Ten minutes with…Jimmy Cricket

COMEDIAN Jimmy Cricket was born James Mulgrew in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone and brought up in Belfast. He first rose to fame in the 1970s after winning a TV talent show. Jimmy was subsequently given his own television series on a show called And There's More produced by Central Television. Jimmy Cricket What are you up to? In between writing Christmas cards, I’m promoting my new … [Read more...] about Ten minutes with…Jimmy Cricket

NOSTALGIA for Ireland among exiles perhaps conjures occasionally unrealistic images of a distant past in which we are all living in quaint thatched cottages, kneeling in a circle in the living room to say the rosary together each evening. And that Ireland is not so far in the past that some older people cannot recall it. There may indeed be a thatched cottage somewhere on the … [Read more...] about Ireland’s beauty faces environmental challenges

IS THERE a more treasured Irish songwriter than Christy Moore? That’s a rhetorical question, of course, because in the past 50 years to so, between the jigs of Planxty, the reels of the Bothy Band, the numerous solo albums and countless gigs, Moore has carved out a place for him and his songs that is forever golden. His new album, A Terrible Beauty, continues mining the seam … [Read more...] about ON THE RECORD: New Irish music releases you need to hear

ONE of the peculiarities of the Irish electoral system is that you can see exactly how many people in your area fully align with your politics. In the proportional representation system we use, each constituency returns a number of TDs and they are elected both by those who have given them their first preference and those who have given them their second, third, fourth and on … [Read more...] about The value of voting in an era of apathy

This Friday in Zurich, Ireland will learn who they will face in their World Cup qualification group. The formats of UEFA and FIFA's tournaments can be confusing, so here's a simple breakdown of how things work. The New World Cup FormatThe old World Cup format pitted 32 teams into eight groups of four and onto the knockout rounds. For the 2026 tournament, it expands to 48 … [Read more...] about A simplified explanation of how Ireland can make the 2026 World Cup