Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Dec 20, 2011, 12:06 pm
After a disappointing year in 2010, this year was considerably better at the movies. There were a number of big disappointments (I'm thinking mainly of Terrence Malick, Lynne Ramsay, Gus Van Sant, Steve McQueen and the Coen brothers) and some recently flourishing national cinemas (Taiwan and Germany... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Dec 19, 2011, 6:10 am
A far from definitive list, but rather a selection of the better stuff I read this year, minus the more canonical works (I could regale you with my Panglossian enthusiasm for some guy called Shakespeare but maybe I shouldn't). Eagle-eyed readers will notice most the books here were not published thi... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Dec 20, 2010, 4:11 pm
It wasn't the greatest of years for cinema, to be honest, and it's hard to figure why, unless the planets pulled sufficiently at once to put filmmakers from Buenos Aires to Tokyo to Rome sufficiently off their game. There were certainly no more bad films than usual out there this year (though certai... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jul 12, 2010, 5:11 pm
Spain carry off the World Cup, deservedly so, and even if they did not manage to impose their dominance on the tournament as firmly as they and many neutrals would have liked, they were certainly the best team in South Africa. There has been a lot said about the standard of the World Cup just passed... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jul 5, 2010, 11:20 am
The Netherlands and Spain have something in common in this World Cup in that they have reached the semi-finals without playing terribly well but also because they have both conquered a bogeyman that they would always have to slay in order to win the tournament for the first time. For the Dutch it wa... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jul 5, 2010, 10:33 am
A friend spent the first few days of the World Cup in Uruguay and Argentina, and was in Montevideo for the celeste's first match against France. As the friend was coming from Paris, his hosts assumed he would be supporting les bleus. He explained he wasn't because of the Thierry Henry handball, whic... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 17, 2010, 5:48 pm
As an Irishman, it would be too easy to savour les bleus being predictably cut down to size, and I have to admit that the fact both goals came from debatable refereeing decisions made their misfortune all the more delightful. But we have to give credit to Mexico. The glimmers of promise visible in t... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 17, 2010, 10:01 am
The slow start is almost engrained in our conscience as a prerequisite for a lengthy run in the World Cup, or any other tournament. The truth is however, there is a finite number of teams afforded a slow start (and the implication is these are the big ones). Germany and Italy have historically been ... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 16, 2010, 6:07 pm
Like many, I was cheering on North Korea - or the DPR Korea, as its manager Kim Jong-hun, is fond of reminding foreign journalists - in their match against Brazil last night. The team, possibly benefiting from their international isolation, appeared completely unawed by their date with the five-time... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 14, 2010, 6:32 am
My dear Netherlands play Denmark in a wee while. The current Danish side might not follow quite the same Dutch-inspired ethos as Sepp Piontek's wonder team of the mid 1980s (and Richard Moller-Nielsen's 1992 European Champions certainly didn't) but the Danes do have a pleasing honesty about their pl... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 12, 2010, 7:14 am
It's all under way and it was an opening day that was familiar in its mix of sporadic drama and grinding boredom. What drama there was came in the second half of the opening game. After an initial ten-minute period early on where the hosts South Africa looked in danger of being overrun by Mexico's m... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 11, 2010, 1:53 pm
It was already easy, as an Irishman, to choose sides in tonight's Group A match between France and Uruguay. I have to say though that the look of the current Uruguayan side, with what is one of the most electrifying strike force in world football, Luís Suárez of Ajax and Atlético's Diego Forlán ... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Jun 10, 2010, 5:50 pm
This occasional blog will become less occasional for the duration of the World Cup, barring other commitments and laziness. As I remarked when I posted around the time of the draw, few of us, not even professional football journalists, really know anything about any of the teams of the World C... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Feb 9, 2010, 2:35 am
There's an air of the consolation prize about Ireland's Group B draw for the Euro 2012 qualifiers; perhaps this is what Sepp Blatter meant by the 'moral recompense' that was due us for suffering Thierry Henry's creative machinations last November. It's probably the best possible draw we could have e... Comment - Like
Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on
The Pleasures of Underachievement
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Feb 2, 2010, 4:09 pm
A rare plug here for the Hollywood self-congratulation fest, the Oscars, only really because of the unprecedented presence of three Irish films among the nominations, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty in the Best Animated Short category and The Door for Best Short. And there was also a welcome surpri... Comment - Like
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