Regular readers may, by now, have picked up on the fact that I am a bit of a Plastic Paddy. My mum is Irish, my dad was about 99% Irish (I think I had one half-English Great Grandmother) so, even though I wasn't born there, I feel a great affinity for the country and take an interest in it. Also, unless you have lived under a stone for the last decade, you will have noticed that the good old Celtic Tiger has lost most of its teeth and is now a shambling wreck.
One of the things that most appeals to me about the Irish is their sense of humour (TS and I can quote great tranches of Father Ted verbatim) and their predilection for plain speaking. Back in November, this was the front page of the Irish Daily Star:
For those unfamiliar with Irish politics, the guy in the centre with the microphone is Brian Cowen, the then Taoiseach and the others are his cabinet. It would be interesting to see how a similarly bald headline about our own coalition government would go down in politically correct England!
And talking of plain speaking - how's this for the view of the man on the street?
Made me laugh, anyway...
One of the things that most appeals to me about the Irish is their sense of humour (TS and I can quote great tranches of Father Ted verbatim) and their predilection for plain speaking. Back in November, this was the front page of the Irish Daily Star:
For those unfamiliar with Irish politics, the guy in the centre with the microphone is Brian Cowen, the then Taoiseach and the others are his cabinet. It would be interesting to see how a similarly bald headline about our own coalition government would go down in politically correct England!
And talking of plain speaking - how's this for the view of the man on the street?
Made me laugh, anyway...