With it being a long weekend, we’ve been partying at Swearing Towers, beering and boozing and singing and coming to blows over who was the best Batman. And as such, I’m hungover.

I knew I had to be prepared for visiting ye ould breeding grounds this week; County Galway can generate such cumbersome states of mind. Which is why I brought novels with me!

As it’s Builders’ Holidays in Ireland at the moment (a nationally-recognised breather for those of us in the construction industry; that should give you some clue as to how engrained the practise of throwing together …

Vengeance is a dish.
No, that’s it. Just a dish. A big, scrumptious, dreamy dish, best served seven ways from sundown if that’s your fancy, with a cherry on top and one of those crisp caramel …

Had I foreseen that “clairvoyance” would never be my most admired skill, I would have stopped putting it on my c.v. years ago. Hindsight is a fine(r) thing.

Because hookers are legal. Because there are stone walls and the grass is green. Because you’re positively encouraged to be shcuttered, fluthered, or just plain dhrunk (extra h’s mandatory).

Like Jimmy Rabbitte from Roddy Doyle’s “The Commitments”, or the other three from U2, I’ve often fantasised about being interviewed.

The school year is over. MiniMe prepares for second class. I start clearing the bank account of the non-essentials – direct debits, loan repayments, sponsorship for blind orphaned cripples in Bangladesh – in preparation for …