Chapter 1: What are the upcoming holidays and their significance?
That's it. St Patrick's Day, done and dusted. Roll on Easter. That's the way we live our lives, isn't it? On a day, we live from meal to meal. And then on the bigger picture, we go from one holiday to the next holiday. Well, the 5th of April... is Easter Sunday this year. Yes, it's very confusing, isn't it? It changes every year.
Chapter 2: How do seasonal changes affect our daily lives?
And then between now and then we have the changing of the time. That's the 29th of March. And it'll get brighter in the evening but darker in the morning. I'm enjoying the bright mornings. It's bright now around six o'clock, which is lovely. It's just easier, isn't it? It's easier. You get up and you're out and it's daylight.
It's very difficult during the winter months getting out there in the darkness. And people wearing miners' lamps on their foreheads. I don't know how they do that at all. It just puzzles me. Because I don't know if you ever tried it, to run or walk quickly with a miners' lamp on your head. It gives you sort of a skewed view of the world. And it makes me dizzy. Anyway, it works for some people.
Don't need it now, unless you're running very, very early because it's bright at six o'clock. That'll change when the time changes just for a few weeks and then we'll be into summertime completely. And we'll be complaining that it's getting too bright, too early and we can't sleep. So there you go.
And then Easter, there'll be Good Friday and there'll be the Bank Holiday Monday and the children will be off for two weeks and you'll have to entertain them. You will have to entertain them. Yeah, St. Patrick's Day. So it's Catherine Connolly's first St. Patrick's Day as Uachtarán na hÉireann, so she was there. And what a beautiful day in Dublin. It's not like that all the time, Catherine.
You can get sideways rain on St. Patrick's Day and you'll be sitting up there viewing the parade and you'll be getting a free derma abrasion at the same time. Good for your skin. It's not what they call them, derma abrasion. But yesterday was beautiful. Lovely, lovely sunshine. And she was in Dublin and Michael D. Higgins obviously, he was asked obviously, but he loves the old St.
Patrick's Day parade thing because he was in the Galway parade. you And he was on the news last night. And there were parades all over the country. And I saw E.T. and various people dressed up as various things. Anyway, roll on Easter. Roll on Easter. Emails came in to ray at darcydaily.com. Ding. Thomas Heffern from Kildare. I've been listening to your podcast. Best of luck with it.
Thank you, Thomas. When I heard you talking about Ireland in the Academy Awards... The other day, did you know that Kildare had an Academy Award winning personality? I didn't. Her name was Michelle Burke, formerly from Virginia Lodge in Kildare Town, from the Burke Garage family. I remember Burke's Garage down near the Academy. Speaking of academies, she won two Academy Awards for Best Makeup.
First time for Quest for Fire in 1981. whereby she was also the first female to win an Oscar in this category and the second time for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Continued success to you with the new show, Thomas Heffernan. Thanks, Thomas. I think that's Thomas Heffernan from Heffernan Tires. So he would know the works because they're in the same business, you see. Tires and garages and all that.
Thanks, Thomas. I see there's big hoo-ha down Kildare Way. And they're doing a film adaptation of a Clare Keegan short story, Walk the Blue Fields. And they're filming in Rathangan this week. And Emily Blunt and Andrew Scott are two of the Hollywood stars who will be walking the streets of Rathangan. Probably today, I think it's today and tomorrow. Huge excitement.
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Chapter 3: What interesting facts are shared about St. Patrick's Day celebrations?
Absolute genius. Thanks Dermot. Ray at Darcy Daily. Yeah, the reviews are in for Micheál Martin. I'll just read you a few. You've probably heard most of them already. Mary Regan says, inside the Oval Office cauldron with Trump where Micheál Martin came out with self-respect intact. Finan Sheehan, Micheál Martin sticks to a script in Oval Office.
Cameo role as Donald Trump goes full on Marx Brothers. Taoiseach walks diplomatic tightrope as Trump targets Starmer and NATO during St. Patrick's Day meeting. Another headline in The Independent, The Times. Trump takes aim at NATO, Keir Starmer and Europe in meeting with Taoiseach. That's Pat Leahy and Keith Duggan, who writes brilliant stuff.
from America, Martin was left with two choices as Trump recited an increasingly cranky litany of complaints. At the Oval Office, Micheál Martin drew on his skills of diplomacy to delicately defend Keir Starmer and Europe. He also used on a very important weapon of diplomacy, which is flattery. You know, he said things like, you're very good, you got on very well, you're doing this, you know.
So he ploughmossed, that's what he did. He ploughmossed Trump when he got an opportunity. And he did, yes, he did defend Keir Starmer, which was good. He described him as sound. Sound. I wonder do they know what sound means in America, that somebody is sound. I had to look it up. What's the origin of using sound to describe somebody who's solid?
And it comes from the old English word sund, which means healthy, uninjured, whole. And then that developed into sound. And then it developed into meaning decent, trustworthy, kind. And it's a word we use a lot. And for me, it's one of my favourite compliments. If somebody describes me as sound, I think, great, yeah. If somebody describes me as a legend, no, because I'm not a legend.
But sound, it's good. Yeah, I'll take that. Thank you very much. I think it suits us as well because you don't want to be a big-headed sure case. And when you tell somebody they're sound, it's not over the top. It's not hyperbole. It's just your sound. Your sound. Yeah. Reliable. Trustworthy. All the good stuff.
The other word that struck me from the Oval Office, not yesterday, but I think it was at the weekend, was the word scumbag. Donald Trump used the word scumbag. And I thought that was a uniquely Irish word. So I had to look that up as well while I was looking up sound. And it's not. It's an old English word again. And a scumbag would have been the vernacular, the slang word for a condom.
I didn't know this. Now, you probably knew that. And that's not a nice thing to be called a scumbag. And it then went from just the name for a condom to describing somebody who was morally a bad person, dishonest, sleazy, cruel. And now it's, you know, it's used. It's not a word I like. And I think it says something about the person who uses it. Maybe, I don't know.
I remember listening to one of those late night phone-in shows on one of the Dublin stations. And the odd time they did a live event where they had an audience. Usually it was a phone-in thing. And then every so often they did an event. And I think this one was in the Ambassador Theatre at the top of O'Connell Street. And obviously they had the for and against. Can't remember what the topic was.
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Chapter 4: Who is Michelle Burke and what are her achievements?
in that show but yeah Donald Trump and Scumbag he did say it the words weren't put into his mouth he was saying yesterday actually that the BBC used AI to generate his voice and put words in his mouth now that's not true surprisingly he has said something that isn't true there's a surprise for you They did edit what he said, but he, let's be clear here. I love saying that. No, I don't.
Let's be clear here. I just put that in for the crack. Let's be clear here. He did say the words. They just edited it to change the emphasis. And that's why he's suing them for 10 billion. And if he's saying rubbish, like they used AI to put words into his mouth, well then... That'll weaken his case, won't it? It will weaken his case, yeah.
Anyway, Micheál Martin will be able to walk in to the meeting today in Brussels with all the other European leaders with his head held high and his chest out and he'll walk in confidently. I would imagine. He will see that as a win. I was listening to a guy on the radio this morning. They love to use sporting analogies. This guy described it as a scoreless draw.
And then to use a golfing analogy, he said it was like he did a level par round of golf on a difficult golf course. Anyway, I think in the eyes of the European leaders, it will be seen as a success because they know how difficult it is to be in the Oval Office sitting beside Donald Trump. And your walk tells an awful lot about you. I was reading this this morning.
They've done research on it and they've got actors to walk in certain ways and ask people to say what it says about the person. And when, so seemingly you can tell more about a person from the way they walk and their gait than you can from their facial expressions because we're good, seemingly, at masking when it comes to facial expressions.
We can smile when we're not smiling inside, et cetera, et cetera. But it's less easy or more difficult, less easy or more difficult to cover up your gait, your walk. So seemingly... If people walk into a room with big swing, big swinging arms, it's all in the arms. People view that as an act of aggression, that the person is aggressive. So you walk into a room, you swing your arms.
It does, you can even feel that, can't you? Smaller swings, little swings, sort of meek little swings, that's sadness or fear. So I suppose like most things, It's the middle road. So not too big a swing and not too little a swing. They sort of the Goldilocks swing of the arms. And that says that you're fine and you're comfortable in yourself. But you have to have your shoulders back.
I remember a guy saying to me years ago, this would be in the 70s. I was on the way down to the phone box to make a phone call to my then girlfriend. And I had my hands in my pockets. And he said to me, you'd be a fine looking lad. If you took your hands out of your pockets and straighten up your shoulders. And his voice is ringing in my ears.
Yeah, I do every so often because that's my default position is rounded shoulders. I don't know why. So I have to forcefully do that. I love these stories. I don't know if you remember this song.
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Chapter 5: What is the story behind the film adaptation of 'Walk the Blue Fields'?
I sort of vaguely remember it. It's Tommy Two-Tone from 1981.
I should know it because my wife's name is in it.
And it's a story about a guy seeing a phone number on the back of a loo door with Jenny and he's trying to build up the courage to ring the number. Anyway, at the time... People who had a similar number got calls from all over the United States of America. Some businesses took on the number because it was a popular number.
Usually phone numbers in songs and movies are fictitious and they don't resemble or match any real phone numbers. I was reading about this. So anything between 5550100 to 5550199, those numbers in America are officially reserved for fiction. So they can be used in movies. So you'll see it now in most movies when somebody gives a number, it starts with 555.
The odd time they don't do that, like in Bruce Almighty, Remember with Jim Carrey? They gave out the number 776-2323 and people all over the US with similar numbers were getting prank calls. Anyway, back to Tommy Two-Tone and 8675309. They've gifted that number, I don't know if they can do that, to a cancer support community in the States.
And they're using it as a campaign to get people to ring them about concerns about cancer, people who have cancer and people who think that their loved ones have cancer. So that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Tommy Two-Tone. What a name. That was the band.
We have a quiz after this.
Okay, here we are in the National Bakery in Lorgan with our little red mic. What's your name? Bill. How are you doing, Bill?
I'm doing well, thanks.
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Chapter 6: How does podcasting enhance the listening experience?
Can it be activated retrospectively?
Or is it for future? And do you get a bun or a pastry or anything like that?
I don't. I just get the latte and that's it.
Even if we're paying?
Oh, if you're paying, I'll definitely be getting more. Yeah, well, we get you a latte and a bun of your choice. Is that fair enough? That sounds wonderful. Okay. So, Bill, would you like to play the Little Red Mike cafe quiz? I'd love to play the Little Red Mike cafe quiz. Well, son, let's do it.
Okay, question number one. Marvel or DC?
Spider-Man. Oh, is it Marvel or is it DC? Marvel. Marvel.
Is the correct answer? Yes. Created by Stan Lee. The great Stan Lee. So, good start. Question number two. It's a geography question. North or south of the equator? Cairo. South. It's north. Bollocks. The brilliant thing about podcasts is we can leave that in. Yeah. Yeah, it's in Egypt and it's north of the equator. Right. Question number three.
What part of the...
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