Hurricane Swiftie landed on Irish shores this weekend much to delight of excited children, exhausted parents and expectant businesses. I’ve been tracking this phenomenon since it made landfall in Scotland before making its way south to Liverpool and onto the concert crucible of London’s Wembley Stadium. The Taylor effect is phenomenal as it brings hundreds of millions of euro to local business and government coffers.
In its wake, the pop storm leaves a beautiful streak of wreckage comprising endless selfies, friendship bracelets and bottomless sacks of glitter. Only a fool would throw shade her way. How can anyone deny the happiness Tay-Tay, below (I know, I’m really going for it now) brings to the faces and indeed, lives of her adoring fans? If it’s not for you, just hold your Leonard Cohen CD a little closer to your heart, safe in the knowledge that the storm lifts off in the early hours of tomorrow leaving a generation of besotted Swifties buzzing in the afterglow of this generation’s Elvis! The Irish accent is as strong as the physical passport around the world in many ways.
You could be in a bar in New York or a café in London and someone will comment on your accent, usually with a smile. It wasn’t always this way, as we know from the ‘No Dogs, No Irish’ era of emigration but those days are, I hope, far behind us. After the Second World War, the great broadcaster Eamonn Andrews blazed a trail for ambitious Irish journalists who marvelled at how he thriv.
