Ireland News Update – October 2012

IRELAND GIVEN THE RUN-AROUND BY EU OVER DEBT DEAL The ongoing saga regarding the restructuring of Ireland’s bank debt has taken a number of major turns. In June the Irish government triumphantly announced that a deal had been brokered whereby some Irish bank debts would in fact be paid for by a new European Union mechanism. A ‘game-changer’ and ‘seismic shift’ were some of the terms used at the time. In the months that followed though the realization of exactly what this involves seems to have dawned on the Germans who recently emphatically stated that the new mechanism would only … Continue reading Ireland News Update – October 2012

Bram Stoker – The Creator of Dracula

Until quite recently it was a little know fact that the creator of perhaps the worlds most famous villain was an Irishman from Clontarf in Dublin. Bram Stoker was born in 1847 to Dubliner Abraham Stoker and Donegal native Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley. The third of seven children the young Bram Stoker was bed-ridden for much of his first seven years, a period that gave him much opportunity for reflection and creative thought: ‘I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years.’ He recovered … Continue reading Bram Stoker – The Creator of Dracula

Blame an Irishman for all of the Vampires on TV and in Cinema

I have always blamed Buffy. It was just one vampire TV series after another and then endless vampire movies and clearly ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ was to blame. Maybe it is when you reach a certain age that you begin to incorrectly assign all occurrences of a cultural event to one particularly irritating occurrence of it? Never-ending Kristen Stewart and Robert Patterson? Buffy caused that! A seemingly good movie takes a detour down a vampire path – Blame Buffy!! A muppet starts counting in Dracula-speak on Sesame Street – BLAME BUFFY!!! Wait a minute – that cant be right. And … Continue reading Blame an Irishman for all of the Vampires on TV and in Cinema