Is fearr a bheith ag lorg bídh ná a bheith ag lorg goile. It is better to be looking for food than to be looking for an appetite. Happy Thanksgiving.  I'm grateful for your company. Sláinte!

Congratulations to Irish filmmaker Nicky Phelan, whose animated short Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty made the shortlist for Oscar in the Best Animated Short category. We can't vote, but we'll root for you! Here's a quick clip of the film, all depth...

Ireland's drenched already--in the last week, it's seen the worst floods in 800 years in Ennis and Cork, and now neighborhoods are filling Shannonside. There's water all around. (I was impressed mightily by the mere 400-year cycle, nine years ago.)...

Imagine us, full of hot air. Here's Belfast poet Derek Mahon with "Dirigibles," his poem that floats high above the recession with its own omniscient perspective:

My songs shall see the ruins of the hills,My songs shall sing the dirges of the stars. Today is the birthday of Joseph Plunkett who, at the age of 28, was executed by firing squad in the courtyard of Kilmainham Gaol with his friends and fellow...