Not-so-sexy Galway led up the garden path
Has Galway lost its sexiness, is a question, we feel, our politicians need to ask themselves.
In 2007, Galway was voted the eighth sexiest city in the World by internet giant MSN, who gushed about “breathtaking scenery” and the city’s “artistic, literary and bohemian legacy”.
We were a bit miffed at the time to be beaten to seventh place by that sexy beast of a city, er, Liverpool.
We were a little bit confused, too, that Galway wasn’t quite as sexy as Scottsdale (third) or Perugia (the World’s sexiest city, 2007) which we’d never heard of.
But we got over it, and celebrated Galway’s sexiness, with City Councillors taking to the streets singing: “I’m too sexy for your love, Limerick”, and other such boastful ditties.
Except, MSN’s overtures about Galway’s sexiness have ceased since. Not a squeak out of them. They built us up, flirted with us, if you like, massaged Galway’s ego and then, boom, nothing, all of a sudden, not so much as a phone call or text message since.
We fear they were only after us for one thing . . . publicity for themselves.
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Nostalgia for the Bert’s mangled English over pint of Bass
We were at Croke Park recently, and dropped into former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s watering hole, Fagan’s in Drumcondra. Supping on a pint of plain in the Bert’s local got us all nostalgic for Bertspeak and Bertieisms.
“The boom times are getting even boomier”, is one of our favourites as is, “It’s all smokes and daggers” which was referring to what he saw as the media’s conspiracy to discredit him.
The Bert once warned that people shouldn’t “upset the apple tart” but our favourite Bertieism has to be “I don’t think it helps people to start throwing white elephants and red herrings at each other”, something he was quite good at doing himself.
The current Taoiseach is as slippery and evasive as the Teflon Dub when responding to opposition leaders but we reckon Leader’s Questions in Dáil Éireann would be a lot more interesting if Enda Kenny’s mangling of the English had a Bertie flavour to it.