Belfast Blogs.com

'Civilisation is crumbling,' said Bill the Butcher (right) in 'Gangs of New York.'Bill was correct, of course. Just a century or so premature in his diagnosis.But two news items today indicate that Bill's prescient prediction is now coming true.Firstly, a book written by a chimp has been nominated for a best first book award.Now, I'm going out on a limb here, but I reckon that the monkey didn't write the book. No matter how many years he was chained to a typewriter. I'm guessing it was written by a bunch of marketing scum, seeking to 'create some buzz' around nothing by billing their verbal silage as being the product of a monkey.Every year, tens of thousands of debut novels emerge onto the market to a resounding silence from the media, the review pages, the awards lists. This is how it...

Acccording to the ever-gorgeous Government Press Office, our glorious leader is off to Noo Yawk later this month:The Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen TD, will undertake his first official trip to the United States next month [sic].He will visit New York for a series of engagements with key political and business leaders, as well as representatives of the Irish community.The highlights of the visit are expected to be a visit to the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday July 16th and a keynote address at the Wall Street 50 Dinner on Thursday 17th July.In his meetings, the Taoiseach is expected to discuss the global economicsituation, how to further develop the relationship between Ireland andAmerica and the issue of immigration reform and the undocumented Irish inthe US.So Cowen will continue the...