Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 25, 2009, 1:08 pm
There's been an unusual silence from me in the seven days since the match last week largely because I have followed Virginia Woolf's injunctive never to write when one is angry. While that ang...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 18, 2009, 9:46 am
A quick note before I head off to the Stade de France for the second leg of the World Cup final play-off. I have to admit I'm being realistic about the chances for the Boys in Green. France are 65...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 14, 2009, 4:30 am
Ireland kick off against France at Croke Park tonight in the first leg of the World Cup play-offs. The game takes place against a backdrop of sometimes bizarre fervour, whipped up by both the Irish me...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 7, 2009, 10:15 am
Reading in France Football today, I learned that French manager Raymond Domenech made his debut as a player for the national side against none other than Ireland. It was a World Cup qualifier at the P...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 5, 2009, 10:49 am
The estimable French football magazine So Foot tells me that the French Football Federation, sore at their Irish counterpart doing their own deal with M6, a French TV chain not partnered with the FFF,...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 5, 2009, 10:27 am
I'm of the opinion, like many others, that those at the very top of the football-playing pyramid get paid rather obscenely inflated salaries. And, even if one can defend them on a market-based rat...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Nov 5, 2009, 9:54 am
Following on the controversy over the Toronto International Film Festival's showcasing Tel-Aviv a couple of months back, the roadshow moves on to Paris. Le Forum des Halles, the excellent municipa...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Oct 30, 2009, 7:22 am
The first 49,000 tickets for the Ireland-France playoff second leg in the Stade de France sold out in hours last week, quicker than I expected. French football fans may have been heeding Raymond Domen...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Oct 30, 2009, 3:09 am
Sad news yesterday on the death of Irish backpacker Gearóid Walsh in Sydney following a late-night fight. But this report from the Sydney Morning Herald is humbling in how it shows the forgiveness an...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Oct 20, 2009, 9:56 am
I had a premonition we were going to end up playing France in the play-off for a World Cup final spot. I can't say I'm too disappointed with it either, even though an open draw for the play-of...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 26, 2009, 9:34 am
In an era where any old fool can film something and post it on YouTube, it's a real pleasure to discover this week two hidden pearls from a time when home movies weren't quite so ubiquitous an...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 23, 2009, 7:21 am
Another good break for friends of mine this week. My friends Chris, Alex and Dave opened the doors of their bar/restaurant Chair de Poule* in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. It's a small but cha...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 23, 2009, 7:06 am
Enormous news from New York Monday night where my friend of many years (and former colleague in more than one job) Tim Grucza received the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in the fie...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 22, 2009, 6:34 am
Raymond Domenech is once again an embattled man forced to put on a brave face as the players under his command mutiny and succeed in undoing the damage he has inflicted on the French national team ove...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 19, 2009, 4:03 am
A quote, unsourced alas, from the great Liam O'Flaherty I read last night: There are some writers whom one immediately recognises, bookish fellows whose drawing-room civilisation obtrudes unplea...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 17, 2009, 12:48 pm
John Greyson's entirely reasonable decision to protest the Toronto International Film Festival's City-to-City spotlight on Tel-Aviv (and the supporting letter from a group of activists, artist...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 16, 2009, 7:53 am
This is a film that has been and gone most places but I'll give it a mention because I wasn't on blog duty when it came out a few months back. Tony Manero is the tale of Raúl, a 52-year-old n...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 16, 2009, 7:34 am
... sells the most records, it's public demand that decides that. And for sport too, the public digs into its pockets to go see the best. It's not the same in the world of finance: ... onl...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 12, 2009, 7:19 am
I fell asleep at the cinema last night. It may have been for ten or fifteen minutes, or maybe even for less but it was enough to disorient me and make me lose track of Christophe Honoré's new fil...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 11, 2009, 11:23 am
Fred Halliday has a fine piece at Open Democracy about Libya on the 4th anniversary of Colonel Gaddafi's 'revolution' which led to the establishment of the Jamahiriya. Halliday's artic...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 11, 2009, 10:57 am
Brice Hortefeux, Nicolas Sarkozy's former chief Immigrant Hunter, and the current Minister for the Interior, is the centre of a row surrounding a 'bit of slagging' he indulged in at the UM...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 11, 2009, 9:23 am
'Faut-il cracher sur Joe Wilson?' as the French would say. The South Carolina Congressman has been the villain of the piece ever since his boorish two-word heckling of Barack Obama Wednesday d...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 11, 2009, 8:57 am
More on Twitter, Iran, old and new media. Roger Cohen has done some great reporting from Iran in the past year, and incurred the wrath of right-wing Zionists such as Jonah Goldberg for suggesting that...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 10, 2009, 7:44 am
An Argentinian friend remarked to me a couple of months ago that European qualification for the World Cup is pretty damn easy. He didn't say this out of sour grapes at his country's current di...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 10, 2009, 6:51 am
A rare rugby post here. Biarritz and Bayonne play the big Basque derby in France's Top 14 on Saturday. Biarritz president, former French winger and consummate businessman Serge Blanco has decided ...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 8, 2009, 5:47 am
Something from last weekend. An opinion piece, written by a former US national security advisor, in the normally lucid and admirable Christian Science Monitor that calls for Twitter to be nominated fo...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 7, 2009, 2:18 pm
Yeah, a lot of you will feel cheated by that title, as this post is not about hurling. I would have liked to have seen the All-Ireland yesterday but a second trip to an Irish pub in eighteen hours did...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 6, 2009, 5:37 am
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 6, 2009, 5:17 am
Watching last night's game, a friend argued that Irish supporters have unrealistically high expectations for a bunch of players that aren't really that great. Mother Teresa himself, Niall Quin...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 5, 2009, 12:27 pm
An hour to kick off in Nicosia. A lot has been said about Ireland's last trip to Cyprus, that notorious 5-2 defeat three years ago but that result is not going to be replicated tonight, it was, as...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 5, 2009, 11:51 am
I went to see Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl today, the latest film by the 100-year-old veteran Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira (and his third film in as many years). It's an adapta...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 5, 2009, 5:23 am
Harry Ayres, whose column is one of the best reasons to buy the weekend FT, has a lovely account today of a four-hour discussion of the first 13 minutes of Bill Douglas' My Childhood at the Nation...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 3, 2009, 2:25 pm
An indication of the parallel universe I inhabit is the fact that today's big news was the word from Venice of Brendan Gleeson's directorial debut. Old Ginger Chops is no shrinking violet give...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 2, 2009, 3:01 am
The first international break of the season provides an opportunity to recap on the football so far. Chelsea under Carlo Ancellotti have been looking impressive so far, much to my chagrin, and it look...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Sep 1, 2009, 11:56 am
Like many others, I've been having some fun searching the 1911 census, which the National Archives in Dublin have just put online. I've done a bit of detective work seeking out the Becketts of...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 31, 2009, 6:13 am
James Kelman, one of my favourite writers, and one of the greatest living British writers, is a chippy fellow. And sometimes with reason, given the reception to his work at the Booker Prize ceremonies...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 31, 2009, 2:35 am
Crisis or no crisis, it doesn't seem to be affecting Dublin's cinemas. After the resurrection of the Lighthouse last year, now Omniplex (those behind the Savoy, the Screen and the big one out ...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 30, 2009, 7:44 am
I finished reading Why England Lose & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski a few weeks ago and meant to post on it before now but I let it drag. It's an i...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 30, 2009, 7:14 am
L'Équipe had an interview with Steve Savidan the other day (unfortunately there's no link, as L'Équipe wisely protects its print edition by running only a cursory website). Savidan was a...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 28, 2009, 10:36 am
Le Monde reports French educationalists are soul-searching over French students' poor showing in an international TOEFL league table. France ranked 69th out of 109 countries in prowess at speaking...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 28, 2009, 7:09 am
It's not only fluff we post here; sometimes we go for the hardcore ephemera that is so ephemeral one barely notices it ephemerating before one's very eyes. It's like Marty McFly in those p...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 27, 2009, 2:55 pm
I meant to post a couple of weeks back on a review by Fintan O'Toole on Flann O'Brien's Collected Novels (Everyman edition) that appeared in the New York Review of Books recently but I was...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 27, 2009, 2:08 am
Joe Queenan is, as a friend of mine and a fellow fan put it a few years back, a very facile man. Queenan is also consistently funny, as anyone who has read his masterpieces of snide humour will attest...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 25, 2009, 11:34 am
I am mostly agnostic on Quentin Tarantino these days and I didn't expect to much like Inglourious Basterds but I was shocked to discover on watching it on Sunday night that it was actually very go...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 25, 2009, 11:19 am
AquariumDrinker asks if cassette tapes were the perfect music technology. Not a fashionable opinion by any means and, despite having a pretty hefty collection of cassettes gathering dust in an attic b...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 25, 2009, 10:59 am
If I'm going to praise Jon Stewart, I should also proffer plaudits to The Nation's Jeremy Scahill, whose ongoing reporting investigates Blackwater and the CIA's collusion in the alleged mu...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 24, 2009, 8:26 am
After having a go at the US media yesterday, I have to salute one of the truly great American newsmen, who presents a show on the Comedy Channel. Yes, I'm talking about Jon Stewart. People have sa...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 23, 2009, 10:58 am
Well done to Ireland's athletes who performed well in the World Championships in Berlin, only one year after being tarred as failures at the Beijing Olympics by the media. A silver medal for Olive...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 23, 2009, 10:14 am
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi walked free yesterday, having been freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish executive. The US is outraged, as, understandably are many families of victims of the Lockerbie ...
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Seanachie Ó Fearraigh posted an article on The Pleasures of Underachievement - Aug 19, 2009, 3:02 pm
The open-air cinema at Parc de la Villette wound up for another year the other night. It went out on a fittingly high note, with Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, the B-movie par excellence, a film wh...
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