"Our fascist types so far here have been nutters or incompetents or both. Often divided. But that won’t last. There will come someone who is smarter, funnier, more charismatic and reasonable. Some JD Vance with a warchest of money from abroad."

Colm O'Regan wanders around fascinated by the 2025 National Ploughing Championships in Screggan

I wonder who was the very first. Did they know they’d created a 100-year phrase? Every little throwaway, unremarkable little joke must have started somewhere

"Sometimes we are just sitting in the car outside our destination unwilling to go in because we crave one more minute. But look, we can’t just stay in this hospital car park forever. The child will miss her operation"

The Roman Patrick is a familiar blow-in, but Gerard - Gerdo in Cork - feels native, but it’s actually Norman.

I think the town at the end of one of the best greenways in the country, could have a place to have lunch

"The mountain feels blessed. Well, there is no litter. Gravity deters arseholes."

"I haven’t spoken to enough Waterford people to understand what Waterford got right. But the few answers I got all said, in local government, there were the right people in the right jobs at the right time with the right attitude to change an Irish city for the better."

"Historians, technologists, archivists, and a whole Captain Planet of heroes have been painstakingly reassembling bits and bobs from the records."

It’s weird watching yourself recorded unbeknownst. Frequently a privilege reserved for shoplifters and others in trouble, we are increasingly watching ourselves back.