CÚIRTÉAS BOYLAN

Category: CURRENT AFFAIRS

  • When there are no leaders the tail wags the dog – Act I

    There are seminal moments in life whch, if you’ve witnessed or been around for, you will never forget where you were when the occurrance took place. Like, as has often got a spin in this space, for the Omagh Bombing, 9/11 and the subsequent American invasion of Iraq, wheels transporting yours truly were parked in…

  • Trump used sport for his own benefit

    Roy Keane has had many famous utterances throughout his playing, management and subsequent media career. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail” may be the most famous thereof, but, for me, his correct excoriation of the “Prawn Sandwich Brigade”. Those corrosive pests are in every sport. The suits in Croke Park on an All Ireland weekend…

  • Closing the stable door when the ginnit has long bolted

    You’ve often heard mention of Maurice Healy’s wonderful documentary Waiting For Houlihan which was basically the mountain of a man from the mountains of Kerry telling his own story in his own words. Interspersed therein also, mind you, were tributes to the great man from such contemporaries as Tony Meade of The Kerryman and Eoghan…

  • Land of the brainwashed and home of the gullible

    During my time in secondary education, there was very little mention of politics. For a political nerd and/or history junkie like myself, that was a major disappointment. Notwithstanding the fact that I detested the history teacher for deeply personal reasons, we were weighed down with talk of the Stone Age and the Romans and Pompeii.…

  • Turkeys devouring the feast oblivious to the guillotine above their heads

    Though this might seem preposterous, this corner has managed to derive some positives out of the ongoing chaos laying siege to the world. It was a case of having to or allow oneself to become snowed under in a blizzard of bad news, poor outlooks and, most dangerous of all, very little hope left in…

  • Going for the ‘big story’ when there is no story is just pure badness

    Going for the ‘big story’ when there is no story is just pure badness

    Take our own case as a starting point, small though it may be in scale. Strip away the whole debacle that is Covid-19 and the fact that both dad and Paul have been struck by illness and injury respectively at various stages during the year. More fundamentally, the fact simply was that the prices weanling…

  • Forty shades of green – none of them envious

    Forty shades of green – none of them envious

    The conclusion to the 2012 All Ireland SFC and MFC were, in hindsight, very special times for the occupant of this seat. Most obviously owing to Meath being involved in the concluding stages of the Minor. A Meath team managed by Andy McEntee and with Seamus Lavin, Shane McEntee and Jason Daly aboard. The view…

  • The Memory Man and me

    The Memory Man and me

    One summer’s evening over a quarter century ago, whilst out for an evening stroll – my wonderful mother doing the walking, me observing from the cockpit – Brendan Reilly was encountered close to his family home. The Reilly homestead being close to St Peter’s GAA Club, enquiries were made as to why there was a…

  • Worrying times should leave a body thankful for simple graces

    Worrying times should leave a body thankful for simple graces

    The above statement could be ascribed to innumerable contexts. Most poignantly close to home in relation to what was unquestionably the most difficult year’s mileage these wheels have clocked up thus far. Unending thanks is expressed to those who aided conveyance through same.

  • Beef industry in danger of stifling its own potential

    Occasionally, dreams do come true. Earlier this year, it did for yours truly. Having been raised in and around farming – between there being cattle at home in years gone by and my brother working in farming for a long time – agriculture has always been one of the great loves in my life. Preceded…