How long until Martin Scorsese makes a movie about this guy?Â
Say what you will about the ethics of it all, but you have be a little awed by the fact that he found businessmen willing to fund a 280-acre estate, a private island, a yacht, a helicopter business for his son and a jet-setting second life with his mistress. That’s the kind of resourcefulness I want in my Prime Minister!
I spent Sunday enjoying one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I curled up on the couch and re-read “The Dead,” the final story in James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.” I love the story because of its prose, its melacholy and its relative accessibility.
But mostly I love it because it’s one of the few Joyce works in which he openly misses Ireland. Though he spent most his adulthood in bitter, self-imposed exile, “The Dead” allows Joyce to surrender himself to the longings of family, music and home during the holidays. If a cynic like Joyce can’t overcome Christmastime nostalgia, what chance do the rest of us have?
If you head to an American beach town, you will see Bob Marley and Irish Drinking t-shirts on sale at every vendor. On SaintPatricksDay, people across the globe gather together wearing green, making toasts, and getting hammered. A fact; God created beer to prevent the Irish from taking over the world. And everyone knows that the only difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral is one less drunk.Â
In many instances (too many???), when people think of the Irish, they associate it with the over consumption of alcohol. Folks are drawn to Irish culture because they link it with drinking and having a good time…but is this for better or worse? Is it something that Irish individuals should work to change or embrace? Is this a fair sterotype?  Is this perspective an Irish-American one or do people around the world think similarly of the Irish?Â
What do you think?