YESSSSSSSSSS. I'm going to Ireland in May with my widow bestie (hi E!) and this is the first trip where I don't have a list of places I want to go - this is a vibe check. I want to soak in all the "Irish-ness" of it and live my best book life. I can't wait.
This was fascinating to me. I moved to the Boston area in the late 90s, in the "How the Irish Saved Civilization" era. I feel like everything's always a little bit Irish here, I didn't even notice that the trend had come and gone a few times in other places. (There are many other cultures as well of course, but it's always Dropkick Murphys time here)
I watched The Commitments for the first time last night and kept thinking about the podcast and the guest comments about how the best time to visit Dublin was in the past.
Ha! My college years in Dublin spanned the exact time she mentioned—1990 to 1994. It was a ton of fun, and it’s true that tech culture has relentlessly sucked the cool out of three cities I’ve lived in and loved—Dublin, San Francisco, and Seattle.
On a more frivolous note, I was thinking about the genre of American woman meets Irish man rom com, usually with a non-Irish actor doing a dreadful accent, a la PS I Love You and Leap Year. What is that about?!
Listen, if you’d like a good, book version of this trope, check out Ivy Fairbanks Morbidly Yours. American widow meets Irish demi-sexual mortician. It’s truly delightful.
I adored this episode. As a GenXer I think I'm a little too old for this round of Irish Culture YAY, but I definitely experienced it in the late 80s, early 90s. Even though I have no Irish American heritage or background, I was obsessed with Ireland and Irish History (thanks Leon Uris!) When I studied in Europe, I loved going to Ireland as a break from being around Francophones.
I think there is something about race (that was mentioned in the podcast) that feels on point; like if you are white and want to relate to a culture of whiteness that is not colonial, than Irish culture makes sense.
I used to teach British Lit, very reluctantly, and I often did a semester of people colonized by the British along with the usual Brit Lit survey. Irish lit is just so rich (Yeats, Wilde, Heaney, Joyce) Teaching Eavan Boland or Claire Keegan is so satisfying.
I know this is Derry Girls adjacent, but I love Siobhan McSweeney. I'm so glad she's blown up and gotten lots more work after this.
My partner and I got engaged in Galway last year and often joke about going back and opening an "American-style" restaurant for university students (late night diner food).
Galway was much nicer than Dublin.
It was also kinda funny to see just how many Americans there were around. Americans love visiting Ireland. I think it's like accessible Europe. Like kinda old and different but everyone still speaks English and you can get a beer and burger in most of the country. We also witnessed a man with wraparound sunglasses on the back of his head order an "Irish car bomb" at one of the old pubs in Dublin. COME ON. I'm kinda shocked he wasn't kicked out
When I think of Irish pop culture artifacts of the 1990s, Riverdance is the first thing that comes to my mind (although the show is still touring in 2025). I first saw it live when I was in high school in the late 90s, and I myself had just switched from ballet to Irish dance. Mercifully, I saw Riverdance after Michael Flatley left to do Lord of the Dance. It was so incredible that I wanted to see it again as soon as the performance ended.
Loved this episode. Because of my first name (which my mom found in a Yeats book about Irish folktales), I get the pleasure of talking about Ireland A LOT since people often ask me about the origin of my name (yes, I have some Irish ancestry).
Not my favorite Irish pop culture artifact, but please tell me others know the "Ireland" song and plot theme in "Legally Blonde: The Musical"?!? My son is in that musical right now, and the whole Ireland bit is delightful and speaks directly to the American romantic myth-making about Ireland that was discussed in this episode.
One pop culture thing I find fascinating is the archetype of the "soulful" Irish male singer who borrows from Black American musical traditions (e.g., Van Morrison, the movie "The Commitments," and now Hozier.)
Yes to the Legally Blonde song! I was thinking about it during this entire episode. I'm Gen Z, so I think I missed Enya's American reign. I kept wondering where I knew the name from. She's namedropped in that song!
So glad I'm not alone in making that connection! Funny how Enya was so huge (I'm Gen X) but hasn't had the same long tail or resurgence of other pop culture and trends from that era. I guess the new age-y/atmospheric vibe doesn't necessarily translate as well to this moment. Or maybe any day now, an old Enya song will become trending audio on TikTok or Instagram!
I'd like to offer a counter to some of your advice. I'm a similar age to Rachel and we were lucky to be at university at a time when tuition fees and the cost of living were much lower. I live in Oxford, and even five years ago most students wouldn't have a job outside their studies; now that's all changed.Tuition fees are really high now! Not that it means that this person shouldn't have a good time, but the pressures will likely feel very different from c.2010. I also think how much their grades matter really depends what they are studying and what they want to do afterwards. I was lucky to make friends with some super nerds at university and we all supported each other emotionally and academically. Wishing the person all the best anyway!
I’d somehow missed Caroline’s book, and bought it after this podcast.
For this audience, I highly recommend Cork actor Tara Flynn’s narration on the US audiobook.
(I’m Irish, many years in the US now, but with the same Irish-woman -with-English-degree-in-London background as Rachel.)
Tara pulls out the nuances and wit in Caroline’s writing. Brings the inside jokes down from the top shelf for non-Irish audiences. And the accents are right.
Oh man, I have two stories that came to mind while listening to this episode.
1) my father, a doctor from India, lived and worked in Derry for several years in the 1970s. There were a few of them, they were well known by the border guards as the Indian doctors, and it sounds like it was a great time, despite the fact that they were in the thick of the the Troubles. I don't have any specific stories from him, he died before I thought to probe more. I just remember that he got wistful on St. Patrick's Day every year and always brought some soda bread home.
2) in 2006, I was flying alone from India to NYC after doing my bachelor's thesis research the summer before my senior year of college. I flew British Airways with a layover in Heathrow. We were quite delayed landing, they kept us in the air for a long time before we had clearance, and then once we landed it was clear something was wrong. They told us everyone, including transit passengers, would have to pass through immigration, collect their luggage, and then re-check in if they had another destination. This was clearly not a standard protocol, at the immigration desk they asked how long I would be in the UK and I was like, um hopefully just an hour? This was before smartphones were really everywhere. I was traveling without a phone at all, so I had no idea what was happening on the outside, and they weren't telling us anything. When I finally merged, I learned that someone tried to drive a car with explosives into the airport just a couple of hours before. The departure area was absolute chaos. Nearly every flight was cancelled, except mine somehow. I had to check in everything I had except my passport and some money or a credit card, and those went into a clear baggie. I found a payphone to call my mother at home and let her know what was happening (she has no memory of this entire incident). Went through security which took forever. Boarded my flight which took forever. It was pretty empty, I guess most people were stopped from entering the airport. We pulled away from the gate and then sat parked on the runway for 4 hours waiting for the FBI to verify the identify of every passenger on the manifest before we had clearance to leave. All I remember about the many hours on that plane was an intense desire for lip balm and watching "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" about 5 times in a row.
The Irish gift of out-of-this world storytelling is My favorite artifact of Irish culture—James Joyce hung out in Dublin pubs when he wrote and ULYSSES is famously known for characters based on local Dubliners who recognized themselves in the novel & were outraged. His free association style in ULYSSES, making it a tough read, is reportedly based on conversations he overheard in the pubs, rambling & fragmented bits & pieces & overlaps and sudden detours, no easily discernible beginnings or endings. Irish writers and storytellers I have loved are Joyce & Samuel Beckett & Yeats, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tobin, Sebastian Barry, Martin McDonaugh, Claire Keegan, Enda Walsh, the list goes on & on. I would love to see Paul Mescal’s Stanley Kowalski in Brooklyn, he’s a force of nature & at only 29, a superb actor with that Irish gift of storytelling in his portrayal of characters. I have read that his Stanley is primal, animalistic & feral, perfect.
I mean, as an American teenage girl coming of age between 2000-2008, the impact of one Colin Farrell cannot be overstated.
WOW TRUE how did we not mention
He walked so Paul could run!
Circle of Friends movie, then all of the Maeve Binchy books.
YESSSSSSSSSS. I'm going to Ireland in May with my widow bestie (hi E!) and this is the first trip where I don't have a list of places I want to go - this is a vibe check. I want to soak in all the "Irish-ness" of it and live my best book life. I can't wait.
This was fascinating to me. I moved to the Boston area in the late 90s, in the "How the Irish Saved Civilization" era. I feel like everything's always a little bit Irish here, I didn't even notice that the trend had come and gone a few times in other places. (There are many other cultures as well of course, but it's always Dropkick Murphys time here)
Glen Hansard from The Frames/Once played cutie Outspan in the original wave of pop-culture-Irishification movies: The Commitments.
I watched The Commitments for the first time last night and kept thinking about the podcast and the guest comments about how the best time to visit Dublin was in the past.
Ha! My college years in Dublin spanned the exact time she mentioned—1990 to 1994. It was a ton of fun, and it’s true that tech culture has relentlessly sucked the cool out of three cities I’ve lived in and loved—Dublin, San Francisco, and Seattle.
But Dublin is still great.
GenX here: Sinead
also, the Waterboys & the first 3 or 4 U2 albums
On a more frivolous note, I was thinking about the genre of American woman meets Irish man rom com, usually with a non-Irish actor doing a dreadful accent, a la PS I Love You and Leap Year. What is that about?!
Oh man, we will truly be in a recession when we bring back the “sassy American girl enlivens grumpy European” romcom
Irishness as EARTHINESS etc etc (also I weirdly love Leap Year????)
It's because you love Matthew Goode, which is unavoidable.
Listen, if you’d like a good, book version of this trope, check out Ivy Fairbanks Morbidly Yours. American widow meets Irish demi-sexual mortician. It’s truly delightful.
I adored this episode. As a GenXer I think I'm a little too old for this round of Irish Culture YAY, but I definitely experienced it in the late 80s, early 90s. Even though I have no Irish American heritage or background, I was obsessed with Ireland and Irish History (thanks Leon Uris!) When I studied in Europe, I loved going to Ireland as a break from being around Francophones.
I think there is something about race (that was mentioned in the podcast) that feels on point; like if you are white and want to relate to a culture of whiteness that is not colonial, than Irish culture makes sense.
I used to teach British Lit, very reluctantly, and I often did a semester of people colonized by the British along with the usual Brit Lit survey. Irish lit is just so rich (Yeats, Wilde, Heaney, Joyce) Teaching Eavan Boland or Claire Keegan is so satisfying.
LEON URIS. Wow you just brought my high school vacation reading (that I did because a college guy I was crushing on LOVED Trinity. 🤷♀️)
I know this is Derry Girls adjacent, but I love Siobhan McSweeney. I'm so glad she's blown up and gotten lots more work after this.
My partner and I got engaged in Galway last year and often joke about going back and opening an "American-style" restaurant for university students (late night diner food).
Galway was much nicer than Dublin.
It was also kinda funny to see just how many Americans there were around. Americans love visiting Ireland. I think it's like accessible Europe. Like kinda old and different but everyone still speaks English and you can get a beer and burger in most of the country. We also witnessed a man with wraparound sunglasses on the back of his head order an "Irish car bomb" at one of the old pubs in Dublin. COME ON. I'm kinda shocked he wasn't kicked out
This was a fun episode. What a fabulous infectious laugh she has!!
I know right?!?
When I think of Irish pop culture artifacts of the 1990s, Riverdance is the first thing that comes to my mind (although the show is still touring in 2025). I first saw it live when I was in high school in the late 90s, and I myself had just switched from ballet to Irish dance. Mercifully, I saw Riverdance after Michael Flatley left to do Lord of the Dance. It was so incredible that I wanted to see it again as soon as the performance ended.
I highly recommend the album Romance by Irish band Fontanes D.C., my most listened in 2024!
All of their albums are so good, but ROMANCE really hit.
If you're looking for something a bit more folky, LANKUM is fantastic. If you want Northern Irish hip hop, KNEECAP!
Loved this episode. Because of my first name (which my mom found in a Yeats book about Irish folktales), I get the pleasure of talking about Ireland A LOT since people often ask me about the origin of my name (yes, I have some Irish ancestry).
Not my favorite Irish pop culture artifact, but please tell me others know the "Ireland" song and plot theme in "Legally Blonde: The Musical"?!? My son is in that musical right now, and the whole Ireland bit is delightful and speaks directly to the American romantic myth-making about Ireland that was discussed in this episode.
One pop culture thing I find fascinating is the archetype of the "soulful" Irish male singer who borrows from Black American musical traditions (e.g., Van Morrison, the movie "The Commitments," and now Hozier.)
Yes to the Legally Blonde song! I was thinking about it during this entire episode. I'm Gen Z, so I think I missed Enya's American reign. I kept wondering where I knew the name from. She's namedropped in that song!
So glad I'm not alone in making that connection! Funny how Enya was so huge (I'm Gen X) but hasn't had the same long tail or resurgence of other pop culture and trends from that era. I guess the new age-y/atmospheric vibe doesn't necessarily translate as well to this moment. Or maybe any day now, an old Enya song will become trending audio on TikTok or Instagram!
I’ll never tire of David Fincher describing how Daniel Craig suggested Orinoco Flow for the torture scene in Girl With A Dragon Tattoo.
https://x.com/thecinesthetic/status/1855018835684081955?s=46
I'd like to offer a counter to some of your advice. I'm a similar age to Rachel and we were lucky to be at university at a time when tuition fees and the cost of living were much lower. I live in Oxford, and even five years ago most students wouldn't have a job outside their studies; now that's all changed.Tuition fees are really high now! Not that it means that this person shouldn't have a good time, but the pressures will likely feel very different from c.2010. I also think how much their grades matter really depends what they are studying and what they want to do afterwards. I was lucky to make friends with some super nerds at university and we all supported each other emotionally and academically. Wishing the person all the best anyway!
Thank you for this perspective!! (Also I studied abroad at Oxford for a year, I'd give anything to live there!!)
Ah wonderful! It has its problems (most unaffordable city in England 😬) but I do feel very lucky to live here.
I’d somehow missed Caroline’s book, and bought it after this podcast.
For this audience, I highly recommend Cork actor Tara Flynn’s narration on the US audiobook.
(I’m Irish, many years in the US now, but with the same Irish-woman -with-English-degree-in-London background as Rachel.)
Tara pulls out the nuances and wit in Caroline’s writing. Brings the inside jokes down from the top shelf for non-Irish audiences. And the accents are right.
God, I love audio.
https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780593741870-the-rachel-incident?bookstore=bookshoporg
Oh man, I have two stories that came to mind while listening to this episode.
1) my father, a doctor from India, lived and worked in Derry for several years in the 1970s. There were a few of them, they were well known by the border guards as the Indian doctors, and it sounds like it was a great time, despite the fact that they were in the thick of the the Troubles. I don't have any specific stories from him, he died before I thought to probe more. I just remember that he got wistful on St. Patrick's Day every year and always brought some soda bread home.
2) in 2006, I was flying alone from India to NYC after doing my bachelor's thesis research the summer before my senior year of college. I flew British Airways with a layover in Heathrow. We were quite delayed landing, they kept us in the air for a long time before we had clearance, and then once we landed it was clear something was wrong. They told us everyone, including transit passengers, would have to pass through immigration, collect their luggage, and then re-check in if they had another destination. This was clearly not a standard protocol, at the immigration desk they asked how long I would be in the UK and I was like, um hopefully just an hour? This was before smartphones were really everywhere. I was traveling without a phone at all, so I had no idea what was happening on the outside, and they weren't telling us anything. When I finally merged, I learned that someone tried to drive a car with explosives into the airport just a couple of hours before. The departure area was absolute chaos. Nearly every flight was cancelled, except mine somehow. I had to check in everything I had except my passport and some money or a credit card, and those went into a clear baggie. I found a payphone to call my mother at home and let her know what was happening (she has no memory of this entire incident). Went through security which took forever. Boarded my flight which took forever. It was pretty empty, I guess most people were stopped from entering the airport. We pulled away from the gate and then sat parked on the runway for 4 hours waiting for the FBI to verify the identify of every passenger on the manifest before we had clearance to leave. All I remember about the many hours on that plane was an intense desire for lip balm and watching "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" about 5 times in a row.
The Irish gift of out-of-this world storytelling is My favorite artifact of Irish culture—James Joyce hung out in Dublin pubs when he wrote and ULYSSES is famously known for characters based on local Dubliners who recognized themselves in the novel & were outraged. His free association style in ULYSSES, making it a tough read, is reportedly based on conversations he overheard in the pubs, rambling & fragmented bits & pieces & overlaps and sudden detours, no easily discernible beginnings or endings. Irish writers and storytellers I have loved are Joyce & Samuel Beckett & Yeats, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tobin, Sebastian Barry, Martin McDonaugh, Claire Keegan, Enda Walsh, the list goes on & on. I would love to see Paul Mescal’s Stanley Kowalski in Brooklyn, he’s a force of nature & at only 29, a superb actor with that Irish gift of storytelling in his portrayal of characters. I have read that his Stanley is primal, animalistic & feral, perfect.