That’s Ireland

As Bertie Ahern’s fate unfolded yesterday, I had this nagging feeling that I had seen it somewhere before. Then I remembered this old episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, in which Ringo Starr’s commentary is a surreally perfect allegory for the morality tale of Thomas the Tribunal versus Bertie the Bluffer.

This is what might have been if Oasis were from Donegal (a video tribute from YouTube user Cornyack):

On the day that Martin McGuinness joined Ian Paisley in condemning the Real IRA for threatening a return to violence, Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly struck a blow for traditional Republicanism by winning the overall prize, and best animation, at last night’s Irish Digital Media Awards.

This morning an angry Ding Dong rejected allegations that he had sold out on his principles by attending the €250-a-plate awards dinner. ‘In some ways it wasn’t easy watching a film about the famine being celebrated by people stuffing their faces,’ he admitted. ‘But the British have illegally occupied far too much of cyberspace and, even though cyberspace doesn’t really exist, it is still our duty as Republicans to claim it back for Ireland. Also, it is nice, after so many centuries of struggle, to be able to have both a feast and a famine at the same time.’

Paul Woodfull, creator of the unreconstructed Republican balladeer, was more circumspect about his portrayal in animated form. ‘I’m still getting used to seeing myself represented in photographic form,’ he said. ‘So it was nice that Brown Bag films were able to tweak Ding Dong’s appearance.’

The winning entry was an animated version of Ding Dong explaining the history of Ireland in five minutes to a confused tourist. The animation is by Brown Bag Films in Dublin’s Smithfield Market. It used to be available on YouTube, but it has been removed, presumably by British securicrats. However, you can see it here on Brown Bag’s website. (Warning - this is a very slow connection, so you are probably better off downloading it from the link than watching it on the Brown Bag site.)


Here is the full list of all of the award-winners: >>> (more…)

Episode Ten of Dublin Stories, by Diet of Worms and Novara Films, is - as expected - both hilariously depressing and depressingly hilarious. This disturbingly realistic mockumentary follows the earnest Anne Kramer through a day that revolves largely around making friends and enemies on the Internet.

Diet of Worms now also host a blog called Call of the Puffincat, and are starting a new comedy club called the Puffincat Club. The first night is on Wednesday February 20th, in the Bewley’s Café Theatre on Grafton Street, with Jarlath Regan headlining.

If you’ve seen Arthur Riordan’s hilarious musical Improbable Frequency, you’ll enjoy this video trailer for it:

Robbie Bonham is a very funny multi-talented comedian, cartoonist and illustrator. Here he is explaining politics, religion and racism in four minutes.

Here is his website, his YouTube channel, and after this break, some more videos of Robbie in action and his cartoons. >>> (more…)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me… a video of Fairytale of Drumcondra, Bertie Ahern and Digout Des Richardson’s version of Shane McGowan’s Fairytale of New York.

And here are the lyrics: >>> (more…)

Here is an excellent video analysis, from YouTube user Aggressive Secularist, about why the Irish census underestimates the number of atheists and agnostics in Ireland.

And here is part two of the video, in which Aggressive Secularist challenges an article by David Quinn about the strength of religion in Ireland: >>> (more…)

Nostalgia time again, with some RTE memories. Here’s the Bosco theme tune.

Still to come are:

• Wanderly Wagon Theme Tune
• Glenroe Theme Tune
• RTE Test Card in Black & White
• National Anthem at Closedown

And here they are: >>> (more…)

Here’s an animated version of Paul Woodfull’s republican balladeer Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, explaining the history of Ireland in five minutes to a confused tourist. The animation is by Brown Bag Films in Dublin’s Smithfield Market.

UPDATE: This used to be available on YouTube, but it has been removed, presumably by British securicrats. However, you can see it here on Brown Bag’s website. (Warning - this is a very slow connection, so you are probably better off downloading it from the link than watching it on the Brown Bag site.)


Today is exactly six months since the first post on That’s Ireland, which was this video about Ireland’s 2007 Eurovision entry, They Can’t Stop the Spring by John Waters. By coincidence, it had nearly the same title and chorus as a twenty-year-old song, Can’t Stop the Spring by the Flaming Lips.

So thank you very much for reading or commenting on or linking to That’s Ireland between May and today, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops over the next six months.

I’ve posted before about Dublin Stories, the comedy mockumentary series by Diet of Worms and Novara Films. This is one of my favourites, with Cliona and Greg competing for the award for Best Walking Tour Guide of Dublin. It’s very funny throughout, and is topped with an unexpectedly perfect ending.

You can see all of the episodes here, along with more films by Novara. The most recent, Orflaith & Vincent, features two workers in the impressively named firm Nugent and Nugent Surveys, which is the largest independent survey company in the world. Well, in Ireland, anyway. In Ireland, yeah.

To celebrate the run-up to Digout Day on December 7th, here is a video version of Fianna Fail’s Fifty Ways to Laugh at Voters, to the music of Paul Simon’s Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, with some extra material during the choruses.

Click Here to Email a Friend about this Video

If you enjoyed the video, here is the post that it is based on:
Fianna Fail’s Fifty Ways to Laugh at Voters.

And don’t forget to check out the Digout Day site.

Here are some videos from YouTube of Ireland football fans enjoying themselves, starting with one of my favourite Irish football fan moments - Ireland fans in the Stade de France singing the French national anthem without knowing any of the words to it.


There are seven more clips just a click away:

• Ireland fans singing Stand Up (and Sit Down) for the Boys in Green.
• Ireland fans joining a Hare Krishna parade singing Ole Ole Ole.
• Northern Ireland fans singing Hare, Hare, Give Us a Song.

• Northern Ireland fans singing We’re Not Brazil, We’re Northern Ireland.
• Northern Ireland fans singing a hymn to David Healy, Healy, Healy.
• Donegal Celtic fans dancing to One Step Beyond by Madness.
• Two Sligo Rovers fans dancing to Dancing Queen by Abba.

And here they are: >>> (more…)

Two weeks ago thugs from Dublin attacked the Tavern Bar in Derry, before the League Cup Final. Last Friday, I and other genuine Bohemians fans presented €1,000 to the owner of the bar as a gesture of solidarity. We collected the money at our last home game, against Galway United, and we presented it to him last Friday in his bar, mixing together with locals and Derry City fans, in sporting rivalry and personal friendship. Here we are making the donation:

The event was a great success, and was a very emotional occasion with Mr Curry and his customers saying they would never have believed that there would be such a mix of people in their bar. There were fans and directors of both Bohemians and Derry City, most visiting the bar for the first time ever, mixing with the usual customers, plus the Mayor of Derry Drew Thompson of the DUP, Councillor Sean Carr of the SDLP, and Dean William Morton. >>> (more…)

I’ve just spent some time enjoying This is Rapid News, a very funny podcast that Dubliner Mark Cantan produces every Monday. Episode 8, from last Monday, has two great interviews with a car dealer who is selling a lot of cars very cheaply using the Radiohead download model of letting customers choose their own price, and a drug addict who is so desperate to get a fix that he has moved to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban.

Mark also has some comedy sketches on Youtube, including this job interview that is hindered by an unusual condition:

And written material on his website, including the following: >>> (more…)

You may have seen this before but, even if you have, it’s worth another look. It’s Karl McDermott’s very short epic Eggs, directed by James Cotter.


Dublin Stories is a series of comedy mockumentary films made by Novara Films and comedy sketch group Diet of Worms. They’re pretty dark, some literally as well as metaphorically, and they are very funny in a very realistic, very surrealistic type of way. Here’s episode one:

Here are two more that I really like, plus a link to the full collection. >>> (more…)

The creators of Magnum PI were careful to avoid Irish stereotypes in this 1983 episode titled Faith and Begorrah. The story supposedly starts in Armagh, where an Irish priest called Father Paddy McGuinness, who suprisingly has a fondness for whiskey, suspects a British army brigadier of stealing the ashes of Saint Patrick’s crozier while searching his church for IRA weapons. Here’s the first few minutes of the episode, culminating in Father McGuinness meeting Magnum in a bar and accusing him of blasphemy for ordering a Virgin Mary.

Lots more Armagh-related videos are just a click away, including:

• The Rectangularabout and Curly Wurly Bridge in Craigavon
• Gloria Hunniford getting gunged on Noel’s House Party
• Three strange penalty kicks in honour of William McCrum
• The Grand Master of the Orange Order of Ghana
• Armagh Winning the 2002 All Ireland Final

Here they are: >>> (more…)

You may have already seen this hypnotically fun dance video - it’s Sophie Merry from Dublin, known variously as Groovy Dancing Girl and BandyToaster, dancing at a million beats a second to Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster Stronger.

Well, Sophie and editor Bill Brady have recently put another video online. Here she is again, this time dancing to Justice’s Phantom: >>> (more…)