’s Day. Now, your definition of what constitutes Irish culture depends upon whether you consider yourself to be Irish or not and also upon where you call home. For example, many people who’ve never been to the Emerald Isle will possess an image of the country that has been constructed by Hollywood and the tourist industry. This Ireland is full of green fields, rolling hills and winding roads. The people that populate it are as untamed as their surroundings and filled with Celtic mysticism and Catholic guilt. The men drink far too much alcohol and this usually leads to drunken brawling. The women are just as feisty but are seen as being more religious than their male counterparts and given to having lots of babies

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Rich Hall’s Quite Interesting Visit to Limerick


Liverpool‘s late loss to Lille last night must have been deflating for Reds fan Mick Dolan but his spirits were surely raised by the huge turnout at his pub and two music venues. The bar was packed with regulars and visitors as well as loads of punters from the local college who were taking part in some sort of talent show as part of Seachtain na Gaeilge. There was also a fine crowd upstairs to see novelist and Richmond Fontaine frontman Willy Vlautin perform some Americana to a hushed and reverent crowd of music fans. I managed to catch the end of his gig as I had been at the Warehouse to see Vlautin’s fellow countryman Rich Hall play to a loud and irreverent crowd of comedy fans. Hall should be familiar to viewers of QI and Have I Got News For You and even to fans of The Simpsons (more about that later). I read about his “first visit to the treaty” when the Limerick Event Guide made it one of their 5 Best Buys for March. The Limerick Leader‘s Alan Owens also bigged up the gig in his article here where he opens with Hall’s connection to the Simpsons and his Perrier Comedy Award victory at the Edinburgh Fringe for his show about his alter ego, Otis Lee Crenshaw. He won the award in 2000 when he beat off strong competition from an impressive list of nominees that included Dave Gorman, Lee Mack, Catherine Tate, Garth Merenghi and Sean Lock

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None Shall Escape the Judgement



The 2010 Irish Blog awards shortlists were announced last night and I’m delighted to say I’ve made it onto two of the (not-so) shortlists. I’ve been nominated in the Insure.ie Best Popculture Blog and the deStudio Best Music Blog categories along with a couple of dozen other nominees in each category. Each blog may receive only one nomination in total and I have until just after lunch tomorrow to decide for which category I’d like to be considered. I must admit that I’m a bit undecided about which category to go for. What do you think? Should I put myself forward for the Best Popculture Blog or Best Music Blog category? Please let me know what you think in the comments below

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome first-time visitors from the Irish Blog Awards site to my humble blog. You’re very welcome to have a look around. I’d also like to thank all of my regular (and not so regular) visitors and friends who drop in from time to time. Thanks a million to those of you who take the time to read the various posts and for your comments and suggestions. And a big Thank You to those who took the time to nominate Town Full of Losers for the various categories. I recognise the names of many of the other nominees and I look forward to checking out the ones I haven’t come across before. Watch this space


Thank You Friends – Big Star

Thanks a Lot – Neko Case & Her Boyfriends

Thanks – The Wedding Present

Thank You (Led Zeppelin cover) – Tori Amos

Choices (George Jones cover) – Bettye Lavette

Voice Your Choice – The Radiants

Here Comes The Judge – Peter Tosh

None Shall Escape the Judgement – Johnny Clarke

Bob Dylan is Coming to Town!


It’s just been announced by Aiken Promotions that Bob Dylan will play Thomond Park in Limerick on American Independence Day this year. Holy fourth of July, Batman! The tickets go on sale on Monday, March 15th, at 9.00am through Ticketmaster and the usual outlets nationwide. I’ve previously written extensively about Mr Zimmerman here and here and I’m sure I’ll be writing a bit more about him over the coming months. I must say that I’m delighted that Bob is paying a visit to the little patch of Ireland that I’ve called home for the last 16 years. In fact, I’m so excited that I’m even going to get up early on Monday to get my ticket. After all that excitement I’m off to make a cup of tea to calm me down. See you all on the fourth of July!


Can’t Wait

On the Road Again

Tell Me That It Isn’t True

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

Sitting on Top of the World

Arthur McBride

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall [Live]

The Importance of Music to Girls


Tomorrow is International Women’s Day 2010. It is, according to the event’s website, “a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future”. The day has been celebrated for over a hundred years and is actually a public holiday in many countries, including China, Russia, Bulgaria and Vietnam. It’s not a holiday in Ireland but there are a lot of events taking place to celebrate the day, which you can read about here. The University of Limerick is hosting an International Women’s Day Conference entitled “Women & Recession: Strategies for Survival”

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Covering the Oscars

Tomorrow, the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood. This annual shindig is a huge marketing tool for the film industry and is a chance for members of the Academy to tell each other how great they all are. In the US, the large number of independent and low-budget films that have been nominated for Best Picture over the last few years has also led to a drop in TV viewers (and advertising revenue). I would argue that a deterioration in the quality of films coming out of Hollywood over the last few years may be the actual reason for this decline in audience numbers. I was shocked that Crash and Slumdog Millionaire were recent Oscar winners for Best Picture because I felt that both of these films were turkies. In an effort to get more people watching, the organisers have doubled the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. In order to fit clips from these extra titles into the show, something had to give. This year, the major casualties arising from this change will be the nominees for Best Original Song. The usual live performance will be replaced clips from the film from over which the song will appear. This year, Randy Newman will attempt to add to his solitary Oscar from 2001 as he is nominated twice. Perhaps he’s glad that he won’t have to perform as well

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World Book Day 2010


Today, lovers and sellers of books in Britain and Ireland have cause for celebration as March 4th has been designated World Book Day 2010 in the British Isles. The rest of the book-loving world will celebrate World Book Day on April 23rd. How come the British and Irish get to celebrate their collective love of books early, I hear you ask? Well, first let me tell you a little about the significance of April 23rd in literary circles. Both Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakepeare died on April 23rd 1616, although Shakespeare died ten days later as Spain was using the Gregorian calendar while England was using the Julian calendar. Although Shakespeare’s date of birth is not known, it is also given as April 23rd, which was also the date of Vladimir Nabokov’s birth. In 1920s Spain, women began to give books as presents to their lovers every April 23rd to complement the roses that men had been giving for centuries. Every year, 400,000 books are sold in Catalonia at the end of April, representing a whopping half of all books sold throughout the year. In recognition of all these April 23rd literary goings on, UNESCO decided to launch World Book Day on this date in 1995. The day is primarily aimed at schoolchildren in Britain and Ireland but, as it often coincides with the Easter holidays there, it takes place on the first Thursday in March instead

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