The Irish

http://zxcode.com/blog/wp-uploads/2010/12/big-time.jpg

sight of one of these in a nearby shop triggered off some ancient memories. i cant believe they still make these. unless theyve been there since the 80s.

there was a mint crisp thing that seemed of that big time era too. quite cheap chocolate but it was still nice. cool packaging on the big time bar.

http://www.pennyjellies.com/files/cache/ae6c9b0f9fc0d92ea84ee0831977be61.jpg

macaroon, big time, mint crisp, frosties- the 10p snacktime classics

and he wonders why he's no fuckin teeth

Macaroons <3 I still buy them every time I see them, even at grossly inflated prices in Cybercandy.

What about those Cadbury Touchdown bars? They were 10p. My sisters and I maintained they tasted "different" depending on the packaging.

dont know them?

chomp and smileys, they were the other ones. but they went to 12p

12p!

outrageous price on two counts, first, 12p like, secondly wtf has 2p on them.

also, these dentists' favourites.
http://www.thesweetspot.ie/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p/1/p1170095.jpg

yeah like bigtime, tear the fillings off ya

god im hungry and also my teeth hurt

Touchdowns were small chocolate covered wafery things that had American footballers on them, they were in either a purple or red wrapper. We were of the opinion the purple ones tasted nicer.

the smartie phenomenomnomnom

then smarties added orange flavour to the orange ones and you couldnt cite them anymore

Hmmm.

I want to know, did any of ye call these frozen drinks?
http://www.freefromforkids.co.uk/sites/default/files/Mr-Freeze-Ice-Pops.jpg

mr freeze as per packet in my house

i also remember a sort of fake ice cream cup that had mallow and chocolate and wafer. was really good in a filthy kind of way.

touchdowns were really nice. smileys also.

ah no there was no bite in them mallow cups, and iirc they weren't even wrapped. gack.

Mr. Freeze called Mr. Freeze round our way.

Not even the internet can help me in my vain struggle to find a picture of a packet of Barry's Gloves - the Barry McGuigan themed crisps

the mallow cups were often stale but the sweetness made up for it, in the same way as stale chocolate cake is perfectly good.

Phoenix Park (Irish: Páirc an Fhionnuisce[1]) is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 11 km perimeter wall encloses 707 hectares (1,750 acres), one of the largest walled city parks in Europe

hmhm we were told it was the biggest in the world

but then we were told we had the highest sea cliffs in europe out the back of the achill head, really i ought to go back and re-examine where the education ended and the propaganda began eh

o'connell st the widest in europe, i remember that going around. shannon the longest river in the british isles. anglo.

they used to say the highest sea cliffs thing about Slieve League too

also when I was growing up they always used to tell us Letterkenny was the "fastest growing town in Europe"

lol it must've been 3 houses not so long back then

They just rezoned the bluestacks

fwiw i think slieve league are the highest. btw.

Swords the biggest town in Ireland.

fwiw i think slieve league are the highest. btw.

According to wiki they're not even the highest in Ireland!

of course Letterkenny was also technically a city cos it had a cathedral

the strangest national pride myth i have heard is the anecdote that eamon de valera was one of only (some small number) people who could understand the theory of relativity

irish monks saved latin from extinction

killary harbour is the only fjord in the world outside of iceland

iceland norway

Lough Swilly had that one too

st brendan discovered america

mother teresa conquered india

back then you could kick a ball in the widest street in europe

willie joe padden was in new york, taking a well-earned break after the 89 final, when he came across the scene of a fire. a young woman was screaming for help from the top of the building- "my baby" my baby". "throw it down" sez bauld willie joe, "and i'll catch it". she demurred, in as many words. "throw the child down" he sez again, his deep voice booming heroically between the buildings, amidst smoke and screams, "and i'll catch it, god help us". the young mother remained torn but unconvinced.

willie joe pulled himself to his full height, for all the world as if he had been called all-a-sudden to an FCA muster in bundoran, and cried "i'm willie-joe padden from belmullet! i have one minor connacht title, one u-21 connacht title and five connacht senior titles, a county league medal and two gaeltacht medals!"- these he produced with great solemnity as he listed them each in turn. "there's men from here to listowel and back might drop your child from the height from me to you, but willie joe padden is not such a man!".

pressed by these claims (and, possibly, those flames) the mother felt she no longer held discretion in the matter. she flung the child (a mere blob of a crátúr, who would not be eligible even for a junior team for some decade yet) down the storeys towards the great man.

he, that master of newtonian differentiation as best practiced- from the eyes straight to the hands and never mind the computational centre at all- took his mark and leapt as was his wont in those days- like a kingfisher in reverse, diving straight up towards the falling target. his strong hands closed gentle around the child, and he hit the ground with an impact felt a street away in either direction.

as the crowd cheered in delight and disbelief, he proceeded to take three mighty steps and kicked the unfortunate infant a full seventy yards down the street.

booming post

that was told to me by a cousin of the man himself during a break in a fight at the web in belmullet

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5434/272/1600/WillieJoePadden.jpg

ah stop im in bits looking at him

jaysus yerman beside him is awful like a sweeney isnt he, sweeneys lower now not sweeneys upper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWZAGzGtNk0

I bought the Indo today for fuck knows what reason, and ugh. 1an 0 D0h3rty needs to be killed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztq5p-h64qc&feature=em-share_video_user

xp never ever the indo ffs i mean the times has gone to shit but jesus things are never that bad

story of my life

xp i am hanging my head in shame

what's the story with marrying a non-Catholic in a church? can you do that?

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2013/11/18/author-kevin-barry-on-writing-short-stories-and-caring-less/

Should I go see this guy do a reading and get his books?

I think he's brilliant. Start with his first short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms, and go from there.

this is a good taster

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/02/01/100201fi_fiction_barry