Russell Shortt

Dylan Thomas has always being a man trapped between eras, very difficult to pin-down, far from easily definable, charmingly elusive. His origins are murky, perhaps not murky in fact but murky in attempting to ascertain his influences, in attempting to pinpoint where his Muses flock. By the age of four the young Dylan was supposed to be able to recite some Shakespeare that his father force fed him, this smacks of a fatherly blindness, perhaps bestowing the lofty ideals that had eluded him on his

7. Club Rock Shandy An even mixture of Club Orange and Club Lemon in a pint glass with chunks of ice. Club Rock Shandy has quietened many the young fella in the pub, it’s pure exoticism swotting out any thoughts of wanting to go home and leaving many the auld fella thanking God for Club!

7. Irish Stew Recipes for Irish stew run the length of your arm, there are thousands upon thousands of variations. Each household has a specific way of making this fine dish and each counters that their mother’s is the best. A simple rule of thumb is hock in what vegetables are lying around, just ensure you have lamb as your meat, none of this fancy beef business that some hostelries are offering up these days. A great filler on a chilly winter’s day.

John Keats, I am not sure why but he has always struck me as being somewhat old, but of course he was never old, he died at the tender age of twenty-five. I don’t know why I think that way, whether it be his worldly views or his whole of the moon visions or perhaps the way the legion of Romantics exalt him so.

Lord Bryon, at this stage of the game, more myth than man, was the first of the rock and roll stars, a maverick and an original. His life is like a cartoon, everything appears larger than life, he lived it by his own set of rules, no matter to the consequences. He was born in 1788 into the ying-yang relationship of Captain Mad Jack Byron and Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire and descendant of King James I.

Martin Luther is the rarest of creatures, a man who knows his own mind, speaks it and refuses to be swayed. There is something so, so logical about the man and his life; he was baptised on the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, he fulfilled his father’s wishes by enrolling in law school but he dropped out almost immediately as he viewed law as symbolising uncertainty, he entered the monastery because he had made a vow on the spur of the moment that he would become a monk if he was saved from a storm

James Dean, strange you know the name before the man, indeed many film buffs I know never even seen the movies he made and many are startled on discovering that he only starred in three movies. Yet, everyone knows James Dean, his ubiquitous image charms us from all kinds of angles, you would have to live on the moon to not recognise his face, and indeed it appears that to know him is to be seduced by him.

You won’t find St. Michan’s Church in any of your run of the mill guidebooks, the place is just too scary to have trusting tourists wandering into. The place drips with history, the existing structure is built on the original site of a Viking chapel dating from the eleventh century.

Ireland is a land chock full of magic, superstitions, legends and cures. Here are seven of the best that you may stumble upon as you drift through the country. Some are terribly simple (once you can find them!) while others are shockingly difficult!

7. EJ Morrissey’s, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois. The black doors of Morrissey’s are a swirling time machine, you disappear inside to a bygone age. Scuttle into one of it’s many warren like snugs and sink a few pints of the black stuff.