“Pelanty, ref!”- football players and supporters. I grew up in Northern Ireland and am a football geek. My Dad played football, I played football, my friends played football and my brothers played football. That quadruple also watch football week in, week out. A few years back I cracked the 501 not out for attendance at…
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As a Northern Irish nationalist, I am ashamed, dismayed, confused and angered by the fact that my country’s flag is not represented as an Emoticon. And no, I don’t mean the BRITISH Union Flag, or the IRISH tricolour or an IRISH Shamrock, I mean a specific Northern Ireland flag. None of the previous mentioned hat-trick…
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“Where do you go? Buttoned in your favourite coat, stepping out to a different world. And you might be home late.”- Ocean Colour Scene. Aged 17 I flicked through the CDs in His Master’s Voice record shop in Belfast city, the Northern Irish passion-drenched capital. Imagine the thrill of it all. Life was amazing. I…
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Growing up in Northern Ireland during what many globalites know as ‘the troubles’ was actually a joyous and wonderful time. There was comedy in tragedy and we often laughed within ourselves at the sheer randomic banter within the glorious six counties. We have loads of real towns. People actually live there. They work, eat, sleep,…
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The latest wacaday country adventure for my backpack was a return to the land of Narnia, a real country for sure and another interesting one, on what has now ridiculously become a 151 country tour of planet earth on route to 200 countries. While there might be 626 countries to visit (and nobody will ever…
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Sometimes, I need to take a break from travel completely and I guess I generally do that on my trips home to Northern Ireland, despite my 2014 Northern Ireland tour. When I return to my sensational Northern Irish homeland, one star of my show was never given much publicity on here – my family’s dog…
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“Damn my education, I can’t find the words to say with all the things caught in my mind” – Noel Gallagher. It is a line taken from the Oasis song “Don’t Go Away” which was released the same year I left Bangor Grammar School, 1997. I wrote very recently how it just passed the 25…
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“Where were you while we were in 1Y?” Here yousens! Did youse bring a tennis ball? Baggsy not nets. That’s rare so it is. It’s hard for me to believe that the above photo is 25 years old this week. It was taken on my first day at Bangor Grammar School, in August 1991 and…
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“Come eat tomatoes with me, sing me something new” – Vicky Everitt (1997). I took some of this story out of my upcoming book to share it on my blog today… Oh Vicky, I have no idea if you’ll remember me or not. But you left your mark on this nomadic Northern Irishman back in…
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So this week is it, it’s the week that my childhood dream finally comes true and I still can’t believe it. Is it really this week? Is the 30 year wait over? Yes, it is!! As I sit in a hostel in Cork right now, I know I’m heading to Bergamo, Italy in 2 days…
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