The Death of the Irish Pub? "The smoking ban is the work of one man, Michael Martin, the Minister for Health and Children, and one of nature's killjoys... He is generally thought to regard the banning of nicotine from Irish pubs as a personal crusade, explaining that he once tried smoking but didn't enjoy it."

The ban was scheduled to start today, but has been delayed until March. It's one thing to have smoking banned in California and New York, but what's the point of pub that's not dark and smoky? And Scotland might be next...
posted by grabbingsand on Jan 1, 2004 - 122 comments

Yoda in Ireland! What do you get when you combine a wizened Jedi master, the fabled Emerald Isle, and perhaps a pint too many of Guiness™? The best vacation pictures ever!
posted by tankboy on Jul 10, 2003 - 12 comments

The end of a stereotype? Ireland's Prime Minister wants to limit advertising and slap warning labels on alcoholic beverages in an effort to curtail teenage binge drinking. It doesn't seem to work too well here in the U.S., can it work in Ireland, the punch line of most drinking jokes?
posted by MediaMan on May 19, 2003 - 21 comments

St Patrick - The Game ... Try to drive the snakes out of Ireland using a 357 Magnum instead of a staff.

And have a great St Patrick's Day. Who knows, it may be our last ...
posted by essexjan on Mar 17, 2003 - 8 comments

The Green Fields of Vietnam
There was an interesting program aired tonight on RTE (Irish TV), about Irish born soliders who fought in the Vietnam War. Although only one Irish born solider is officially listed as having been killed, there were 20 others, who gave their US address when they enlisted. It's believed that 2000 Irish born men served in that conflict (they had emigrated and a Greencard means you can be conscripted) but the vast majority of these remain unknown.
posted by tomcosgrave on Apr 23, 2002 - 2 comments

Is it time for a United Ireland? David Trimble, Protestant Leader, thinks a vote would decide the issue once and for all. Will Northern Ireland vote to leave the U.K.? Or will they even vote at all?
posted by dwivian on Mar 9, 2002 - 17 comments

Haughey in hospital after collapse
Former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Haughey, and sharer of the surname of this sites founder, collapsed at his home yesterday. Haughey is now infamous for his dishonest dealings while in power in the 1970's and 1980's and the various tribunals instigated as a result have taken their toll.
posted by tomcosgrave on Mar 20, 2001 - 17 comments

It was "clearly a big device" , which contained high explosives. Set by what appears to be the IRA outside of the BBC headquarters in London. Clues were given via coded messages phoned into a hospital and an "unnamed charitable trust" much in the same way as when the M16 building was attacked with a rocket last year. Forget Osama bin-laden. The Irish can be dangerous as well.
posted by liquidgnome on Mar 3, 2001 - 20 comments

Irish peace process and America Bill Clinton is heading to Ireland to sort out the Irish peace process.Over the past four years he has made consistent efforts to resolve a conlfict that has lasted for the past 30 years.

Now, however, as the Ameerican voting spectacle continues and public trust in the American political system is being gradually eroded, it seems likely that the ability of the White House to help resolve regional disputes will disappear completely. Lets face, who's going to trust two adults that seem intent on behaving like spoilt children
posted by druadh on Dec 7, 2000 - 13 comments

Welcome to Burma.com How's *this* for net access?! And we sometimes complain about how the government views the net in our own countries... fact is we don't know how good we've got it.
posted by tomcosgrave on Feb 16, 2000 - 3 comments