Welcome to 2017. Already it’s better than last year simply because it’s not 2016, even if some of you are probably still a little fragile this morning.

When I read a review of Anthony Clavane’s new book last weekend, the sketchy outline convinced me immediately it had to be read.

Tonight there’s a documentary on TG4 which I heartily recommend, and not for the viewer-retardant fact that I appear in it.

I stumbled across a very interesting chat the other day between Malcolm Gladwell and Bill Simmons on the future of American football - and whether it has a future.

It took me a while but I caught up last week with Michael MacCambridge’s America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation.

Since the Rubberbandits introduced the nation to the thoughts of Jean Baudrillard the other night the level of debate has surely risen a few notches, particularly when it comes to our awareness of what is and isn’t real. Or maybe we’ve just been conditioned to think that way (see what I mean?). For instance, forget whether anyone can hear a tree falling in an empty forest: if an Irish team doesn’t win on Irish television has it really claimed victory?

I almost called this column ‘lessons learned at the Web Summit’, but that would clearly be the wrong term: learnings or takeaways are far more appropriate terms.

The latest thing, I note, is not Westworld, the TV show capturing people’s attention, but rather the fan theories centred thereon.