Edel Coffey: Despite being Irish, I’m trying to convert myself to celebrating the good times

"Maybe we don’t want to attract the attention of the gods, or even worse, the neighbours, who might think in celebrating ourselves we are getting notions — that most heinous of Irish crimes."

Author Edel Coffey pictured at home in Galway. Photo: Ray Ryan

We Irish aren’t very good at celebrating ourselves. There’s an inherent sense built into us from birth of waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

If good things are happening, bad things must surely be just around the corner? No good fortune goes unpunished, to mangle a phrase. Maybe it’s 800 years of oppression, or maybe it’s just me.