I went to see 2 Many DJs (Soulwax) last night in town. They were unspeakably brilliant. More later.

Did I mention that Munster were playing in the European Cup Semi Final in Dublin yesterday, against a team from London, Wasps ( Read more... )

Yesterday was my last full day in Budapest, and I am flying home this evening. Just chilled out for a lot of yesterday. Went on an evening cruise on the Danube, seeing a lot of Budapests sites from the river. They looked quite spectacular in the night time, all lit up, buildings such as the Parilment and the Palace ( Read more... )

I arrived in Budapest on Thursday morning, and have at this stage spent three nights here. The first two days were very hot and humid, while yesterday was fairly dull, more like Irish weather ( Read more... )

Read this in Open Democracy (one of my favourite websites), posted this week, from an extremely brave women inside Falluja.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-2-95-1843.jspI felt physically sick in the stomach reading her experience. I'm sure once that wears off in a while I'll start to feel pure anger again ( Read more... )

The big sports story this week is Roy Keane's announcement that he will return to international soccer, and play again for the Republic of Ireland. He announced his retirement last year, after the debacle during the World Cup in Japan, after the bust up with Mick McCarthy.

( Read more... )

Here is another perspective of the battles at Falluja, from an independent journalist. As with just about everything we read and see about the conflict, this reporting has to be taken with a pinch of salt (there are two sides to every story and remember the first casualty in any conflict is the truth), but it does all sound perfectly plausible ( Read more... )

I read a rather disturbing piece in last Sunday's "Sunday Tribune" newspaper, and the story has kept coming back into my head all week ( Read more... )

On Monday of this week, the famous "Smoking in the Workplace" ban came into being in Ireland. This meant that no-where in Ireland can someone smoke indoors in a workplace, only in an outdoor area ( Read more... )